Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kara’s head was pounding, her mouth was drier than the Sahara, and her ears were ringing. At least her bed was warm and comfortable. She would just have to stay in bed forever, or until she felt better, whichever came first.

Her bladder held a differing opinion, though, so Kara cracked an eyelid, and regretted it immediately. She hissed and moved her hand to cover her face, disturbing her bedmate in the process.

Bedmate?

Kara braved opening her eyes again, and saw a wild tangle of long black hair. That wasn’t what she was expecting, but then, she wasn’t sure what to expect. She couldn’t remember anything about the night before.

Judging from the fact that Kara didn’t recognize where she was, that neither of them were wearing any clothes, and that they were spooned together, she could make a few guesses.

Unable to deny her bladder any longer, Kara crawled out of bed and headed for the bathroom, which was thankfully right off the bedroom. With her business taken care of, she took one look in the mirror before grimacing. She looked like every bad morning after picture they showed in high school to get kids to avoid drinking. Kara scrubbed her face clean of makeup, and got rid of the lipstick smears marking her neck and chest. She ran her fingers through her hair, but only a shower was going to bring it back under control. Regular brushes couldn’t survive Kryptonian hair.

It was then that she noticed the shining gold band on her left hand. “That’s new,” Kara mumbled to herself. “What happened last night?”

Kara threw on the softest bathrobe she’d ever touched and exited the bathroom, in much better shape than before. Motion on the bed caught her eye, and Kara got her first good look at who she’d spent the night with. Even hungover and barely awake, she was gorgeous, with flawless skin and a beautiful face. “Hmm, what time is it?” she asked.

Kara glanced at the alarm clock. “Almost four o’clock. Afternoon, not morning.”

“Shit.” Her bedmate threw the covers off and dashed for the bathroom, still completely naked. Kara could hear the sounds of a stomach emptying, and she blocked it out by looking for her clothes, but she couldn’t find anything. She opened the bedroom door, and gasped. “Oh, wow.”

Kara stepped into an extravagant suite, one that would meet even Miss Grant’s exacting standards. How had she ended up here? She certainly couldn’t afford it, especially not in Las Vegas. She was lucky CatCo was reimbursing her for her off-the-Strip motel room, and that she didn’t have to pay for a flight.

She heard the shower turn on, and briefly considered joining her host, but just as quickly dismissed the thought. Kara couldn’t even remember her name, though there was something about her face that was familiar.

Kara’s stomach growled angrily, and she grabbed the suite’s phone to order some room service. She glanced at the menu on the desk and dialed.

“Hello, Mrs. Luthor, how can I help you?” a smooth male voice asked. Kara was so surprised to have a personalized greeting she didn’t bother to correct him.

“Yes, do you still serve breakfast, or is that only specific hours?”

“I can have a selection prepared right away, ma’am. I’ll have it sent up shortly. Will you need anything else?”

“No, thank you.” Kara hung up and it finally clicked for her who she had slept with the night before, Lena Luthor. Though as far as Kara could recall, she wasn’t married.

Of course, Kara was hardly up on the latest gossip, or maybe the concierge just misspoke.

She should probably be more concerned about being alone with a Luthor, but Kara just couldn’t bring herself to care while her head was still throbbing. She spotted her bag on the floor by the door and used her powers to levitate herself to her feet rather than muscle her way up. Kara couldn’t even muster up the energy to super speed over to her bag.

Kara breathed a sigh of relief when she found her phone, but it turned into a pout when it didn’t turn on. Her charger was back at her motel room, and looking for a spare sounded exhausting.

“Alright Kara, what happened last night? Start at the beginning,” she told herself.

She had come to Las Vegas to do an article on a convention focused on experimental technologies. Snapper had hated it, but their scientific expert was on a month long investigation in Norway, and Kara was the only other reporter who could makes sense of the scientists, so Snapper had given her the assignment in the end.

The convention had been entertaining and informative, and everybody she interviewed was so excited she could follow along that Kara was sure she got a few quotes nobody else did, which would make Snapper happy. Or as happy as Snapper ever got, which peaked around perpetually irritated.

After the last day, Kara had decided to unwind with some of the new friends she had made, and they had gone out to a club, but she was coming up blank on the name. She was pretty sure the bartender was a Tigrutsi, so when he asked her what she wanted, Kara told him a Thanagarian Ale, half joking and half serious. The bartender raised an eyebrow, but when Kara stared back without blinking, he shrugged and disappeared to the back, only to reappear with a brown bottle without a label.

Kara remembered dancing, and drinking, but it got hazy around the third round, and anything after that was nothing more than blackness and some fuzzy emotions. They were all happy emotions, so at least she could say she’d had a good time the night before and not be totally guessing.

The bedroom door opened, and Lena Luthor walked out in a bathrobe of her own, her hair wet but once more tamed. Kara scolded herself for zoning out to the point she missed the shower turning off.

“The shower is free, if you’d like,” Lena said neutrally.

“I need to eat first,” Kara croaked. Thanagarian Ale was rough on the throat.

“Then please tell me you’ve already ordered room service, because I’m starving.” Lena took a seat on the sofa across from Kara and eyed her carefully. “How much do you remember from last night?”

Kara cleared her throat. “Not much? I vaguely remember starting to talk to you, but other than that, it’s a blur.”

“I think you were trying to rescue me from a drunk who didn’t understand no when he heard it, but I can’t remember anything after that.” Lena’s cheeks pinkened and her hand went to her forehead. “I’m sorry, I can’t remember your name at the moment. I’m sure it’ll come to me in a moment.”

“Kara Danvers,” she volunteered. “And you’re Lena Luthor. I was supposed to attend your seminar on neuro-technological interfacing yesterday, but I got stuck at the Ace Chemicals presentation when it ran long, and by the time I got out, your talk was all full up.”

Lena looked thoughtful. “Kara Danvers,” she said slowly. Kara liked the way Lena said her name. “You wrote an article exploring alien refugees and the recent explosion of alien species on Earth, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did,” Kara confirmed. “And it’s not really an explosion, there’s always been aliens on Earth, historically speaking. They’re just more visible now.”

“I remember. It was a very enlightening piece, you clearly put a lot of work into it.”

Kara smiled. “Thank you, alien rights are something I’m passionate about.”

“It’s good to find something that speaks to you.” Lena studied Kara before sighing. “So, a reporter. What would convince you to keep this out of the paper? I’ve put a lot of work in keeping my sex life out of the news.”

“Oh, no, what? I wouldn’t, that’s not why, I mean, I don’t…” Kara trailed off. “Consider me convinced. I don’t want my sex life in the news either. I wouldn’t mind talking about what you presented yesterday, or anything else you’ve been working on, but either way, I won’t write anything about what happened last night. Or maybe this morning? I don’t know, whenever we got back, I can’t remember.”

Lena relaxed and rubbed her forehead. “Thank you, Kara. I mean it, I owe you one.”

“Honestly, the only thing I need right now is a charger. My phone’s dead as a… dead thing. Doornail! That’s the saying. Sorry.”

Lena smiled. “That, I’m sure, is something I can make happen.” She disappeared into the bedroom for a few minutes before coming back with two chargers. Lena’s phone was dead as well, and they had just gotten them plugged in when there was a knock at the door.

The waiter pushed in a serving cart covered in breakfast food, and Lena tipped him with a hundred dollar bill. Kara poured a glass of orange juice while Lena dove for the coffee. They both let out contented sighs at the first mouthful, nearly in unison, which made them smile and laugh at each other.

“At least it’s not awkward,” Lena laughed, leaning in to touch Kara’s arm. Her fingers made Kara’s skin tingle pleasantly, and she served herself with one hand just so Lena didn’t have a reason to move away.

“Well, we’ve already established that we slept together and neither of us remember anything from last night, so after that, why bother being awkward? I think must be a threshold where if things get awkward enough, it becomes the new normal, and you’re not affected anymore, and we’re both past that right now.”

Lena chuckled. “As good an explanation as any I’ve heard before.” She piled her plate with eggs and sausage before grabbing a banana and going back to her couch. “I don’t suppose you’ve remembered anything else since the first time I asked?”

Kara blushed as a memory flashed through her head. “You are, um, very limber. If you know what I mean.”

Lena’s eyes gleamed mischievously. “It’s good to know all that yoga paid off,” she smirked, and took a sip of coffee. “Though you must have given me quite the workout. My muscles are still sore.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Kara said genuinely. She expertly balanced her mountain of food as she took a seat next to Lena. “What about you, have you remembered anything?”

Lena thought it over. “I feel like I remember flying at some point?”

“What?” Kara squeaked, her voice suddenly three octaves higher.

“I really hope I didn’t invent a jetpack while drunk again,” Lena grumbled, and Kara burst into laughter that she immediately tried to swallow down. Lena stared at her until she stopped. “No, I really mean it. The first time was my sophomore year at MIT, and it exploded after the first flight, but in my defense, I was working off of blueprints I’d drawn on cafeteria napkins and so drunk I couldn’t see straight, so the fact that it got off the ground at all should count for something.”

Kara burst into laughter again, fully reassured her identity was safe. Food became the priority for both Kara and Lena, and they both lapsed into silence as they ate. Of course, silence didn’t stop them from slowly moving closer until their feet were brushing past each other, little touches accidentally on purpose.

Lena was bolder, and was the first to take the next step, trailing her fingers over Kara’s exposed knee when she reached across to steal a piece of bacon. Kara upped the game by scooting closer so their thighs were touching.

It didn’t take Kara long to finish eating, but she was still red-faced and panting slightly from Lena’s ministrations, and Lena was in a similar state.

Kara set her fork down and turned to meet Lena in a lust fueled kiss. A hand slid inside her bathrobe and pulled the neck open to expose Lena’s next target, Kara’s collarbone.

“Lena, wait,” Kara gasped, and Lena paused. Her mouth hovered less than an inch above Kara’s skin, and she could feel Lena’s breath. “That feels amazing, but I really need a shower, like right now. I feel gross, like last night is still stuck on my skin.”

Lena’s face was disappointed, but understanding. “I can’t blame you for that. Enjoy your shower, Kara. I’ll be here when you get out.”

Kara blushed and had to force herself to look at Lena instead of the floor. “I’d enjoy it a lot more if you joined me.”

“Is that an invitation?” Lena’s voice sent a spike of arousal through Kara’s body.

“Only if you want to join me… but yes.”

Lena’s face morphed into one that promised trouble and satisfaction. “I believe that can be arranged.”

0oOo0

Kara had always been told shower sex was awkward, uncomfortable, mildly dangerous, and really just not worth the trouble. Apparently her friends hadn’t done it in a shower that could double as a boxing ring, with multiple adjustable and detachable shower heads and computer controls for a perfect experience. Having Lena Luthor as a partner helped too.

Shower sex was awesome.

Kara kissed Lena as she shrugged on her bathrobe. “Thanks for washing my hair.”

Lena smirked. “Just for washing your hair?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure I already expressed my appreciation for the other stuff you did.”

“True, you were pretty vocal.”

“I wasn’t the only one.”

“Mmm, you’ve got a point there.” Lena caressed Kara’s cheek. “Ready to face the world again?”

Kara sighed. “Not really, but we don’t have much choice, do we? We’ve already missed all of today.”

Lena groaned. “Don’t remind me. It’s astonishing how much can happen in a single day for a CEO.”

Kara’s eyes widened in agreement. “Yeah, I was Cat Grant’s assistant for two years. I had to handle her schedule and screen everything before it made it to her desk, so trust me, I know exactly how busy things can get.”

“Interesting.” Lena crossed her arms and donned her best boardroom face. “Tell me, how do I stack up against the Queen of All Media?”

Kara grinned. “I prefer you shouting my name to her.”

“Different circumstances, I assume.”

“You assume correctly. Not that I didn’t think about it once or twice.”

Lena chuckled. “I can’t blame you there. She was my first celebrity crush.”

Kara laughed along with Lena as they drew closer once more, and shared a few more kisses. Eventually, they stopped long enough to head back to the main room.

Kara’s phone was charged enough to power up, and soon enough she was looking at her home screen. The notification chime started going off, and Kara’s eyes went wide with shock as the numbers kept rising.

“I have a hundred and six missed calls,” Kara said in disbelief. “And over four hundred texts.”

“I take it that’s unusual?” Lena asked.

“It’s really weird. You don’t think we missed the world ending, do you?”

Lena smirked. “I’d hate to think I slept through the apocalypse.”

“No, but seriously, something must have happened. I’m calling my sister.” But before Kara could dial, her phone started buzzing in her hands. “Actually, that’s her now. Lucky coincidence.” Kara answered. “Hey Alex.”

“Don’t you ‘hey Alex’ me, Kara Danvers,” Alex snapped on the other end. “Why haven’t you been answering your phone? What happened to you?”

“My phone was dead, I just found a charger,” Kara explained. “I’m sorry I didn’t answer, did something happen back home?” Kara chewed on her lip in worry.

“Don’t play dumb, Kara, you know why I’ve called you twenty-three times today.” Alex actually sounded angry, and Kara’s worry intensified.

“I saw the missed calls and the texts, but I didn’t get to look at anything because you called, and we’re having this conversation right now, so I don’t know why everybody’s been trying to get up with me. What’s going on, Alex?”

“You really don’t remember what you did last night?”

“No, Alex, I don’t. I, kinda… you know, got… blackout drunk?”

“You did WHAT?” Alex demanded, and Kara pulled the phone away from her ear. “Do you know how irresponsible that is? Especially for you.”

“Alex, I’m actually getting really worried now, so can you save the lecture for later? What happened?”

Alex sighed. “Well, I suppose being blackout drunk helps explain it.” She stopped long enough for Kara to know it was on purpose, just to make her wait. “You got married to Lena Luthor last night, Kara. Streamed it on live on Twitter”

“Oh, Rao…”

Alex snorted. “You’re damn right, oh, Rao. News channels picked it up pretty much immediately, there was no way to spike the footage, because it was already too widespread. They’ve been running it all day.”

“Oh, Rao!”

“Yeah, pretty much. I tried asking J’onn to stage an alien attack to knock you out of the headlines, but he didn’t go for it.”

Kara jumped when Lena dropped her phone. She looked shaken. “Rao, Alex, I need to go. Can you tell everyone I’m okay? Or maybe not okay, just, I don’t know, I need to think.”

Alex hesitated. “Alright, but we’re going to talk again soon. And I make no promises about keeping anybody from calling you.”

“Thank you, best sister ever.” Kara hung up and immediately silenced her phone. “Lena? Can we talk?”

“Married?” Lena sounded bewildered.

Kara was already searching the news sites, and multiple sources were running with it. “Apparently. We, um, streamed it, so there’s video of the ceremony, if you want to watch it.”

Lena let out a hollow laugh. “Maybe later.”

“At least this explains the ring I woke up wearing.” Kara had taken it off before their shower and neglected to put it back on. It looked way too expensive for Kara to wear and not know where it came from.

“I’m sorry I got you involved in all this, Kara,” Lena apologized.

“Hey, no, it’s not your fault. We were both incapacitated, considering neither of us can remember it. I don’t know why they would let us get married if we were that drunk, it seems really irresponsible, don’t you think?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if I bribed them to let it happen,” Lena said. “So much for keeping last night out of the papers.”

“What do you want to do now?” Kara asked.

“I need to figure out what happened last night, and what everybody’s saying. I refuse to make an uninformed decision.” Resolute Lena was back.

Kara nodded. “Good idea, I’ve got a bunch of stuff to go through right here. Let me know if you find out anything I should know.”

“I will, if you’ll do the same.”

“Of course.” Lena retreated to the bedroom, leaving Kara alone. She dove into her phone, starting the voicemail playback and putting it on speaker so she could go through her texts at the same time.

Alex had left the most messages by far, but nearly everyone Kara knew had left her at least one. Winn’s were mostly hyper and scattered, and clearly worried about her. James called multiple times, and left messages both as a friend and as a boss. Snapper left her some choice words about how she was supposed to report the story, not be the story, and demanded her original assignment as well as everything she could get out of her new wife. Maggie was worried about her, and J’onn’s message was terse but full of paternal concern. Clark left her a long, rambling message about not trusting a Luthor, and if Kara hadn’t heard Lois talking him down in the background, she was sure her cousin would have already crashed in through the window. Lois congratulated her on her marriage and Kara honestly wasn’t sure if she was being sarcastic or not. A few other messages were from reporters looking for a comment or trying set up an interview.

Miss Grant only said four words. “Call me now, Keira.”

The texts were more helpful, and filled in a few of the many gaps from the night before. Winn must have sent him her reaction in real time as he was finding out, because his was the most detailed. Alex must have sent her CALL ME at least fifty times, along with a few anatomically unlikely threats. Lucy just sent her a page worth of emojis Kara was too distracted to decipher, while James’s alternated between worried and angry.

Finally, Kara was ready to take the next step, which was to figure out what the next step actually was. She stared at her list of contacts and scrolled up and down, trying to figure out who to call. In the back of her mind, she resolved to find some time to clean up her phone, she still had people in there from high school that she hadn’t talked to in years.

Everybody deserved a call back, but Kara didn’t need someone who would commiserate with her, or be gentle. She needed someone who could push her in the right direction, because at the moment, Kara was nearly overwhelmed. That really just left one person.

“And here I thought I was important enough to merit a wedding invitation, Keira, but I guess I was wrong.”

Despite the barb, Kara couldn’t help smiling at the familiar voice. “Hello, Miss Grant.”

“I won’t ask you what you were thinking, because clearly you weren’t thinking at all. Married in Vegas, Keira, honestly. How does it feel to live a cliche?”

“Like I have the world’s worst hangover, Miss Grant,” Kara said truthfully.

“Undoubtedly.”

“Please, Miss Grant, I’m sure you could express your disappointment in me for hours-” “True.” “-but right now, I just found out I got married last night to somebody I’ve never even met before, and it’s a really weird and stressful situation, and you always know what to say to, well, not necessarily make things better, but put me on the right path to making things better, and I could really go for some of that advice right now.”

There was silence on the other end, and Kara almost thought Cat had hung up. When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet and firm as she spelled out the situation. “There’s no putting this rabbit back in the hat, Kara. It was in the top hour of all the morning shows, and you’re trending on social media. #Karlena, so good job getting top billing over Luthor. TMZ is already cooking up stories about you two. You’re hours behind the story, and you cannot wait it out, this story is not going to just go away if you’re patient. Talk with your new wife, figure out the direction you want the story to go in, and then make it go there. You watched me do just that for two years, so I know you know what you need to do to make the story your own. So do it.”

Kara’s spine had straightened as Cat talked, and it felt like a weight had been taken off her shoulders. “Thank you, Miss Grant. That’s just what I needed.”

“Of course it was. And perhaps you won’t wait until the next catastrophe rolls around to call me.”

Kara smiled. “Does that mean you miss me, Miss Grant?”

“Don’t be silly, Keira, of course I miss you. But on the other hand, I’m not being blinded by your fashion sense, so it’s balanced out.”

“I miss you too, Miss Grant.”

“You have work to do. I suggest you get started.” Cat hung up before Kara could say goodbye, but she was long since used to that. Armed with new direction and the knowledge that Cat believed in her, Kara got to work.

0oOo0

Kara sighed in relief as she hung up the phone. It had taken a while to respond to everybody. Alex wanted Kara to come home right away, and she had gotten Winn and J’onn on her side, though Kara heard Vasquez congratulate her in the background. After a long call with James where she felt like they just went in circles the entire time, Kara opted just to text Maggie and Lucy. Clark didn’t get any response after the message he left, but she did let Lois know she was doing okay. Then she emailed Snapper the rough draft of everything she had put together before she went out the night before. It wouldn’t pass a third grade peer review, but it was enough to buy her a couple hours, as long as James decided to help her.

Deciding it was time, she went over and knocked on the bedroom door. “Lena? Can I come in?”

“It’s open.”

Lena had changed into business attire, which left Kara feeling slightly underdressed since she was still in a bathrobe, but what she was wearing was hardly the strangest thing about the situation.

“We need to talk about what we’re going to do,” Kara said.

“You’re right, we do.” Lena bit her lip, and Kara flushed as she remembered where those lips had been earlier. “What options are you open to discussing?”

Kara walked over to the bed and grabbed a pillow to squeeze. “I think we need to talk about all our options, even the ones we don’t think we’ll want to go with.”

Lena took a seat next to her. “There’s really only two options that matter. Everything else falls under the decision of whether or not we stick together.”

“Right, so what happens if we don’t stay together. Say we get the marriage annulled today, or first thing tomorrow. It’s like the marriage never happened, right?”

“Legally, yes, but the media won’t let go easily. With their predilection for tearing people down, it’s a target they won’t be able to resist. I’m not sure how well you’ll be treated, they may spare you because you’re a reporter, or they may decide to be all the harsher, you’d know newsroom politics more than I do. I get labeled as reckless and irresponsible, comparisons get drawn between me and Lex, and the Board of Directors will probably use this as an excuse to force me out. They’re a bunch of stodgy old men who didn’t want me in charge in the first place.”

“That’s awful,” Kara said, grabbing Lena’s hand. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure I won’t get any slack just because I’m part of the media too. What do you see happening if we stay together?”

Lena considered that. “My Public Relations department is certainly in favor of it. I’ve been quietly out forever, but last night seems to have catapulted us into Lesbian Icon status, and we can capitalize on that, if we keep the public on our side. Frankly, this has been some of the best press L-Corp has had in a long time, and I’m sure the publicity will be good for your career as well.”

“Yeah, my followers on Twitter and Instagram are, like, wow, through the roof, overnight. A lot more people reading what I’ve written.”

“Precisely. It’s an easier narrative to spin than a breakup, gives us more public support. Some people will be against us, but I stopped caring about what homophobes had to say years ago. We clearly hit it off last night, and I’ve had a good time with you since we woke up. The sex was fantastic.”

Kara blushed. “It really was…”

Lena smirked. “Maybe we’ll give the bed a shot later, but we need to make a decision first.”

“Right. I talked to my friends, and they pretty much all told me I should run away as fast as I can.”

Lena clenched her jaw. “Hard to blame them, with my public perception being what it is.”

“But staying married would help you change that.”

“In theory, yes. But I wouldn’t want to make your life difficult. If this is going to cause a rift with your friends, that’s not what I want to happen.”

“Well, they’re my friends, so even if they’re mad for a while, they’ll come around. I’ve seen what bad press can do to people, and I really don’t know if I want to live through that. I don’t want this to haunt my career forever. What about you, I’m sure getting married would disrupt your life.”

Lena sighed. “Not as much as you’d think. My life has focused around L-Corp ever since my brother was arrested, so I can’t remember the last time I went to something that wasn’t business related. You’d actually expand my social circle by one hundred percent.”

“Once my friends get over it, we could expand it even more.”

Lena paused. “We’re talking like we’re already leaning towards an answer.”

Kara nodded. “I know, I noticed too.”

“Is it really that crazy? Staying together, and figure out how to deal with it from there?”

“It kinda is? People don’t get married after knowing each other for a couple hours.”

“True, but we already have, so that argument doesn’t hold much water. Maybe I just have a weird relationship with marriage. I was adopted by the Luthors young, and I can’t tell you if Lionel and Lillian even liked each other. As long as we do better than that, I’d call it a success.”

Kara hunched over on the pillow. “If we’re talking like we both want to do it, that’s probably a sign that we shouldn’t ignore, but there’s things we should talk about first. Stuff that might change the circumstances.”

“Like what?”

Kara hesitated. “Like… my cousin and his wife are Clark Kent and Lois Lane, the reporters who exposed your brother’s crimes. You should probably know that.”

Lena froze momentarily before relaxing again. “I can’t say I’d be up for a family reunion any time soon, but my brother still needed to be stopped. I won’t fault them for doing their jobs.”

“That’s a very mature response,” Kara noted. “I’ll make sure Clark stays in Metropolis.”

Lena nodded her thanks before dropping a bomb. “Of course, if your cousin is Clark Kent, that makes you Supergirl.”

“I… what?” Kara’s voice was so high pitched it might have shattered glass.

“Lex had an investigation done on Superman’s identity. Their report concluded that Clark Kent was Superman. If he’s your cousin, that makes you Supergirl, and explains why I remember flying last night.”

“Lex knew? But he never went after Clark…”

“Lex read the findings and dismissed them immediately. He couldn’t believe a god would be willing to live such a simple life, so obviously they were wrong. I remembered Clark from when he and Lex were still friends, and it explained some things that never made sense. Clark saved my life once, before he was Superman, and I never really understood how, until then. After that, I decided it just wasn’t relevant information, so nobody needed to know. Besides, it’s the kind of information you only get to use once.”

“Does that mean you’ll keep my secret?” Kara didn’t bother disguising her worry.

“I see no reason to release it. I’m not out to ruin your life, Kara, and I’m sorry you’ve ended up in this situation. I also know that if I reveal your identity, there’ll be nothing stopping you from coming after me, and I’ve seen where that ends up.”

Kara took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “Okay. So, what do you actually think about it? Does it change your opinion of me, now that you know I’m an alien?”

“I haven’t known you long enough to have a real opinion, and I may be wary of aliens, but I am not my brother. I can recognize that you’ve done real good for the world.”

“That’s better reaction than I was hoping for, if I’m being honest.” Kara admitted. “I should have given you more credit.”

“That’s sweet, but not necessary. I know what people think of me,” Lena said. Her eyes widened. “Have you considered that this news story just outed you to the entire world? You seem comfortable with the idea so far, but I want to make sure you’re ready.”

Kara was momentarily puzzled. “Oh, wait, you mean out like we’re both girls, not out like people know I’m Supergirl. Although you do, and my sister’s going to want you to fill out paperwork, I just realized. We can talk about that later.” Kara patted Lena’s thigh to reassure her. “Um, I actually did have to talk to a couple of my friends about that, because they didn’t know me back in college, so they never met Carly, and I never told them, so that was fun, but they were cool. They were way more interested in badmouthing you, I’m afraid to say.”

“Well, however this shakes out, I’ll be here if you need support on that front. It’s one thing to come out to your friends and family, but trust me when I say it’s different when it’s the entire world. People who don’t know you read it on the internet and decide they hate you now.”

Kara smiled thinly. “People do that with Supergirl all the time. And besides, I’ve never really worried about male or female. I’ve always been more concerned with the whole interspecies relationship part of it.”

“It sounds like we’re in agreement. We’re really going to give the married thing a shot?” Lena confirmed.

“Seems like it. First things first, we need to find a copy of the marriage license. I don’t even know my last name right now.”

0oOo0

Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor touched down in National City four hours later. The DEO was waiting for them.

“Hey, Alex, how ya doing?” Kara asked, trying to break the ice.

“It’s been a rough day,” Alex said shortly. “Miss Luthor, I’m going to have to ask you to come with us for a few minutes. We have some paperwork for you to sign.”

Lena smiled faintly. “Firstly, it’s Mrs. Luthor now. Secondly, I’m not going anywhere without details. Specifically, where is my security team, and where are you taking me?”

Alex closed her eyes and breathed deeply. “Mrs. Luthor. Your security team is fine, we’re just holding them at our perimeter for their safety. We’ve secured a room in a nearby hangar, so you won’t even need to go anywhere.”

“And it’s just boilerplate legal stuff that anybody would have to sign, not just Lena, right? Just like the paperwork your girlfriend had to sign?” Kara warned, her tone clearly conveying that the answer had better be yes.

If Alex was phased, it didn’t show. “We have a qualified representative waiting to answer any questions you may have, and if you want to consult with one of your own lawyers, we’ll see about making that happen, but it’s all standard paperwork for this kind of situation.”

Kara’s eyes boggled. “You have standard paperwork for me getting drunk married in Vegas?”

“It applies to all agents, not just you,” Alex corrected. “You can thank Agent Vasquez.”

“Very well,” Lena decided in a clipped tone. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Thank you for your cooperation, Mrs. Luthor. I’ll take you to meet Pam, and she’s going to walk you through everything.” Then Alex pointed at Kara and pinned her with her best Sister Glare, and Kara gulped. “Then you and I are going to have a talk.”

0oOo0

If Alex hadn’t ordered every other agent out of the room, it would have been obvious that she and Kara were family, because Alex’s reaction couldn’t be explained by anything but sisterly frustration.

“What were you thinking?” Alex demanded. “Lena Luthor? Do you have any idea how bad this situation is?”

“Kind of, considering I’m the one in media,” Kara grumbled. “What else am I supposed to do? If it wasn’t in the news already, maybe we’d have more options, but it’s out there, and we’ve got to deal with it.”

“I know we have to deal with it,” Alex hissed. “I’ve been dealing with it since this morning, when a phone call telling me my sister is married woke me up, unlike you, who apparently slept the day away after drinking all night.”

Kara shifted uncomfortably. “You’re repeating a lot of what you said on the phone, you know.”

“I’ll repeat whatever I want to repeat, until I get tired of saying it, and you’re going to sit there and take it, because this is a problem, Kara.”

“It’ll be less of a problem if you stop yelling at me, and start helping me.”

Alex narrowed her eyes. “I am helping you. That’s why Luthor’s in there doing paperwork instead of being carted off the DEO in a hood and a black van.”

“Oh, that’s real nice, Alex. You’re helping because you aren’t treating my new wife like an enemy combatant,” Kara shot back.

“Don’t act like you don’t know that wasn’t J’onn’s first option. Who do you think talked him down from that?”

“You, but only after Winn talked you around to it. Before that, you were totally on board. Or was it someone else who was beating up Max Lord in a holding cell not that long ago?”

Alex scoffed. “Like I’m the only one who took a shot at that slimy bastard,” she muttered.

“That doesn’t make it any better!”

Alex took a deep breath and calmed herself down. Kara did her best to hide her smile, because her sister was so much better at that now that she was with Maggie.

“It’s not like I’m the first person to get drunk married in Vegas. Not even the first person to get drunk married to a celebrity,” Kara tried to argue.

“No, but most people stay away from people with family who’ve declared a blood feud on all aliens.”

“It’s not like she’s the only one with family who have tried genocide as a solution. We’ve all got family, Alex. Doesn’t make her evil just because her brother’s a bad guy.”

“It’s not the same, Kara,” Alex snapped.

“Why not?”

“Because she’s not a superhero, and she’s not my sister.”

“That’s a real mature way of thinking, Alex. She’s known Clark’s identity for years, and never said anything. And even if she’s not a superhero, she’s done a lot to turn her company into a force for good.”

“I’m waiting until I get that in writing.”

“What, that she’s turning her company around? Cause I can point you to all kinds of articles.”

Alex clenched her fist and groaned in frustration. “No, that she’s not going public with your identity, Kara.”

It didn’t take Kara more than an instant to check. “Then you’ll be happy to know she’s already signed the first NDA. She’s reading them all first, but I can’t blame her for thinking you might try to slip something in.”

“This is a standard precaution that we’d take with anybody in this situation. She’s not being singled out for her family name.”

“Then why are you hung up on it?” Kara demanded.

“Because she’s smart enough that this still could be a plan, and I have to consider it, because I know you won’t,” Alex threw back.

“So now you don’t trust me to make good decisions? Thanks a lot, Alexandra.”

Alex growled deep in her throat. “You met her last night while blackout drunk, and you married her less than six hours later. Let’s just say that my trust in your decision making skill has been shaken.”

Kara narrowed her eyes. “I’m going to expect an apology when it turns out Lena’s just as much a victim of circumstances as me. To me and to Lena.”

Alex threw Kara a dirty look and headed for the door. Kara’s voice stopped her just before she stepped outside. “And Alex, in a week or two,” Kara checked Alex’s expression, “maybe longer, when we’re over this, I need to tell you about the noises Lena made when she sat on my face.”

“I thought you didn’t remember any of last night.”

Kara smiled mischieveously, like only a little sister could. “I don’t. Lena doesn’t like flying and I figured I could distract her.”

Alex groaned in exasperation like only a big sister could. “Oh my god, you’ve slept with her again?”

“Three times, but like I said, we should probably save that discussion until you’re not angry anymore.”

Alex just closed her eyes for a very long time. “As soon as we get back to the DEO, because you are going to the DEO with me, you will be going straight to the training room, and we’re not coming out until morning. Your new wife can wait in the lobby.”

Kara squeaked in protest, but didn’t manage to say anything before Alex stomped off.

0oOo0

Experience had taught Lena the most efficient ways to get through paperwork, so it didn’t take long for her to read and sign everything. It helped that it was all fairly straightforward, if extremely severe, language, which made sense. The DEO wasn’t interested in the twisty world of corporate contracts, where the right phrase could mean huge profits, they were just interested in making sure you did what they wanted. Specifically, if Lena ever even looked like she was going to say anything, the DEO would stuff her in the deepest darkest hole they could find, and Lena would never be seen again.

Lena had Pam rewrite a few passages where L-Corp would be unfairly impacted, but they came to quick agreement and soon Lena was walking out the door.

Supergirl was waiting for her. “So, I have to go get yelled at by my boss,” she said preemptively.

“I didn’t realize you had a boss,” Lena mused.

Supergirl’s eyes lit up. “Oh yeah, I’m officially deputized. Gets me lots of nifty backup and information, and it means the crooks I bust are more easily prosecuted, plus I’m not personally liable for collateral damage. And my boss is one of those growly, gruff exterior type guys, with a soft gooey center, so it’ll be more of a ‘Kara, I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed,’ kind of speech.”

Alex scoffed. “Don’t get your hopes up. J’onn’s pissed.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, so say goodbye to the wife, get ready to get your ass chewed for about an hour, and then you and I have an appointment at the gym.”

“Aw, man!” Supergirl turned to Lena with a guilty look on her face. “So, like I was saying earlier, I have to go get yelled at by my boss, and it sounds like it’s going to take a while. Um, I’ll call you tomorrow? We can talk more about what we want to do going forward?”

Lena shook her head. “Call me when you’re done tonight. Don’t worry if it’s late, after sleeping all day, I doubt I’ll sleep tonight.”

“Passed out is not the same as sleeping, Lena,” Supergirl frowned, hands on her hips. “You should try to rest.”

Lena paused. “You know, I’m not used to having someone to worry about my sleep habits.”

“Well, you have me now, so listen to your wife. I’ll text you when I’m done, so you’ll notice it if you’re still up, but it won’t wake you up if you’re already down for the night.” Supergirl held her hand out. “Deal?”

Lena took her hand then pulled her in for a kiss. “I’ll be up, but if that’s the way you want to do it, fine. Text me later.”

Kara melted into the kiss, and Lena indulged in the action herself. She wasn’t sure how well this was going to work out, but no one could deny they had good physical chemistry. Finally, after Alex had cleared her throat three times, Kara pulled back. “Okay, I’ll see you later. You can call me too. Not so much tonight, because we have no signal where I’m going, but in the future. Don’t hesitate. You know, as long as you want to call me.”

Lena smiled. “Don’t worry, I will.”

“That’s enough saying goodbye, we need to get a move on. J’onn’s waiting.”

Lena very professionally didn’t laugh at Kara’s groan. At least not until the sisters were both gone.

0oOo0

It was nearly four in the morning by the time Kara left the DEO. Alex was right, Kara couldn’t remember the last time J’onn had been so angry. He lectured her up and down, and then gave her to Alex. Despite her earlier threat, the next stop wasn’t the training room, it was Alex’s lab for a full round of tests. Alex didn’t trust Lena as far as she could throw her, and she was going to look for any possible threat, be it biological, chemical, or technological. That had taken until well after midnight, at which point they finally headed for the training room. Fortunately, Alex had talked out most of her anger, which led to a long, tough, demanding session, rather than one where Kara got hit with sticks while she tried to figure out how to use her own.

Kara pulled out her phone and navigated to her newest contact before lifting off. I hope you were able to get to sleep, and I’m sorry if I wake you up.

Lena’s face filled the screen as her phone started ringing. “Hey Lena,” she answered. “Please don’t tell me you’re still up.”

“I slept for about two hours around twelve thirty, but I rarely ever sleep more than five hours a night, so don’t worry about me,” Lena explained. “I see you survived your punishment.”

“That I did. If you aren’t sleeping, what are you doing at four in the morning?”

“Going through my email, for the most part. Would you care to stop by for a bit so we can talk?”

“Right now?”

“Unless there’s a fire that needs putting out,” Lena teased, her voice low.

“Okay, just don’t be surprised if I fall asleep on you.”

“I didn’t mind last time that happened.” Kara snorted, and Lena’s smile could be heard over the line. “Let me just give you my address so you know where you’re going…”

“That’s okay, I don’t really need it,” Kara said.

“Really? How’s that work?” Lena asked.

“I know what you sound like, so I’m just zeroing in on your voice. It’s four in the morning, there’s not as much background noise, and since I have you on the phone, it’s easy, because I know what you’re saying, so I can filter out any voices that sound like you, and any recordings of you, because they’re not saying what I know you’re saying. If you get what I’m saying.”

There was a moment of silence, and Kara worried that she’d scared Lena off. “Was that too much?” Kara asked nervously.

“No, I’m just trying to figure out how to convey how impressed I am without making it sound like I want to dissect you,” Lena answered distractedly.

“Oh, well, let’s just go with very impressed and leave it at that. Can you open your window?”

Kara saw Lena jump from her spot outside. When Lena saw her, Kara waved and waited for Lena to unlock the window. “You got here quick.”

“I could have been here faster, but I figured there was no rush.”

“Maybe next time you’ll try the front door,” Lena teased.

“Yeah, but I always look weird taking the elevator in the suit.” Kara smiled at Lena to show she was mostly joking. “So, what’d you want to talk about?”

Lena guided her over to the couch and sat down. “Media strategy. We’re going to need to talk to somebody soon, or we’ll never get control over the story. Your thoughts?”

Kara bounced on the couch experimentally. She didn’t even want to imagine how expensive it must have been, but it was definitely comfortable. “I think if I talk to anybody but CatCo first, I’m going to lose my job.”

Lena considered that. “Fair point. How much can we dictate the story?”

“Well, the acting CEO is one of my best friends, so hopefully a lot? My editor’s not my biggest fan, though.”

“I find that difficult to believe. I’m not sure how anyone could dislike you.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Believe me, they do. A lot of people on the internet hate Supergirl, and now I’m getting nasty comments on my personal social media pages, now that people are finding Kara Danvers online. Snapper just doesn’t like anybody, though, so it’s not really personal. I’m just wondering how he’s going to react when I tell him it would be unethical for me to report on my new wife.”

“Not good?”

Kara’s brow crinkled. “No, I don’t know, because Snapper lives and breathes journalism more than anyone else I’ve ever met, and I’ve met Cat Grant and Lois Lane, so I know journalists, but the integrity of the story and ethical journalism is so important to him that he probably already knows he won’t be able to use me for anything to do with you, and might not even be that mad about it.”

Lena smirked. “How much of that is just wishful thinking?”

“About sixty or seventy percent. He’ll yell no matter what.”

“I had a professor like that at MIT. I still have no idea why he went into teaching.” Lena shook her head. “I’m sorry, I’ve been a terrible host. Can I get you anything, coffee, water?”

“Oh, coffee, definitely, and do you have anything I can snack on? I forgot to pick something up on my way over.”

“Help yourself to whatever you can find, I’m sure there’s something in the fridge.” Lena waved a hand in the direction of the kitchen, and eagerly rushed off.

Kara already had a slice of cold pizza hanging out of her mouth when Lena joined her, and her eyes lit up when she found half a bucket of leftover fried chicken.

“What is your caloric intake like, if you don’t mind my asking?” Lena wondered aloud.

Kara jumped, not ready for the question. “Oh, um, I usually average around ten thousand a day, for the most part? More some days, less on others, it depends on how much I use my powers.”

Lena frowned. “That must get expensive on a reporter’s salary.”

Kara nodded. “It really would, but the DEO have been helping to pay my grocery bill ever since I started working with them. And my foster mom figured out how to make a high calorie nutrient paste that can supplement my diet. Spread it on some bread, make a little sandwich, it’s pretty good. Tastes kinda like peanut butter.”

“Interesting. Is she a scientist, then?”

“Yep, bio-engineer with a focus on xenobiology. She is so smart, it’s crazy. I mean, Eliza knows more about my body than me, at this point,” Kara gushed. “But I think we’re getting off track.”

Lena’s smile dimmed a little. “Right, you’re here for a reason. You know, normally I don’t have any trouble keeping a conversation focused.”

Kara’s eyes lit up. “Does that mean you find me distracting?” she giggled as she struck a pose.

“Well, you are wearing a cape,” Lena said. “Ready to really get started?”

“Let’s do it.”

Chapter Text

Lena tweeted a picture around seven am. It was of two empty plates on the island, sticky with leftover syrup. The caption read: @karadanvers makes great chicken and waffles #marriedlife

Kara retweeted it right away, adding: @lenaluthor the company was the best part #marriedlife

Twitter promptly exploded.

The Karlena tag had fallen a few spots down the top trending list, but Lena’s tweet sent it back to number one in no time at all. Kara’s follower count continued to balloon, and she realized it was way too late to try to take down her more embarrassing pictures, the ones with her face covered in ice cream and chocolate syrup, or cinnamon roll frosting, or alfredo sauce, or powdered sugar. Not to mention that the one picture of Kara in a bikini Alex had convinced her to post was now all over everywhere. She’d have to ask Winn if there was anything extra-legal that he could do about that.

Keeping the world from seeing her body after drunkenly marrying a billionaire celebrity wasn’t why Kara had preferred one-pieces in the past, but it was definitely going to be one of her reasons going forward.

Snapper sent Kara an email saying she wasn’t going to get a byline until she was out of the headlines, and he was moving her to research in the meantime. That meant days full of looking things up and collecting information for other people’s stories, but Kara called in a few favors to let her work from home. All her devices were still set up for it from her time as Miss Grant’s assistant, so it was an easy fix.

At least Eliza took the news better than Lena’s mom.

0oOo0

“I can’t believe our country’s coming to this, people. Two special snowflake millenials, screaming out look at me, look at me, I’m so desperate for attention, I’m gonna upload my lesbian wedding video to every computer, laptop, TV, cell phone, video game, and etch-a-sketch in the whole damn world! It’s a disgrace! That’s not a wedding, people, it’s filth! It is an attack! On good, traditional, American values, and if you can’t see that, you can just pack up and move to Canada for all I care!”

0oOo0

“Oh, hello, Kara, it’s so nice to hear from you,” Eliza said.

Kara managed to keep her grip from crushing her phone, but only just. “Yeah, I tried calling you last night, but I guess I missed you.”

“I guess you did. So, what’s new?” Eliza asked.

Kara bit her lip. “You, uh, haven’t heard?”

“Heard what? That you got married yesterday to a woman I’ve never heard you mention before? No, because if either of my daughters were even thinking about getting married, they would at least let me know beforehand, even if I’m not invited. And I’d hope that I’d get to meet whoever it is they’re planning to spend the rest of their lives with before it’s legally binding.”

Kara felt two inches tall. “I’m sorry, I know I made a mistake, more than one mistake, but I swear, I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings. Not deliberately, anyways, I mean, the marriage thing, it’s not what you think.”

“I think you got married without telling me beforehand.”

“Okay, yes, that’s factually true, but-”

“Married to a woman I’ve never met.”

“Again, yes, but that’s not-”

“Well, if both of those are true, I’m just not sure what there is to talk about.”

“Eliza!” Kara snapped. “Please, I know I hurt your feelings, but I want to tell you what’s going on, and I can’t do that when you’re talking over me, so please, can you just listen for a few minutes, and then you can yell at me all you want.”

Eliza’s end of the line was silent. It went on long enough that Kara seized the opportunity to continue.

“There’s no way to make this sound good, but here it goes. Lena and I met in a bar after the last day of the convention I was reporting on, and we hit it off, and the bartender was an alien, so I was like, give me some Thanagarian Ale, and I didn’t really expect him to have any, but I guess they’re ready for anything in Las Vegas, because he had it right there, so I couldn’t very well change my mind, it would be rude, and I really wasn’t planning on getting drunk, but I’m still trying to figure out my tolerance, so I kinda blacked out.”

“Oh, Kara,” Eliza said, voice heavy with disappointment.

“I know, I know, okay? So I really didn’t mean to hurt you by not telling you beforehand, I just wasn’t in the best control of my actions? And I know we streamed the wedding online, and I think that’s because I wanted to make sure you and Alex could see it even if you couldn’t be there, or at least that’s the only reason I can come up with that makes sense. I haven’t had the courage to watch it yet, but I know it’s out there.”

“Kara, do you have any idea how irresponsible that was? I can’t believe you’d do something like this, getting so drunk you marry some stranger you’ve never met before. I thought you had better sense than that, but clearly I must have been mistaken. I don’t even know what to say to you right now.”

“Well, I just, in the interest of making sure you have all the information, I, um… So after we woke up yesterday Lena and I talked, and we really hit it off, which is really nice, but we discussed the pros and cons and what we think might happen if we do this or that, and we’re going to stay married, at least for now. There’ll be consequences no matter what, so that’s what we decided. And now you’re caught up with everything that happened.”

Eliza took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “Well, you’re an adult now, Kara, so I can’t very well tell you what to do anymore, but that means you’re the one responsible for this mess. And I’m not sure if I should help you or if I should let you figure things out for yourself, but either way, this is a lot that you’ve just laid on me, so I’m going to let you go. I’ll call you once I’ve processed everything.”

“I really am sorry.”

“I know you are, and I still love you. I’m just disappointed.”

Eliza ended the call quickly and Kara stared at her phone like Eliza was going to call right back and tell her it would all be okay.

0oOo0

“All I’m saying, Joan, is that we’ve seen Luthors be charming and charismatic before, and we’ve been burned. Lionel’s picture is next to the definition of corrupt in the dictionary, and his son was even worse. This smells like a bad PR stunt, and it’s clearly a distraction meant to keep us from seeing what’s really going on. That’s where we should be focusing, I guarantee it.”

0oOo0

After fifteen minutes of staring at the phone, Kara forced herself to get up and headed for Lena’s home office. She had barricaded herself in there earlier, and Kara didn’t want to disturb her if she was working, but she also needed a hug, and Lena was the closest person available.

“Lena?” Kara called as she knocked three times. “Can I come in?”

“Just a minute!”

When Lena opened the door, her eyes were red and her body was tense. “What did you need, Kara?”

“Nevermind, it’s not that important. Are you okay, Lena?” Kara reached out to grab Lena’s trembling hand.

“I’m fine, Kara, but thank you for asking,” Lena said, her voice carefully modulated to keep from wavering.

Kara shook her head. “I’m not going to explain it right now, because it’s not the time, but rest assured my powers make it very easy to determine you’re not telling the truth. What’s wrong?” Kara’s other hand moved up to cup Lena’s cheek.

Lena leaned into the touch. “My mother.” She grimaced.

“Oh. What happened?” Kara asked gently.

Lena twisted away from Kara and out of her grasp. “Nothing repeatable in polite company.”

“I’m not always polite. I mean, I like being polite, but I don’t have to be. You should hear me trash talk in Kryptonian. I’m like a sailor.”

Lena scoffed in disbelief. “I’m sure.”

Kara grabbed Lena’s hand again and led her to the couch. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to, but talking really does help. A burden shared is a burden halved, right?”

Lena sat stiffly, rigid as a board. “I’m afraid you’re talking to the wrong person. Luthors aren’t allowed to have problems, much less share them with others.”

“Legally, you’re part of the Danvers clan now, and we talk about our problems. But only if you want to.”

“I would rather just sit here, just for a few minutes.”

Kara nodded. “Okay, that’s fine too. Would you mind if I stayed and sat with you? I won’t say anything.”

“No, no, it’s fine. What did you need me for?”

Kara shook her head. “I just talked to Eliza, and she didn’t react as well as I was hoping, so I was coming to see if you would give me a hug.”

“You came to me because you wanted a hug?” Lena sounded like she didn’t understand the concept.

“Well, I guess I could have tracked down my sister, but since she didn’t go home until late last night, she’s probably still asleep, unless Maggie has the morning off, in which case, well, she’s probably not sleeping, that’s for sure.”

“Wouldn’t want to interrupt that,” Lena agreed.

Kara blushed. “Yeah, because that would be super embarrassing. Especially if you texted ahead of time to make sure it didn’t happen, like five times, and you still walk in on your sister tied to the headboard.”

Lena let out a few weak chuckles before falling silent. She finally relaxed enough to sit back against the couch, and Kara put an arm around her shoulders. Lena flinched at the touch, but shook her head when Kara tried to pull away.

Kara’s phone started to ring, but she sent them to voicemail and turned off the ringer without looking at who called.

Thirty minutes later, Lena finally said something. “Mother didn’t take the news of our surprise nuptials very well.”

Kara squeezed Lena gently. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I expected it. We never had a good relationship, but after Father died and Lex went insane, things have gotten worse between us. She’s gotten worse.” Lena swallowed thickly, trying to dislodge the ostrich egg in her throat. “She called me a disgrace to the Luthor name, and said it was too bad none of Lex’s assassins had succeeded yet.”

“Lena, no!” Kara blurted out. “She had no right to say something like that to you,” she added, more calmly.

Lena sniffed. “Oh, I know. I know I shouldn’t care about anything she has to say, and I don’t, but she still knows how to push every single one of my buttons, and she takes pleasure in making it hurt.”

“I should track her down and give her a piece of my mind, if that’s the way she talks to you. That’s just, that’s not right, Lena. You don’t deserve that.”

Lena shifted to look up at Kara’s face. “Promise me you won’t do that. Track her down, I mean. My mother is not a good person, Kara, and I don’t want to know what she’ll do to you.”

“I’d like to see her try. I’m not invulnerable for nothing.”

Lena shook her head worriedly. “No, you don’t understand. She approached me not long after Lex was sentenced, trying to get me involved in some project she was working with. She wouldn’t even tell me the name, but she mentioned looking for solutions to the alien threat and ensuring the safety of the human species. It was all very vague, but Lex got his views on aliens from Mother, so I can guess what sort of solutions she’s interested in. She very well could have something that would hurt you.”

Kara easily read the concern in Lena’s voice. “Okay, I won’t, Lena. She still didn’t have any right to say those things to you.”

“Thank you.” Lena pushed herself closer and kissed Kara softly on the cheek. “I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’ve misjudged her. But if I didn’t, I’d rather know you weren’t anywhere near her.”

0oOo0

“Look, if they want to send themselves to hell with their sin, that’s their business, but I wish it wasn’t all over the news. I turned it off before my kids could see it, but what about other families? Children don’t need to see that sort of thing plastered all over the television, and I really think the news should be more responsible about showing pictures and video the way they’ve been doing. You shouldn’t force parents to have a conversation their kids aren’t ready for, and that’s what’s going to happen. It’s just not right.”

0oOo0

Lena excused herself to make some phone calls, and Kara flew home. She dove into the pile of research Snapper had already assigned to her, and Kara got the feeling that she was going to be in the doghouse for the foreseeable future.

Fortunately, working from home meant she didn’t have to hide her superpowers, and reading through six hundred page documents went a lot quicker at superspeed.

Kara spent the afternoon returning phone calls and repeating the same story over and over, because it was all anyone wanted to talk about. She was able to get away with vague non-answers for the most part, and put her foot down when people kept pushing. Honestly, Kara had no idea Franklin from the copy room was so crude. She gave him an earful about respecting women and sent an email to his manager, quoting some of the HR policies Miss Grant personally helped put in place.

She flew around the city a few times after dinner and saved a car from an oncoming train after it stalled on the tracks. Fortunately, it was a quiet night, and after stopping a gas station robbery, Supergirl found herself outside Lena’s window again.

“Couldn’t stay away, could you?” Lena asked as she let her in.

“You know, if you don’t want me around, you probably shouldn’t have married me,” Kara joked.

Lena laughed. “Actually, I’m glad you’re here. It might surprise you, but all this space gets lonely when there’s nobody else around. I’ve been considering getting a pet, what do you think?”

Kara hadn’t been expecting that. “Oh, well, um, I’m not sure. I never had pets growing up, so I’m probably not the best person to ask. But, I guess a dog might be a good thing.”

“Hmm, I had a few bad experiences with dogs when I was younger. What’s your opinion on cats?”

“Fine, I guess. My cousin’s family had an orange tabby named Streaky that lived in the barn for a long time, and he really liked me, and I never had any problems with the cats at the animal shelter.”

“Hmm, but you don’t sound very enthusiastic. I’ll have to think about it later. So, what brings you by?”

“I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay after this morning,” Kara said.

“I’m fine, really. I stopped listening to anything my mother has to say years ago, I just needed to remember that.” Lena smiled fondly. “But thank you for thinking of me, it’s sweet.”

Supergirl’s face lit up. “Ooh, speaking of sweet, do you want to get ice cream? I know a place that stays open late for the bar crowd.”

Lena couldn’t help but laugh. “You know what? Yes, let’s do that. But only if you change first. We don’t need rumors about me and Supergirl popping up right now.”

Supergirl glanced down at her suit. “Right, yes, I should probably do that.” She wound up with her arms before spinning like a tornado, only visible as a blur. She stopped a moment later, now fully Kara Danvers. “So, this’ll be like our first date, I guess. At least, the first date where we go out and remember what happens.”

“Think we’ll be recognized?” Lena asked.

“Probably, I mean, you’re Lena Luthor, and they know me at the ice cream place.”

Something in Kara’s voice made Lena suspicious. “How well do they know you?”

Kara hesitated. “I have an eating challenge named after me,” she admitted.

Lena folded her arms and smirked. “This I have to hear.”

“I went in there once when I was really sad, and I told them I wanted the biggest sundae they could make, and Ophelia had already seen me eat, so she actually gave me what I wanted, and made me a ten scoop sundae with tons of toppings and buried the whole thing in whipped cream. Jules took a picture after I was done and hung it up on the wall, and that was how it started.”

“Ten scoops?” Lena breathed.

“They used to serve it in a mixing bowl, but now they have some custom bowls for the challenge. Jules even wrote my name on one, so it’s just for me.”

“You’ll have to show me when we get there.” Lena walked over and offered Kara her hand. “Of course, I’ll have to burn off the ice cream somehow.” Her voice lowered. “I don’t suppose you’d be interested in helping me with that, would you?”

Kara took her hand. “Sure, I know plenty of good workout routines if you want to try some, cause my sister’s a really good trainer, and it just hit me that you weren’t talking about working out, you were talking about sex, sorry, it took me a second to get there, but the answer is still yes, that is, I’m a-okay with that, and oh Rao, I just said a-okay, what was that?”

Lena laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Shall we go?”

“Please, before I say anything else embarrassing.”

0oOo0

“I’m thinking it might be a mistake to assume this is a new relationship, like so many people are doing. The fact that we haven’t heard of it before now doesn’t mean anything. Which is more likely? That two women who have never met before decide to get married and stream it live, or two women who have been hiding their relationship finally decide to announce it in a spectacular way? I’m just saying, we can’t assume anything at this point, not until we get official word from the couple themselves.

0oOo0

After an intense night that left her sleeping in an extra hour, Lena had no patience for the press as she entered L-Corp. As reporters and paparazzi alike asked her about her recent marriage, Lena couldn’t stop herself from going on record.

“Honestly, women marry other women every day in this country, I don’t understand why this is news. Ask me about something else.”

Her words were trending before lunch.

0oOo0

“Hell yeah I like them! I saw them on the news, and I was like, that’s so awesome! Just because, you know, they’re owning themselves, like, yes, we’re two women that got married, now watch us be adorable and get jealous because we have a way better relationship than you. Only not in a mean way.

0oOo0

Kara had been so absorbed in her painting that she didn’t hear the crowd of people lining up outside her door until they knocked.

James, Winn, Alex, and Maggie all squeezed through the door at once, everybody talking.

“Hey, guys, what’s going on?” Kara asked, raising her voice above theirs.

“Impromptu game night,” James announced.

“Settlers of Catan, and you’re going down, Danvers,” Winn taunted, pointing at Kara.

“No ulterior motives,” Maggie smiled.

“Uh-huh. I’m sure.” Kara wasn’t fooled, and she looked at her sister.

“Oh, no, we’re definitely here to interrogate you about Lena,” Alex confirmed. “I’m not sure why they bothered trying to hide it, we’re all here for the same reason.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Fine, but nothing is on the record tonight, James, understand? I don’t think you would, but just setting the ground rules.”

“I wasn’t, but it’s fine. All off the record.” James rubbed his forehead. “Just, what’s going on? Lay out the situation.”

Kara sighed. “Legally, we’re married, and we’re not changing that for now because it’s easier, you know, publically, but we also have good chemistry, or a spark, or whatever you want to call it, so we’re giving dating a try too.”

“So you really like her?” Winn asked.

It didn’t take long to think about. “Yeah, I do. I like her.”

“Are you sure she’s not playing you?” James asked before Winn could follow up. At Kara’s frustrated look, he hastily continued. “I’m just saying, her family has history with yours, and beyond that, the Luthors are infamously corrupt. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that this is all part of some evil scheme.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Oh Rao, you’ve got to be kidding me! You and Clark both, only he wasn’t so polite about it. Lena’s not evil, but no matter what she does, it’ll never be good enough for you two, because her last name is Luthor. And I know you two just think you’re looking out for me, but I’m a superhero in my own right, and you should trust me when I say someone’s not a supervillain.”

“I know, but, Kara-”

“I’m saying it right now. Lena’s not a supervillain.”

James took a deep breath. “I believe that you believe that, and I hope you’re right. But I just don’t want you to get hurt if it turns out you’re wrong. I remember how devastated your cousin was after Lex showed his true colors.”

“Well, Lena’s true colors are developing solar-powered water purifiers for impoverished nations and cutting edge medical technologies, and unless you have actual proof that she’s evil, I don’t want to hear it,” Kara snapped, irritated.

James frowned and crossed his arms, but didn’t say a word.

“Anybody else?” Kara asked.

Winn put his hands up defensively. “Hey, no, I’m cool, you said you like her, and the whole passionate defense thing kinda supports that in a big way, so I’m on board, no need to bring fingers into this just ignore everything I said the other day I’m gonna stop talking now.”

Kara stomped a foot as she turned to Alex. “Will you stop threatening Winn with your finger? He’s your friend, and I want to be able to point at him without him having a panic attack.”

“You can threaten me with your fingers all you want,” Maggie whispered to Alex, but Kara could still hear it.

“Oh, will you two give it a rest?” Kara groused. “I’m happy my sister is finally happy, but I don’t need to actively hear you seduce each other in my living room.”

Alex blushed bright red as her eyes went wide and her mouth moved soundlessly. Maggie took pity on her. “Alright, I’ll stop. I’m just here for moral support, anyways.”

“Really? You don’t have any probing questions into my relationship, since it seems like everybody else has over the past few days?”

“Alex has got me covered there, and I’d rather complain about the fact that we’re going to have at least another decade of U-Haul Lesbian jokes because of you two..” Maggie grinned. “And I don’t know how much experience you have with the ladies, but if you ever need to talk about sex and don’t want to go to your sister, you can call me.”

Kara’s face nearly burst into flames. “Maggie, that’s not, I mean… We haven’t had any problems there.”

“Woo, go little Danvers,” Maggie cheered. She held her hand up for a high five, and Winn was just a few seconds slower. Embarrassed, Kara high fived them both, slapping James’s reluctant hand last. “You know, you don’t have to have questions if we talk, you can just brag too.”

Alex looked comically betrayed, wondering where her support had gone. She reached out to grab Kara’s hand and locked eyes with her sister. “You get why I’m worried, right, Kara?”

“Can’t you just trust me on this?”

“I do trust you, Kara, it’s just that this isn’t something I can protect you from, and I hate that.”

Kara pulled her sister in for a hug. “I’ll be okay, Alex. We talked about it, and decided our legal status had no impact on our relationship status. As far as we’re concerned, we had a wildly successful first date, a very pleasant second date, and really good physical chemistry. We both want to see where this goes, but if it ends up not working out, I’m not going to be heartbroken.”

Alex sighed. “Fine, I’ll take your word for it. Just, please, be careful with her.”

“Alright, I will be. Now somebody set up the game, so I can beat you all like I did last week.”

0oOo0

“Of course they’re the real deal, have you seen their pictures? Don’t try to tell me that’s faked. I mean, some of them, sure, but that’s not what I’m talking about! I’m talking about the way they look at each other, like as soon as the picture was taken, they were ripping each other’s clothes off. You can’t fake that. You just can’t. And I bet Lena wears that little reporter girl out.

0oOo0

Kara hummed softly as she cleaned the strap-on. She dried it off before returning it to its proper place. Lena had an impressive collection of sex toys, acquired over years of working too late to go out and not wanting to go to sleep frustrated.

Kara returned to the bedroom and sighed happily at the sight of Lena fast asleep with smile on her face. Kara slid in behind her and spooned herself around her wife. Lena made a happy noise and pushed back towards Kara unconsciously.

After kissing the back of Lena’s neck, Kara shut her eyes and was out like a light.

0oOo0

“What do I think about them? Well, besides being tired of hearing about them already, they’re a cute couple. I saw them on the news the other morning, and it was kinda cool. The hosts just wanted to talk about the marriage and their relationship, and they were just like, ‘Yeah, we’re married, and that’s cool, but that’s not really important, so we’re gonna talk about solving the water crisis instead.’ You could tell the hosts were totally lost, and that was hilarious, but it’s kinda nice to see someone blow up for something ridiculous and then turn that popularity into something good. Maybe that was their plan all along. Get famous, solve world hunger.”

0oOo0

“Hey, Lena, how’s it going?”

“Kara, I saw the news, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, didn’t Alex call you?”

“She said you were recovering from the fight, and I shouldn’t expect to see you tonight.”

“Oh, for the love of Rao. I swear, she has the bedside manner of a rock. Both of those things are technically true, but I’m fine, really.”

“You didn’t look fine getting knocked through the street and into the subway. What do you mean, you’re in recovery?”

“Well, I was in recovery, earlier when you talked to Alex, but now I’m at my apartment.”

“Why didn’t you come here?”

“Alex was driving and I wasn’t paying attention to where she was going, so we’d already gotten to my place before I realized anything, and Alex was in full on doctor mode, so I’m on strict bedrest until my powers are fully back. I’d fly over anyways, but I can’t get much more than two feet off the floor.”

“Can I come over to your place?”

“Sure, but bedrest wasn’t a euphemism for anything. Alex will kill me if I do anything strenuous.”

“No, not for that! I just want to make sure you’re okay, and I need to see it for myself.”

“Oh. That… that’s so sweet, Lena. Thank you.”

“Is there anything you want me to pick up on my way? Are you hungry?”

“Always, but you don’t have to get me anything. Of course, I won’t say no if you do get me something.”

“Okay, I’ll see you soon.”

“I’ll unlock the door so you can come right on in.”

0oOo0

“I don’t know what to think about it. I mean, it’s clearly a publicity stunt, anybody who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves, but I can’t decide if the reporter is in on it or if she’s just being used and has no idea. Either way, I don’t trust it one bit.”

0oOo0

“Knock knock, Kara?” Lena called out as she carefully opened the door.

“Back here!” Kara yelled back, and Lena relaxed. She had the right place.

Lena deposited her things on island and walked back to Kara’s bed. She was propped up on a mountain of pillows and holding at large sketch pad.

“Thank you so much for coming,” Kara gushed as she put her sketch pad to the side. “You’re a nice person, don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.”

Lena smiled and ducked her head but she kept her eyes right on Kara. “I brought a family sized order of chicken noodle soup from Simone’s to help you feel better.”

“Well, it’s not really the flu kinda thing, but I’ve only known chicken noodle to make things worse once.”

Lena raised an inquisitive eyebrow, and Kara blushed. “In my defense, the Campbell’s truck had already crashed before I got there, and how was I supposed to know that chicken noodle soup would cause the alien to double in size and start breathing fire?”

Lena was momentarily stunned. Finally, she found her voice. “Well, fingers crossed that that’s not going to happen this time. Did you want to eat now, or save it for later?”

“Do you really need to ask? You’ve seen me eat.”

Lena nodded to concede the point. “Just let me find your bowls and it’ll be ready.”

“They’re in the cabinet on the left! Or on the right, it depends on how you’re looking at it.”

Lena found the bowls and fixed two servings before taking them both into Kara. “I didn’t know you were an artist,” she said, nodding at the sketch pad.

Kara took the soup eagerly, ladling three spoonfuls into her mouth in quick succession. Her smile grew. “Thank you so much, Lena. Really. It means a lot that you’re here.”

Lena carefully sat on the edge of the bed. “You’re hurt, so I couldn’t just leave you here alone. This feels like where I should be.”

Kara hunched over her bowl to prevent spilling anything. “Whatever the reason, I’m happy to see you.”

The conversation trailed off as they both ate their soup. Lena silently took Kara’s bowl when she was done and refilled it before cleaning her own. Kara started in on the second serving and Lena slowly started walking around the apartment.

She scanned the books and movies piled on the shelves, and stepped gingerly around Kara’s painting corner to avoid getting messy. Then Lena spotted a canvas leaning against the wall, covered in swaths of red and orange.

Her eyes were drawn to it, and Lena froze in front of it, staring.

“I guess you like that one, huh?” Kara asked, her voice louder than normal. Lena looked back and Kara snorted back laughter. “You have been completely engrossed in that painting for the past ten minutes. I called your name like four times.”

“It’s beautiful,” Lena said sincerely.

“Really, you think so?”

“This is Krypton, isn’t it?”

Kara nodded. “The view from my bedroom window.”

“It makes me feel like I’m yearning for home,” Lena said. “It’s amazing, Kara.”

“Take it home with you,” Kara said, and Lena blinked in confusion.

“What?”

“I’ve only got so much space to hang stuff up, and it clearly says something more to you than it does to me, so take it.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to take something that reminds you of your home.”

Kara shook her head. “Everything reminds me of Krypton. Take the painting, please.”

Lena moved the painting over to sit beside the door. When she returned, Kara was breathing slowly and deliberately, like she was trying to keep herself calm. Lena crawled into bed and wrapped her arms around Kara. Kara melted into the embrace, and after a while, Lena wriggled and shifted her way under the covers and kept Kara in her arms the whole time.

They were both asleep before either felt any need to move.

0oOo0

“I actually saw them the other day, at Noonan’s, that place in the CatCo building, and I’ll admit that I was skeptical when I first heard about them, but after seeing them in person, I think they’re for real. They were laughing and talking, sharing bites of their food and generally just being cutesy as hell, which I would say would definitely make it fake, but they weren’t trying to be seen or anything. Sat at the back table, and one of the waitresses kicked a dude out for trying to take a bunch of pictures. That doesn’t sound like a PR stunt to me.”

0oOo0

Smoke was still rising from the hole in the side of the L-Corp building when Kara walked tentatively into Lena’s office.

Lena’s chair was turned away from the door, facing the wall of windows. “Lena? It’s just me, Kara. I convinced your assistant to let me up.”

Lena didn’t turn around. “I told her to always let you up. Seemed fitting, for our narrative.”

Kara walked around to the side of Lena’s desk. “Lena, you were attacked today, I just… ‘Are you okay?’ sounds stupid, because of course you’re not okay, and it’s okay to not be okay, that’s totally fine, but I just… Tell me what you need.”

Lena used her toes to swivel around until she was facing Kara. “Thank you for coming, you really didn’t have to. If you need to leave, I’ll be fine.”

Lena may have mastered hiding her emotions years ago, but Kara could see every micro-expression and muscle twitch, could hear Lena’s pulse still racing, could see the empty glass on the desk and the bottle of scotch with no cap.

“Hey, no, hey, look at me.” Lena lifted her eyes. “This is where I’m supposed to be right now. Here with you. But let’s go sit on the couch so I’m not looming over you.”

Kara offered Lena her hand, and Lena stared at it for a long moment, before finally taking it. She let herself be led over to the couch, and sat on the opposite end from Kara, leaving plenty of space between them.

“He’s supposed to be my brother,” Lena said after several minutes of silence. “He’s supposed to be my brother, but he’s not anymore.” She sighed. “He used to be, though. He was a great big brother, the best ever, I thought. He taught me how to play chess, fix a car, throw a punch, everything a big brother’s supposed to do. He’d take me out for ice cream in the middle of the afternoon for no reason at all. He loved me like family, even though I was just adopted. But somewhere along the line, that stopped. I just wish I knew if he changed and I missed it, or if he was always like that and played me like a fool for years.”

“I’m really sorry to hear that, Lena.”

“Why? With everything he’s done, I’m surprised you care.”

Kara’s voice was firm. “Whatever else happened, he was still your brother once. You’ve lost that connection, and it hurts, no matter what. I’m sorry because that shouldn’t have happened to you. I know what it’s like to be on the opposite side of family.”

“I can’t imagine your sister trying to kill you.”

“Actually, it was my aunt and uncle,” Kara said, and Lena looked over curiously. “Without going into everything, they were terrorists on Krypton. They were trying to save the planet, but they were willing to hurt people to do it, and my mother was the judge in charge of sentencing them. She sent them to Fort Rozz, our prison in the Phantom Zone.”

“That must have been difficult for your family. And wasn’t the Phantom Zone where you said you were trapped?”

Kara nodded. “And when I finally escaped, my exit allowed Fort Rozz to escape as well. They crash landed on Earth too.”

“Then, they survived Krypton as well,” Lena surmised.

“I didn’t know, not for a long time. When I saw Aunt Astra again, she had organized the other Kryptonians and led them as their General. We fought each other more than once, and I captured her at one point. I still think I could have reached her, gotten her to find another way, but Aunt Astra tried to kill J’onn, and my sister stopped her the only way she could.” Kara paused to take a few deep breaths.

Lena turned so she was facing Kara, and pulled her feet up on the couch, her knees bent to keep them out of Kara’s space. Kara smiled and turned herself around as well. She reached out and gently tugged Lena’s leg out straight, then slid off Lena’s shoe. Kara sent a silent thank you to Barry for teaching her how to use her superspeed to vibrate without hurting anyone, and set her hands to buzzing. Lena’s eyes closed and her head rolled back as Kara started massaging her foot.

“My uncle took over command after my aunt died,” Kara continued softly. “He was behind the Myriad Event not that long ago.”

“I was out of town for that one, but I remember the news coverage. It was… chilling, to think of someone else taking control of my mind.”

Kara swallowed the lump in her throat. “It was. I was excluded from the effect, because I was Kryptonian, but everyone else was turned into a puppet, including my sister. He sent her after me, with a combat exoskeleton and a Kryptonite sword. It wasn’t really her, but I still remember her trying to kill me. My uncle trying to kill me.”

“That’s awful, Kara.” Lena didn’t know what else to say. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“It’s… I didn’t tell you all of that to get sympathy or anything, and I don’t think my situation is the same as your situation, because they aren’t, they’re unique, but the point is that when all that happened, I didn’t start feeling really better until I talked about it. And everybody’s different, I know, so if you don’t want to talk, if that’s not how you deal with stuff, that’s fine, but if you do want to talk, I’m here, and I’m a pretty good listener.”

Lena chewed on her bottom lip. “I don’t want to talk,” she said after several minutes of contemplation. “But I don’t want you to go either,” she added softly.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Kara whispered. She reached out and tugged Lena’s other foot into her lap.

“And thank you, by the way.” Lena gestured to her feet. “That’s helping, probably more than you know.”

Kara smirked. “You’re right. My feet don’t get sore in heels.”

Lena narrowed her eyes. “There’s no need to mock me with your alien superiority,” she scolded.

“Of course not, I’d never do that,” Kara said indulgently. “Now, let me know if I need to vibrate my hands more or less.”

Lena snorted. “Fine, point taken. And it’s perfect just how you’re doing it.”

“It helps that I can see your muscles tensing and relaxing, so I know exactly when I reach maximum effective pressure.”

“Hmmmmm… Super-massage, what power are you going to tell me about next?”

Kara thought about it for a minute. “I can control my dreams.”

Lena raised her eyebrow. “Really?”

“It’s not actually a superpower, though. There was a technique on Krypton called Tarukor that was used to control your dreams, and I had twenty four years of dreaming in the Phantom Zone to figure it out.”

“And you were thirteen at the time?”

“Aunt Astra taught me the basics when I was younger. It was just something fun at the time, but I’m glad she did. I was able to dream about the good times on Krypton instead of seeing everybody vaporized over and over. I said goodbye to my parents more times than I can count.”

“That sounds like it would be nice.”

“It was, but in the back of my head, I always know it’s a dream. Still, it got me through it.”

Lena smiled gently. “I’m glad it did. Do you still do it? Control your dreams?”

“Kinda but not really,” Kara said. “I try to let them come naturally, but I usually stop nightmares before they get to be too much.”

“Stopping nightmares, that’s a superpower I’ll admit to being jealous of.”

“I’d offer to teach you, but Tarukor requires a part of the brain that doesn’t exist in humans. Found that out after six months of trying to teach Alex.”

“I think I’ll be able to manage,” Lena said. “I’ve survived this long, after all.”

“Yeah, but nightmares still suck,” Kara said as she switched feet again. Lena’s eyes fluttered shut as she finally started to relax.

0oOo0

“You know, I’m not sure what’s more insulting. Your embarrassingly inept attempts at getting me to badmouth my former assistant, which wouldn’t work anyways, because she outworked any three other employees every day of the week - don’t interrupt, Sean, you asked your question, it’s my turn to talk - the idea that she should be condemned at all for events in her private life, or your ignorance of my well-established and long-time support for the LGBT community. Next time, don’t try to bait me with leading questions a five-year-old could see coming, and I won’t have call you out on it. As for my opinion on the subject that you’re so desperate to discuss, they chose each other, and I hope they’ll be happy together. I’m not going to tear down two successful women who have done nothing wrong just to fit your outdated worldview, and the fact that you ever thought that I would tells me you just aren’t paying attention. To me, to the public, to anything, really. Either way, this interview is over. Good luck vamping for the rest of my time, or you could just keep sitting there gaping like a fish. No doubt it’d be just as informative.”

Chapter Text

Kara closed her laptop just as Lena walked in the door. Superhearing made that easy, plus it made her look cool. Or at least it made Lena smile at her, which was just as good in Kara’s book.

“Kara, I brought home dinner, I hope you’re hungry,” Lena called. Kara set her laptop aside and popped up off the couch.

“I smell chicken~!” Kara sing-songed. “How’d you know I was craving chicken?”

“Just got lucky, I suppose.” Lena and Kara met in the kitchen, greeting each other with a quick kiss. “I hope five pounds of boneless chicken wings will be enough to feed the beast, but you have to share with me. I got buffalo, honey barbeque, cajun barbeque, spicy pepper, and something the menu called El Diablo.”

“Hmmm, are you trying to bribe me? Cause if you are, it’s working.”

Lena chuckled weakly as she set up the containers on the counter. “That’s ridiculous, what kind of person would I be to try to bribe you with food?”

“Same kind of person as my sister, so not that bad. How was your day?”

“I learned that I’m probably going to have to fire one of my executives, and I spent the afternoon trying to ensure I won’t have to pay him anything extra on his way out the door.”

“Mm-hm?” Kara managed around a mouthful of chicken.

“I don’t really care what sort of severance is traditional for his position, he’s harassed my employees, and I don’t want to pay him another dime.”

“Mm, that’s good chicken. I don’t blame you, Miss Grant always took that sort of thing very serious, especially for the executives. I could hover outside his window on my lunch break tomorrow and glare at him if you want.”

Lena grabbed herself a plate and started transferring buffalo wings to it. “Don’t tempt me. But speaking of me not bribing you, there is something I need to ask you.”

Kara stepped behind Lena and kissed the back of her neck. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“L-Corp is holding our annual shareholder’s conference in two weeks.”

Kara nodded and grabbed another wing.

“Previously, it’s always been held in Metropolis, but since I moved the headquarters here, I’m moving the conference too. It’s important that I be involved, so it’s going to be taking up more of my time as the date gets closer, and I just wanted to warn you.”

“Is that all? I know what kind of planning these things take, you don’t need to bribe me over that.”

“There’s a little more, actually. Most of the activities are just meant for the actual shareholders, but on Saturday night, we’re having a dinner where spouses are invited. I’m not trying to pressure you, but it’s important to me for this to go well, and I’d really like it if you went with me.”

Kara’s face lit up. “Oh, Lena, I’d love to go!” She eagerly piled hot wings on her plate and bounced in place.

“You would? That’s such a relief. Not having you there would be… noticeable. But it’s good to know I’ll have at least one person there who supports me.”

“You’ll have plenty of supporters, your employees all love you.”

“And how many of my employees have you actually talked to?”

Kara set her plate down and started counting off on sauce-covered fingers. “Jess, obviously; all the guys that work on the security desk; Raul, the IT guy; Raul, the Sales guy: Brian, the other IT guy; Tina, she cleans your office; Mark, Eric, and Paulie, your drivers; Cheryl, the security chief; and I met your whole Biotech science team in the park two weeks ago when they played my sister’s girlfriend’s precinct because they’re in the same co-ed softball league.”

“Right, I remember the sign-up sheet in the lab, I offered to supply them with uniforms, but according to Dr. Eghart, that league isn’t really concerned with uniforms so much as they are making sure everyone stays sober enough to make it to first base.”

“Yeah, Maggie said it was nicknamed the Beer League for a reason. But like I was saying, your employees love you. The most negative thing I’ve heard anyone say was about how hard you push everybody, but they also said that when it was crunch time, you were right there with them, so they thought that was pretty cool.”

Lena grabbed her dinner and headed for the living room. “Be that as it may, my employees aren’t the ones I’m worried about. It’s the shareholders conference, which means if they don’t like the direction I’m taking the company, my position could be at risk.”

“You’re taking it in the direction of making money and helping save the planet, so I don’t know what they’ll have to complain about.” Kara settled in on the couch, and Lena sat down next to her.

“These are people that invested back when Lex was in charge, or Lionel. I don’t want to believe that they share their prejudices, but they invested in a company that was at the forefront of weapons technologies, one that pledged to protect humanity from whatever threatens it.”

“Then that’s what you sell them on. You’re protecting humanity, all of it, from what threatens it. Lack of clean water kills more people every day than aliens, and you’re working to fix that. And you’re going to make them money doing it. If your shareholders can’t see that, they just aren’t looking.”

Lena leaned into Kara’s shoulder. “It’s not going to help that I’m a woman, either. They’re used to working with a middle aged man with years of experience at LuthorCorp. Not a woman their daughter’s age who spent five years trying to cure cancer in a garage.”

Kara carefully put her arm around Lena, trying to avoid touching her with sauced-up fingers. “Listen, you’re gonna blow them away, and if they try to give you any guff about it, remember that you’ve got Supergirl on your side, and they’re just a bunch of jerks who can’t see how awesome you are. They’re going to say whatever they’re going to say, and we can’t do anything about that, but as long as L-Corp is making money, they’re not going to actually do anything.”

Lena started to object, but Kara didn’t let her. “I know what I’m talking about. Miss Grant wasn’t always popular with CatCo’s Board of Directors, but since she kept making money, and since when they disagreed she was usually right, they grumbled and criticized, but they never took any real action against her.”

“And she’s the founder of the company, not someone new.”

“You’re gonna do great, Lena, and I’m going to be right there beside you. I’ve learned a thing or two about handling mouthy board members from Miss Grant, but we won’t need it, because they’re gonna love you. Now, pick something on Netflix to distract you.”

Lena took a deep breath and straightened up. She picked up a buffalo wing in one hand and the remote in the other. “I think I just need something to relax me,” she said as she navigated to The Joy of Painting.

0oOo0

“I’m late, I’m late, I know I’m late, I’m sorry but I’m late!” Kara babbled as she flew in the bedroom window.

“I saw on the news, there was a dinosaur in midtown?”

Kara huffed as she quickly stripped out of her costume. “Some guy with telekinetic powers animated the dinosaur exhibit at the museum and used them to attack the flower shop his ex-girlfriend works at. Apparently he didn’t take the break up too well.”

“Sounds like she’s better off without him,” Lena commented from where she was applying the last of her makeup. “You better hurry, my driver’s already downstairs.”

Kara disappeared in a blur of motion, and Lena couldn’t resist watching her dash about the room getting ready. A few seconds later, she stopped in front of Lena, kissing her cheek. “Okay, we’re good to go. Let’s do this!”

Lena smiled at Kara’s enthusiasm. “Save some of that energy for later. I’m pretty sure you’re gonna need it.” She cupped Kara’s face and kissed her softly.

Lena seized Kara’s hand in the elevator on the way down, and didn’t let go the whole ride over to the convention hall.

“You’re going to be beside me the whole night, right?” Lena asked as they walked in.

“The whole night,” Kara confirmed. “And if anybody tries anything, remember I can throw them into the sun.”

“That… that’s actually a comforting thought.”

0oOo0

“Mrs. Luthor, there you are. I was hoping to speak with you.”

Dinner certainly started well enough. Lena had made sure that her table was filled with her closest allies on the board. She still had a death grip on Kara’s hand where no one could see, but no one expected her to talk about profit margins and project deadlines while she was eating, either.

But after the food was gone, that meant it was time for Lena to make the rounds, Kara right by her side. The people they spoke to fell into one of three categories: people Lena was happy to talk to, people Lena didn’t want to talk to but could tolerate, and people Lena actively wanted to avoid.

Robert Clark fell into the third category. He was an old college friend of Lex’s who had hitched his fortune to his friend’s company, giving Robert a considerable amount of sway among the stockholders. Everything about him screamed “I have more money than you’ll ever see, and I didn’t have to work for a dime of it, and that makes me better than you.”

“Mr. Clark, how have you been? Have you met my wife, Kara? She’s a reporter with CatCo.”

Kara wanted to shiver as he very obviously looked her up and down. “Looks like you picked a keeper,” he grinned. “I certainly wouldn’t kick her out of bed for eating crackers.”

Lena grimaced. “Lovely.” She fixed a smile on her face. “What were you hoping to discuss?”

Robert kept his eyes on Kara’s body for a few moments, and Kara felt the need for a shower. He turned to Lena and finished off his whiskey. “Are you really serious with all this Rejuvenate mumbo jumbo? Saving Mother Earth sounds great on a sound bite, but it doesn’t pay the bills.”

Lena narrowed her eyes. “I wouldn’t have made it the focus of this weekend if I wasn’t serious.”

Robert chuckled and shrugged. “Yeah, but you’re not touching our existing facilities, right? Lex had a few save the world projects himself, but he understood that weapons development and production paid the bills for those sorts of things.”

“People don’t need more guns to survive, but literally everyone on the planet needs clean water to live. That includes the military, if defense spending is what you’re worried about.”

“I’m worried you’re abandoning the company’s fiscal foundation because you don’t have the stomach for it.” Robert was starting to go red in the face as he stepped closer.

Lena crossed her arms. “You’d be surprised what I have the stomach for. But from the people I’ve spoken to tonight, not many people agree with your assessment of my new business strategy.”

“Then we’re either talking to different people, or they’re too afraid to tell you the truth, probably boAAAGGHHHHHH!”

Robert had started to grab Lena’s upper arm, but Kara was faster. She held him in a one-handed wrist lock and bent him over double. “You’re drunk, and you’re being very disrespectful,” Kara said firmly. “You’re going to apologize for your behavior tonight, and then you’re going to leave, before you do anything else that you might regret in the morning.”

“Goddammit, let go of my hand, you bitch!”

Kara frowned. “You can have your hand back after you apologize. Including one for calling me a bitch.”

“Aaaaaah…” Robert whimpered as Kara increased pressure ever so slightly.

Three large men in matching black suits appeared through the crowd. “We can take it from here, ma’am,” the tallest one said. The other two flanked Robert. “Mrs. Luthor, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Mario, thank you.” Lena looked at Robert, weighing her options. “Put him in a cab and send him home, but if he gives you any trouble, don’t hesitate to call the police. A night in the drunk tank won’t kill him. Kara, you need to let him go.”

Kara finally decided to let go of Robert’s hand. “Haaahhhh…” he hissed as he cradled his hand. “You…” he spat, glaring at Kara.

“Yes, me. I’m still waiting on your apology.” By this point, nobody was even pretending to be focused on their own conversations. Everyone was watching, some were tweeting, and one or two were filming.

“Apology?” Robert demanded, surging forward angrily only to be yanked back by the security team.

Kara didn’t flinch. She just crossed her arms and drew on her inner Cat Grant. “You’ve been lecherous and rude since you approached us, you insulted me, you insulted my wife, and when you realized you weren’t going to get what you wanted, you resorted to physical intimidation and tried to manhandle Lena. Your CEO, a.k.a. the person who’s throwing you this party as a way to show how much she appreciates you. You owe her an apology, right now.”

Robert scowled. But he did his best to straighten up before reluctantly saying, “It seems like I had a few too many this evening, and I let my mouth get the better of me. I hope you have a good rest of the night, Mrs. Luthor.”

“Please escort him outside, gentlemen. Thank you,” Lena said to the security team, and they walked Robert out of the room.

Once he was gone, Kara looked at Lena. “He never actually said he was sorry,” she observed.

Lena was still as a statue. “I would have been surprised if he had. The first time I met him I was fourteen. He told me to call him in four years.”

“Asshole.”

“Preaching to the choir.” Lena uncrossed her arms and held her hand out to Kara. She took it wordlessly as they both turned their attention to the two older gentlemen approaching them.

“There’s nothing quite like watching someone get what’s coming to them in my book,” the first one said. “Especially when they’ve had it coming for so long.”

“You handled that very well, I think. You’re both okay, right?” the second one asked, his mustache twitching.

Lena stepped forward. “Kara, this is Martin and Richard Spencer. Thank you for your concern, but we’re fine. It’ll take more than one of Lex’s old drinking buddies to rattle me.”

Martin shook Kara’s hand, then playfully shook it out. “Watch that kung-fu action grip there, I’m an old man. I don’t want to end up like that fellow.”

“He deserved it,” Kara said confidently.

“No doubt in my mind,” Richard agreed. “Tried to tell him to shape up when he was younger, but some people just never learn.”

“Well, I for one see no reason to have him ruin the rest of my night dwelling on him. You two are having a good time, I trust?” Lena asked.

“Always, Lena my dear, you throw the best parties,” Martin complimented as he took Lena’s free hand and kissed her knuckles. “I didn’t even have to bribe Richie to come.”

Richard rolled his eyes. “We’re having a lovely time, and it’s great to meet your lovely wife as well. I think the new direction is going to attract a lot of new people, you did a great job with your presentation earlier.”

Lena smiled. “It’s good to hear you think so. Are you going to be free for dinner before you go back to Metropolis?”

Martin’s face fell. “Unfortunately, no. We’re flying out early Monday morning, but we should get together the next time we’re in town together.”

“Definitely,” Lena agreed, and the Spencers said their goodbyes. Then Kara asked the same question she’d been asking all night.

“So, who were they?”

“Lawyers that used to work with my father. He was one of their first clients when they opened their firm, and they’ve been around ever since then. They’ve known me as long as I’ve been a Luthor. I still think they see me as the little four year old who beat them both at chess. Intelligent and precocious, but still a child.” Lena squeezed Kara’s hand.

Kara squeezed back. “How long have they been together?”

Lena smirked. “That has a few different answers, depending on what you mean by together. They were best friends growing up, and opened a law firm together, but they only got together as a couple a few years back, after twenty years of practicing together. I’ve been rooting for them since I was twelve, though, and old enough to recognize the signs.”

“Sounds like the slowest burn romance ever.”

“You have no idea.”

0oOo0

Lena waited until they were back at her apartment to bring the subject up again. “Thank you, for coming to my defense tonight with Robert. I would have been fine even if you hadn’t stepped in, I don’t expect he would have done anything more than grab my arm, but…” Lena swallowed her words.

Kara nodded. “Take your time.”

“I’ve learned to be self-reliant because I had to be to survive, and I’m not used to having anyone there to protect me. But you were there tonight, and it took me by surprise. It felt… I’m not sure,” she finished lamely.

Kara didn’t seem to notice her awkwardness. “I’m always going to be there for you. You’re stuck with me.”

“That doesn’t really sound like a bad thing. Being stuck with you.”

Kara couldn’t control her smile. “That is, so sweet. I’m gonna hug you right now, come here, I need to hug you.”

Lena melted into Kara’s arms, and finally identified what she’d been feeling. Not just since Kara stopped Robert, but since Kara had come into her life. She felt safe.

0oOo0

Social media exploded.

Again.

Quite a few of the attendees had live tweeted the confrontation, and video from two different angles had hit the next day. Some people railed against her as a violent and aggressive lesbian with a hair trigger temper, but they were definitely in the minority.

Miss Grant sent her a smiley face.

Since she was a female reporter who made headlines by standing up for himself at an event hosted by a Luthor, comparisons were quickly made to Lois Lane. Once that connection was made, it wasn’t long before it was made public that Kara and Lois were related through marriage. That gave birth to a bunch of articles examining the tangled web of connections Kara was in, which when it was all laid out on paper, Kara had to admit that it did seem like a crazy amount of coincidences.

Of course, some people had a different reaction.

@karadanvers can put me on my knees any time

Cinnamon roll by day, Call Me Daddy by night

I’d pay @karadanvers to touch me like that

getchu a gurl who cna do both, like @karadanvers

Always be yourself, unless you can be Kara Danvers, then always be Kara Danvers

Kara Danvers? more like Kara Damnvers

I have so many important questions for @karadanvers, but mostly I just want to bury my head between her legs

Seeing @karadanvers shut down that asshole made me achieve a whole new level of gay, i thought i was done but i had so much further to go

@karadanvers killed me. I dead of the gay

I have so many gay feelings about @karadanvers. Full homo, lesbian intended

Winn had to set up a bunch of new filters and security programs to keep Kara from seeing the really creepy stuff people sent to her, and Kara still saw posts that made her cringe. Fortunately, inspiring messages and amazing fanart that she retweeted right away outweighed the rest by far.

All the extra attention did make Kara worry about her identity going public, but nobody was going around accusing her cousin of being Superman, and he’d had way more press done on him, so Kara shoved that worry down.

It was strange, being recognized as Kara Danvers instead of Supergirl. Kara Danvers was supposed to be invisible, supposed to blend into the crowd, but that was over now. At two out of her last three interviews, her subject had known who she was before she ever introduced herself. Her articles were getting more and more popular, and she was getting responses through social media and in person. She’d been approached four times at Noonan’s, one of which turned into a very lively debate about vetting procedures for extraterrestrial visitors. Kara didn’t think she’d changed his mind, but he at least been willing to consider her points and used well-reasoned arguments to support his ideas, so it hadn’t been a waste of time.

Kara even had a podcast contact her about guest starring on an episode. Everybody agreed that it was a bad idea and Kara was ridiculous for even entertaining the offer, but they wanted to discuss where to find the best pizza in the city, and she was an expert on that topic, so she was still considering it.

Of course, all that publicity made the DEO freak out, especially when it was clear that they couldn’t really do anything to contain the situation. It was the cause of more than one argument in the command center, but eventually, Kara put her foot down (and through the floor, J’onn made her fill out paperwork). She was going to live her life the best way she knew how, and they were going to have to deal with it. It was a little more dangerous, but it wasn’t like she was any less invulnerable when she was wearing glasses, and the only person someone would use to get to her who wasn’t a black belt, a secret agent, or an alien was Eliza, and J’onn was totally lying when he said he didn’t have people protecting her.

Just to be on the safe side, they had Kara publicly appear next to Supergirl multiple times over the next few weeks. Kara thought J’onn and Alex were being ridiculous, and decided to greet Supergirl with an elaborate handshake that got longer each time they met. J’onn could only keep up after borrowing the knowledge from Alex’s memories.

0oOo0

“Hey babe, I want to ask you something, and it’s totally okay if you say no, even though I hope you won’t.”

Lena looked up from her tablet. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, whatever it is.”

“I want you to do Game Night with me and my friends. And I want to do it here.” Before Lena could open her mouth, Kara pressed on. “Now, let me just explain my reasons, because I think they’re good ones, and I want to get this right.”

Lena put her tablet on the nightstand to give Kara her full attention. “Okay, go on.”

Kara started counting off on her fingers. “Number one, I think you’ll have a lot of fun. Pleasure and enjoyment should never be discounted as their own rewards.

“Number two, you’ve met all my friends, and there won’t be anybody new there. I want you to really get to know my friends the way I do, because they’re important to me, and you’re important to me, and I don’t like keeping it separate.

Lena grabbed Kara’s hand and rubbed her thumb over her knuckles. “Calm down, Kara, I’ll join you for game night. But why do you want it here? You usually have it at your apartment, why not there?”

Kara sighed and averted her eyes. “We can if you want, cause I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, but I thought you’d be more comfortable here. Home field advantage, because I know you like to control the space you’re in. And because I think having it here is more truthful, maybe? I mean, my apartment still has a lot of my things, and I go there almost every day, because superspeed is awesome, but that’s the thing, I’m always going to my apartment, I’m never already there. When I’m done patrolling at night, I don’t go back to my apartment, I come here. And, I know we haven’t talked about it at all or anything like that, but I think it kinda means something.”

“Like what? You want to move in with me?”

“Actually, I think it’s more like I already did, and neither of us noticed. Kinda. I mean, I love my apartment, and it’s great for when I need some time to myself, but I haven’t slept there in more than two weeks. I’m just thinking we should be honest about what’s going on. I like what we’re doing, and I want my friends to see us at home. What do you say?”

Lena closed her eyes. “Who are you inviting?”

“Alex, Maggie, James, and Winn, nobody you haven’t met before. And I’ll be right beside you the whole night, and if you hate it we never have to do it again.”

“Okay, just let me know what night you want to do it and I’ll free up my schedule.”

“Really? You don’t need any more convincing?” Kara asked.

“You want to invite your friends over to play board games, it’s not exactly a big ask.” Lena smiled at Kara. “I’m sure it’ll be fun.”

Kara grinned. “Well, that’s great to hear, but you know, I was willing to do a lot more convincing,” she said, walking her fingers across the bed towards Lena. “If you know what I mean.”

Lena’s smile grew wicked. “Oh really?”

Kara nodded, and started repositioning herself. “I was planning on convincing you… all… night… long…”

Kara touched her, and Lena’s eyes fluttered shut. “I guess a little more convincing couldn’t hurt… OH!”

0oOo0

“They’re gonna be here any second, we have to stop,” Lena managed to say around kissing Kara.

“Don’t want to stop,” Kara said. “Kissing you is better.”

Lena pulled out of Kara’s arms reluctantly. “I agree, but I still don’t want them to catch us.” Someone knocked on the door as Kara tried to pull Lena back, only to slump in defeat at the sound. They both headed for the door, and Kara checked it with her x-ray vision.

“It’s Alex and Maggie.” Kara focused her hearing. “Winn and James are getting in the elevator.”

“I told you so,” Lena said, chuckling. “Do I look okay, or did you thoroughly debauch me?”

“You’re fine, and even if I did, Alex wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, the number of times I’ve walked in on her and Maggie. They do it friggin everywhere.”

“Look who’s talking,” Lena got in before she opened the door. “Alex, Maggie, so glad you’re here.”

“Is Winn here yet? He bet me this morning he’d beat us here.”

“Hello to you too, Alex. No, you won, Winn’s still coming up the elevator. Hey Maggie.”

“How’s it going, Little Danvers? James said he was picking up pizza, so we brought some Rannian Fruit Ale. Safe for humans, and tasty for you.”

Alex pumped her fist. “I knew I’d beat him.”

Kara rolled her eyes at her sister. “He’s like ninety seconds behind you, it’s not that impressive.”

“Uh-huh. And what were you doing when we knocked? Don’t think I can’t tell.”

Kara turned red. “That’s none of your business, and there’s no evidence we were doing anything.”

“I know, but I figured I had about a fifty-fifty shot at being right, so I went for it. Looks like I was close.”

“Well, no reason to keep talking in the doorway, won’t you come in?” Lena said to break up the sisters before they really got started.

By the time they had gotten their coats off and Kara took the Rannian Ale to the kitchen, Winn and James were at the door and the whole process started over again. James had an armful of pizza boxes, and Winn was weighed down by a heavy black bag.

“In your face, Schott!” Alex crowed as soon as she saw Winn. “All of next week, you owe me coffee. You know how I take it, right, or should I text it to you? I’m just going to text you, so you have it written down. I wouldn’t want you to forget it, like you forgot to get here earlier than me.”

“Oh snap,” Maggie said and held her hand up for a no look high five.

“Yuck it up, O Queen of Punctuality, yuck it up. Just know that you’re going down tonight.”

Alex smiled and deliberately put her hand on Maggie’s knee. “Oh, I probably will be, but not until after I crush you at whatever we’re playing.”

Kara slipped her arm around Lena’s waist. “I did warn you that we can get kinda competitive, right?”

“I think you might have undersold it. What about that drink Maggie brought?”

“I think I’ve heard of it before, but I can’t really remember. But if Maggie says it’s safe for humans, I trust her. She doesn’t mess around with that sort of thing. Apparently she once got stuck with blue spots for a week.”

Maggie spoke up. “It happened on Halloween, so I said it was a bad reaction to some cheap costume paint, but I caught hell at work. Turns out, nobody takes you seriously when you’re covered in blue polka dots.”

“Try having your arm turned into a very amorous and totally uncontrollable tentacle,” Alex challenged. “I spent so much time with Pam over that.”

“I was turned into a giant turtle monster and tried to destroy Metropolis.” Everybody stared at James. “Superman stopped me and turned me back into a human, and no, I don’t remember what I did while I was transformed. Lois sends me an email or a text every time she thinks about it, and no, Superman was not able to get her to stop.”

Winn fidgeted as he realized it was his turn. “People making fun of me at work, I don’t really have a bad one? I mean, I wear my geekdom with pride, and I’m the IT guy, so people don’t mess with me because they’re afraid I’ll turn their internet off. To be fair, they’re right, my people have perfected petty revenge. We’re the people who control whether or not you can have Solitare, and we know it.”

Everybody chuckled except Alex. “Is that why Minesweeper disappeared? I asked you and you said you’d look into it.”

Winn was unphased by Alex’s sudden aggressiveness. “You stole my favorite coffee cup from the break room, which would be bad enough, but then you hid it in your lab long enough for it to grow mold. You should be happy I just stopped with Minesweeper.”

They both stared the other down for a few more seconds, but broke it off when Kara asked a question. “So, what are the options for tonight?”

Winn reached for his bag. “Well, I wasn’t sure what everyone would be in the mood for, or what Lena would want to play, so I brought a couple things. Settlers of Catan, our usual go-to, I got a couple different card games, like Uno or something, or I brought a couple of my old consoles, so we could do Mario Party 7 on the GameCube or I have Mortal Kombat 3 on the Super Nintendo.”

Kara glanced at Lena. “I think… we should all get drinks and eat before we make any kind of final decision, but I’m voting for Uno.”

“Only because Winn probably doesn’t have lead backed cards.”

“Alex!”

“Supergirl cheats at card games, and in other news, water is wet. You’re gonna have to keep an eye on her, Lena.”

0oOo0

“So, Lena, what have you been up to lately?” Alex asked after everyone had grabbed food and they were sitting down.

“Nothing too terribly interesting, I’m afraid. Today was mostly going over site proposals for a new facility.”

“I know how that feels,” James said. “You’d think that being CEO of a major company would at least be interesting, but most of the time I’m stuck wishing I could go back to running around the city taking pictures.”

Lena nodded. “I long for the days where I could just work in the lab until I fell asleep if I wanted to.” Kara frowned. “And then I remember that now I have someone who occasionally likes to see me outside of the lab every once in a while.” Kara smiled again.

“Yeah, no, I love my job,” Winn said. “I get to work with an actual alien superhero, I’ve got an unlimited IT budget, and I’ve finally figured out what to bribe J’onn with. Chocos, by the way, he’s addicted.”

“I watched him eat an entire package of the double stuffed ones,” Alex added. “He was like a machine, it was amazing. And I say that as someone who’s watched Kara at an endless buffet.”

Kara huffed. “They shouldn’t call it all-you-can-eat if they don’t really mean it.”

“Do I want to know?” Lena asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No, and they won’t even let me go back there. The hostess still screams whenever she sees me.”

“Can you imagine if she saw you and Barry eating together?” Winn asked.

“Oh man, now I wish you had met Barry when he was here,” Kara whined. Lena patted her knee. “He’s from another dimension, so I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to introduce you.”

“He’s from another dimension?”

“Yeah. He ran here.”

“He ran here.”

“He ran really really fast. Better than my top speed. And he had this device on his chest.”

Pinching the bridge of her nose to fend off an impending headache, Lena was grateful when Winn spoke up. “I helped him get back, and I’ve still got all my notes on what we did.”

“Thank god,” Lena sighed.

Maggie laughed. “Well babe, I guess you’re no longer the only woman I’ve seen swoon over academic material.”

“I did not swoon,” Alex denied immediately.

“You totally swooned.”

“Alex, I’ve seen you do the whole romantic candlelight and rose petals in the bubble bath with a Scientific American,” Kara said. “If Maggie says you swooned, I’m inclined to believe her.”

“I did not swoon,” Alex denied again. “I didn’t. I just was breathing out and I hiccuped so it sounded weird. There was no swooning, swooning was not involved in any way.”

James smirked. “You wouldn’t be denying it like that unless it really happened and you just don’t want to admit it.”

“It totally happened,” Maggie confirmed. “Agent Tight Pants dropped off a box of medical reports and Alex practically fainted.”

“I’m going to tell Vasquez you call her that.”

“I bet she’ll think it’s funny.” Maggie tried to hide her smile.

Alex wasn’t fooled. “Wait a minute, you’re hiding something. What do you know that I don’t?”

“We used to go to the same yoga place, I’ve been calling her Tight Pants since before I knew she was an Agent.”

Alex hung her head. “I’m just going to eat my pizza now, there’s less chance I’ll embarrass myself. Aren’t we supposed to be playing a game or something right about now?”

“I still need to set up the Super Nintendo, and I’m not doing that until I finish eating,” Winn said. “Just give me a few minutes.”

0oOo0

“You’re going down, Danvers,” Winn taunted. “You’re gonna want to stay close, Maggie, cause she’s gonna need a shoulder to cry on pretty soon.”

“Oh yeah? You hear that rumble, Schott? I’m bringing the thunder,” Alex shot back.

“This is far more entertaining than I had expected,” Lena whispered to Kara.

“You should try it,” Kara urged. “Lay down a little trash talk.”

“I don’t think the Luthor version of trash talk would go over very well. Lillian never believed in playing nice.”

“The more I hear about her the more I don’t like her,” Kara grumbled.

“Then let’s not talk about her tonight. We’re supposed to be having fun with your friends.”

“Right.” Kara cleared her throat. “Hey, Maggie, anything cool happen at work that you can tell us about?”

Maggie smiled wide. “We had an elementary school take a tour of the precinct the other day, and the Captain had me talk to them, which was actually pretty cool. You should have seen their faces light up when I started talking about working with aliens. They all wanted to hear about fighting fire-breathing tentacle monsters, but I told them Steve is usually well behaved, and that my favorite part of the job is really when I get to help the aliens instead, and they ate it up. I mean, they brought the police dog in next, and he blew me out of the water, but it’s kids, what do you expect?”

“That’s so nice, Maggie,” Kara said excitedly.

“It sounds like you had a good time,” Lena said, a little more subdued.

“Eh, that wasn’t even the best part. The best part was when I was showing them my desk, and this one boy, he was so cute, it was adorable, but he saw the picture of Alex taped to my computer monitor, and he asked me who she was. So I told him, that’s my girlfriend, and he was quiet for a second, and then he said that he had two moms, and that he thought they’d like it if they knew there were cops like me protecting them. And I swear, that’s when my heart exploded, because between the look on his face and the way he said it, it was just too much.”

Kara awwed and Lena squeezed her hand.

“Anyways, I told him I was happy to look out for his moms and that he could come find me if he ever needed anything.”

“He had a point,” Lena said. “As a lesbian-”

“Supporter?” Maggie prompted with a grin on her face.

Lena rolled her eyes but took the cue. “As a fucking lesbian… it really is good to see someone like you on the force. And I know exactly what you mean about him being too cute. You should see some of the kids at the Children’s Hospital. Every time I look at them, I can’t help but promise them whatever they want.”

“Yeah, I’m blaming your sister, Kara, because I wasn’t this big a sap for kids before I met her. You ruined me, Danvers!” Maggie called loudly, the alien alcohol already kicking in.

“Damn right I did!” Alex called back. Then she realized who Maggie was talking to. “Wait, you told my sister about that? Maggie!”

“I actually wasn’t talking about that,” Maggie clarified, “but thanks for the support.” She focused back on Kara and Lena. “Alex may have been a novice at one point, but now she’s definitely a pro. She has a notebook.”

“It’s a binder, not a notebook,” Kara corrected. “A notebook is something you write notes in as preparation for the final project, while the final project is presented in a binder. They’re completely different.”

Lena dropped Kara’s hand to wrap her arm around Kara’s shoulders. “You helped your sister make a sex binder? What’s in it?”

“Some stuff you’ve already seen, like that thing you like, or that other thing you like.”

“You mean from the other night?”

“No, the other other thing. The other night was all improv.”

“Then I hope you remember what you did, because it was-”

Maggie waved a hand. “Still right here guys.”

Kara’s eyes widened. “Maggie, yes, you are still right here, so we should probably stop talking about that, unless that’s what you want to talk about, in which case I’m cool, because I kinda got over the whole sex equals awkward conversation thing when I was helping Alex research for the binders. I’ll still probably be traumatized the next time I walk in on a couple in the CatCo copy room, but I can talk about it.”

“Did you just say binders?” Maggie asked immediately.

“You mean one for her and one for you, right?” Lena tried to clarify.

“I like that answer, I’m going to use that one. Yes, just the two, definitely not more than that.”

Neither of them were fooled in the slightest. “Kara…”

“I’m up to Binder J, okay? It’s not because I’m weird, it’s just good to know the reasons behind why something feels good and how it works.” Kara blushed. “And it helps me to know how to not hurt you when we’re together.”

“Researching sex doesn’t make you weird, it makes you a good girlfriend,” Maggie said. “And the binder’s definitely a new one for me, but I actually kinda like it. It’s a lot better than scrolling through blurry porn on a cell phone or trying something you saw in a magazine once in a dentist’s office and can only half-remember.”

Lena raised an eyebrow. “That sounds like a story.”

“More like a nightmare I want to forget.” Maggie took a long swig of her drink. “I think I’m going to top this off before the games begin. I’ll be right back.”

“That was okay, right, that we talked about that?” Kara asked urgently as Maggie disappeared into the kitchen. “We didn’t talk about how detailed we’d be on that subject and I want to make sure you’re comfortable with everything.”

Lena pulled Kara in for a kiss. “Don’t worry, you didn’t cross any lines with me, and if you ever do, I’ll tell you. But I don’t really think that’ll happen. I trust you.”

“Hey, hope I’m not interrupting anything,” James said as he approached.

Kara pecked Lena’s lips one more time. “Not at all. Did Winn get the Super Nintendo set up yet?”

“I think he’s too busy trash talking with Alex to concentrate on what he’s doing.”

Kara smirked. “Yeah, well, once he’s done, you’re going down, mister.”

James chuckled. “As long as you don’t break another controller, you mean.”

Kara gasped in fake outrage. “I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.”

James wasn’t phased. “In that case, Lena, thank you for having me over tonight. I wouldn’t blame you for not wanting me here.”

“Well, I already live with one member of the press, what’s one more?” Lena snarked. “As long as everything tonight is off the record.”

“Game nights are never on the record, or else nobody could complain about work.”

Lena considered that. “Two government agents, a police detective, a superhero, and the CEO of a media company. I see your point.”

“But speaking of on the record, what would it take for me to talk you into doing a feature with CatCo Magazine?”

“A feature?”

James nodded. “Kara hasn’t shut up about the change in direction you’re taking your company in more or less since she met you, and if you’re doing even half of what she’s said, then people need to know about it. Probably a few other topics too. So I ask again, what would it take for me to talk you into this?”

Lena pursed her lips in thought. “You’re a photographer.”

“Yeah, and he’s got the Pulitzer to prove it, babe,” Kara said. “Ooh, you should be the one to do the pictures for the feature!”

“I was already planning on that, actually. Be a chance to get out from behind the desk and do what I love.”

“That’s fine, but not actually what I was thinking about. I want some pictures of the two of us that I can frame and put up, as opposed to flipping through Instagram.”

James smiled. “That definitely won’t be a problem. I’d love to take pictures of the two of you. We’ll do whatever you want, make up for not getting the chance to take wedding pictures.”

Kara’s eyes lit up, and she started bouncing on her toes. “I’m in, I’m totally in.”

“I’ll check my schedule tomorrow and let you know, James, thank you.”

James smiled. “It’s really not a problem at all. I’ll start the ball rolling on the feature on Monday.”

“Who’s going to write it?” Kara asked.

“Somehow, I doubt I’ll be able to speak with my favorite reporter,” Lena said.

“Yeah, I think we might be accused of being biased if we had Kara interview you.”

“So who then? Stacy? Rob? Trevon? Snapper doesn’t want to write it himself, does he?”

“Actually, Cat was the one who gave me the idea for the feature in the first place, and she was talking like she was going to write it herself.”

0oOo0

Sub-Zero managed to freeze Sonya Blade just before he landed the final hit. “Ha!” Kara crowed. Her thumbs blurred in a long combo that knocked Sonya from one end of the screen to the other and obliterated his health bar. “You were saying something about how you were going to beat me and there was nothing I could do about it? Because I remember that, but it clearly doesn’t apply here, so I’m just a little curious as to what you could have possibly been talking about.”

Alex scowled. “Yuck it up, little sister, you still can’t beat my Liu Kang. Come on, let’s go again.”

“Hold on, where’s Lena? I promised I wouldn’t leave her alone tonight, and now she’s disappeared. I should go find her.”

“She’s probably just in the bathroom, now come on, rematch.”

“No, I’m going to go find her. James, you take over.” Kara passed him the controller and pushed herself up from where she was sitting on the floor. Alex was next to her, leaned back between Maggie’s legs. She turned her head and planted a kiss on the inside of her knee.

“You want to play, babe?”

“Nah, I’m having fun watching you. Thanks though,” Maggie said, moving a hand to start giving her a light neck massage.

Kara found Lena and Winn in the kitchen, deep in conversation. The food had been cleaned up and put away, much to Kara’s dismay. Leftovers were a thing that happened to other people.

“Hey you two, I was wondering what happened to you.”

Lena smiled when she noticed Kara. “You were having fun, and Winn offered to help me clean up. Then we got talking, and I guess we lost track of time.”

“Oh yeah? What were you talking about? Some brilliant invention, I bet.” Kara moved to hold Lena from behind, resting her chin on Lena’s shoulder.

“Actually, Lena recognized my name, and was curious.” Winn shrugged. “Kinda been talking about living with our family legacies ever since.”

“Rejecting the things they stand for, dealing with the aftermath, having people recognize you because of them, that sort of thing,” Lena said.

“You know, I still get at least one or two calls a year wanting to talk to me for a documentary or case study. You’d think people would learn to take a hint.”

“After all this time? Hmph. Good to know I have that to look forward to.”

Winn shook his head. “Nah, I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m taking the disappear from public eye route, but let’s face it, that’ll never work for you. So you’re gonna save the world instead, and make people forget about what your brother did. For what it’s worth, I think you’re gonna make it happen.”

“No, not forget. My brother did terrible things, but that’s why they should be remembered. Because they were terrible, and history has to remember the terrible things to make sure they aren’t repeated. I just don’t want him to be the first thing people think of when they hear my name.”

“You’ll get there, Lena,” Kara reassured her. “And we’ll be with you every step of the way.”

“Hey, just gonna talk for both of us now?” Winn asked, joking. “Ah, who am I kidding, you’re totally one of the Superfriends at this point, you’re stuck with us for good, Luthor.”

“Really? You’re not just saying that?”

“You’ve survived a whole game night, pretty sure that qualifies you.” Then Winn picked up on the tone of her voice, and turned down the joking. “You’re a good person, Lena. Of course we want to be friends with you.”

Lena smiled. “Thank you, Winn. That means a lot to me.”

“I’m just speaking the truth, that’s all.”

“Well, in the interest of speaking the truth, I’m about five seconds away from kissing the daylights out of Lena, so if you don’t want to see that, you should probably go back in the living room,” Kara warned.

Winn chuckled nervously. “Right, I shall, uh, take that as my cue to leave. Don’t get too carried away, we don’t need superpowers to hear you.”

As soon as he was gone, Lena turned in Kara’s arms to face her. “You’re gonna ‘kiss the daylights out of me’, eh?”

“Would you prefer if I kissed the dickens out of you instead?”

“Dickens?”

“Well, I can’t kiss the hell out of you, that’d only take about five seconds. I really want to kiss you senseless, but you’ve got too much sense and we don’t have that kind of time. Time that we are now wasting with our friends in the other room.”

“Our friends. It feels strange to say that and mean it.”

“Well, you better get used to it, because you’re gonna be saying it for a long time.”

“That sounds perfect.”

“Great. Now, prepare to be dickens-less.”

Chapter Text

“Kara, somebody to see you at the front desk,” Erica said as Kara made a new pot of coffee in the break room.

“Oh yeah? Who?”

Erica shrugged. “Didn’t recognize him, and he was talking kinda fast so it was hard to understand him. I think he’s your friend, or cousin, or something? Like I said, hard to understand.”

Kara crinkled her brow. Not sure who that would be, she adjusted her glasses and glanced through the office wall. Then she had to stifle her squeal of excitement so she didn’t look like a crazy person in front of her coworkers. Again.

Kara quickly set the coffeemaker to begin brewing and rushed out to the front desk.

“Barry, you’re back!”

Barry Allen whirled around unsteadily, startled out of the story he’d been telling. “Hey, there you are! I went upstairs first, but they said you were down here now, and James was in the big office? When did that happen?”

Kara waved him off. “A while ago at this point, ever since Miss Grant took a leave of absence. But you, you’re back, did something happen?”

Barry glanced around. “Maybe we could talk about it somewhere that’s not a room full of reporters? Somewhere with food?”

“You just said the magic word. Brenda, I’ll be back, I’m talking to a source for a story, if anyone asks.”

“What do you want to eat?” Barry asked as they headed for the elevator. “I was thinking Italian, I’m craving pasta like you wouldn’t believe right now.”

“I know just the place, they have the best stuffed shells, you have to try them.”

0oOo0

Wide-eyed, the waitress left Kara and Barry’s table to take their enormous order back to the kitchen. “So, you said you were going to explain why you’re here,” Kara prompted.

“To say hi, mostly,” Barry grinned. “Cisco’s been developing technology to simulate his cross-dimensional abilities, so we were running tests to make sure there aren’t any glitches, and I figured that since I was going to be jumping dimensions anyways, I might as well drop in and see how you were doing. And say thank you for helping me get home safely last time, of course.”

“I’m just happy to hear you made it, because I was pretty sure you were going to be fine, but I always kinda worried that maybe something happened, just because I didn’t know, you know?”

Barry broke a breadstick in half and dipped it in marinara sauce. “Thanks for your concern, but I’m fine. Got back, like two seconds after I left. The guys barely believed me, even with pictures.”

Kara held back the giggle that threatened to escape. “Well, I am pretty unbelieveable, you know.”

“It was the alien thing that tripped them up, for the most part. We don’t really run into aliens on my Earth, unless people from another dimension count.”

“They’re still human though, right?”

“As far as I know, yeah. And even if they’re not from our Earth, it’s still a Earth, so it’s not as hard to wrap your head around it.” Barry shrugged. “Or maybe we all just get used to our own brand of weird, and new stuff can still throw us off.”

“That’s probably it, because I still think struck by lightning during a giant industrial disaster is way weirder than alien. But you’re here, and the world’s not ending, so what’s been going on with you? What’s new in the world? Or in your world, because I know what’s going on in this world.”

“Oh, man, what has been going on?” Barry asked himself. “Um, that guy I told you about, the evil speedster, we took him down. I kinda, maybe, screwed up time, just a little bit? I tried to run back in time to fix something, only it ended up making things worse, so I had to stop myself from changing things, only when I did that, things didn’t go back exactly the way they used to be.” From the way he was talking, it was obvious Barry still blamed himself. “It took some getting used to, and everybody was pretty mad at me, but things are getting back to normal now. For the most part.”

“That wouldn’t change anything on this Earth, would it?”

“I don’t think so, and you haven’t said anything that doesn’t match up with my last visit, so I’d say you’re probably good. And what about you, what’s new on this Earth?”

“Right after you left I saved the planet from being mind controlled by my uncle. Got to throw a giant interdimensional space prison into the sun, and then my sister flew my old pod up to save me from suffocating, it was so cool.”

“Sounds like it. What about your friend James, anything going on there? I thought you guys had great chemistry the last time I was here.”

Kara ducked her head and filled her mouth with breadstick.

“Ooh, that’s not a something good happened look,” Barry realized. “What happened?”

Kara stalled while she finished chewing. “So, James and I tried dating for like, two minutes before things got weird quick, like I wasn’t expecting him to suddenly be my boss, but now he’s Acting CEO of CatCo, and I’m proud of him for that, but there was already gossip about the two of us before he was promoted, and after, we were better off as just friends. Especially since I was just transferring to a new job, and a new relationship was just not in the cards for either of us.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound so bad. I’m sorry it didn’t work out with you two, but if you’re still friends, I don’t know what you’re worried about.”

Kara fidgeted with her napkin. “It’s just that you saw me and James like right before our big moment, and if that’s the image you have when you think of me, that’s so far away from where I am now, it’s just kinda weird to have to tell you.”

“Well, lay it on me. I won’t judge. And if I do, I promise to do it really quick and get it over with fast.”

Kara rolled her eyes at Barry’s joke. “Fine. So, I’m in a relationship with Lena Luthor.”

“I don’t know who that is, but Lena sounds like a woman’s name, so is that the big reveal? Because bisexuality’s a thing on my Earth, has been for a while, it’s really not a big deal for me.”

“We got married the same night we first met while blackout drunk.”

“And I thought I moved quick.”

“She’s also the sister of my cousin’s arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor.”

“Okay, now you sound like the plot of a soap opera.”

Kara threw her balled up napkin at Barry. “Jerk.”

Barry put his hands up. “I said if I judged it would be really quick, and it was!”

“Look, I know that the whole situation is weird and ridiculous and everything, but at the end of the day, I’m happy with Lena, and she’s a good person, like both a good person in general, and a good person for me in particular. So be happy for me, please.”

Barry put his hands down. “Hey, I was just teasing. If you’re happy, congratulations. It’s not like my life’s any less strange, and Green Arrow wouldn’t know happy unless it punched him in the face.”

“Don’t you mean ‘if it punched him’?”

“Nah, I meant unless. I swear, it’s like he gets angry at the world if he’s not covered in bruises and busted ribs.”

“Yeesh, sounds like this guy my cousin’s worked with a few times. Total headcase.”

“Tell me about it.”

0oOo0

Lena took a deep breath before she opened the door. Kara had texted her, warning that a friend had dropped by and she wanted to introduce them to each other, but Lena still braced herself.

“Kara, I’m home,” she called as she set her bag on the nearby table. Lena could hear laughter coming from the living room.

“Lena! Barry’s here, you have to come meet Barry!” Kara shouted back excitedly. “He’s from another dimension!”

Kara was floating over the couch when Lena joined them. She reached out and grabbed Lena’s hand before reorienting herself to stand next to her. “Lena, meet Barry Allen, superhero from another dimension and fastest man alive. Barry, meet Lena Luthor, supergenius inventor from this dimension and best wife ever.”

“It’s good to meet you, Barry. I’ve heard good things about you.”

Barry zipped around the couch and shook Lena’s hand. “Yeah, same here, Kara’s been gushing about you all day.”

“Like you’re any better about Iris?” Kara teased. Then she jumped in excitement as she remembered something. “Oh, tell Lena what we were just talking about!”

Barry snapped his fingers. “Right. You two want to come over to my house and meet my friends? We’ve got a particle accelerator, it’ll be fun, I swear.” Barry’s grin was infectious.

Lena blinked. “Your house? You mean travel to your dimension?”

Barry kept grinning. “Yeah, Kara and I were talking about it. We figured that since I’ve been here twice already, Kara could come see how we do the hero thing on my Earth, maybe do the team up thing again? I mean, we can send you back pretty much whenever you want, so it’s not like you need to miss anything. I’ll give you a tour of S.T.A.R. Labs, show you all the cool stuff we’ve got.”

Lena looked at Kara, who was giving her the best puppy-dog eyes Lena had ever seen outside of an actual canine. “I don’t know why you two are trying so hard to convince me, of course I’m interested in going. I’d like to be back Sunday night, but I can be unavailable for the weekend.”

Kara disappeared in a burst of superspeed, returning with two duffel bags. “We’re packed and ready to go, just let me text Alex real quick so she doesn’t worry. ‘Going with Barry to another dimension, Lena’s coming with. Be back Sunday late, possibly sooner.’ And, send.”

Barely five seconds later, Kara’s phone started to ring. “We should probably go now, or we won’t get to go at all, so we’re waiting on you, Barry.”

Barry started searching his pockets. “Alright, alright, I’ll try to be faster next time. Heh, story of my life, right there.” He pulled a silver device out of his back pocket. “Inter-dimensional extrapolator, a Cisco Ramon original, don’t leave your home dimension without it.” A push of a button later, and a swirling breach opened. “Ladies first.”

Neither moved. “But we don’t have one of those things,” Kara pointed out.

Barry waved a hand. “Yeah, but it’s fine.”

“You literally just said don’t leave your home dimension without one.” Lena’s poker face didn’t show a hint of the amusement she was experiencing.

Barry sighed. “Let’s just go.”

0oOo0

“Whoa!” Lena was glad Kara’s arm was around her waist, because otherwise she might have fallen over from the assault on her senses. Perhaps she shouldn’t have kept her eyes open during the trip through the breach, but it was too late now.

“Welcome back, B.A., and you brought friends!” H.R. said cheerfully. “Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Harrison Wells, but everybody calls me H.R. because Harrison Wells has been a pretty common name around here. Welcome to S.T.A.R. Labs, Earth One edition. Can I offer you two the best cup of coffee on at least two Earths? I’m looking to make it three.”

Kara nodded eagerly as Lena blinked away the last of the sensory insanity. The trip had been the definition of too much to handle. Lena knew she didn’t have the senses necessary to process more than half of what just happened, but what she had been able to experience was… incredible, in every imaginable sense.

“At least I didn’t feel anything looking back at me,” Lena muttered to herself, but of course Kara heard her.

“You okay babe?”

Lena smiled at her concern. “Fine, just wasn’t expecting it to be like that.”

“Yeah, I should have warned you. The best way I found to deal with it is to close your eyes and try not to pay attention to anything,” Barry offered.

Kara studied her for a moment longer before kissing her on the cheek. “Alright, as long as you’re okay.”

Lena nodded. “I’m fine. So, we’re in another dimension. What’s our first stop? Kara, you can’t say food.”

“Aww.”

“Now that you mention it, I’m kinda hungry too,” Barry said. “But I should probably introduce you to the rest of my friends.”

Kara smiled. “Yeah, I want to meet these people you keep talking about.”

“In that case, follow me.” Barry sped off at super speed, only to reappear a few moments later. “Just kidding. It’s right this way.” Barry took the lead, this time at a more normal pace.

They ended up in the operations center, Barry’s suit front and center on a mannequin. H.R. was already there, as were a few other people. “Okay, so you’ve met H.R., and this is Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow, they’re the ones who helped me figure out my powers, and without them, I’d never have made it as far as I have. Cisco, Caitlin, this is Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor. They’re from Earth 38.”

“Hi there, it’s so nice to meet you,” Caitlin said, stepping forward to shake hands. “Barry told us about how you helped him get back home.”

“Eh, all I did was give him a little boost, like push starting an engine.” She nudged Lena. “We used to have to do that with Alex’s first car, it was so bad.”

“Wow, so you’re really an alien, huh?” Cisco asked. “That’s so cool, and I have so many questions. What’s space really like? What’s your home planet like? Where’s it located? How did you get to Earth? What kind of drive did you use?”

Barry tapped his hands in the universal time out symbol. “Whoa, Cisco, let her answer a question before you ask another one.”

Kara shrugged. “I mean, I could answer at superspeed between the questions, but then only you could understand me.”

Lena touched Kara’s arm. “Thank you for not doing that. I still remember the headache from the time you showed me what it sounds like.”

“That’s why I didn’t do it.” Kara caught Lena’s eyes and gazed into them lovingly. Lena returned it and they both briefly lost themselves in each other.

“Wow, I could write a whole chapter about the chemistry between you two,” H.R. said, ruining the moment. “That’s why people read romance, that moment right there. Oh, you two are giving me chills.”

“Wait, you two are together?” Cisco asked.

“We’ve been married for a few months now,” Lena said, unable to keep from smiling.

Kara blushed and ducked her head. “Yes, we are together, thank you for noticing. So, is this where the magic happens? The magic of science?”

“Heck yeah it is. I designed Barry’s first suit at that desk over there, and this lovely supercomputer has helped solve many a superheroic problem,” Cisco explained.

“And I’ve kept Barry from bleeding to death on that hospital bed more than once. Way more than once, which is way too many times, Barry,” Caitlin said, raising her voice at the end.

“Then tell people to stop trying to kill me,” Barry countered. “Ooh, I need to call Iris, let her know I’m back, and tell her about you two. She’s a reporter too, so I’m pretty sure you’ll have lots to talk about.”

Kara smiled. “I’d love to talk to her.”

“What about you, Lena?” Cisco asked. “If you’re a CSI like Barry, I’m tracking trends between parallel realities.”

“Actually, I’m CEO of L-Corp, an international, multi-billion dollar company. We have interests in just about everything you can make money in, but I’m focusing on solving the real problems holding the world back. Clean water, clean energy, education, anything to advance the human race without destroying ourselves.”

“Okay, that’s actually pretty cool,” Cisco admitted. An alarm began chirping from somewhere. He glanced over at the computer. “Bank robbery at First National. Barry?”

Barry smiled into his phone. “Sorry babe, gotta go. Talk to you later.” In a flash, he was dressed in his costume. Kara blushed red. “Right, your eyes can keep up with me when I do that. Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kara mumbled as she adjusted her glasses.

“So, you ready to see how superheroes do it in my world?”

Kara looked at Lena. “Are you okay if I go?”

“Go have fun with your friend, I’ll stay here. I’m sure I can find something to talk about with Caitlin and Cisco.”

Kara blurred out of the room before returning as Supergirl. “Lead the way, Scarlet Speedster. It’s your town.”

“Try to keep up, Girl of Steel.”

0oOo0

“Hey guys, whatcha doing?”

“Holy shit! It’s the Flash!” the lookout called. He leveled his gun at Flash, but didn’t fire.

Flash grinned. “It’s always nice to be recognized. But you know, you should probably put your gun down and surrender now. Let all the hostages go too.”

“Or you’ll make me?”

Flash held his hands up. “Me? Oh, no, you’ve got a gun pointed right at me, what could I possibly do to you? I’d be way more worried about her.”

“Who her?”

Supergirl burst through the doors, walking in with a confident stroll. “Supergirl, at your service. And today, I’m serving you a butt-whooping.”

The man in the gorilla mask clearly hadn’t been expecting her. He trained his gun on Supergirl’s chest. “Don’t come any closer, I’m warning you.”

Supergirl didn’t stop walking. Then the man moved the gun to point at one of the hostages, the security guard. “Another step and I shoot him!”

Supergirl blurred, and the criminal pulled the trigger on instinct. But before the bullet could even leave the barrel, Supergirl had her fist clenched around the end, clamping it shut. She ripped the gun out of his hands and broke it over her knee. “You were saying?” The man started to run, but Supergirl just cuffed him on the side of the head and knocked him out.

Another bank robber appeared in the doorway, announcing himself by firing at Supergirl’s head. The bullet bounced off and lodged itself in the ceiling. Supergirl marched towards him, catching every bullet and ricochet that threatened to hit anyone but her. The man dropped his gun as it clicked empty, and he turned around to run.

“Okay folks, I’m gonna get you out of here. Everybody hold still,” Flash warned.

In no time at all, Flash moved all the hostages outside to the waiting police officers, returning to find Supergirl carrying two unconscious robbers in her hands. “That was fun,” she said, dropping the criminals with their buddy. “What else you got?”

0oOo0

Supergirl licked her fingers clean as she and Flash left Big Belly Burger. “Okay, you’re right, that hit the spot.”

“Told you, Big Belly Burger is the best place to go after fighting crime, and they give me half off everything since I saved them from a robbery a while back.”

“Oh man, I saved this bakery once, and now I get a free donut whenever I go in there.”

“I got free Chinese for a week.”

Supergirl smirked. “I got free dry cleaning for life, and you can’t just throw this suit in the washer.”

“You take it to the dry cleaners? Cisco always said he had to service my suit himself because of all the tracking gear in it.”

“Yeah, this nice old man does it for me, Mr. Nowacki.” Supergirl glanced behind her. “So, I’m thinking about going back in there and getting an ice cream cone.”

“Well, you are an adult, which means no one can tell you it’s not time to eat ice cream.”

“Then I guess I’m gonna do it. Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

Flash took a seat on the bench by the door. He waved at a family driving by, and said hello to the people walking in. A few minutes later, Supergirl re-emerged, carrying two ice cream cones.

“Hey, you got me one too,” Flash grinned.

Supergirl pulled the cones in close. “No I didn’t.”

“I can see you carrying two cones right there.”

Supergirl nodded at him slowly. “Uh-huh. And they’re both for me. If you wanted one, you should have said something.”

“Huh. Fair point. Back in a flash.”

He zipped in the store and returned a moment later, a cone in each hand.

Supergirl looked sheepish. “Okay, so I was just trying to mess with you, and one of these really was for you, but this is better, because now we both get double the ice cream.”

Flash glanced back and forth between their hands. “How about you give me that one, and I’ll give you this one, and that way no one can say we bought two cones for ourselves?”

Supergirl made the swap. “People give you crap about that too? I hate that.”

“Preaching to the choir.” Flash jerked his head at the building across the street. “Meet you on the roof?”

“Sounds good.”

Flash ran up the side of the building while Supergirl took to the air. Flash leaned on side of the safety railing, and Supergirl just lowered herself down to sit on it, legs swinging. Both of them demolished their first cone in no time at all and were well into the second when Supergirl broke the silence.

“Did you ever look into the differences between our worlds? See if you could find anyone from my side?”

Flash winced. “Not… really? I wanted to, but there was this guy trying to kill me when I got back, and things were kinda hectic, and I just never got around to it.”

Supergirl licked her ice cream. “So the fastest man alive didn’t have time to do it?”

“Ha, ha, very funny.”

Supergirl shrugged. “I was just thinking that since you don’t have a Supergirl or a Superman here, maybe that means Krypton never blew up.”

“How would you go about checking something like that?” Flash asked. “I was under the impression that Krypton was kinda far away.”

“There’s stuff I could check. Old news articles and things like that. See if a meteor shower ever hit Smallville. I don’t know, it was just a thought. I guess I like the idea of Krypton still living somewhere out there, even if it’s not in my universe.”

“We could check it now, if you want. If you don’t mind a road trip, I know the best person in the world at gathering information.”

“Let me text Lena first.”

“You get service in an alternate reality? Man, I want your phone.”

0oOo0

Oliver stopped short when he walked into the Bunker. He paused while he took in the scene, then sighed. “Barry, I didn’t know you were in town. You should have called, I could have met you somewhere.”

Barry waved him off. “Yeah, I thought about calling you, but Felicity was who I was really looking for, and I figured you’d be super busy with the whole mayor thing, so it’s all good.”

Oliver closed his eyes and kept himself from sighing again. “It just would have been nice to know you were in the area.”

“He called me ahead of time, so don’t get all bent out of shape,” Felicity said sharply.

“I’m not getting bent out of shape, I’m just saying that the more superheroes there are in one spot, the bigger the problem they have to fix always ends up being. Speaking of which, why don’t you introduce me to your friend?”

Felicity rolled her eyes. “Don’t mind him, Oliver thinks he’s important just because he owns the building.”

Barry tried to cover up his snort, and didn’t quite pull it off. “Oliver Queen, meet Kara Danvers, a.k.a. Supergirl. She’s a superhero from an alternate reality, and she’s here visiting. Fun fact, she’s also an alien from outer space who can fly and shoot laser beams from her eyes.”

Oliver closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose to try and fight off the headache that was blossoming behind his eyes. “And just what are you doing here?”

Felicity answered him. “We’re searching for evidence of alien life on Earth.”

Oliver’s headache began to throb. “Are you going to need me for anything?”

“I mean, we’re just waiting for the search results at this point, so…” Barry offered.

Oliver nodded. “In that case, I’m going to turn around, go back upstairs, and forget this ever happened. Kara, it was nice to meet you. Barry, warn me the next time you bring somebody like her into my city.”

Kara frowned as Oliver left. “Is he always like that, or did I do something?”

Felicity shook her head. “No, he’s just a major control freak who doesn’t like surprises. You’re a pretty big surprise.” The computer beeped. “Oh, and that’s your results. Let’s see here… no Kara Danvers, but I did find records of a meteor shower that hit in Kansas a few years ago. And I found the adoption papers for one Clark Kent dated about six months after that. Based on the dates, looks like he’s about eight now.”

Kara sucked in a huge breath, then abruptly held it. After a few seconds, she blew it out, and Barry and Felicity rubbed their arms at the sudden chill. “Okay.” She took another deep breath. “Okay. Clark’s alive, and on Earth. That means Krypton’s gone here too.”

Barry hesitated before slowly putting an arm around her shoulders. She shrugged him off. “No, I’m fine. I just… I just hoped a little bit, you know?”

“Of course you did,” Barry reassured. “It’d be silly if you didn’t hope.”

“I can give you the Kents’ current address,” Felicity offered. “Smallville, Kansas, just like you said.”

Kara nodded shakily. “I could probably find them, but yeah, thank you. Um, is it weird that I didn’t think about what I was going to do now? Now that I know?”

Barry shrugged. “Who said you have to do anything? I’m pretty sure a very handsome superhero once told you to slow down, so take some time to figure it out what you want to do, then do it. Not before.”

Felicity coughed, “Hypocrite!”

Barry pursed his mouth. “You know, just because I’m a hypocrite, that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”

“No, no, it’s fine. But I think I need to talk to Lena. I hope she’s getting along with your friends.”

0oOo0

“Wait, so you filled her entire office with flowers?” Iris clarified. “The whole thing?”

“I had to spread the order across three different shops to get the arrangements done in time, but every flat surface in her office was covered.”

Caitlin shook her head. “That’s crazy. What did Kara do with all of them?”

Lena’s answer was full of pride. “She gave some to every other woman on her floor, and when that barely got her in the door, she grabbed a few interns and started on all the other departments.”

“Aww, that’s adorable,” Iris said. “Barry got on a musical kick and did a whole song and dance routine in the middle of the newsroom floor at lunch one day. It was ridiculous and cheesy and way over the top, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t sweet. We, uh, I took the rest of the afternoon off and spent it in our apartment.”

Lena smirked. “Kara didn’t even wait for me to get home before she decided to come show me how much she appreciated the flowers. It’s a good thing my office is soundproof.”

Iris lowered her voice conspiratorially. “Does she have any, y’know, supertricks for the bedroom? With her powers? Because Barry likes to experiment.”

Lena flushed. “Oh, you have no idea,” she said, her voice just a little too high. She cleared her throat. “Kara thinks I don’t know about it, but she’s got an anonymous account on an online forum that speculates on that very subject. I always know when she’s found something new she wants to try, because she’s always nervous and butters me up beforehand.”

Caitlin sighed. “At least you can experiment with that sort of thing. If I take off this suppressor, I turn into a cold-blooded killer. And I’m not really sure I want to find out what kind of kinky stuff Killer Frost is into.”

“Well, if that ever changes, you should talk to Kara about freeze breath. She was worried about frostbite, but once we got the intensity dialed in right, it was a very fun night.”

Cisco popped his head in. “Uh, sorry to interrupt, but Lena, base fabrication is done, if you want to come see how it gets put together.”

Lena nodded. “Right, I’ll be right there. It was nice to talk to you, maybe Kara will be around next time.”

“Definitely, this was fun,” Iris said. “And I’ll try to keep Barry from running off to a different state.”

Lena followed Cisco to his workshop, where the materials for a new interdimensional extrapolator were already laid out. “So, it’s really not all that complicated, when you consider what it’s doing,” Cisco started to explain. “Casing is over here, power supply is here, these three things get put together to make the breach generator. Which is based off my own powers, actually.”

“Fascinating. Such a small thing to take you to a whole new world.”

“I said the same thing about my passport when I was a kid,” Cisco admitted. “Look at me now, jumping to different dimensions.”

“Life has certainly taken a turn for the fantastic since I met Kara. I may not have had the most normal life growing up, but my life still never seemed like science fiction.”

Cisco shrugged. “I like to remind myself that every time I build something around here, it’s no longer science fiction, it’s science fact. But you’re probably right, I’d definitely think of my life as a sci fi book if I was around aliens all the time. Of course, if this were a sci fi book, you’d be the character that romances the beautiful alien warrior princess, which pretty much makes you the hero of the story.”

Lena let out a self-deprecating laugh. “You know, most people on my Earth would look at you like you were crazy for ever thinking I could be the hero of the story. Everybody knows Luthors are the villains of the piece.”

Cisco looked at her with confusion. “Well, sure, if you go around telling people that.”

“LENA!” Kara suddenly appeared in the doorway. Her face was red and she was clearly upset about something.

Lena was halfway across the workshop before she realized she was moving. “Kara, what’s wrong?”

Kara all but collapsed into Lena’s arms, and Lena stumbled to keep her upright. Kara caught herself a moment later, and Cisco cleared off a bench for her to sit.

Kara took a few deep breaths and looked around. “I’m sorry, you guys were in the middle of something, I can come back later,” she started to apologize.

“Absolutely not,” Lena stopped her. “Something happened to put you in this state, and I want to know what it was. Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“That’s clearly not true, sweetie. You’re the one who told me Danvers girls talk about their problems. So, what’s going on?”

Cisco awkwardly inched his way towards the door. “Yeah, so it sounds like you guys might want some privacy, so I’m just gonna leave, okay? Okay.”

Lena took Kara’s hands in hers. “Talk to me, please.”

“Krypton’s gone here too.”

Lena’s heart broke for Kara. “Oh, no… Kara…” Lena moved to sit next to Kara, one arm around her shoulders and the other holding her hand, fingers laced.

“I didn’t want to get my hopes up, I tried not to, but it feels like it was just taken away from me again.”

“Are you sure? How do you know?”

“Smallville was hit by a meteor shower eight years ago, and a few months later, Jonathan and Martha Kent adopted Clark, just like it happened on our Earth. Same adoption service and everything. And based on their bank account, they’ve had to make a few major repairs, the kind you get when you have a kid learning to control their superstrength. I mean, it’s not like it’s scientific proof, but what other explanation is there? Krypton’s gone.”

Kara buried her face in Lena’s shoulder as the tears started to flow. Lena sat there, holding her, not sure what to say, but not willing to leave Kara to find anyone to help. She stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head whenever Kara squeezed her tight.

Privately, Lena had to marvel at Kara’s control. For all that she was overwhelmed with emotion, she didn’t even come close to hurting Lena. Strength enough to crack the world in two, but Lena was safe with Kara’s arms around her.

Lena knew that Kara never had an accident with things she really cared about. She might crack her phone, but she would never break Lena, no matter what.

Barry appeared in the doorway, hesitating once he saw them. Lena shook her head and shooed him away. He nodded without putting up a fight and disappeared.

Kara’s breathing slowly normalized. “I could have shown you Krypton, Lena. I could have shown you where I grew up, shown you the view of the mountains from Argo City. They’re beautiful, so beautiful.”

“I know, sweetie, you painted those mountains, and it’s hanging in our bedroom. I may not have been able to see them for myself, but you’ve shown me how those mountains made you feel, and that’s more than enough for me. It’s okay.”

“And what about Clark?”

“Your cousin?”

“Yes, but no, not Superman, little Clark, the one from this world, he’s only eight years old and doesn’t have any idea why he’s different, why he has powers, where he came from. I mean, something like this, it’s a like a second chance, right? I was sent to Earth to protect Kal El as a child, and I never got the chance to do that, but now I could, right? But how would that even work, I mean, I could take care of him, I’d make it work, but I couldn’t ask you to take on something like that. That’d be too much, I know it would be, and besides, I couldn’t take Clark away from the Kents, he loves them so much, and they love him, I couldn’t break them apart, but that’d mean leaving my life behind on Earth-38, and I can’t do that. National City needs Supergirl, and I can’t leave Alex, and I can’t…” Kara choked up, “I can’t leave you.”

Lena hugged Kara firmly. “Kara, please, slow down. You’re working yourself up again, so calm down, and we can talk about it.”

Kara nodded, and took a few calming breaths.

“Now, no matter what you decide, you won’t lose me, Kara. Whatever happens, I’ll be right beside you, understand? Whether that’s in National City or a whole new world, I’ll be right there.”

“Lena…”

“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Kara Danvers. You were totally unexpected, six months ago, but you’ve made my life so much better. I’m going to hold on to you for as long as you’ll have me, no matter where that takes me.” Lena squeezed Kara as hard as she could. “And since we’re in this together, let’s talk about it, together. Okay?”

“Okay.”

0oOo0

Kara landed in the cover of some trees and walked the last half mile to the Kent farm, since there was no need to attract any unnecessary attention. The farm itself was beautiful, kept that way by the tireless efforts of Jonathan Kent. Martha Kent met her on the porch, clearly having seen her walking up.

“Good morning!” Mrs. Kent called as she approached. “What brings you out here? I’ve got a phone inside if your car broke down, I know there’s not much service out here.”

Kara stopped at the foot of the porch stairs. “Actually, I’m here to talk to you, Mrs. Kent. Do you mind if we go inside?”

Mrs. Kent crossed her arms. “Talk to me about what? I don’t mind visitors, but I can’t say I know who you are, and I’ve got a pie about to come out of the oven, so I can’t talk long.”

Kara adjusted her glasses. “Right, sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I’m Kara Danvers, and I’m here to talk about your son, Clark.”

Mrs. Kent stared her down. “Talk about what? I can’t see him causing trouble for you, but I could be wrong. Otherwise, I’m not sure what we have to talk about.”

Kara took a deep breath. “I know he has powers. I know you found him in a cornfield after a meteor shower. I know you have his spaceship locked in your storm cellar. I know you have questions. I have answers. Can we talk?”

Her answer brought Mrs. Kent up short. “Who… who sent you? The government, or some, some corporation? Who are you, really?”

Kara shook her head. “Nobody sent me, Mrs. Kent. I’m here for myself, and I really do just want to talk. Who I am really is a long story that I’d rather tell you inside, but the short answer is that I’m Kara Danvers. And I’m an alien, just like your son.”

Kara waited as Mrs. Kent weighed her decision. “Jonathan’s in the barn working on the tractor and Clark’s at school. If you’ll give him a few minutes to get cleaned up, you can come inside and tell us your story over some cherry pie. Then we’ll decide where we go from there.”

0oOo0

Jonathan smiled at Martha as she served the pie, but didn’t reach for his fork. “So, Martha tells me you have a story for us. Something about you being an alien?”

Kara nodded. “I was practicing with myself to try and figure out the best way to tell you so I don’t sound crazy, but I swear I’m not going to lie to you. I respect both of you too much, which sounds kinda weird, but it makes sense when you know the whole story. But anyways, yes, I’m an alien, specifically, a Kryptonian, just like Clark.”

“A Kryptonian?” Martha asked.

“From the planet Krypton, circling the great red giant Rao. At least, it once did.”

“But it doesn’t anymore,” Jonathan clarified. “Does it?”

“That’s why we left, the planet was dying. The core had become unstable, and there was no way of stopping what was happening… Clark’s ship launched first. Mine got knocked off course by the planet’s shock wave.”

Martha gasped. “That’s horrible.”

Kara swallowed carefully. “It was. It is. But you remember the symbol on his ship, and on the blanket he was wrapped in?”

Jonathan looked at Martha, who nodded. “We do. Looked like a fancy ‘S’.”

Kara quickly unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it open to reveal her family crest. “It’s the symbol of the House of El. Clark’s my cousin.”

Martha reached out and grabbed Jonathan’s hand. “Are you here for Clark? To take him away?” she whispered.

“No, I’m not,” Kara promised. “I thought about it, but I couldn’t do that to you, or to him. You all love each other too much for me to mess that up. And I’ve seen the kind of man he turns out to be, and I wouldn’t be able to do any better. He needs you.”

“Seen the kind of man - Mrs. Danvers, what are you talking about?” Jonathan asked. “Don’t tell me you’re from the future too.”

Kara crinkled. “Not really, but from a certain perspective, kind of. I’m pretty sure this is where I’m gonna lose you, but I promised to tell the truth, so here it goes. I’m actually from a parallel world where Clark’s already an adult, older than me. I was supposed to protect him, but I got lost in space for more than twenty years, and he was grown up by the time I landed. Obviously, things aren’t quite so far along in your world, but I know what kind of man he turns out to be. He’s one of the best people I know, and he always says it’s because of you two.”

Jonathan wasn’t quite sure of what he thought of her story, but he couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride when he heard that. “Now, I thought all that stuff was just scifi mumbo jumbo. I don’t suppose you have any proof to go along with your stories, do you? I don’t want to call you a liar, but you’re making some mighty big claims.”

“We could go down into your storm cellar and I’ll fire up Clark’s old ship. I should be able to configure the ship computer for an English interface if you want to look up the stuff on Krypton. Or if you want proof of the different worlds thing, I’ve got the portal thingy in my pocket, we could go meet your older selves. They’re still married and in love, and I swear, I want a marriage like theirs someday.”

Martha glanced at Jonathan. “If you can start up that ship, it’ll be good enough for me. Traveling to different worlds… I don’t even know what to think about that, but definitely not today.”

Kara smacked herself on the forehead. “Right, I should have thought of that. My version of the Kents are fine with Clark being an alien, but they’ve never really wanted to get involved in the whole crazy scifi super-science stuff personally. Of course you don’t want to go hopping realities. Offer’s on the table, but you definitely don’t have to.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, but if you really can turn on that spaceship, I want to see it. That thing might as well be a solid hunk of metal for all the response I’ve gotten out of it,” Jonathan said.

Kara nodded. “I can do that.” She took a bite of her pie. “Just as soon as I finish this. It’s really wonderful pie, Mrs. Kent.”

“Thank you, dear,” Martha said automatically. “I’ve been working on the recipe, so I’m glad you like it.”

It didn’t take long for everyone to finish eating, and they all headed outside to the storm cellar. A few dim bulbs lit the space, and Jonathan pulled the heavy canvas cover off the Kryptonian ship. Kara looked it over, inspecting the damage carefully. It wasn’t in terrible shape, but it would need a full service before Kara would trust it to fly anywhere outside the atmosphere. She reset the power system and opened the cockpit.

Kara tapped the size setting and crawled in as the seat reconfigured for an adult passenger. She pulled up the ship’s recordings and sent the display to a hologram floating in the middle of the room.

“The ship’s sensors recorded everything since the moment it turned on until the moment it crashed.”

Holographic versions of Lara and Jor-El cried as they laid their son in the cockpit. They both bent down to kiss him one last time before an earthquake nearly knocked them off their feet. Jor-El sealed the ship and hit the launch key. As the ship rocketed away, Jor-El wrapped his arms around Lara, holding her tight.

The recording followed the ship as it fled the planet, the ground shrinking as it picked up speed. Once the whole planet was in view, cracks began to appear, glowing ominously as fires broke out all across the surface.

Ten seconds later, the planet was gone.

Martha wiped her eyes as the hologram cut off. “I… I’m so sorry,” she said, looked over at Kara. She was still in the cockpit, pointedly looking away from the recording. “So, there’s really no one left?”

“No,” Kara said thickly. “We’re pretty much all gone.”

Jonathan didn’t know what to say. He held his wife and sighed. He’d known something must have happened to his son’s biological family, but he’d never expected something like this. If he was being honest, it was a subject he tried to avoid thinking about, the events that brought Clark to them. But even in his wildest nightmares he never thought that his whole world had been destroyed.

“Then you’re welcome here whenever you want,” he found himself saying. “My granddad told me that if somebody had nowhere else to go, they’d be welcome here. My dad kept that policy, and I do too. Alien refugees included.”

Kara took a deep breath. “Thank you, really. That’s more than I was hoping for. I know you two are taking a big chance here, but I promise, I won’t let you down.”

“What was your plan, coming here, if you don’t mind my asking?” Jonathan asked.

Kara grunted as she climbed out of the spaceship. “Well, you always said you were really overprotective of Clark when he was a kid, so I was really just hoping for the chance to meet him, and tell him the truth. Make sure he knows he’s not alone, because I know he feels lonely sometimes, even if he doesn’t want to admit it. And maybe, if everything went okay, I could come back again, in the future, and see him again.” Kara sighed. “I just… I remember Krypton, and I was supposed to pass that knowledge onto him, but I couldn’t. I tried, but Kal was already grown up and I was still a kid, and he never really got into it. But this… I don’t know, this feels like it might be a second chance. A chance to really let Clark experience his culture, instead of just study it.”

Martha smiled sadly. “Clark gets home from school around three thirty. You’re free to wait for him, as long as you don’t mind us asking questions.”

Kara nodded. “You don’t have to worry about anything weird happening with puberty, we don’t go into cocoons or anything like that.”

0oOo0

Clark carefully closed the door and hung his jacket up on the lowest rung of the coat rack. “Ma, Pa, I’m home!” It wasn’t very often that his parents didn’t meet him before he even got inside, but it happened, especially if Pa was still working on the tractor. “I did my homework on the bus, can I go outside and play?” he called.

“You can come in here and say hello, is what you can do, young man,” Ma called back.

Clark pouted and shuffled into the living room. Some new blonde lady was sitting in Pa’s chair, while his parents sat across from her on the couch. “I had a good day at school and I finished all my homework on the bus, except for reading, cause I did that at lunch. Can I go out and play now? Just until dinner’s ready?”

“No,” Ma said firmly as soon as he asked. “We have company, and you’re going to stay here and be sociable. You can play in a little while.”

“Okay,” he said sullenly. Clark looked at the stranger. “Who are you?”

“Clark,” Pa warned. “Be polite. Why don’t you introduce yourself the way we taught you?”

Clark huffed, but did as he was told. He walked over to the stranger and held out his hand. “Hi, my name is Clark Kent. It’s good to meet you.”

She smiled at him and shook his hand. He made sure not to squeeze too hard, just like Pa taught him. “My name is Kara Zor-El Danvers. It’s very nice to meet you, too, Clark. You know, you’re the person I’m here to see.”

“Why me?”

“Well, it’s kind of a long story, but the main reason is because I’m your cousin.”

Clark looked at his parents, confused. “Ma? Pa?”

“She’s telling the truth, son,” Pa said. “It’s okay.”

“I didn’t know I had any cousins,” Clark said. “Are you on Ma’s side or Pa’s side of the family?”

“Well, I’m really on your side of the family?”

“Huh?”

“Clark, sweetie, we need to tell you something,” Ma said gently. “We never told you before, because it’s never been important to us. You’re our son, and that’s all that matters to us, understand?”

“Yeah, but what are you talking about?” Clark glanced back and forth between his parents.

Pa leaned forward. “You’re our son, just not in the traditional way. We found you, Clark, when you were a baby. We’d always wanted to have kids, so when we realized you needed someone to take care of you, we adopted you.”

“Oh.” Clark didn’t know what to think about that. “So, you’re related to my real parents?”

Kara nodded. “Yes. Your father was my dad’s brother. I remember when you were just a baby, you were so cute.”

“Then, what happened to my parents? Where are they?”

Kara’s eyes watered. “Clark, I’m sorry, but they’re gone. They died sending you to safety. If they could have been with you, they would have, but they couldn’t. I’m sorry.”

“Then where have you been?”

Kara hesitated. “I… I got lost, for a long time, and I didn’t know where you were. I came as soon as I found you.”

“Does that… do you know why I can…?” Clark didn’t want to spill the beans if Kara didn’t know about his powers, but if she was family, maybe it was okay? Maybe she knew already? Maybe she knew why?

Kara nodded knowingly. “Why you can pick up the tractor with one hand? Why you can beat your dad’s truck in a race from the end of the driveway? Why you can fly like a bird? Yeah, I can do it too. It’s because of where we come from.”

“Where’s that?” Clark asked.

“We came from a distant planet, called Krypton. We were sent to Earth so we could be safe.”

Clark looked confused. “So I’m… an alien?”

Kara nodded. “You’re still the same person you’ve always been, but yes, you’re an alien.”

“I know I’ve always said you were a gift from heaven,” Ma said, “but in the interest of honesty, we found you in your space ship after you fell out of the sky.”

“We didn’t tell you before now because we thought you were too young, but your cousin convinced us you were old enough,” Pa explained. “You okay, son? Any questions?”

Clark looked at his feet while he thought. It was a lot to take in. “If I’m an alien, does that mean they’re gonna deport me now?” he asked the floor.

Ma swept him up in a hug. “Oh, sweetie, no. We’d never let anything like that happen. We made sure to get all your paperwork in line when you were a baby. Same process they use for babies left at fire stations and hospitals with no information, they told me, but as far as the government’s concerned, you’re a U.S. citizen. I’ve got papers that prove it in the safe.”

“You’re not leaving this house until you go to college, son. Not as long as I’m around.”

Clark threw his arms around his Ma and held on as she pulled him down onto the couch. He started to sit on her leg, but he knew he was getting a little big for that (Ma kept telling him), so he ended up with his legs swung across her knee and his butt sunk into the space between Ma and Pa. Clark kept a loose hold around her waist, even though it meant he was a little hunched over. Pa rested his arm on Clark’s back and ruffled his hair.

Clark peeked over his arms. Kara was smiling at them, in that weird way grown ups smile when they say you’ll understand when you’re older.

“So, you’re okay that we adopted you?” Ma asked after a few minutes. “You’re not upset or anything?”

Clark shrugged. “I mean, Maria and Daniela from school are both adopted, so it’s not like it’s that weird,” he mumbled. “And it’s not like I can only love two parents. Dave’s parents are divorced, but that just means he loves his mom and his dad, and both his new step-dads. So getting more parents that I’m never gonna meet…” He shrugged again. “I still love you, Ma.”

Pa plucked his ear lightly. “And what about me? Still love your Pa?”

Clark pulled his arms out and twisted around so he could hug Pa. “Yeah. I love you too.” His voice was muffled since he buried his face in Pa’s chest.

“If you’ve got any questions for me, about anything, I want you to ask them,” Kara said. “I don’t get to talk about Krypton as much as I’d like, so fire away.”

Clark turned his head to look at her. “What was it like there?” he asked softly.

Kara’s face softened and her eyes sparkled as she remembered. “Krypton was beautiful…”

Chapter Text

“Look at you, you’re practically glowing,” Lena said as Kara walked into the lab. “I take it things went well?”

Kara beelined for Lena and kissed her hello. “Oh, it was so great, Lena, little Kal is so cute. He was nervous at first, but once we got comfortable, he started asking questions and opening up, it felt so good talking about that stuff, especially with him.”

Lena smiled. “It shows, dear. I’m happy you’re so happy.” Lena blew her a kiss as she turned around to make her lab space safe.

“I am, I’m so happy right now, I could fly!”

Lena glanced back. “You are, dear. Feet on the floor, we’re guests here.”

“You’d think people would want me to float, I’m not getting their floors dirty that way,” Kara muttered under her breath, but landed anyway. “Oh, hey, Cisco.”

Cisco was awkwardly standing at the other workstation, staring at the wall behind them, trying very hard not to draw any attention to himself. “Hey, Kara, good to see you,” he said slowly. “Am I gonna have to give up my lab again? Because I can, if you need me to, but I just want to know.”

Kara laughed and shook her head. “No, this is all good stuff, as long as you don’t mind me gushing about my brand new eight year old cousin, who is super awesome and polite, by the way.”

Cisco relaxed. “Okay, good. I can appreciate cute kid stories.”

“Great, because you don’t really have a choice! I’m pretty sure this is all I’m gonna talk about for the foreseeable future.”

“What’d you talk about?” Lena asked, still cleaning up her space.

Kara adjusted her glasses. “I started out telling what Krypton was like, how it was different from Earth. The sky, especially. Then Kal asked about his parents, and that was a lot of the time right there, because talking about Uncle Jor and Aunt Lara took us into their careers, so I had to explain the whole Science Council, and a little on how the government worked, and I accidentally mentioned and then possibly overexplained the whole genetic predisposition towards specific careers and how Kal’s the first naturally born Kryptonian in centuries, so his future is entirely up to him, and now that I’m thinking back, I really hope I didn’t scare him off too much. He kept looking weirded out, so I tried to explain it, but I think I just made it worse.”

Lena turned around and pressed a quick kiss to Kara’s cheek. “That’s why you’re in print media, instead of broadcast journalism. No chance to ramble if it’s written down. Don’t worry, I’m sure your cousin will forget all about it by the next time you visit.”

“I hope so, I really want this to work.”

“I know you do, sweetie. But at least they were open to having you come back, right?”

“Yeah, Kal wants to know about Kryptonian holidays next time. I’m pretty sure he’s just angling for a new reason to get presents, but I think it’ll be good. I can tell him all about what we used to do, why we celebrated in the first place, which will tie into the history and culture lessons he’s probably not going to be as interested in.”

“Maybe you should be a teacher instead of a reporter,” Cisco joked.

“What, a teacher? Me? Psshbt, you’re crazy,” Kara stammered.

“I know I’d be hot for teacher,” Lena teased. “I’m surprised you’re back already, I thought you’d stay longer.”

Kara narrowed her eyes. “Back already? Lena, I only came back because it was past Kal’s bedtime and he was falling asleep. Have you been in here the entire time I was gone?” She put her hands on her hips. “Did you forget to eat dinner again?”

Lena didn’t say anything, silently searching for the right answer, which was difficult, as she had definitely forgotten to eat dinner. “I was waiting for you!” she said suddenly. “I said that, didn’t I, Cisco? You said something about eating, and I said I wanted to wait until Kara got back.”

Kara looked at him, and Cisco nodded quickly. “Oh yeah, she said that, I remember her saying that very thing.” His stomach picked that moment to growl. “And then we forgot to eat,” he finished, slightly defeated, betrayed by his own body.

“I texted you that I was eating with the Kents,” Kara said pointedly.

Lena reached over to grab her phone. She smiled nervously when she unlocked the screen. “Yes, yes you did. I’m sorry, Kara, it’s just been nice not to have it buzzing every thirty seconds, I’ve been taking advantage of not having to check it.”

Kara huffed and gave her a hug. “I’m not mad, Lena, I just want you to remember to take care of yourself. You can’t save the world if you pass out because you haven’t eaten all day.”

“You would be the one to know about that, wouldn’t you? Alright, we can go find something to eat. Cisco, is there anywhere you recommend?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I can come up with something. I can go ask everybody else and see what they’re doing. Burgers and drinks good for you guys?”

Kara and Lena checked with each other silently. “Sounds good to us,” Kara said.

“Great,” Cisco said as he opened a breach to the monitor room and walked through.

Lena grabbed Kara by the hips and pulled her in softly. “I’m glad you had a good time today,” she said before kissing her.

Kara smiled as she pulled away. “I really did. It’s really wild seeing Mr. and Mrs. Kent so young, and especially Kal, he’s so cute. Oh, I asked him if I could call him Kal, and he said yes, that it could be a secret special name only I can call him.”

“Maybe next time I can go with you,” Lena suggested. “I’d love to learn more about Krypton.”

“Aww, of course you can. You can show me just how hot for teacher you really are.”

0oOo0

They had to move two tables together, but everybody managed to fit. In this particular case, everybody meant Kara, Lena, Cisco, Caitlin, Barry, Iris, and Wally.

With two speedsters and a Kryptonian at the table, it was quickly groaning under the weight of the appetizers they ordered, and the only person surprised was the waitress.

Kara rapidly tapped the table to try to get Barry’s attention. “Bharrie!” she called around a mouthful of jalapeno popper. She swallowed when he looked over. “I just remembered! So, it turns out that Kal is quite possibly the biggest Flash fan in all of Kansas.”

“Can’t blame him for having good taste,” Barry chuckled before biting into a cheesy potato skin. “But seriously, that’s cool to hear.”

Kara nodded. “Yeah, and I was thinking, Kal’s birthday is in two months, and getting to meet the Flash would be pretty much the greatest present ever for someone turning nine.” Kara looked at Wally. “Provided Kid Flash is willing to cover Central City for you, that is.”

Wally grinned. “I just let him handle my light work anyways. I can handle anything this city decides to throw at me.”

Iris scoffed. “Confidence is great, but don’t forget you were taken down by a hot dog cart last week.”

“Was not.”

“Were to.”

“Was not.”

“Were to. Cisco, the video evidence, if you please?” Iris grinned.

Cisco pulled out his phone and started tapping. “Give me just a sec, I know right where it is… Here we go,” he said and flipped the phone around. “As you can see from the security footage from the ATM across the street, Kid Flash trips over a crack in the sidewalk and plows right into the hot dog cart in front of him, covering him in a delightful combination of ketchup, mustard, relish, and onions.”

Iris reached over and stole a chicken wing from Wally’s plate. “A good reporter always makes sure she has a reliable source before saying anything. Don’t mess with big sis.”

Wally scowled at the theft, but didn’t try to take it back. “I’m just going to ignore the hate coming from that direction, because I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life, thank you very much. But yes, I’ll be more than happy to cover for him.”

Barry shrugged. “Looks like I’m available, I guess. Glad to hear things worked out for you with them.”

“So am I. But I’m here with you guys, so let’s talk about you guys. What’s the weirdest supervillain you’ve had to fight so far?”

Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin all exchanged glances. “You want fifteen foot tall humanoid shark, or super-intelligent psychic gorilla?”

Kara and Lena glanced at each other. “Gorilla.” “Shark.”

0oOo0

“I’m not saying it won’t fly, I’m saying it’s not a jetpack if it’s built into a full exo-suit,” Lena argued. Kara rubbed Lena’s leg under the table while she devoured a burger with her other hand.

“The only reason it’s integrated into the exo-suit is because the protection is stronger that way, the system would work separately,” Cisco argued back.

“Then rip it out of the suit and get a harness on it and I’ll call it a jetpack. If you say jetpack, you think of a portable device worn on the back, something you can easily take on and off. It’s a terrible idea, honestly, the suit is a much safer method of personal flight, but the fact is that they’re two different things. I built my first jetpack when I was sixteen, I know what I’m talking about.”

“I thought you were drunk when you built your first jetpack,” Kara interjected.

“I was both,” Lena said without turning her even stare away from Cisco.

Cisco paused for a second. “If I concede to your point, will you tell us that story?” he asked.

“Fine.”

“You’re right, I’m wrong, now I’ve got to hear why you were drunk-building a jetpack.”

Lena scoffed. “When else would I do it? There’s no way I’d get near one of those death traps sober. Anyways, there was a competition to get locked in a workshop overnight to see who could build the best original design. Mother had just paid a visit to critique everything about me, so I pre-gamed with a bunch of the other people going, and there were probably a dozen bottles of alcohol stashed in the workshop by students and teachers alike. Since I was drunk, I forgot my blueprints on my bed, so I drew up some plans on a few cafeteria napkins and ran with it. Tested it the next morning, and it worked pretty well for doing some big arcing jumps, but there was a problem with the regulator and it blew the first time I pushed it more than twenty seconds at once.”

Kara pulled Lena into a tight one-arm hug. “Aww, you’re so smart. Also, that was dangerous, you shouldn’t have done it, but I’m willing to give you a pass on the grounds that jetpacks are cool.”

“Jetpacks are cool,” Cisco concurred. “Tough to argue with that logic.”

Lena’s right hand moved to Kara’s knee and started rubbing idly. “They are cool, they’re just also death traps. The only reason I didn’t die during my first flight was because I was so drunk that my muscles were all relaxed, so I rolled with the crash better. Made it out with nothing more than scrapes, bruises, and a fear of flying.”

“Aww, I didn’t know that’s why you’re afraid of flying, babe,” Kara exclaimed. “You never told me that part of the story.”

“Well, now you know,” Lena said, and kissed Kara quickly.

“Jeez, I never thought I’d see a couple more schmoopy than Barry and Iris,” Wally said. “But you two never turn it off, do you?”

“Hey, they are not schmoopier than me and Iris,” Barry defended himself. “You should see us at home, we are so schmoopy, it’s like next level schmoopy. Schmoopy squared!”

Iris grabbed his hand and kissed the back of it. “Schmoopy for life,” she said, completely serious.

“You two are ridiculous,” Caitlin said as she sipped her beer.

“So ridiculous,” Cisco agreed.

Kara started to laugh along with everyone else, when her superhearing picked up someone talking.

“I’ve got eyes on target.”

The tone of voice, the phrasing of the sentence, and the proximity all made it stand out against the background buzz of her superhearing, and Kara scanned the crowd. She picked out a blonde in a tight top staring directly at her, hand to her ear like she was fiddling with an ear piece.

“She just made me, I’m going in,” she said after Kara met her gaze.

Kara placed a hand on Lena’s knee protectively, and gripped the side of the table in case she had to launch herself out of the booth. The blonde walked right up to their table and flashed them all a smile. “Hey Barry, long time no see.”

Barry looked confused, but smiled. “Sara, good to see you again. What are you doing here, I thought you were, you know…” He made a vague gesture with his hand.

Sara nodded. “Still am. It’s what brings me here tonight, actually.”

Barry shifted into business mode in an instant. “You need some help?”

“I hope not,” she muttered dryly, before looking at Kara. “You aren’t supposed to be here.”

Kara rubbed her hand up and down Lena’s thigh nervously. “Says who?”

“Sara Lance, Captain of the Waverider. Heard Supergirl was seen flying around saving people, which is weird, because Supergirl isn’t supposed to make her first appearance for a few more decades. I’m here to get you back to your own time period before anything bad happens to damage the timeline.”

Kara relaxed at the explanation, since she realized what must have happened. “Oh, no no no, I’m sorry, I’m not a time traveler, I’m from a different dimension. Barry can vouch for me.”

Sara raised an eyebrow at Barry. “Really?”

“Yeah, Kara and Lena are both from Earth-38, but they’re just visiting,” he explained quickly. “No time travel for us, I mean, that would be irresponsible.”

“Yeah, I built the tech, and I can confirm, absolutely no time travel involved,” Cisco agreed.

“Huh. Well, if you aren’t an anachronism, then you’re not my responsibility.” Sara touched her earpiece again. “Everybody stand down, situation’s resolved. Since we’re in Central City and close enough to our present, consider yourselves all on shore leave until tomorrow morning. Just don’t make me come find you. Talking to you, Mick. And Nate. And Ray.” Sara turned her attention back to the table and smiled. “Room for one more?”

Kara shifted her chair over and Sara stole a seat from the next table. “So, dimensional travel. What’s that like?”

“Eye-opening,” Lena answered honestly. The things she’d seen when they’d jumped worlds… she had ideas.

“It’s pretty cool, but kinda weird. What about you, is time travel as cool as I think it is?” Kara asked.

Sara smirked. “If I’m being completely honest, it’s probably even cooler. I don’t want to brag, but one or two of Sappho’s poems may have been about me.”

“Really?” Lena asked, intrigued.

“Well, they’ve probably been lost to history, but when I was saying goodbye, she said I’d inspired her.”

“I remember writing a term paper on Sappho for a history class,” Lena said. “My history professor was this old, stodgy, stuck-up blowhard with too many years of tenure, there’s enough higher education at this table to know what I mean when I say he was all the worst parts of academia rolled into a bad suit.”

“Amen,” Caitlin toasted, and Sara smiled at her.

“Openly misogynistic, refused to listen to different points of view, petty, oh, he was so petty,” Lena continued. “We were supposed to write about an influential person in Ancient Greece, and his list of suggested names didn’t have a single woman on it, so I decided to say screw him, and wrote about one of history’s most famous lesbians. He tried to grade me down for not picking from his list, but I took it to the head of the history department and got him to give me a fair grade.”

“Having met the woman, I’m pretty sure she would have approved,” Sara said.

0oOo0

Wally sped off into the night while Cisco called for a cab. He’d tried to open a breach to his apartment, but in his drunken state, he only succeeded in blasting himself off his feet and into the wall. Iris jumped on Barry’s back, demanding a piggy-back ride, only to shriek when he put on a burst of speed to get to the end of the block. Their laughs had echoed back to the rest of them as Barry continued at a more sedate pace.

Sara did her best to steady a swaying Caitlin, even as Caitlin’s hands roamed over Sara’s body. “You’re like marble, like, sexy marble, or something. God, do you have extra muscles? Imma biologist, so I know all the muscles, and you have really good muscles.”

Sara chuckled. “Wanna see them?” She pulled her shirt up and Caitlin gasped. She looked back and forth between Sara’s abs and Sara’s face a few times before reaching out and touching them.

Lena stifled her laughter, and Kara squeezed her tighter for a second. “Don’t laugh, I’ve seen you do the same thing to my abs.”

Lena smiled drunkenly. “You don’t have abs, you have special alien muscles designed to incapacitate human lesbians. Because damn, honey.”

Kara blushed and ducked her head into Lena’s shoulder. “You really think so?”

“Please do not pretend you aren’t aware of how you look. I like to think I’ve made my opinion perfectly plain with the amount of time I’ve spent kissing your stomach.”

Kara glanced at Sara’s abs, still exposed. “I don’t know, Sara’s got some pretty nice abs.”

“She does,” Caitlin giggled, walking her fingers across Sara’s skin.

“Hey, you wanna see a time ship?”

Lena snorted. “That’s a hell of a pick up line,” she muttered to Kara as Caitlin’s eyes lit up.

“It’d probably work on me,” Kara admitted just as quietly. “Helps that we know she has a time ship to see.”

“Fair point.”

Sara glanced over at Kara and Lena as Caitlin pressed herself into Sara’s side. “Good luck with the dimension hopping thing, and if we’re ever in the same time period again, look me up. And if you do come back here, at least put on a different costume. Having Supergirl show up decades ahead of schedule threw up a bunch of alarms, and there’s no reason for you to get hassled just for visiting your cousin.”

Kara smiled. “Thanks, I’ll try to remember that.”

Sara waved goodbye as her ride arrived, and Lena moved to encircle Kara with her arms. They kissed for a minute or two before Lena pulled back. Her smile was happy and a little drunk. “Would you be interested in that?”

Kara had no idea what she was talking about. “Kissing you more? Yeah…”

“Mm-mm. As much as I love kissing you, that’s not what I was referring too,” Lena murmured. “You said that Sara’s pick up line would’ve worked on you. Would you be interested in that?”

Kara looked away, and Lena pressed on. “I wouldn’t blame you, she’s a beautiful woman. When you went to the bathroom, she brought it up. You, and me, together…” She trailed off. “I didn’t know how you’d react, so I turned her down.”

“Is that - I mean, would you be interested? Is that something we should talk about?” Kara asked hesitantly.

Lena brushed Kara’s hair back behind her ear. “It’s something we can talk about, if you want to. A threesome is a pretty common fantasy, and it’s something I’m familiar with, from my younger, wilder days.” Lena stole a kiss.

Images flashed through Kara’s mind. Her face burned red. “That is… wow, that made me think of, hmm… Later. We can talk later, because I don’t want to talk about that when I’m sober and you’re drunk.”

“Does that mean you want me to be sober or you to be drunk?”

“Let me get back to you on that.”

“I think that means drunk. You can try that stuff the Calatonians gave you after you saved their kid.”

It was Kara’s turn to steal a kiss, only she drew it out, teasing Lena with little flicks of her tongue and tiny nips with her teeth. By the time she was done, Lena had forgotten what she was talking about.

“Take me home,” Lena said once she got her voice back. “I want to sleep in your arms in our bed, so take me home.”
“Yeah, just let me find the button thing.”

“Inter-dimensional extrapolator,” Lena corrected as she rested her head on Kara’s shoulder.

“Even after drinking all the beers, you’re still smarter than me. How do you do that?”

“I’m a scientist. And as a scientist, I need to observe any differences heavy drinking has on inter-dimensional travel. For science.”

Kara finally tracked down the device, and glanced around to make sure no one was watching them. Satisfied that they were being ignored, Kara opened the breach and stepped through.

0oOo0

In the interest of science, the prevailing difference between sober and drunk inter-dimensional travel was vomit. Prodigious amounts of vomit.

0oOo0

“You’re an aunt!” Kara shouted as she flew in Alex’s window the next morning. Alex and Maggie hadn’t made it out of bed yet. “Ohmigod you’re naked!”

“Shit! Kara!”

“Get out dammit!”

“I texted both of you! I warned you I was coming over fifteen minutes ago!”

Clutching a sheet to her front, Alex forced herself to catch her breath. “Well, that’s what you get for not knocking.”

“It’s not my fault you don’t have a wall on your bedroom,” Kara shot back. “I don’t know how many times I’ve offered to help put up curtains.”

“You know I like the light best this way,” Alex defended. “Wait a second, you’re back from wherever you went. What the hell, Kara? Where did you go? Why did you say I’m an aunt? What is going on?”

Kara turned around as Alex accidentally released her hold on the sheet. “Okay, you know what? I’m going to grab us some donuts, I’ll be back in five minutes. You two put on some pants and I’ll explain when I get back.”

0oOo0

“Good, you two have clothes on now. Who wants donuts?”

Alex took the box from Kara and passed it to Maggie, who was waiting on the coffee to finish. “Kara, explain. Now.”

“Barry showed up the other day and invited me and Lena to visit his home dimension. Things have been pretty quiet, and J’onn’s here in case anything super bad goes down, so I figured National City could manage to stay safe if I went away for a weekend.”

“Not to a different dimension!”

Kara ignored the outburst. “Barry and his friends were very nice, we got to fight some crime together, no supervillains unfortunately, and then something special happened, drumroll please…” Kara paused for a drumroll that never appeared, then continued, “We looked up dimensional dopplegangers, and managed to find the Kents.” Kara started bouncing in excitement. “They’re younger there, and so’s Kal, he’s only eight, and he’s so cute, I took pictures, hold on.”

Kara went for her phone, Alex sighed. “This is punishment, isn’t it?” she asked, glancing at Maggie.

Maggie shrugged. “Should have given me that flash grenade.”

“You don’t need a flash grenade.”

“I know, I want a flash grenade.”

Alex snatched up a donut and savagely bit into it. “You know I need to actually debrief you, right?”

Kara found the picture she was looking for and thrust her phone in Alex’s face. “See, isn’t he adorable?”

Alex jerked back before grabbing the phone to better look at it. The picture showed Kara squished together on the couch with two more adults and a dark haired boy stretched across all their laps. Alex had only met the Kents once or twice, but it was obviously younger versions of the couple she knew, which made the kid Clark.

“I told him about Krypton, and he had so many questions, Alex. Barry’s friend Cisco made me a gizmo that’ll let me go back whenever I want. I’m gonna teach him all about Krypton, and if you ever want to meet him you can, I kinda already bragged about you to him.” Kara’s eyes sparkled. “He wants me to call him Kal.”

“That’s… that’s great, Kara. I’m thrilled for you,” Alex said, feeling overwhelmed. “But you know what, I think I’m just going to wait until we get to the DEO so you can do a real debrief, and I’ll get the full story then.”

“No, I want to tell you the whole story, I was just so excited to tell you about Kal first, that’s all!”

Alex waved her off with a donut. “No, go ahead, tell me whatever you want, let it loose. I can wait for the official debrief.”

Kara had the unique expression of a little sister disappointed that their older sister wasn’t more annoyed than they had expected, but it didn’t last long. “He wants me to come back and teach him stuff, Alex, it’s basically a dream come true. And the Kents were so nice about everything, I’m so glad they’re the ones who found him, because they’re totally the best. They’re so good with Kal, it’s so sweet.”

“And how are you getting back there again?” Maggie asked.

“Cisco’s inter-dimensional portal gizmo, he gave me one so I could keep in touch without them having to initiate everything.”

Alex frowned. “I want Winn to take a look at it, make sure it’s not dangerous.”

“Good luck with that,” Kara laughed. “Lena grabbed it earlier when she went to work. She had that ‘I’m going to do SCIENCE’ look in her eye.”

Maggie slipped her arm around Alex’s back, resting on her hip, and then suddenly Alex turned into a hug and buried her face in Maggie’s neck. “I don’t want to have to deal with this right now,” Alex said, her voice muffled. “We never should have gotten dressed, we should have just stayed in bed and finished what we were doing.” Alex turned her head to look at Kara. “J’onn’s going to make me come up with protocols for inter-dimensional invasion now, you know that, right?”

“I’m pretty sure you already have some, they’re just all theoretical. Pam made me read every protocol book she has after I broke the coffee machine.”

Alex just stared at her. “I’m pretty sure you’re missing the point where I was having really great morning sex and now I’m worrying about other dimensions and hoping Lena doesn’t blow a hole open in the sky or something.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I did try to warn you, and you would have made yourself late anyways, so you could even say I helped you, but I can tell when I’m not wanted somewhere, so I’ll take my leave,” Kara said, and darted out of the window before Alex could say another word.

“You better be going to the DEO!” Alex half-shouted, knowing Kara could still hear her. “She better be going to the DEO, I swear to god.”

Maggie rubbed her hands up and down Alex’s back and hid her amused smile by kissing Alex’s shoulder. “Aww, poor Danvers, now you’ve got to go to work all sexually frustrated, that’s awful,” she grinned.

“Freakin’ little sisters,” Alex was relaxing under Maggie’s touch even as she cursed Kara, unable to stay tense under her touch.

“I can’t help much with Kara, but I can make your other problem go away.” Maggie’s hand dipped to cup Alex’s ass to emphasize her point.

Alex was visibly reluctant. “We really will be late if we don’t get moving, and I need to get to the DEO.”

Maggie continued her ministrations, and felt Alex’s body react. “No, it sounds like you’ve got a hard day ahead of you, and you shouldn’t have to go to work unsatisfied.” Maggie nudged Alex back against the counter and stepped between her legs, pressing in tight. “What would you say if I bet that could get you off and get you out the door on time?”

Alex’s resolve crumbled. “I’d say you should put your money where your mouth is.”

0oOo0

“Ponytail, about time you showed up,” Snapper said in lieu of a greeting.

“I’m five minutes early,” Kara said in her defense.

“And yet, there’s already news. I don’t suppose you have some for me, do you?”

“Um, alternate realities are real, I can prove it, and I spent the weekend hanging out in a different universe.”

Snapper stared at Kara over the rims of his glasses. “Be serious, Ponytail, I’m not in the mood for jokes.”

“Fine, I’ve got a video call scheduled with a representative from WayneTech to talk about their advances in artificial organ replacements.”

“Why should I care about that?”

“Because it could save millions of lives worldwide, and extend duration and quality of life considerably. No more waiting on donor lists, no more rejected transplants. It’s still probably a few years off, but they want to talk, so I figured even if it’s nothing, I can develop the relationship, make them want to come to us when they do get something.”

Snapper waved his hand and began to walk away. “Fine, get me something interesting.”

Kara huffed at Snapper’s general grumpiness, but the man was already gone. At least she could finally make it to her desk. Several emails telling her to come to the DEO were waiting for her, and a chat window popped open with a message from Winn the second she started moving her mouse.

Winn: Glad ur back

Kara: ive got so much to tell u

Winn: I love stories

Winn: You should come here and tell me stories

Winn: Also in front of J’onn

Winn: Papa Bear is angry

Kara: hes fine

Kara: dont know y

Kara: i have a job outside heroing

Kara: i need to actually do it right now

Winn: Hey, don’t shoot the messanger

Winn: But definitely come here sooner rather than later

Kara: after work

Kara: maybe over lunch

Kara: see how the day goes

Winn: You’re killing me Danvers

Winn: Killing me

Kara: youll be fine

Winn: Fine, I’ll see if there’s anything that needs doing far away from the command center

Winn: But you should still tell Papa Bear something before he comes down there himself

Kara: alright fine

Kara: i will

Kara: i mean

Kara: i get it

Kara: but cant they just trust me when i say theres nothing to worry about

Winn: It’s his job to worry

Winn: And us squishy humans have to worry about a lot more than you

Kara: hes not a squishy human tho

Winn: It’s funny that you think that matters

Kara: whatever i have to work now

Kara: ttfn

She closed down the chat window and started working her way through the emails that had come in over the weekend. Kara typed up a few responses, made a few phone calls, and refreshed her knowledge on WayneTech.

However, when she accepted the video call two hours later, it wasn’t a PR representative like she had expected, or the project’s head scientist eager to talk about their accomplishments. It was Bruce Wayne himself.

Kara had met Bruce Wayne when Miss Grant was invited to be the keynote speaker at a business conference. He had attached himself to their party early on, charmed Miss Grant, and stuck with them virtually the entire trip, though Kara couldn’t blame him for disappearing once the hitmen hired to kill Miss Grant started firing. Kara had been too worried about getting Miss Grant to safety to keep track of him, but he must not have done a great job at hiding, since the next time Kara saw him he was getting patched up by a paramedic, joking about how he’d fallen down the stairs. She was surprised when he waved her over, but apparently, she’d impressed him and if she was ever looking to leave CatCo, there was a job waiting for her with him.

It was an attractive offer, but it would have meant moving to Gotham City, so Kara turned it down. Mr. Wayne had been trying to entice her ever since.

“Mr. Wayne, what a surprise,” Kara greeted. “I didn’t realize I’d be talking to you.”

Mr. Wayne smiled. “Just a little joke on my part, I hope you don’t mind. When I heard you were the reporter on the story, I decided to take the meeting. I figured what better representative than the man who’s name is on the company, right?”

“As long as you know about your new prosthetic organs, I can think of no one better.”

He picked up a paper from his desk and waved it around. “Got Dr. Forte’s notes right here, don’t worry. Great stuff, very promising. Should be able to start trials sometime in the next six months.”

“That’s great, Mr. Wayne.” Kara asked a few more questions about the project, and Mr. Wayne proved once again that no matter how much of an airhead he was in his personal life, he took his business seriously.

“You know, I had an ulterior motive for taking this meeting myself,” Mr. Wayne said after she finished the interview.

Kara grinned good-naturedly. “Really? You don’t normally take interviews about prospective research that may or may not pan out years down the road? I’m shocked.”

He laughed. “Alright, so I’m not very subtle, but since when am I ever?”

“If this is another attempt to hire me, I’m happy with what I’m doing now,” Kara preempted.

“No, but there’s a spot waiting for you if you ever decide you want it,” he prompted hopefully. Kara shook her head. “Actually, I was hoping you’d introduce me to your wife. Congratulations on that, by the way, I don’t know if you saw my tweets back then.”

“I probably did, but thank you anyways. Why do you want me to introduce you to Lena?” Kara asked, guarded.

“From what I hear, Lena Luthor wants to save the world. Seeing as I live here too, I’m a fan of that plan, and I’d like to talk to her about cooperating on some of her initiatives.”

“Really?”

“It’s going to piss off this one guy on the board too, his face is going to be priceless. If I time it right, he’ll even lose his cool and maybe do something dumb enough to get himself kicked out, but that might be wishful thinking. If I can do that and help save the planet at the same time, that’s just a win-win.”

“Interesting logic, Mr. Wayne. What kind of meeting did you have in mind?”

“I just want to sit down with her for a while, see if we can work with each other. No sense in building a partnership if neither of us can stand the other. Not that I think that’ll be a big problem, of course, we just need to be on the same page.”

Kara mulled it over. “Well, I can’t say she’ll say yes, but I’ll bring it up with her.”

“I suppose that’s all I can ask,” Mr. Wayne said. “Just let her know I’m serious about this, and the combined resources of L-Corp and Wayne Enterprises could actually make a difference.”

“I’ll make sure to tell her.”

0oOo0

After work, Kara finally went to the DEO and took her lecture like a superhero. J’onn shouted at her for a while, then debriefed her until she was ready to get out in the quickest way possible, no matter how many walls were in the way. Then Alex cornered her before she managed to leave, which began yet another interrogation, though this one was at least furnished with wings and alcohol at M’gann’s.

Lena wasn’t home when Kara got back, and she was too tired to do anything but crawl in bed and pass out. She sent her a good night text and didn’t give it a second thought.

She woke up to a tsunami hitting Thailand, and didn’t sleep for another fifty-three hours. She flew up and down the disaster area, scanning the wreckage with her x-ray vision and straining her superhearing to find everybody trapped inside. She moved as fast as she could, directing rescue workers towards those they could help while tunneling through ruined homes to carry out anyone who couldn’t wait any longer. It was long, hard, grueling work, but Supergirl never stopped, working straight through until she couldn’t hear any more heartbeats coming from the rubble.

After recovering from that ordeal and explaining her absence to Snapper (which mostly consisted of dragging James in front of him and having him say she was doing work for a CEO special assignment), Kara realized it had been more than four days since she’d seen Lena. She responded to Kara’s texts sporadically, so she was alive, just preoccupied, probably in her lab. And given how long she’d been there, Lena was probably working herself too hard without realizing it because that’s what she always did when she had a new idea she couldn’t shake. Lena couldn’t help it, some things just got stuck in her head, Kara knew, which was why they had a free roaming vacuum robot that could climb on walls and also do the windows.

Kara had texted ahead, but given Lena still hadn’t responded, it was safe to assume it was still going to be a surprise. She armed herself with a couple subs since there was no telling when the last time Lena had eaten would be, and flew to L-Corp. A quick check confirmed that Lena wasn’t in her office, which only left one option. It wasn’t as easy to get into the lab as it was Lena’s office, but this wasn’t the first rescue mission Kara had had to launch either.

Sure enough, Lena was writing out mathematical formula on a whiteboard when Kara walked in, her hair messily tied up in a way Kara couldn’t help but find adorably attractive. “Hey babe, I’ve got a special delivery for Luthor, with the instructions to bring this to the most attractive woman on this floor.”

Lena jumped and glanced around in confusion for a few moments, before seeing Kara and relaxing. Lena kissed her hello and stretched, moaning and grunting as everything popped. “Mmm, good to see you.” The smell of fresh french fries hit her nose. “And not just because you brought food.”

“Had to be sure you ate something, because I bet you can’t tell me the last time you ate an actual meal.”

“Not true, I ate four doughnuts six hours ago, and if doughnuts count as breakfast for you, they count for me too.”

Kara did her best to look disapproving while fighting the urge to smile. “I’ll let you off on a technicality, but you’ve got to remember to actually take care of yourself if you’re going to save the world.”

Lena lit up and started pulling Kara to her workbench. “Oh, the food can wait, I need to show you what I’ve been working on!”

Kara reluctantly let herself be pulled along. “Lena, I was literally just saying that the food can’t wait, because you need to take care of yourself, I mean, I feel like that was pretty clear.”

“A few more minutes won’t hurt-”

“Your hands are shaking, and I bet you haven’t slept more than a few hours in the past few days. No, I’m putting my foot down.” Kara did just that, and didn’t budge another inch. “I know you’re excited about whatever you’ve been working on, and I want to hear all about it, but it’s not more important than you taking care of yourself.”

Lena’s face was a mix of emotions. She settled on I-was-really-excited-to-show-you-this-thing-but-you-aren’t-interested-so-I’m-disappointed-and-all-my-energy-needs-to-go-somewhere-so-I’m-just-going-to-be-upset. “Fine, if it’ll make you happy,” she grumbled.

“I’m always happy when we eat together,” Kara said as she pulled out the food and set it up on the one food safe counter in the lab. “And you can go ahead and talk about it, as long as you eat too. I’d like to hear about whatever’s kept you locked away in here for so long.”

Lena claimed the meatball sub and half the fries before sitting down with a huff. “I’ve been experimenting with Cisco’s device.”

“J’onn wants the DEO to check that out, by the way.”

Lena scoffed. “Not likely. I’m all for helping out in an emergency, but I’m not about to set a precedent of the government stepping in and confiscating my company property. Besides, taking it won’t do him any good, I know how to build more.”

Kara shook her head. “I think it’s more of a security thing. Besides, I told him you probably wouldn’t go for it.”

“Good.” Lena took a savage bite and chewed.

“So, you’ve been experimenting with the portal thingy, and you’re excited enough that it’s not just been fun explosions so far.”

“Correct! Now, Cisco’s version of the portal device has a safety feature, wherein it will only open a portal to another stable, parallel universe.”

“Well, where else would you open a portal to?”

Lena talked around a mouthful of fries. “The space between those universes.” At Kara’s confused look, Lena continued. “I saw the space between when we traveled, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. I’ve been building and testing since we got back.”

“Which is perfectly fine only as long as you remember to take care of yourself while you’re working.”

“I know my limits, Kara, and trust me when I tell you that this really is important enough to merit the extra effort. Now, I know you know that the universe is constantly expanding, but the question is what are we expanding into? I actually had a professor at MIT who had done a lot of research on that very question, I should see if she’s available to visit and consult, I know she’d be interested. Anyways, she theorized that there was an infinite plane of chaos was what lay beyond the edge of our universe where the laws of physics no longer applied, and that that’s what our universe is expanding into. I’ve been testing what I can remember of her theories, and working on some of my own, but from the readings we’ve seen so far, she got remarkably close for a self-described old coot.”

“I’ve always been a fan of physics. It’s how I figure out how to catch stuff without breaking it. Why would I want to go somewhere none of that works anymore?” Kara asked, half-teasing.

Lena took another big bite before answering. “Because, in a place where the laws of physics don’t apply, that means the laws of thermodynamics don’t apply either. It’s a place where the entropy of a system can be decreased, and energy can be created, not just transformed. If we could manage to harness that energy… just think about it, Kara. Free, limitless energy. This could change the world. This will change the world.”

“Hey, babe, I believe you,” Kara said as she leaned over to plant a kiss on Lena’s cheek. “I’m just also a little curious about the giant hole in the wall of your test chamber.”

“I’ve already moved testing to our reinforced site,” Lena preempted. “The energy bleed from the portal was more vigorous than prior tests, but the blast walls caught it, and nobody was hurt, so it’s fine.”

“None of that makes me feel better,” Kara argued, “because that means something obviously happened, and I was on the other side of the planet.”

“It’s fine, Kara, like I said, nobody got hurt. You know how important the safety of my employees is to me. The experiment was shut down immediately, the proper protocols were followed, and we’re adjusting for the future.”

“Yeah, well, you still almost blew up and you didn’t tell me.”

“You were in Thailand saving people who were actually in danger, and I knew if I called you, you’d want to come back right away to check on me, even though I was fine. Those people needed you to save them, and I didn’t want to distract you from that.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything after I let you know I was back? You wouldn’t be distracting me then,” Kara bit out.

“By that point, everything was resolved, and I decided to tell you the next time I saw you, which is now. Hole in the wall aside, it was not a big deal. And if you’re still mad at me, then I’d rather have you mad at me than have to deal with the idea you could have saved more people but you had to come help me instead.”

Kara harrumphed and turned her attention to her food. After a few vicious bites, she was done. “I hate that you could have gotten hurt and I was too far away to do anything about it. I hate it, because I know that no matter how strong or fast I am, I can’t save everyone, and I know that, but that wasn’t supposed to apply to you. I’m just supposed to be there for you, and now I find out that I wasn’t, and it sucks, and I hate it. I just do, I hate it. Like a lot.”

Lena smirked. “Congratulations, you now know how humans feel when something bad happens and there’s nothing they can do. All we can do is deal with the aftermath, Miss My-Sister’s-Plane-Is-Crashing-So-I’ll-Just-Go-Catch-It.”

Kara pouted at Lena, who quickly crumbled. “It’s how I feel when I see you fighting some new alien, because I know you aren’t completely invulnerable, and anything that does take you down, it’s not going to be something I can step in front of and take for you. So trust me when I tell you, as someone who listens to all your stories and hears about every close call, I know how you feel. I hate it too, worrying about what might happen to you.”

Those weren’t the reassuring words Kara had been hoping for, but Lena reached over to take her hand. “But at the same time, I don’t mind the worrying, because it helped me realize something. I realized that worrying is what do when someone you love is in danger. And I love you, Kara. I love you more than anyone else in the world.”

Kara had to blink back tears. Lena had explained her issues with love and feelings and healthy relationships long ago, and it was the first time she’d told Kara that out loud. Kara knew, because Lena showed it in her actions, but hearing the words made her choke up all the same. “And I love you, Lena, so much. To the stars and back.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 6

“Mrs. Luthor, Miss Arias here to see you.”

Lena started closing computer windows as she answered. “Send her in, I’m expecting her.” Sam was one of the best employees Lena had ever had. Sam was the reason Lena had been able to pull off rebranding as L-Corp, and if she hadn’t managed the Metropolis holdings, there was every chance the whole company would have imploded and been picked apart by their competitors.

Sam was also one of the only people on the planet Lena could truly call a friend. Kara’s friends were great, and Lena believed that they’d be there for her if she asked, but Lena was no fool. If Kara was suddenly out of the picture for some reason, her friends would be gone just as fast. Sam was different. Sam was Lena’s friend, and they’d stuck together through thick and thin. Sam was there for her during Lex, his madness and the trial.

The first assassination attempt.

That had been a bad time for Lena. She doesn’t remember how she got to her office, but that’s where Sam found her, curled around a crystal decanter that was no longer full of scotch. Sam must have had a problem with that method of coping, because she very quickly and quietly half- guided, half-carried a very drunken Lena down to her car and drove them both to her home, where she wrapped Lena in blankets and made her pancakes. Ruby was concerned, but Sam didn’t explain the whole situation, just that something bad happened to Lena, and they were going to take care of her until Lena felt better.

As mortified as she was in the morning, Lena couldn’t deny that falling asleep cuddled between Sam and Ruby had been one of the best feelings in the world. Lena had no idea how to express her gratitude for what they’d done, and when she tried, Sam just gave her a hug and explained that she’d been in crisis situations all alone before, and she couldn’t accept seeing a friend go through a crisis alone.

That had been the thing that convinced her Sam truly was her friend, with no ulterior motive or hidden plot. Sam was the first person Lena could confidently say that about.

(Kara was the second.)

Lena smiled when Sam walked through the door. “Sam, it’s so good to see you, I’m so glad you’re here.”

“So am I. This is a really nice office, Lena. The balcony come standard with the executive suite?”

“I had it added after it was too far to go outside if I wanted fresh air, and the view is honestly worth it by itself. Take a look?” Lena was already opening the door when she asked.

Sam followed, and they took a moment to drink it in. “The people look like ants from up here.”

Lena hmmed. “You’re right, they do. Little dots, moving back and forth, tiny and far away. It happened with Lex. He stood so high above everyone else for so long that he forgot that the ants down there are actual people, and we’re not more important than them. The bottom line isn’t more important.”

Sam frowned and cocked her head. “What brings this on? You weren’t talking like this the last time we talked.”

Lena scowled. “I found another cache Lex left behind.”

Sam reached out to grab Lena’s hand. “Lena.”

Lena pulled away. “I’m fine, I’m just so angry at him. He could have saved the world, but instead he chose to ruin everything.”

“What’d you find that has you so upset? Bio-weapons or something else horrific?”

Lena let out a hollow laugh. “Worse, in a way. This vault was full of mothballed projects and prototypes that could actually do real good if they were ever released.”

“What?”

“I’m serious. The shutdown notes are usually about how they would cut into existing ventures, or upset the status quo too much. Lose money in the long run versus keeping things as they are.”

“What kind of projects?”

“Things that put my Rejuvenate initiative to shame, things that were years away from even making it off the chalkboard. Bio-engineered crops that can grow in virtually any conditions, that yield larger harvests and more nutritious food. A new process for creating high quality plastics from fibrous plant byproducts. Solar panels that are more effective than anything on the market. Wind generators the size of a bookcase that could power an African village. Robotic prosthesis. Gene therapies. A bunch of new drug treatments. God, just so much. So much he hid away.”

“What do you want to do about it now?”

“I want to march into that prison and demand he give me some answers, but that’s never worked before, so there’s no point in expecting it to start working now.” Lena pulled a pen sized USB drive out of her pocket. “A thirty-two terabyte flash drive, transfer speeds ten times faster than USB 3.0, something else he had hidden away. Everything that he had marked complete in the cache is on here, minus the weapons. I need someone to go through everything and give me the numbers, and you’re the only person I can trust.”

“Which is why I’m here.”

“Exactly. Bring in who you need, who you can trust, but keep the circle small, and keep it quiet until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”

Sam took the USB. “This is big, isn’t it? Of course it is, you wouldn’t move me halfway across the country if it wasn’t big, but damn, this is really freaking big.” Sam’s hand went to her forehead, half tangled in her hair. “I really wish you’d stop springing this kind of shit on me out of nowhere, Lena.”

“I’ve kept it quiet until now, I wasn’t about to risk anything by talking on open communications. Besides, we just discovered the vault two days ago, we’ve been taking inventory since then. You’re really coming in at the perfect time, honestly.”

“And yet it doesn’t feel that way. What happened to the work you were bringing me here to do? We’ve been planning on moving for a month, and you only just found this stuff. What about that stuff?”

“I was bringing you here to run the company while I spent a few months in the lab really inventing, but this is more important, so we’ll work together as needed. I’m meeting with Bruce Wayne soon about a partnership in the Rejuvenate initiative, and I’d like to be able to include at least a look at some of these designs. If we can license some out to other companies, we may be able to drag the human race kicking and screaming into the future sometime in our lifetime.”

Sam looked at the USB in her hand. “If this is my project, I want to bring in Angel. You’ve seen their work, I trust them, and they’re pretty passionate about this sort of thing.”

“Like I said, I trust your judgement, so bring in who you need. It’s too important not to do it right.”

“Good, because Angel already told me they want the next open position that gets them out of Metropolis, so I know they’ll be happy to say yes. Honestly, that’s why I didn’t put up much fuss over moving here, because ever since that new superintendent came in, the Metropolis school system has been a mess, and I really think it’s going to be better for Ruby once she adjusts.”

“How is she dealing with the move, by the way, not too bad I hope?”

“No, she’s doing fine, which is apparently unheard of and absolutely amazing, it’s made this so much easier. I don’t want to be that mom who brags about how awesome their kid is, but I will be right now, because my kid is awesome.”

Lena laughed. “Well, having met Ruby, I won’t disagree with you, but it’s good to hear she’s okay.”

Sam smiled at the comment. “She’s going to want to see you now that we’re in the same city again, you know. I can already hear her asking when she can visit the office.”

“Well, I’d love to see her, and if she wants a tour, I’m sure I can make something happen. I know the lady in charge around here, after all.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “I’m going to let her get settled in first, I think. I want to make her transition as smooth as possible, and a new house and new school are a lot to get used to. Probably in a week or two, depending on how things go.”

“I look forward to it.” Lena spotted a dot flying in the distance. “Heads up.”

Lena pulled her hair to the side and held it there while Sam looked around to try and find what Lena was talking about. A gust of wind blew Sam’s hair around as a blue and red blur streaked through the sky next to the building.

Sam leaned over the railing to try and follow the blur, but she was too slow. “Was that Supergirl?”

Lena didn’t let it show on her face that Supergirl had left her with a kiss on the cheek and a teasing pinch on the butt as she’d flown by. “The very same. Welcome to National City.”

0oOo0

“Welcome to National City, Mr. Wayne. I hope you had a good flight?” Kara asked as the man in question exited the gate.

If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. “Kara Danvers, acting as my very own greeting party. What a pleasant surprise.”

Kara’s smile didn’t waver for a second. “Your company has been purchasing the rights to many properties in Gotham City, most of them former criminal hideouts, usually for far below market value. Critics say you’re taking advantage of crime to line your own pockets and extend the already over-reaching influence you and your company hold over Gotham. Would you like to comment?”

“The surprise is less pleasant now,” he quipped, before rolling into an answer, speaking into Kara’s recorder. “Abandoned former crime scenes often filled to the brim with lethal booby-traps are a public danger. A homeless family looking to put a roof over their heads for the night, a child curious about the world around him, a reckless teenager motivated by a dare, any one of them could wander into one of these properties and get seriously injured or worse. I don’t want that to happen, and I have the money to do something about it, so I am. If you need a more cynical take, then vacant properties fall into disrepair and drive down property values for the surrounding area, and don’t generate any positive effect on the economy, which hurts our bottom line. You can take your pick, but I assure you, I’m not doing anything nefarious.”

Kara smiled at him. “Nefarious isn’t a word most people do to describe their actions, especially when they aren’t doing anything nefarious.”

Mr. Wayne shrugged. “Dick downloaded a Word-of-the-Day app onto my phone. Yesterday was flabbergasted.”

“Simon Stagg claims you’re trying to drive the competition out of Gotham, that you’re buying these properties to prevent other companies from expanding.”

“Simon Stagg also claims that global warming is a hoax cooked up by the Markovians to destroy America. I welcome the competition if it means more people are investing in Gotham’s economy, and want to note that after our specially trained teams remediate the property, we often look to sell or rent it from there, so I’m not sure how I’m keeping the competition out.”

Kara nodded and picked a piece of lint off the end of her recorder. “I think he’s complaining about how you keep paying fair market value when he tries to underbid and get it for cheap.”

“You might be right. You know, I’m surprised you caught me here, since I decided to get here a few days early. How long were you planning on camping out here?”

Kara smirked. “I was here talking to a source about the runway renovations when I saw your plane taxiing in. If you want to be stealthy, try a plane that doesn’t have your name plastered all over it in letters three feet high.”

Bruce shrugged and started walking. “That’s funny to hear, coming from Cat Grant’s protege.” Kara pursed her lips. “And it’s not like Luthor is a name known for being understated either. How is your wife?”

Kara’s face broke out into a smile involuntarily. “She’s good, she’s excited to work with you, I know. We were actually talking about you at breakfast, and obviously I know about her side of the preparations, but I’m curious about your side of things. What can you tell me about what you’re here to do and what Wayne Enterprises is preparing to commit to?”

“We’re here to figure out how to save the world, Mrs. Danvers. And while I can’t discuss specifics of what we’re planning to commit, I can say that between Mrs. Luthor and myself, we make a pretty good argument for the phrase ‘more money than God’, and we both happen to believe that we can make that money work for the betterment of mankind.”

“A noble effort. Where do you think you’ll start?”

“At the beginning, Mrs. Danvers. Where else would we start?”

“What do you consider the beginning?”

Bruce didn’t slow down, but he considered his answer for a moment. “There are too many people on this planet that don’t have reliable access to the basic necessities in life. Clean water, food, shelter, things that can and will kill you if you don’t have them for too long. That’s where I’d like to start, but there’s so many issues that need addressing, I can’t say for sure what avenues we’ll decide to pursue first.”

“I look forward to hearing about it.”

“And for some reason, I don’t think I’m going to make it out of the city before I tell you all about it. Isn’t this a story you could get out of your wife?”

“How would I get your side of the story from her? Lena’s smart, but I’m pretty sure she’s not actually a mind reader. Except she somehow always knows when I want pancakes. Haven’t figured that one out yet.”

“Is it possibly because you always want pancakes, that you are in a constant state of pancake desire?”

“Wow, I’m feeling super called out right now, you don’t even know.”

“It’s not my fault I’ve seen what you tweet at three in the afternoon. Let me guess, staff meetings sapping your energy?”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Oh my god, they’re so horrible. The only saving grace is that Snapper hates wasting time in staff meetings more than anyone else, so they don’t usually run too long, thank goodness.”

“That’s the best part about owning the company. I can fall asleep or walk out pretty much whenever I want. Makes dealing with boring meetings so much easier.”

“I’m jealous.”

“Most people are. Perks of being born a white male billionaire. You know, if the staff meetings are getting you down, there’s still a place for you in my organization any time you’re willing to make the jump.”

“You aren’t a media company, Mr. Wayne, I think I’d find it a bit difficult to be a reporter.”

Bruce shook his head. “You and I both know that Wayne Enterprises owns a paper or two –”

“None of them are CatCo Worldwide Media.”

Bruce sighed. “And you learned at the feet of the woman herself, so you’re not going anywhere. I get it, Mrs. Danvers, I’m just disappointed because I pride myself on hiring the best minds around, and I can’t seem to entice you at all. It’s not very often I can’t get what I want, I’m having trouble remembering how I’ve dealt with this feeling in the past.”

“You could try being an adult and accepting that you can’t always get everything you want.”

“No, I’m pretty sure that’s not what I did at all.”

“Maybe you should look into it.”

“I think I’ll stick to racing supercars and jumping out of planes. It’s served me well so far.”

“Has it though? You’re rather notorious for injuring yourself doing those things.”

“I’m aware of the risks going in, and the only reason people think that is because ‘Man surfs, doesn’t get eaten’ doesn’t have much of a story behind it. Successful vacations don’t cause the stock market to jump around after I get home.”

“If you say so, Mr. Wayne.”

Their walking conversation had led them to a waiting towncar, driver standing outside to receive his client. “It’s been a pleasure talking with you, Mrs. Danvers. Not often I can say that to a reporter and still be telling the truth.”

0oOo0

“Lena Luthor, what are you still doing here?”

Lena looked up guiltily to see Kara crossing the room towards her, paper bag in hand. “I sent Jess home, and I brought eclairs.” Kara’s focus shifted to Sam. “Hi, I’m Kara Danvers, nice to meet you.”

They shook hands. “Sam Arias, I’ve heard a lot about you. Lena mentions you almost every time we talk.” Sam’s eyes flicked to the bag in Kara’s hands.

Kara smirked. “Oh, I saw that. Fine, you can have one if you want.” She set the bag down on the desk and pulled out a chocolate eclair, quickly taking a bite. “‘Ey’re good,” Kara said around a mouthful of dough and creme filling.

Sam snorted, and Lena rolled her eyes. “Wonderful first impression, dear.”

Kara swallowed enough to be intelligible, at least. “I’m delightful,” she proclaimed defiantly, and took another savage bite of pastry.

“You’re something alright,” Lena muttered, but she was smiling as she said it.

Sam wasted no time in taking an eclair for herself, closing her eyes in pleasure once she took a bite.

“So, Sam, Lena was pretty excited to have you move here. What do you think so far?”

“It’s hectic, and now that I look at the clock, I really should be going. I want to get home in time to do something with Ruby.”

“Oh, Ruby’s your daughter? Lena mentioned you were a mom and that you may possibly have the greatest child in the history of ever.”

Sam laughed. “Yeah, it’s me and Ruby, the two of us against the world, and Lena’s right, Ruby is awesome, though I might be a little biased.” Sam’s laughter cut out as her eyes glanced at the clock. “Oh man, is it really that late already? Lena, unless you need anything else, I meant to leave at least half an hour ago.”

Lena was already shaking her head. “Go ahead, of course. Say hello for me.”

“It’s okay, Lena’s leaving too. Even if I have to throw her over my shoulder and carry her out.”

Lena stilled. “Kara, I am wearing a skirt.”

“Then I’d get moving if I were you,” Kara sing-songed, turning back to Sam. “You’ve got until the eclairs are gone, and there’s only three more in the bag.”

Sam did a double take, sure enough, Kara’s dessert was gone and she was reaching for another. “Lena mentioned your appetite, but I chalked it up to her exaggerating.”

“I don’t exaggerate,” Lena protested from her desk, where she was gathering her things. She knew exactly how fast Kara could eat, and that she wasn’t bluffing about carrying her out of the building.

“Can I get another one for the road?” Sam asked, pointing to the bag. “I already know I’m gonna want another one.”

Kara frowned and checked inside, staring longingly at the food. “Yeah, I suppose so,” she agreed finally.

“Thanks.”

Lena chuckled at the look on Kara’s face as Sam took another eclair. “Three is plenty, dear.”

Kara gasped in outrage. “What? Who told you that, I think you’re listening to fake news, that’s just crazy, I swear.”

“Well, most people don’t have a metabolism that turns pure sugar into rocket fuel.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Sam, it was very nice meeting you, and I hope to see you again soon. You and Ruby should come over for dinner some night. Tonight! This weekend? How old is Ruby? Would she want to go to the zoo? We should go to the zoo!”

Sam glanced at Lena, who was too busy smiling fondly at her wife to notice. She started for the door. “Sounds great, we’ll have to work it out. Lena, I’ll see you later, bye!”

Kara waited until the door clicked shut before turning to Lena. “So that was the famous Sam I’ve heard so much about, huh? She seems nice.”

“She is nice, when I’m not paying her to be ruthless.”

“I didn’t scare her off, did I? I wasn’t even thinking, but that probably wasn’t the best first impression, was it?”

“Calm down, dear, you’re fine. You gave her delicious pastries, and any other chance for a good first impression has most likely been ruined by the fact that Sam is who I call to vent to when you get on my nerves.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Perfect. I finally get to meet one of your friends, and she already thinks I’m a stupid jerk.”

Lena shook her head and moved in to embrace Kara. “No, I’ve been very careful to emphasize that while I may be disparaging you in the short term, my long term feelings towards you are significantly more positive.”

Kara buried her face in Lena’s neck. “Aww, you like me.”

“Of course I like you.”

Kara started swaying in place, moving Lena with her. “Lena liiiikes me, she wants to kiiiiiss me,” she sang.

“We’re married.”

“I’ve got to call Snapper and tell him I’ve got a new page one headline, Lena Luthor Likes Kara Danvers, get it to run at the top of tomorrow’s issue.”

“We’re literally married.”

“I love that you like me, because I’ve had a crush on you for, like, ever, so this is the best thing that’s basically ever happened.”

“You are a ridiculous alien.”

“Give my mouth something better to do, and maybe I’ll stop.”

“There’s still one eclair left in the bag.”

Kara sagged in Lena’s arms. “Oh Rao. Here I am, in your arms, ready and willing, waiting for you to lose all control and kiss me senseless just to get a moment of silence, and you point me in the direction of sugary treats instead? What kind of evil are you?”

“I just wouldn’t want it to get stale,” Lena explained rationally.

“It’ll keep long enough for you to kiss me.”

“Oh no, that’s where you’re wrong, Supergirl. I want to kiss you until the stars fall out of the sky. I want to kiss you every minute of every day until I take my last breath.”

Kara swallowed the lump that appeared in her throat. “I can’t help but notice that your lips still aren’t on mine.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to interrupt you, when you clearly have so much important to say,” Lena teased.

“Not even when you know I want you to interrupt me with a kiss?”

“Listening to you talk is almost as good as kissing you.”

“But kissing is better?” Kara asked as her head slowly drifted closer to Lena.

“For the purposes of this discussion, yes.”

“Then you should kiss me,” Kara whispered against Lena’s lips, before closing the tiny distance left and capturing them with her own.

“Sorry! Forgot my – oh shit, don’t mind me, just forgot my purse.”

Kara jumped away from Lena, startled by Sam’s sudden reappearance. Super hearing was useless when you didn’t pay attention to it. “Oh, we were just–”

“Yeah, I saw. Don’t worry, I’m getting out of your hair, but can I just make one request?” Sam asked, looking directly at Lena. “Don’t do it anywhere I’m going to have to sit or work in the future.”

“Just kissing! Only kissing going on!” Kara quickly protested.

Sam held her hands up in surrender. “Hey, Lena owns the building, so as far as I’m concerned, she can do whatever she wants in it. I just ask that you leave my chair out of it.”

“Only kissing!” Kara shouted after her, but Sam was already gone. Kara pouted at Lena. “Don’t say it.”

“I’m not saying anything.” Lena bit her lip to hide her smile. It didn’t work very well.

“You’re not saying it very loudly.” Kara tried to look upset, but it was a losing battle.

“Then maybe your superhearing is picking it up, though it clearly just missed Sam coming back.”

“You knew she was coming back, didn’t you?”

“I had noticed her purse, yes.”

Kara shook her head and embraced Lena again. “Rao, what am I gonna do with you?”

Lena put on a seductive smile. “I have a few suggestions… and they involve Sam’s chair.”

0oOo0

“You’re late,” Lena said as a Supergirl-shaped blur entered through the window.

The blur didn’t stop until Kara grabbed clothes and ended up in the shower. “I’m so sorry, I know I’m late, but it’s better than having the National City Pier sink into the harbor. There was a Nespari with a seismic cannon that was setting off localized earthquakes.”

“I thought I felt shaking earlier.”

“Yeah, each blast was reinforcing the ones before, but I stopped them before it got too bad, as far as we can tell. Still did some damage, and the Pier is probably going to be closed for a week so they can fix everything, but we’ve got the Nespari in custody and Winn is examining the seismic cannon.” An irritated groan echoed out of the bathroom. “Lena, honey, sweetie, can you bring me a new bottle of soap from the closet? The one in here’s no good,” Kara called.

“Really? Because the last I saw, it should be at least half full,” Lena called back knowingly, but she was already halfway to the closet.

“Yes, I broke the bottle, I’m sorry, now can you please bring me more soap so I can be ready for when Sam and Ruby get here?” A new bottle appeared in front of Kara, Lena’s hand poking in around the shower curtain. “Oh, thank you, I’ll be done as soon as I get the rubble out of my hair. There’s no way to explain rubble.”

Kara grabbed the soap and caught Lena’s hand before she could pull it back. She pressed a noisy kiss to her knuckles. “Love you!”

Kara washed up as quickly as she could, but she was still getting dressed when she heard Lena greeting Sam and Ruby.

“Ruby, it’s so good to see you again, how have you been?” Lena asked.

“I’m okay. It’s good to see you too,” Ruby said, a little hesitant. “Your place looks nice.”

“Thank you, but Kara deserves the credit. Even I can admit it was rather cold and impersonal before she warmed the place up.”

“Where is she?” That was Sam, and Kara put on a bit more speed, fixing her hair and checking herself in the mirror before heading out to meet their guests.

“I’m right here!” she announced as she rounded the corner into view. “So, you’re Ruby? Lena’s had a lot of good things to say about you.” Kara held out her hand. “I’m Kara.” After shaking hands, Kara took her seat next to Lena.

“I’m Ruby, which you already knew. And I already know who you are, I mean, kind of. I follow you on Twitter, I mean. You’re really smart.”

Kara beamed. “Thank you, Ruby, it’s not too often I get recognized for my smarts when I’ve got a literal super-genius inventor standing next to me.”

“Then people are just underestimating you,” Lena said. “I wouldn’t marry someone who couldn’t challenge me intellectually.”

Kara squeezed Lena’s hand in silent thanks. “Sam, it’s good to see you again, thanks for making the time so soon. I know moving can be pretty wild.”

“We’ve got all the necessities out of boxes, but that’s about all I’ve got done so far.”

“I helped,” Ruby interjected.

Sam pulled Ruby into a one-armed side hug. “Yes, you did, and thank you again for taking care of all of your stuff. It really helped me, but at the end of the day, I still haven’t found the time to go grocery shopping, so we were here as soon as you offered to feed us.”

Lena chuckled. “Well, we have plenty to eat tonight, don’t worry about that. You can even take home the leftovers if you want.”

“Wha-?”

“Yes, Kara.”

“But what am I going to eat when I get that two a.m. craving?”

“I trust you’ll be able to figure something out. Weren’t we just talking about how smart you are?”

Kara pouted. Lena kissed it away.

Sam sighed. “God, you guys are just too cute together. Stop it,” she ordered, deadpan.

Everybody giggled. “Seriously though, you two are disgusting, and I’m jealous,” Sam said.

“You know you can date someone if you want to,” Ruby volunteered, the words coming out like she’d been holding them in for a while. “I mean, if you were holding back because of me for some reason, which would be crazy, you don’t have to. I would be in support of you dating, if that’s what you wanted to do. I mean, if it would make you happy, it would be totally okay with me, because I want you to be happy.”

“Okay, I think I got it,” Sam said with a little laugh. “And honestly, while I’m happy to hear you’re okay with me dating, but between work and being a mom, I just don’t have the time to devote to dating or a relationship right now, not if I want to do it right.”

Ruby offered an awkward shrug in response. “I just don’t want you to be lonely.”

Sam melted. “That’s very sweet, but I’m not lonely. I’ve got you, and if you’re not around, I’ve got friends like Lena to keep me company. Maybe in the future I’ll meet someone, but until then, I’m happy right where I am.”

Ruby nodded firmly. “Good.”

Watching mother and daughter interact brought a smile to Kara’s face. “Gosh, now I’m the one who’s jealous. Lena, promise me when we have kids they’ll be as good as Ruby.”

“Kids?” Lena asked, temporarily looking like she’d been slapped with a large herring and hadn’t been expecting it.

“Yeah, kids. Those little people you take care of until they turn into big people?”

Lena made an admirable attempt at recovery. “No, right, obviously, I just wasn’t aware you wanted children.”

Kara took Lena’s hand. “I mean, not right now, but in a few years, yeah, definitely.” Lena stiffened instinctually. “But that’s not until we’re both ready, and I’m not ready yet, so it’s still a ways away. Hey, Ruby, you said you follow me on Twitter. Was that because I’m a crazy awesome reporter with hard hitting stories or because I’m married to your mom’s boss?”

Ruby was thrown by the sudden subject change, and she stumbled over her answer. “Well, I guess I heard about you after you got married to Lena, so kinda the second, but I only followed you after I read some of your history, so kinda the first one too, and I really like the science stuff you post. You always make it sound really interesting, not like Mr. Schockley.”

“He’s your science teacher?” Kara guessed.

Ruby nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t like him very much. I don’t want to say he’s too old to be teaching, but he’s like seventy and I don’t think he’s changed his lesson plan in at least twenty years. He doesn’t do anything to keep the stupid jerks from being stupid jerks, and I’ve actually seen him fall asleep at her desk while we were supposed to be doing classwork. I mean, he barely teaches at all. He talks for about five minutes at the start, then we’re usually supposed to read and answer questions out of the book for the rest of class. And that usually only takes me like twenty minutes, so then I knock out the homework, and I still have spare time afterwards to do whatever I want, which is usually other homework, because why not get it out of the way while I have the time, right? Only I guess I’m the only one who thinks that way, because everybody else gets the classwork done and then decides it’s time to party, and they just spend the rest the time talking and being loud and distracting.”

“That sucks,” Kara commiserated.

“I just hate that I don’t like Science this year. I’ve always liked Science class!” Ruby insisted. “It’s one of my favorite classes, but he’s such a bad teacher I can’t like it anymore, and it’s just really aggravating.”

“There’s a PTA meeting next week, and I’m going to go and have a conversation with him, it’s already on my calendar,” Sam said. “Just do your best until then, and if it’s still a problem after that, we’ll see what we can do from there.”

“Do you like your other teachers, at least?” Lena asked.

“Yeah, they’re fine, it’s just science class that’s bad. I actually really like Ms. Keller, she’s my English teacher and she’s definitely my favorite this year. She’s really smart and she knows how to make what she’s talking about interesting, unless she’s talking about grammar, but I can’t blame her for not doing the impossible. But she said she really liked my writing, and she gave me some really good notes on this poem I wrote, said I should keep up the good work.”

Sam looked exasperated. “I tell her the exact same thing for years, and I’m just saying it because I’m the Mom, but the teacher says it once and it’s gospel. You’re lucky you’re cute, kid.” Sam teased Ruby by goosing her ribs.

“Stop, Mom, god,” Ruby whined as she twisted away. “I just really admire her, that’s all. She’s really smart and confident and pretty and going back to our earlier conversation for a second I overheard her talking to one of the other teachers about how she broke up with her girlfriend, so if you wanted to get back out there, I think she’d be a good choice. I mean, she’s single, she likes women, she’s got a steady job, she’s good with kids, I already said she’s smart and pretty and confident, and you should really really think about it because I don’t want you to die alone, and I refuse to have you be one of those creepy single parents who follow their kid off to college because they can’t let go.”

Sam started laughing over the tail end of Ruby’s explanation, because how else was she supposed to react to that? “Oh, sweetie, I’m not sure if that’s really sweet, or really offensive, but I’m going to try to take it positively, and you’re never going to call me a creepy single parent ever again. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Sam pasted on a smile and changed the subject. “So, what’s for dinner?”

Lena jumped on the subject change with the ease of long practice. “Dinner, right. Lasagna and salad are in the kitchen, but it might still be a little too hot to eat.”

Kara shot to her feet. “Challenge accepted!” she cried, pointing triumphantly skyward. Ruby giggled, breaking out into laughter as Kara marched off, finger still held high.

Lena rolled her eyes. “We should get in there before she claims the whole pan for herself.”

Ruby snorted. “You say that like she’ll eat the whole pan before we get in there.”

“It’s a distinct possibility,” Lena teased. Ruby dashed after Kara, and Lena followed. She paused in the doorway when she noticed Sam was still sitting down, her back stiff and staring blankly at the opposite wall. “Sam? You coming?”

Sam shook herself out of her daze. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be right there.”

0oOo0

“I think that went well,” Kara declared after Sam and Ruby left for the night. “Ruby’s so cute.”

Lena hmmed an agreement, too preoccupied with Kara’s fingers rubbing at her temples to form words. Lena lounged on the floor between Kara’s legs, who was lounging on the couch.

“You were really good with her, too,” Kara added. “And Sam is just the nicest person ever, I’m going to have to introduce her to everybody else. Do you think she’d want to come to a Game Night, or would drinks and pool be a better idea?”

“Game Night, because I don’t want my CFO to run back to Metropolis after you surprise her with the alien bar.”

“I wasn’t going to take her to the alien bar!”

“Drinks and pool, where else were you thinking of?”

“That… place, with the name… it’s um–”

“I thought so.”

Kara hmphed grumpily, but kept rubbing Lena’s temples. “So, you kinda freaked out earlier,” she mentioned as casually as possible once she felt Lena was relaxed enough. “You know, when the subject of children was broached?”

Lena went as still as a statue. “Freaked out might be a bit strong,” she deflected feebly.

“I hate to pull the supersenses card, but I’m pretty sure I would have been able to hear your heart pounding even without superhearing.”

“Fine, I had a minor freak out.”

“And it’s totally fine that you did, but it seems like something we ought to talk about.” Kara’s fingers moved down from Lena’s temples to rub her neck.

“Right, you start.”

Kara pursed her lips. “Okay. Um, I meant what I said earlier. I want to have kids someday, I want to be a mom, but I don’t want those things to happen until we’re both ready, okay? I’m serious. But I’m more curious why you’re terrified by the idea of kids.”

“Kara, there’s no way I could be a mother,” Lena insisted, her voice tense and shaking like an overtightened violin string. “Lionel and Lillian had no idea how to raise a child, and that’s all I know. I’d ruin them. I could never trust myself not to.”

Kara pulled her hands away from Lena before she clenched them into fists. “Okay, you know what, no one gets to talk about my wife like that, not even you, so just stop it.” Kara took a breath. “First of all, the Luthors may have raised you, but you’re already bucked their business practices and their politics, so why do you think you’d follow their example as a parent? And I don’t know why you think you’d ruin them, you’re great with kids. I mean, you just spent a whole evening with a twelve year old girl, and I assure you, she’s not traumatized. Not to mention all the kids at the Children’s Hospital, they love you, and it’s not because you’re paying their bills. Their parents may love you for that, but the kids love you because you care about them, you can see it in their eyes. And if you don’t think you can trust yourself, then you can trust me, and Alex, and Sam, and Eliza, and everybody else.”

Lena didn’t say anything. Kara relaxed her hands and started rubbing her shoulders. “Besides, I’m not ready. I wasn’t lying about wanting to wait a few years, I’m still way too young to be a mom by Kryptonian standards.”

“What do you mean?” Talking about Krypton was always sure to peak Lena’s curiosity, no matter her mood.

“On Krypton, it’s generally expected that you be well established and accomplished in your chosen field before you start thinking about children. My mother was thirty-one when she had me, and she was considered to be a relatively young mother. Granted, that was nothing compared to the scandal of Uncle Jor-El and Aunt Lara decided they were going to have Clark the, well, you would call it the old-fashioned way, but since they were bucking centuries of tradition by not using the Birthing Matrix, that’s not really the best way to say it, but you know what I mean.”

“I do.” Lena turned her head and pressed a kiss to Kara’s knee. “I’m sorry I freaked out.”

“It’s okay, really. Everybody’s got stuff they have to deal with. My stuff happens to include a lot of unresolved grief and anger that doesn’t feel like it’ll ever go away. Your stuff includes a lot of parental issues because the Luthors should never have been allowed around children. It’s stuff that won’t get better unless we work on it, but that’s the best thing about us being together. Because it means there’s always someone there to help us with our stuff.”

“You are truly a wordsmith,” Lena said dryly. “You should be a writer.”

“Rude.”

“You’re the one who married me.”

Kara bent over to kiss the top of Lena’s head. “Best decision of my life that I can’t remember.”

Lena grabbed Kara’s hand and leaned her head onto Kara’s leg. “Yeah, it’s worked out pretty well for us.”

They stayed there for more than five minutes, just enjoying being with each other. Then the sky changed colors and the moment was broken.

A green glow lit up the night sky, coming from an enormous green House of El crest floating in mid-air over the CatCo building.

“Dammit, I am trying to seduce my wife!” Kara complained to the heavens, but she still got her suit on at superspeed. “Can’t I get a break?”

Fortunately, she could.

It didn’t take long to get to CatCo, and as she approached, the giant green crest disappeared. A tall black man in a green and black supersuit hovered twenty feet above the roof, surrounded by a gentle green aura.

“I gotta say, as far as methods of getting my attention, this is a lot better than rampant destruction,” Supergirl prompted, hands on hips.

The man nodded. “I’m John Stewart, Green Lantern for Sector 2814. Pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”

“Green Lantern?” Kara had heard of the Lantern Corps before, but she’d never met an actual member. They were supposed to be intergalactic peacekeepers or something, her parents hadn’t mentioned them much. “What are you doing here?”

“Just need to talk to you. Ring said you were in the city, figured it’d be more polite than tracking down your apartment.”

Supergirl relaxed a little. “I’m here. Let’s talk.”

“I’ve been looking for a Nespari war criminal, and the trail leads to you. I know you fought with him earlier. I need to know what you did with him after.”

“He’s in a holding facility, and he’s not going anywhere. He nearly knocked half of National City into the water.”

“He’s wanted on his home planet for causing the deaths of more than a hundred thousand citizens.”

“Oh, Rao,” Supergirl swore. “Okay, you know what? I don’t have the authority to release him, but I know who does.” She touched her earpiece. “J’onn, come in. I’m bringing someone to the DEO, you’re going to need to talk to him.”

“Acknowledged, Supergirl. This is related to the visual spectacle near CatCo?”

“You know it. Hey, Lantern Stewart, if you want to follow me, I’ll introduce you to the guy you need to talk to.”

“Lead the way.” It didn’t take more than a minute or two to reach the DEO, and J’onn was waiting for them on the landing balcony.

“Supergirl. Green Lantern.”

“You know him?” Supergirl asked.

“I recognize the symbol.”

“John Stewart, former US Marine, current Green Lantern.” John extended a hand as he landed.

J’onn shook it. “J’onn J’onzz, Director of the DEO.”

Supergirl smiled. “Great, you’re both introduced. I’m gonna go home and sleep with my wife.”

Chapter Text

“Hey, what’s going on everybody, for First We Feast I’m Sean Evans and you’re watching Hot Ones. It’s the show with hot questions and even hotter wings. Today I’m joined by Kara Danvers, one of CatCo Magazine’s hottest young reporters. You might recognize her from her articles on alien refugees, underground fight clubs, metahuman crime, medical advances, and more. She’s also made a name for herself on social media, fighting for LGBTQ rights and pushing for more girls in STEM fields. But the real question is, can she stand the heat, the fire, the burn of these wings? That’s what we’re gonna find out, welcome to the show, Kara.”

“Thank you for having me, I’m excited to be here.”

“Good to hear, good to hear. Before we get started, how are you with spicy foods?”

“Pretty good. I usually do alright with the hottest wings on the menu, but I don’t know how that stands up to whatever you’ve got.”

“Well, we’re gonna find out, let’s get to it.”

Howler Monkey - 600 Scoville

Kara twisted the wing to loosen the meat before cleaning in more or less one bite. She pulled off the last bit of chicken with her fingers and popped it in her mouth. “Mmm, that’s tasty.”

“Okay, so you’re a reporter at CatCo, but you’ve actually been working there longer than that, haven’t you?”

“Yes, I was previously Miss Grant’s personal administrative assistant before I transitioned into reporting.”

“What was that like?”

“Looking back, I actually really enjoyed it. There were long hours and late nights sometimes, and it was a lot of hard work, but I was working directly for one of the most influential women in media. I traveled with her sometimes, and got to meet so many different kinds of people, I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

“What about the Queen herself, Cat Grant? What was she like?”

“Having worked closely with Miss Grant, let me just say that she does not get enough credit for the work she does. And I say that knowing exactly how many awards, accolades, and achievements she gets, and it’s still not enough, because she never stops trying to improve herself. One of the things she told me, and I don’t think she’ll mind if I share it, is that every day you should try to do better than the day before, improve on yesterday’s performance. After all, you’re more experienced now, you’ve learned from your mistakes, so you’re wiser than you were yesterday. That’s how Miss Grant went from being a cub reporter to the Queen of All Media: she approached every day like it was an opportunity to do better and improve herself, and the results speak for themselves. She’s an inspiration.”

Heartbeat Hot Sauce - 4000 Scoville

Kara nodded and sucked the meat off the end of the bone. “Good.”

“Now, I’m going to get right to it, because I can’t help myself. What’s it like to interview Supergirl?”

“It’s pretty amazing, because she is Supergirl, but I try not to let that affect me, and treat her just like any other interview subject. That’s what Miss Grant advised me to do, anyways, after she introduced the two of us.”

“Well that explains how the two of you met, which was my next question.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to step on your questions. I’m not used to being on this side of the interview.”

“What’s it like being friends with Supergirl while you’re married to Lena Luthor?”

“I catch myself thinking, ‘Is this really my life, or is this just a fantasy?’ And then I start singing Queen in my head, because everybody loves Bohemian Rhapsody. But seriously, it’s actually completely cool. Lena doesn’t share her family’s opinions about aliens, and she gets along really well with Supergirl, so it’s usually a good time when they’re together.”

Pirate’s Lantern - 7500 Scoville

Kara sucked her thumb clean. “Delicious, oh, man, I just need to commend you for coming up with this whole idea, because any time I can eat and have it count as working is a win in my book.”

“Glad to hear it. We’re pretty proud of what we’ve got here. Now, speaking of your wife, you have a pretty crazy wedding story. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about it?”

Kara scrunched up her face, embarrassed. “Oooh, okay, you’re going there.”

“We’re going there, nothing but the hard questions here on Hot Ones.”

“Urgh, fine, but only because you’re feeding me.” Kara tossed the bare chicken bone into the trash with a clang. “So, Lena and I were both in Vegas for the same convention, she was presenting and I was reporting, and the whole thing was so cool. I didn’t actually get to go to see Lena’s whole presentation, I got caught up and then I was late, it was a whole thing and I was kinda disappointed I didn’t get to see it, but c’est la vie, you know?”

“Of course.”

“So, after the convention was over, we went out drinking, and I was just trying to have a good time, you know, celebrate the end of the convention, blow off some steam, hang out with some new people I met, but there was this guy,” Kara’s face twisted with disgust, “and I honestly don’t remember anything about him except that he was Drunk, like capital D drunk, and he started to hit on Lena, like aggressively hitting on her, not taking no for an answer, and making her super uncomfortable. As soon as I saw what was going on, I was like, um, excuse me, you need to leave her alone before I punch you to the moon, cause I was feeling confident, and he was like this is none of your business so back off, and I wasn’t having that, so he ended up in a wrist lock my sister showed me until the bouncer was able to get over to us to escort him out.

“Anyways, I was checking on Lena to make sure she was okay, and she said something about me being her knight in shining armor, and I played along, calling her my lady fair and asking for her favor, and she upped the ante by offering me her hand, and somewhere during the night it turned from just a gag to us actually getting married, and when we woke up, we decided that drunk actions were sober thoughts, and we’re still together and happier than ever.”

“That’s awesome. Any regrets about broadcasting the ceremony live over the internet?”

Kara rolled her eyes. “I mean, the reasoning behind that was so that my family could watch, even though they weren’t physically there, and I stand by that. I will say that if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t film it on a cell phone, but I’ve made so many friends since then, especially in the queer community, that I can’t say I regret it at all.”

Son of Zombie - 24000 Scoville

“Here on Hot Ones we kinda like to pride ourselves on just how diverse our guests have been, we’ve had rappers, wrestlers, actors and actresses, athletes, social media stars, we interview a lot of different people, but they’re all used to being on the receiving side of the interview. You’re a reporter, so you’re used to being on this side of the table, so to speak. How’s it feel to be on the other side of the interview?”

“Pretty good, but you’re also feeding me, so I feel like that’s helping.”

“How you doing with those wings so far?”

“Oh man, they’re delicious. My compliments to the chef.”

“I’ll be sure to pass it along. So, you’ve interviewed some pretty amazing people yourself, who stands out? Which interview sticks in your memory the best?”

“I mean, my favorite person to interview is Lena, because even if it’s not ethical to write anything about my wife, I can ask her questions over dinner, and I get to learn more about the woman I love, so yeah, I love interviewing Lena, but as far as interview subjects for work, one of my favorites was when I was doing research on alien refugees, I got to talk to an old woman from a planet on the border of Citadel Space. Her parents fled the violence when the Citadel attacked, and they ended up in Khund territory, but she had to leave there years later because of Khundian persecution, and eventually she ended up on Earth. But what made her story so amazing was the way she told it.

“She could – the best way I can describe it is that she could paint the air. She just moved her hands, and left color behind, and as she told her story, she painted what she remembered, the places and the people. It was amazing, and honestly so moving, I really can’t do it justice.”

“Okay, whoa, what?! That’s a Hot Ones first, definitely.”

“Yeah, I was pretty sure it would be. If you’re interested in learning more about her story, she was part of my ‘Far From Home’ series, but for those of you who just want the cliff notes, she landed on Earth about eighty-five years ago, and she’s found people to call her family and she’s got her happy ending.”

“Thank god,” Sean grinned.

Los Calientes - 36000 Scoville

Kara moaned appreciatively around a mouthful of chicken. “This is really good, this is the stuff you guys make?”

“Yeah, we’ve made a couple, and this one is new this season.”

“Oh, cool.”

“Right on. Alright, Kara, here on Hot Ones, we have a recurring segment called Explain That Gram, where we do a deep dive on our guest’s Instagram, pull interesting pictures that need more context, find out the real story of what went down. I’ll just bust out the laptop, I’ll show you some pictures, and you tell me the bigger story, that sound okay?”

“Sounds great!”

“Laptop please!” Sean took a minute to get the laptop situated before displaying a picture of beaming Kara with the bottom half of her face covered in cherry pie. “You’re well known for your love of food, so I want to hit a few of the highlights, and I’ve got to start here. What happened?”

“What happened is that I won,” Kara answered smugly. “You’re looking at the seven-time reigning champion of the Midvale County Pie Eating Contest.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Not even a little, I’m proud of it,” Kara grinned. “Traditional pie eating contest rules, so no hands or utensils, all mouth work, and I worked through more than a pie and a half before time was up.”

“You going back to defend your title this year?”

“Of course I am, I’m going for the record on consecutive years, but I’ve still got a few to go.”

“Impressive.”

The picture was of an ice cream smeared Kara slouched triumphantly over an empty mixing bowl, the last melted dregs a multi-colored swirl at the bottom. “Please tell me you didn’t eat all that ice cream. Please tell me you had help, that it was a team effort.”

Kara shook her head with a smile on her face. “Can’t do it, that was all me.”

“Good god, you’re a machine,” Sean praised. “What’s the story there?”

“I’d had a really tough week, like a whole week of Mondays, and I guess it showed because when I asked Ophelia for the biggest bowl of ice cream they had, that’s what she gave me. It’s an eating challenge now, finish the whole thing and it’s free. Shout out to Sweet V Creamery in National City, everybody should go there because they have really good ice cream and if you beat their challenge you get your face on the wall, just don’t make yourself sick.”

The next picture was of the buffet line at the CatCo Christmas Gala. “What’s your strategy at the buffet? What do you hit first, do you skip anything?”

“That depends, can I go back for more or is it one pass only? Because they’re very different situations. If you only get one pass, then you want to make sure you have a sturdy plate, double up if you’re in a paper plate situation, because it’s about volume and complimentary flavors. You want to load up as much as you can since there’s no going back for more, and that means stacking foods that taste good together. Steak and potatoes, that sort of thing. If you can go back, however, you start by getting a little bit of everything, maybe just a couple bites of things you might not be sure on, and you use that as a sample plate to figure out what you want to get seconds of, and usually I’ll narrow it down to three or four dishes to fill up on.”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

“I like to think about important things, so I plan the best approaches to buffet lines. I’m really feeling like an adult right now.”

“You’re talking to a guy who makes his living eating hot wings on Youtube. I’ve got no room to judge, trust me.”

Carolina Reaper - 71000 Scoville

Kara nodded as she chewed. “Okay, it’s definitely getting hotter, but it’s still good, it’s still tasty.”

“Don’t worry, it’s coming. We’re on the back half from here.”

“I’m just saying, you need to ask your questions faster, because I’m hungry and I’ve got chicken instincts. I automatically eat any chicken wings near me, my hands will act on their own.”

“That’s terrifying.”

“You’re not the first person to tell me that.”

“I believe you.” Sean wiped his mouth and took a drink of water. “You’re on record saying that no matter who wears a cape, your hero will always be your older sister. What makes her take the top slot over Supergirl or Guardian?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for National City’s heroes, but they’re heroes for everybody, and Alex is a hero for me. Her family adopted me when I was thirteen, right after I’d just lost my parents, my whole world, really, and Alex was there for me. Has been there for me ever since, because it took me years to adjust to my new life, and I still have bad days every now and then where all I want to do is curl up under a blanket and forget the world exists for a while, and Alex is there for me when that happens. Plus her official title is Doctor Doctor Special Agent Danvers, and she’s a black belt, and she’s got a hot girlfriend, so yeah, what I’m saying is that my sister is better than your sister, fight me about it.”

Bunster’s Black Label - 99000 Scoville

“This is the greatest method of interviewing somebody ever,” Kara said. “I’m going to steal this. I’m going to bring chicken wings to all my interviews from now on.”

“As long as you don’t put on Youtube, go right ahead, I don’t care. Just gotta protect that brand, you know?”

“Haha, right.”

“Now, I don’t know if you know this or not, I assume you do, but you’re kind of an LGBTQ style icon.”

“Saying that I’m anybody’s style icon is probably the most bizarre thing I’ve ever heard, but yeah, I know what you’re talking about, and honestly, I’m not the style icon, not by a long shot.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean have you seen my wife? Lena in a dress, stunning. Lena in a suit, magnificent. Lena in lab clothes, amazing. Lena on the red carpet, fantastic. Lena in 12th century period piece noble dress? Oddly enough, I’ve seen it, and I stopped breathing. She’s the style icon, not me.”

“What’s the story behind that last one?”

“It was a masquerade charity ball, I forget what for, but Lena went as Morgana Le Fey, and I was her knight in shining armor.”

“That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about, a lot of your fans love you because you’re not afraid to cross some style lines, cute pastel dresses one day, then you’ll wear something fairly butch the next. What would you say to them?”

“Thank you? I mean, I still don’t know quite get it when Lena is usually right there next to me in the picture, but thank you, really. And dress however you want, whatever makes you feel comfortable. Miss Grant once told me all clothing is unisex if you’re not a little bitch about it, and language aside, I stand by that. If you want to dress femme, femme it up. If you want to dress butch, butch it up.”

“We’ve got a couple pictures here of fans that have imitated your look, we’re gonna put them up next to you, and we’re gonna get your reaction.”

“Oh my god, that’s so good!” Kara exclaimed as she look through the pictures. “Do you have an account name I can have? That’s so impressive, I want to let her know in case she doesn’t watch this video.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we have them,” Sean said, looking to someone off camera. “We’ll get them to you.”

Da’ Bomb Beyond Insanity - 135600 Scoville

“Okay, I get the heat with this one, but that’s all I’m getting. It’s like it’s all heat, no flavor, you know? Ugh, you need to have a balance, because you can have something that’s hot that still tastes good, but I don’t know, I think they missed the mark on this one, it’s just like my mouth is burning and burning but there’s no payoff with it, and you need that flavor payoff.”

Sean nodded, a little smile on his face at Kara’s ramble. “In addition to writing about alien rights, you’ve also worked with some alien outreach projects. What can you tell us about that?”

“Ugh, I feel it burning, like, the whole way down my throat. You do this every time?”

“Every time.”

“Props. What’d you ask me?”

“Alien outreach projects.”

“Right, so, my favorite story about that has to be about this Aquatillian family from a few months ago. As you may or may not know, Aquatillians are from a watery planet, but Frillitti and Shellissi had been taken by Dominators before Shellissi was even old enough to remember Aquatilla. Superman rescued them from an Intergang site near Metropolis, and pointed them to the Alien Refugee Alliance for help. We helped get Frillitti into an alien-friendly apartment building that’s two bus stops from the water, and when Shellissi heard that, I’ve never seen anybody happier, I swear. Then we took them to the shore, and they both went nuts, because Shellissi hadn’t ever seen so much water in one place before, and it’d been years for Frillitti, and it was extremely heartwarming and adorable and if I had taken pictures I would show them to you because nobody can play in the water like an eight-year-old Aquatillian.”

Hellfire Hot Sauce - 550000 Scoville

“Alright, that’s better, that’s more like what I’m talking about, you know? It’s hot, but I like how it tastes, so even if it’s hotter than the last stuff, I’d rather eat more of this.”

“You’re really handling it pretty well,” Sean said.

“I am?”

“Some people are really sweating at this point, some are getting up and walking around, but you look like you’re handling it. I mean, you haven’t even had any water or milk at this point, and it’s right there if you need it.”

Kara looked over at it like she had forgotten it existed. “Well, at this point, if I’ve come this far without drinking, why start now, right?”

“You don’t have to prove anything to me, if you need to drink, go ahead.”

“Nah, now I’m gonna do it just so I can taunt my sister.”

“Sounds like a plan. Now, with subjects like Bruce Wayne and Supergirl, you’ve interviewed some people that most people never dream of talking to. Who would be your dream interview, if you could pick anybody?”

“Oh, I don’t know, let me think. Um, living, I assume, this is an interview that could actually happen?”

“Sure, whatever.”

“Hey, they’re your rules, I’m just making sure I know the premise. I guess I’d like to interview, um, wow, this is making it tough to concentrate, whoo, um, I want to interview Wonder Woman, because she’s awesome and beautiful and I want to know if she ever fought a cyclops.”

The Last Dab Redux - 2000000+ Scoville

“This is The Last Dab,” Sean said, grabbing the bottle on the end and shaking it a few times. “We call it The Last Dab because it’s tradition around here to put a little extra on the last wing. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but you’re already going for it so I guess I’ll shut up, oh, wow, you really globbed it on there.”

Kara snorted at the oversized serving and grabbed the wing by one end. “If this kills me, Lena and Alex get all my stuff,” she said into the camera. Rather than strip the wing bare in one go as she had been doing, Kara took her time and spread the pain out over three bites before throwing the bones in the trash.

Kara swallowed it down like a champ and raised her arms in victory. “Woo, and the crowd goes wil- oh Rao there it is, that’s hot! That one’s fun right there, uh-huh,” she clucked her tongue and repeatedly opened and closed her fist, enduring the burn. “Alright, I like the flavor, it’s just like fire in my mouth, and holy smokes! I feel like I’m only having a problem cause I went overboard on the dab, cause it tastes good it’s just so much!” Kara blew out a long, cooling breath. “Okay, can I get some of that sauce? I need to take some of that home.”

Sean nodded. “Yeah, no problem. Throw a couple bottles in a goodie bag for her, will you?” he asked someone off-camera. “We’ll take care of you, we take care of our guests around here at Hot Ones, even if we inflict terrible pain for the sake of entertainment.”

“That’s awful,” she chuckled, then looked into the camera. “Alex, you’re trying some of this, don’t even try to run from me on this one.”

Sean clapped his hands. “Okay, now that your taste buds are burning, and you’ve survived the Wings of Death, it’s time for one last question. Since you’ve spent a lot of time on the science beat as a reporter, you’ve gotten to see a lot of really cool advancements in technology. What invention or advancement do you think is going to be the thing to really push us forward?”

“Oh man, you want me to think rationally after eating that?”

“Yeah, I know, we’re awful around here like that.”

“Okay, woo, alright, it’s like talking makes it burn more?” Kara rubbed at her throat. “Um, I think the recent push towards the industrialization of Nth Metal is going to make for a lot of changes as more people get to use it and experiment with discovering all the ways we can use it. I’ve spoken to a few Thanagarians associated with the project and even they admit that aren’t sure of all the capabilities of Nth Metal, if only because humanity is so creative. If you look at history, this has happened before. How different did life get when humanity went from using stone tools and weapons to using bronze? Or when they went from bronze to iron? I think Nth Metal is going to spread out over the next few years, and once people see what it can do, that’s when it’ll be everywhere.”

Sean clapped his hands and smiled. “Congratulations, Kara Danvers, for conquering Spice Mountain. This camera, that camera, that camera, they’re all yours, tell the world what you’ve got going on, what you want to talk about.”

“Look for my regular science column in CatCo Magazine, and check the other sections occasionally in case I branch out. I’m also involved in our new OUTreach program on CatCo’s YouTube channel, and we dive into important moments in queer history and culture, learn about them and why they’re important.”

“Sounds great!”

“Okay, we’re done?”

“We’re done.”

“Perfect.” Kara grabbed the milk and proceeded to chug the entire thing in seconds.

0oOo0

This was what it felt like to save the world, Lena reflected as her meeting with Bruce Wayne entered its third hour. Or maybe they were plotting to overthrow the world order, Lena wasn’t sure. History would tell.

Bruce tossed the folder he was reading onto the desk. “Moving away from land efforts, let’s talk about the oceans.”

Lena smiled and shared a look with Sam. Tamara Fox sat next to Bruce, tapping a pen against the table. “Yes, let’s. Ocean restoration is what we lead with. Start cleaning up the garbage patches in the ocean gyres, work to revive the coral reefs, neutralize chemical runoff, that sort of thing, but I want to focus on research as well. We know more about outer space than we do about the bottom of the ocean, and as a scientist, I do not fear the unknown, but I refuse to allow it to remain unknown when I have the means to make it otherwise. I’ve already started on plans for an underwater research base, and provided that’s a success, we can see about the viability of civilian habitation.”

“Waynetech has a subsidiary that’s been working on conservation efforts to revitalize endangered populations. They’re working on traditional conservation efforts as well, but they’ve also been able to compile an inventory of animal DNA, to preserve something of the species should traditional conservation fail to save the species.”

“And L-Corp controls one of the foremost genetic research labs on the planet,” Lena filled in. “A more proactive approach would be to use that database to clone and replenish endangered populations.”

“After the revelations regarding the true actions of Dr. Langstrom, Waynetech has been reorganizing our genetics department from the ground up, and the vetting process we’re putting everyone through is extremely thorough,” Tamara explained. “Thorough enough that we haven’t found enough people to staff a full lab yet, much less undertake a project like that.”

“Fair enough,” Sam allowed. “Genetics research isn’t one where you want to play around with the ethical lines.”

“Not after one of your researchers turns himself into a giant bat hybrid,” Bruce voiced the unspoken addition. “We’ve also been working on a new line of submersibles. Are either of you familiar with a man named David Hyde?”

“I don’t believe I am,” Lena said, and Sam shook her head.

“He’s a former treasure hunter who actually found his big score and retired, went off the grid,” Tamara explained. “There’s no trace of him anywhere for years but he finally showed back up two years ago, leading a group of men who fall somewhere between Private Military and Pirates. You might be more familiar with the persona he’s adopted as their leader, Black Manta.”

“That name I know. He attacked Senator Horne’s fundraiser in Metropolis Harbor last year. I don’t remember the death toll off hand, but it would have been a lot higher without Superman’s intervention.”

Bruce nodded gravely. “He attacked and retreated in an unknown type of submersible, capable of holding at least two dozen crew. Reportedly, the same type of craft has engaged in hostilities against Atlantis. Located, of course, at the bottom of the ocean.”

“And he appears and disappears without a trace. It’s a wonder he didn’t call himself Captain Nemo,” Lena said.

“I guess he’s not a fan of Verne,” Sam said. “Literary allusions aside, a craft like that would be revolutionary in undersea research.”

“Our thoughts precisely,” Tamara agreed. “That’s why we’re building our own version.”

“How far along is that?”

“Prototype stage, but we’re not building from scratch,” Bruce admitted. “We managed to acquire one of Hyde’s wrecked vessels from the Atlanteans, and we’ve been reverse-engineering and improving on the design.”

Lena’s eyes blazed fierce at that piece of information. “Atlanteans? How? Atlantis doesn’t have any embassies or ambassadors, or anything even approaching official diplomatic contact. There’s no guessing when Aquaman will show up next, and the closest thing he’s taken to a firm position on anything that he wants the surface world to stop polluting his kingdom. Honestly, that was a big reason why I wanted to clean up the oceans, to get Atlantis to sit down at the table, because it’s the only thing we know they want. If you have a way to get in touch, I want to talk to them.”

Tamara shot a displeased scowl at Bruce He shrugged in a manner that clearly said that he knew she had a point, but he was the boss and that meant she was just going to have to deal with it. “It wasn’t exactly an official contact.”

Lena didn’t look amused. “Of course it wasn’t. If you think that’s going to stop me, you don’t know me very well. Please, I’m just looking to open communications with someone down there, to get our foot in the door, even if it’s just a merchant looking to make some money. There’s no telling how much we can learn from them, an underwater civilization that’s been developing separately from the rest of humanity for millenia. The information we can exchange should be more than enough for a mutually beneficial relationship.”

Bruce held up a hand. “I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t make any promises.”

“I suppose that’s all I can ask.”

Tamara frowned at Sam, who was staring blankly into the distance. “Is she okay?”

“Sam? Are you with us?” Lena reached out to touch Sam’s wrist, but the moment their skin touched, Sam exploded out of the chair, suddenly four steps away.

“No, I won’t!” she shrieked, her voice frantic as her eyes darted back and forth between the three concerned looks directed her way. It was another moment before Sam came back to herself, staring hard at her hand like there was something wrong with it, the other hand holding her head.

Lena took a hesitant step towards her friend. “Sam…”

“I’m sorry, my head is… I’m sorry, I need five minutes,” she said in a rush as she practically ran out of the door.

Lena stopped herself from following immediately, but when five minutes turned to ten and Sam still wasn’t back, Lena went in search of her friend, only to find that Sam had left the building.

0oOo0

“Do we have to keep looking at these, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to lose my lunch,” Winn complained as grisly crime scene photos filled the monitor wall.

Alex didn’t blame him, because her own stomach was twisting, but she just kept her arms crossed and her scowl in place. “Yes, because we don’t have a lead yet. Figure out who’s doing this, and we can put the pictures away.”

Supergirl strolled in behind them, chewing on a slice of pizza. “You know you’re not supposed to have food in the command center,” Alex admonished.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kara said as she took another bite, the platonic ideal of an unrepentant little sister in that moment. “Karen from the mess hall says hi. What are we looking at?”

“An unknown alien has been attacking criminals across the city. Five connected scenes so far, and they’re coming quicker each time,” Alex explained. The photos painted a grim picture of what super-strength and heat vision could do to a human body. The criminals hadn’t just been killed, they’d been butchered. Kara frowned at the pizza in her hand and threw it away in Winn’s trash can, her appetite thoroughly gone.

Winn struck a key, pulling up a zoomed-in image of a symbol that had been burned into the side of the building. “This has been found at each of the crime scenes so far, burned into the wall or ground by intense directed heat. Trace radiation scans match Kryptonian heat vision pretty much perfectly. And, um, based on surveillance footage, super-speed and flight are also on the table, so all this is adding up to me wondering if we’re sure the Fort Rozz prisoners were the only other surviving Kryptonians.”

Supergirl shook her head, not wanting to believe it. “There’s no way a Kryptonian would be so brutal… but if they were raised on Earth, they wouldn’t know Krypton. Rao, give me strength.” She took a moment before clapping her hands on the desk. “Okay, so what do you need me to do? Where do I find this whoever-they-are?”

Winn and Alex exchanged uneasy glances. “We don’t know yet. I’m still working on some kind of tracker and/or tracking software, and our good queen Alex has been managing the field search.”

Alex frowned. “We’re checking everywhere an alien might end up, and we’re already narrowing down options. I’ve got Maggie on the lookout for any similar crime scenes, but at this point, we’re doing all we can.”

Supergirl sighed. “Damn.”

“Maybe ask your mom’s hologram if it knows anything about this symbol?” Winn suggested. “Some of that ancient forgotten Kryptonian lore that little kids weren’t taught because it’s too scary?”

“We can hope.”

0oOo0

Her mother’s AI was a bust, and Kara Danvers had an afternoon staff meeting to attend, but by the time the sun was going down, it didn’t matter.

Supergirl was flying home for a quick bite to eat when she heard the police band light up.

“Suspects fleeing south through downtown. All four are armed and have fired on police.”

Supergirl altered her course and poured on a little more speed. The boost was just enough to get her there just in time to watch as a black-suited figure slammed into the getaway car like the hammer of god. Dust and debris filled the air as the car was nearly vaporized by the impact, the passengers were even worse off.

The alien stood up and walked out of the newly-formed crater, her silhouette appearing first in the cloud, then turning technicolor. “Supergirl. Protector of National City. You’ve been found wanting.”

“What?” Supergirl demanded angrily. “Who are you?”

“This world has sunken into chaos and sin, Supergirl, and you’ve been watching it happen.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I come to cleanse the scourge from this planet and deliver the awakening.”

“Cleanse the scourge? You’re killing people!”

“I am Reign,” she said imperiously. “I am delivering justice, Supergirl, something you seem incapable of.”

“It’s not justice, it’s murder.”

“Is it murder when a man steps on a bug? They should be happy I’m being careful to only step on the criminal and degenerate bugs.”

“How did you get here?”

“I survived Krypton’s death. Sent here upon its destruction, now is the time to move.”

“Now is the time to surrender, before I make you surrender.”

“So full of hubris, just like the righteous Kryptonians who feared my makers. Worshipping false gods as they watched our planet suffocate by shame and burn from memory. Stand down, or I will make you join them in their purgatory.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Then I will dispense my justice on you next.”

“Take your best shot.”

Reign hit Supergirl like a freight train, sending them across the street and through the building. By the time Supergirl could react, Reign had taken her through several floors and was now punching her through some office party decorations as cubicle workers screamed and ran in terror. Supergirl caught Reign’s next punch and countered with a right cross before following with an uppercut.

As soon as Reign was off balance, Supergirl fell into a practiced timing, punching quick enough to prevent recovery, and scaling her strength up with every punch. Super strength fights were always tough, but Reign was taking everything Supergirl had to give her. Supergirl threw Reign down the length of a conference table and uppercutting her through the roof of the building.

Supergirl followed and was blitzed by Reign from behind after she hit open sky. Reign rained down blows, but Supergirl was experienced enough to use her in-air movement to roll with the punches. The end result was the equivalent of a love tap.

Wanting her away from as many innocent civilians as possible, Supergirl knocked Reign in the direction of the waterfront. She kept the punches going, the two of them a whirling dervish of destruction as they plunged into the choppy water below. Overwhelmed by the sudden change, Reign lashed out with her heat vision, striking Supergirl in the chest, bubbles boiling off the burning beams.

Reign shot out of the water and hovered a hundred feet up, dark eyes scanning the surface. Supergirl struck from behind, fists hitting Reign full force and driving her back, ready to run her face through the pavement.

Reign’s face left a three-foot deep crater in the street once she finally hit, and Supergirl stayed right on her, fists flying. But movement from the corner of her eye reminded Supergirl civilians were near and adjusted her tactics to avoid any more collateral damage.

Reign took advantage of that momentary shift and countered Supergirl’s next punch, rocking Supergirl’s world. One little girl took a step forward, hand reaching out to help her hero…

“Stay back! Back, get back!” Supergirl warned, and that was all Reign needed. A double-handed hammer blow the back of the head bent Supergirl over, then Reign’s fingers dug into Supergirl’s hair to hold her in place so Reign could drive her knee through Supergirl’s nose.

Supergirl’s vision swam as she realized what those spots on the ground she was looking at were. They were blood spots. Her blood, because her nose was bleeding. Supergirl wiped the blood away and pushed herself back to her feet. Reign scoffed at her, but Supergirl blocked her punch and countered, punched, punched, but Reign took it.

Supergirl grabbed a piece of rebar with a mound of concrete on one end and smacked Reign down the block with it, only to fall down to one knee right after, holding her side. Supergirl struggled to her feet, and by the time she did, Reign was back. She knocked Supergirl into the air and blasted her with her heat vision, high into the sky.

They both landed on top of one of the numerous skyscrapers. If Supergirl could see out of her left eye, she could probably tell you which one, but it was swollen shut, and she couldn’t take her other eye off Reign.

“I’m going to kill you,” Reign declared.

“You don’t… You don’t scare me,” Supergirl bit out.

“You’re no god, just as I’m no devil. All I am is truth.” Reign picked Supergirl up, one hand seizing her by the throat. “And judgement.” She thrust her out over the edge of the building. “And death.” Her eyes bored into Supergirl’s soul, reflecting all the depravities and torments she would visit upon the land. “And I will reign.”

And she let go.

0oOo0

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Kara struggled to open her eyes, everything seeming too heavy to move.

“Kara?” Lena grabbed Kara’s hand and cupped her cheek. “You’re awake, thank god.”

“Hmmmm.”

“Alex!” Lena shouted, and Kara winced at the noise. “Kara, look at me.”

Kara took a deep breath, but after releasing it, her eyes stayed open and focused. “Kara, you fought another Kryptonian. Do you remember that?”

Flashes of the fight bombarded Kara. She nodded.

Lena’s voice was soft. “That was two days ago, Kara. She almost killed you. Frankly, Alex… we’re still not sure how you pulled through.”

“I had to,” Kara mumbled. “Had to make it home to you.”

Lena let out something halfway between a laugh and a sob. “Don’t try to flirt while you’re in a hospital bed,” she grumbled.

“Not flirting,” Kara said, hand reaching for Lena. “You’re why I pulled through, Lena. You’re why I’ll always pull through.”

Before Lena could say anything else, Alex walked in holding a tablet. “Supergirl, how do you feel?”

“Everything hurts.”

“That’s because… Kara, you died on the table. It was only for a minute, but we had to restart your heart, and J’onn had to do some sort of mind link, he’ll have to tell you what that was all about.” Alex tapped her foot nervously and blew out a shaky breath. “You, uh… you scared us.”

“I’m sorry.” Kara squeezed Lena’s hand as she tried to communicate her remorse through sheer sisterly eye contact. “She’s stronger than me,” she admitted. “That was… I don’t think I can beat her on my own.”

“You’re not going to do it on your own,” Lena promised. “I’m going to make something that’ll blow that black-clad bitch out of the sky. I’ve already got ideas for a directional radiation emitter that’ll simulate the radiation signature of Kryptonite and cook her from the inside out.”

“No, Lena, please don’t.”

“Kara, I’m not going to do nothing, she almost killed you! She did kill you!”

“Yeah, but… just not Kryptonite, okay? The thought of you working with Kryptonite, well, I don’t like it. Not when we have better ways.”

“What better ways?”

“I learned my lesson the last time I dealt with an evil Kryptonian. I’m calling for backup.”

Chapter Text

Supergirl swept down through the Metropolis skyline, cape fluttering behind her, before she set down on an apartment balcony. She knocked on the sliding glass door and waited. Lois Lane looked up from the laptop she was typing on and rolled her eyes. “It’s open, Supergirl.”

“You shouldn’t leave your door unlocked, you know,” Supergirl advised as she stepped inside.

“If someone’s coming in through an exterior door on the seventeenth floor, a lock won’t stop them,” Lois argued. “So, what can I do for you, that you showed up out of the blue? Looking for writing advice, or are you here for my husband?”

“Both of you, I need to talk to Clark too.”

“Right here!” the man in question called from the kitchen. “Let me finish the dishes real quick and I’m all yours.”

Lois shook her head. “He’s gonna break a plate again, watch.”

Sure enough, there was the sound of breaking ceramic moments later. “Sorry!”

“Toldja.”

“Superspeed plus superstrength plus dishes never equals something good,” Supergirl said with the voice of experience. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d broken something in a rush.

Clark joined them, brushing his hands dry on his pants. “Alright, what do you need?”

“I need your help to fight an evil Kryptonian. And Lois, you might want to get somewhere safe. Like a different planet, maybe.”

“Since when have I ever done anything other than stare danger straight in the face?” Lois asked.

“Since Reign beat me so hard I flatlined on the table and had to cook under sunlamps for two days before I woke up,” Supergirl said bluntly. “I’m not messing around, this is serious business. She’s struck a few more times, and she’s getting bloodier. And according to what we’ve been able to figure out, Reign’s a Worldkiller.”

Clark looked stunned. “What? I saw you get knocked around on the news, but you were flying around the next day, so I thought you were fine.”

“Martian Manhunter was filling in for me.”

“Why didn’t anyone call me?” Clark asked.

“Because you don’t like the DEO and you kinda have a shitty attitude about my wife, so no one wanted to deal with the drama of having you and her both in the DEO building.”

Clark looked offended, but Lois roared with laughter. “Damn Smallville, your cousin called you out!” she cackled with the glee of someone who has always had their family drama play out in front of their partner, finally getting a chance to be on the other side.

“I do not have a bad attitude about your wife,” Clark started indignantly.

Supergirl spoke over him. “You totally do, even Jimmy said something to me about it and he’s your best friend. So you can just not try that, and I’ll forget you did. But this is serious, I need your help, and if you want me to give you the speech about how we’re Stronger Together I will, but I think you know it as well as I do, and if you don’t get over yourself about Lena I swear to Rao I will call Ma and Pa Kent on you.”

Clark took off his glasses and straightened up, his posture shifting to Superman’s. “Of course I’m on board.”

“I need you to call all your superfriends, too. Everybody you think would be willing to swing at a Kryptonian trying to destroy all life on this planet and reshape it in her image. And Lois, I was serious about getting off-planet if you want. A friend of mine from an alternate dimension gave me a thingy to portal to his Earth. If you want, you could meet an eight-year-old Clark, and trust me when I say that’s more adorable than you’re imagining.”

Lois looked intrigued. “Who’s your friend over there?”

“Fastest man in the world. Also married to a reporter.”

“Huh. Fine, I’ll admit it sounds better than sticking around for a retread of Zod. I’ll grab my go-bag.”

“Flash is also going to serve as evac for us when we take the fight to Reign. Vibe’s got some way of observing our Earth and Flash can pull anybody out who needs an extraction. Reign’s strong, but she can’t kill someone if they’re on a different Earth.”

Clark zoomed out of the room, reappearing as Superman, holding a packed travel bag out to Lois. “I’ll see who’s available.”

0oOo0

Batman dropped from the ceiling behind his target. He crept closer, only to be stopped by an invisible force field. A ripple effect emanated from his impact, and Lena Luthor looked up from her work.

“I'm a tad busy to be threatened, Mr. Batman," Lena said. "If you're interested in civil conversation, I'm sure we can have one through the security barrier. I would lower it, but it's on a time lock. I'm afraid your unauthorized entry triggered a few of our automated defenses.”

Batman scowled. “What do you know about Reign?”

“Frustratingly little, other than the fact that she wants to destroy the planet and has the power to do so. Why, are you here to help?”

“I’ve been tracking her flight patterns. More than half of the times she’s appeared, her origin point was L-Corp Tower.”

Lena resisted the urge to sigh. “So of course you assumed I’m involved. I suppose I should be grateful you didn’t come here simply because of my family name.”

“Even if you aren’t involved, someone at your company is. Might be time to take another look at what your employees are doing.”

“If you have any specific accusations, I’m listening. I don’t believe any of my people would cooperate with someone who wants to destroy the world, but if they are, it’s in my best interest to find them and stop them as soon as possible. If you’ve come here to convince me Reign is an imminent threat, I assure you, I already know. My wife nearly died in one of Reign’s attacks the other day, I am fully aware Reign is a danger. If you want to intimidate me into giving you information, I have better things to do with my time, as I am not the villain of this piece, Dark Knight.” Lena stood and stared at Batman with her coldest board room look. “Was there anything else?” she asked icily.

Batman paused. “I had an encounter with Reign as well. She’s resistant to Kryptonite, at least in concentrations previously shown to incapacitate Kryptonians. Didn’t even seem mildly inconvenienced.”

“I’d need to synthesize a more concentrated form of Kryptonite, or figure out a way to deliver a concentrated burst of Kryptonite radiation,” Lena muttered. “That, or she’s affected by a different radiational wavelength. Still, thank you for the data.” Lena sat back down, no longer paying Batman the slightest bit of attention.

He wasn’t there anyways.

0oOo0

The DEO mission floor was crowded with heroes. Supergirl wasn’t too proud to avoid accepting help, and she’d made enough friends over the years that Reign wasn’t going to stand a chance, Worldkiller or not. J’onn was going full on Martian Manhunter for the mission, and her cousin was surrounded by DEO agents who were all interested in meeting Superman. Green Lantern was floating in mid-air with his eyes closed, either in some sort of meditative trance or checking his space cop emails, Supergirl wasn’t sure. Flash and the rest of S.T.A.R. Labs were watching in on the interdimensional peephole (Cisco assured her the name was temporary), but wouldn’t be attending the briefing in person.

Superman had done his best to put out the call, and the call had been answered. Wonder Woman had come prepared for a fight, and was currently deep in conversation with Queen Mera of Atlantis. Supergirl hadn’t been aware that they knew each other, but they were both royalty of ancient hidden civilizations, so maybe they had a book club.

There was a whole lot of superhuman might all in one building. One might even go so far as to say that the assembled superheroic strength was overkill. One would not say that if one was Alex Danvers. She had once told Kara over a game of Risk that there was no such thing as overkill, only ‘open fire’ and ‘I need to reload’.

They had a game plan. Supergirl, Superman, and Wonder Woman would be the close in fighters, hitting Reign hard enough and often enough that she wouldn’t be able to use her superior strength against any of them, while the other three were to stay at range. Martian Manhunter would assault Reign psychically, and while her Kryptonian physiology would render her mostly resistant, J’onn was sure he could at least slow her down and keep her distracted. Green Lantern and Queen Mera were on long range bombardment/containment duty. Reign wasn’t likely to have any defenses against a Lantern Ring or Atlantean magic.

There was one thing they didn’t have. Reign’s location.

Winn was hard at work running every scan he could think of and a few more Green Lantern suggested, but so far he had nothing. Still, with the full surveillance might of the DEO behind the search, Winn knew it was only a matter of time before they knew where to go.

0oOo0

Jess had managed to pull Lena out of her lab long enough to put both food and paperwork in front of her, and extracted a promise not to leave before everything was done. She was almost done when Sam entered, looking very distressed.

“Sam? Are you okay?” Lena asked, standing as Sam made a bee-line for the couch.

Sam shook her head, clasping her hands together to keep them from shaking. "Something's wrong with me, Lena."

Lena didn’t let the stab of panic show. Sam had been acting odd lately, but Lena had been too wrapped up in herself to notice. Lena kicked herself. One of her only friends in the entire world had been going through something serious, and she hadn’t made time for her. Worse, she remembered brushing off several warning signs over the past few days because there was work to do.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ve been losing time, and h-having headaches. Sometimes I feel like I’m hearing voices.” Sam started crying. “The other day, I forgot Ruby. I was supposed to pick her up from practice after school, and I still can’t remember what I was doing instead!”

“What? Sam, okay, I’m here for you, and I’m going to help you. Can you tell me anything else?”

“Weird things have been happening. You remember the shooter at the plaza a while back? I went home and found a bullethole in my shirt and a smushed lump of metal. I put my hand in boiling hot water. I knew it was a terrible idea, and my mind was screaming stop the whole way, but I didn’t even feel it. It was warm like a hot tub. I crushed a doorknob.”

Data points started to connect, and with dawning horror a theory began to form in Lena's mind.

"What's happening to me?" Sam whispered, dissolving into tears as the weight of everything she'd been dealing with finally became too much to bear.

Lena sat down next to her friend and pulled her into a hug. "I don't know," she said honestly, because she didn't know, not for sure, not yet, "but I'm going to find out."

0oOo0

The atmosphere was tense at the DEO, everyone ready for action with nowhere to go. There was still no sign of Reign, and the wait was interminable. Alex had disappeared to pick up a frantic Ruby, who had called after her mom failed to pick her up from school. The group had moved to the training floor for some light sparring, both to warm up and to familiarize each other with their capabilities.

Wonder Woman had just finished demonstrating some Amazonian techniques for fighting opponents stronger than yourself when Supergirl’s comm buzzed with a call forwarded from Kara Danvers’s phone. It was Lena.

“Hey babe, what’s going on?” Kara asked. “You okay?”

“I’m fine, Kara, I’m perfectly alright.”

“Good. Winn still doesn’t have a location on Reign, so I’m just expecting the worst, you know? There’s no telling where she’ll turn up next until she does, and my mind’s running in circles, and I keep coming up with a lot of worst case scenarios.”

“Then I have some good news for you, which I will preface by saying that I am perfectly safe and that I am calling at my earliest opportunity so nobody over there gets to be mad at me for not calling sooner.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I know who’s over there, and when I tell you what it is I have to tell you, he’s going to want to know why I didn’t call you sooner, and I just want it to be abundantly clear that this is the first opportunity I’ve had to do so.”

“I will make a note. But I was asking about the perfectly safe disclaimer, because you usually save that for stuff I’m gonna hate.”

“No I don’t,” Lena refuted a little too quickly. “We need to talk about Reign. The situation has gotten complicated.”

“Complicated how? She wants to destroy the planet, we want to stop her from doing that, she nearly beat me to death, and I’d like to return the favor. What’s complicated?”

“Complicated like Reign is actually also Sam, who recently approached me looking for help, and is now in a secure L-Corp quarantine facility undergoing every scan I can think of until I can figure out how to stop an evil Kryptonian alter ego from taking over my best friend.”

Kara’s first instinct was to ask why Lena hadn’t called sooner, and she bit her tongue stopping herself from doing so. “I’m sorry, what’s going on?”

“Sam is Reign’s secret civilian identity, but it’s not like you, it’s more of a hostile timeshare body situation. Think Glory and Ben from Buffy Season Five. We’ve recorded one Reign takeover incident, there’s clear distinctions by every metric I can think of that they aren’t the same person.”

“Okay, so what now?”

Lena sighed, and Kara could picture her rubbing her forehead. "Now I try to figure out how to separate the Worldkiller from my friend without hurting her, only I have no idea where to start. I need to talk with Alex, get her take on the situation.”

“Ruby called earlier, Alex went to pick her up.”

“Oh, great, actually. Tell her to get Ruby somewhere safe. In the unlikely event that Reign gets loose, Sam would never forgive me if something happened to her.”

“We can send her to Earth One with Lois. The Kents won’t mind, and Kal can help her keep her mind off things.”

“And there’s no way for Reign to get at her, no matter what happens, perfect. That should give Sam some piece of mind. Can you get J’onn to call me? I want to see if he could possibly separate their personalities or something.”

“Hold on, he’s right here. J’onn! We need to get ready to deploy, but the mission’s changed.”

Martian Manhunter floated over. “What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain while we fly. Lena, send me your location, we’re on our way.”

0oOo0

Lena should have expected all the superheroes to show up at her lab, despite only requesting the presence of two of them, but in her defense, she was under a considerable amount of stress, so she was a little surprised when her lab went from a safe work space to dangerously overcrowded in an instant.

“Alright, this place has high ceilings, might as well use them, so if you can fly, please hover a foot or so above my head so that you’re out of my workspace,” Lena requested. “Mind the forcefield, it doesn’t like being touched.”

Most of the heroes did so, with only Queen Mera remaining on the ground. Lena felt a notch or two of tension release from her back as she regained the room to move freely. “J’onn, there’s definitely two distinct personalities in Sam’s body. You know better than me what you can and can’t do, so could you take a look and see what options you have?”

Martian Manhunter nodded. “I can’t promise anything, but I’ll do my best. Kryptonians are frustratingly resistant to telepathy, but I’ve picked up a few tricks over the years.” His eyes glowed red as he brought his psychic powers to bear.

Lena left him to it and turned to Supergirl. “Have you consulted your mother’s hologram about the Worldkillers? Did she know anything that could help?”

Supergirl shook her head. “If she did, it wasn’t in the data imprint that was stored.”

“What about the archives in the Fortress of Solitude?” Superman asked. “Shouldn’t there be something there?”

“Haven’t checked there yet.”

“You’d let a Luthor into your Fortress, Superman?” Lena asked, raising an eyebrow.

Superman bit back the first thing he wanted to say, and gazed down at her. “Sometimes you have to let go of what you want in the face of something bigger. Worldkiller sounds big enough to me. Besides, as it has been recently impressed upon me, you’re part of the family now.”

Lena assessed his response, a little surprised that he seemed genuine. “Well, that’s very kind of you, but I’d rather stay here and work with Sam. Besides, I don’t read Kryptonian.” Yet, she promised herself. “Why don’t you and Supergirl go see if you can find anything that can help? Maybe Kryptonian technology can fix whatever’s happening to her.”

Superman looked at the sedated form of Sam and compassion filled his face. “I hope so.”

Supergirl hugged Lena tight before the Kryptonian duo took off for the Fortress of Solitude, not willing to waste a minute more.

Lena turned to the other superheroes and spread her hands. “I’m not sure how comfortable you are in laboratory settings, but at this point I’m open to ideas.”

Green Lantern cleared his throat. “I’m a Marine, not a scientist, but this ring on my finger is supposed to be the most advanced technology in the universe. I did a full body scan of your friend there and my ring’s transferring the data to your computer right now.”

Lena pulled up a window and saw a whole host of new files added to her system, each already labeled and sorted according to her existing folder structure. “Thank you, I’ll start going through these.”

“No problem. If you need anything else, just ask. Otherwise, I’m going to be making sure your friend’s psycho alter ego doesn’t go anywhere.”

Some time later, Queen Mera finished a conversation with Wonder Woman in a language that Lena couldn’t recognize. It was similar to Greek, but definitely different enough that she was unable to follow along. Her eyes glowed blue for a minute as she stared at Sam. “Your friend is being possessed. Her soul is being usurped by foreign magic, though she is fighting valiantly.”

“She’s fighting for her daughter.”

“A worthy cause,” Wonder Woman said. “But it is not a fight she can win. The spirit of the Worldkiller feeds on your friend, and grows stronger as she grows weaker. Eventually, there would be nothing left of the original, and only the Worldkiller would remain. We won’t let that happen.”

“Diana is right.” Queen Mera took Lena’s hand and looked her in the eye. “Possession is something my people have dealt with in the past. We’ll make sure that she goes home to her daughter.”

“The Lasso of Truth can help force out a possessing spirit, but only when paired with a strong will, and even then, it would be painful.”

“It can still serve as a focus and conduit for my ritual. I’ll need to prepare some things first, but with such a powerful artifact, your friend is as good as free.”

Lena felt some of the weight lift from her shoulders with Mera’s words. “Thank you. Please, hurry.”

0oOo0

Superman and Supergirl touched down at the Fortress of Solitude in minutes, sending Kal-ex to the armory to retrieve a list of equipment that had been proven to be effective against Kryptonians. Then they started their search of the Kryptonian database, looking for anything related to the Worldkillers.

“So, tell me about the place you sent my wife to,” Superman asked as they waited for the results. “What are the Kents like?”

Supergirl smiled. “Still the nicest people in Kansas, just thirty years younger. Lois is in for a trip, though, if she goes in expecting the Kents she’s familiar with.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just mean that they’re thirty years younger, and they grew up in a different era, so obviously they’re not quite the same. More up to date, not quite as old-fashioned. Martha has your baby pictures stored on the computer, instead of in a hundred different scrapbooks, for instance. Jonathon’s selling corn to turn into biodiesel.”

“Really? That’s not a bad idea.”

“They’re the best with Kal, too. He’s part of a children’s theater group that he’s enjoying, which is great because it gets him socializing without worrying over his powers coming out which you know is always the argument against sports. Martha made some adorable costumes and Jonathon slapped some paint on some sets for them. One or the other will usually sit in whenever I’m telling him about Krypton, because they want to be able to talk to him about it and know just as much as him, because it’s important to him. Rao, your parents are hard to live up to even in a different universe.”

Superman smiled in satisfaction. “Yeah, I got pretty lucky, I know. It’s good that you’re sharing all that with them.”

“I love doing it. It’s good practice for when I have kids of my own.”

“So you and Lena have talked about having children then?”

“Yes, and don’t worry, you won’t be an uncle any time soon, not unless Lucy has a surprise for everybody that I don’t know about. We both want to wait for a few years, til we’re a little older, wiser, more established in our relationship and sure of ourselves as people, that sort of thing.”

“Smart. I hear parenthood’s not something you want to jump into unprepared.”

Supergirl rolled her eyes. “Thank you, Obviousman. Personally, I want to wait until I know there’s other heroes around to pick up the slack when I’m making mushed peas or changing poopy diapers. And this is actually super reassuring, knowing that if I need help for the big things you guys will come, but for the small things, I wouldn’t mind it if there were some other heroes like Guardian out there. And Lena, well, look, Lena loves kids. Like, she really loves kids, and she’s good with them, as long as she doesn’t get caught up in her head about what she’s doing, and I know she’s going to be an amazing mom when the time comes, but Lena doesn’t believe it. Doesn’t believe in herself. She’s convinced herself that since she was raised by the Luthors, she’s doomed to repeat their mistakes, and let me just tell you, Lillian was a terrible mother who probably shouldn’t have been allowed to be around children ever, and will never be allowed near our children while I have anything to say about it.”

“So you need to convince a wonderfully stubborn woman to change her mind about herself because her poor relationship with her family messed her up?” Superman laughed. “That is something I’ve got some experience in, actually. Lois isn’t exactly the best when it comes to introspection, either. Took me a while to convince her that she isn’t General Lane, and never will be.”

Supergirl groaned. “And it wouldn’t be so bad if she weren’t smarter and more perceptive than me, but she is, so it’s like, why can’t you see what’s right in front of my eyes?”

Superman’s face fell into a lovesick smile. “She’s so much smarter than me. And a better reporter than me too. First time I met her I didn’t think I’d ever be able to keep up, even with super powers. You know why I got partnered with her in the first place?”

“Perry was terrified the city was going to eat you and wanted her to look out for you?”

“No, she’d gotten into an argument with Perry over an article and he was punishing her by making her babysit the new guy. Needless to say, Lois wasn’t about to slow down for a rookie, so she ran me ragged trying to keep up with her while she chased down leads regarding corrupt politicians. She’s why I thought it was normal for reporters to get thrown out of windows in the course of their duties, because it happened and I had to suit up and save her.”

A chime announced the completion of the search into the Worldkillers. What they found had both Kryptonians exchanging nervous glances. “There’s going to be three more like Reign?” Supergirl gasped.

0oOo0

“Hey Lena, we’re back, and we have bad news, and what in Rao’s Light happened here?”

Lena’s lab had undergone serious renovation in the time they’d been gone. Tables and workstations had been cleared out of the room by Green Lantern, leaving a large open area on the floor. An enormous circle stretched over most of the room, and inside were arcane markings of every kind. Some were marked in chalk, some in paint, some in blood, and some were etched directly into the floor. Many glowed, some more intensely than others, some so bright they hurt to look at. Some even seemed to shift and change in the blink of an eye. In the center, the Golden Lasso of Truth formed a circle large enough for a person to sit.

“We’re setting up a magical ritual to remove Reign from Sam, dear, what does it look like?” Lena entered a few more commands on her terminal, activating every exotic energy sensor in her lab. “And I’m going to see if I can figure out how to apply surface world science to Queen Mera’s magic. I don’t suppose you found a way to restrain Reign at the Fortress?”

Supergirl produced a set of full body manacles that included neck, arm, and leg bonds. “N-th metal bonds, strong enough to keep Superman from saving Lois Lane, originally from Lex Luthor himself.”

“Lois freed herself and gave Lex’s bodyguard a black eye,” Superman clarified. “They’ll definitely hold Reign for a while at least.”

“Long enough for the spell, in any case,” Queen Mera said. “I’ll be ready once she’s in position.”

“I don’t care where it came from, I’ll do whatever it takes to get this psycho personality out of my head.” Sam paced in her quarantine cell.

Reign waited until they were placing the restrains on Sam before making her last ditch attempt at breaking free, but with everyone there, even she didn’t stand a chance. The restrains kept her from doing anything but vibrating angrily in place, and not fast enough to damage the bonds. Everyone stood back as Mera took her place in the circle, a blue energy field rising from the edge.

0oOo0

“I told you to get out of my head.”

“No! This can’t be happening!”

“I told you my friends would beat you.”

“I am Reign! I am the supreme being!”

“You are nothing! This is my mind, and you don’t belong here.”

“I am the Worldkiller! I will destroy everything you hold dear!”

“No you won’t, because that’s all you have to cling to, destruction. Lashing out and breaking everything around you is the action of an angry toddler, and it’s something most humans grow out of. But I’m fighting for bigger things than destruction. I’m a mother, and a friend. I’ve got people who love me on my side, supporting me, bringing together the greatest heroes on the planet to help me, and in the face of that, Reign… you’re nothing but a bad memory.”

0oOo0

Sam opened her eyes and burst into tears. She was the one opening her eyes, not Reign. The malevolent pressure that was the Worldkiller no longer pushed at her consciousness, no longer held her prisoner inside her own mind. She was free.

She was really free.

“The ritual was successful,” the Queen of Atlantis announced.

“Thank Hera,” Wonder Woman said. Green Lantern powered down, changing the color of the room as the green light faded.

Sam was suddenly wrapped in Lena’s arms, melting into her friend’s embrace. Supergirl pulled them both in close, only a second behind.

“What was the bad news you learned at the Fortress?” Martian Manhunter asked Superman. It was obvious Supergirl was in no position to be answering questions.

Superman looked away from the cuddle pile on the floor. “Reign wasn’t the only Worldkiller. There’s supposed to be three more, like the Kryptonian Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. We need to find them before it’s too late.”

“I believe I can be of some assistance there,” Green Lantern offered. “They don’t call this ring the most powerful technology in the universe for nothing.”

“Who’s they?” Superman asked.

“The Guardians of the Universe. Anyways, tracking down individuals when all you have is the planet they’re on is the bread and butter of being a Green Lantern.”

“Come with me, you can cross reference against the DEO database,” Martian Manhunter said. He, Superman, and Green Lantern all flew out of the room.

Sam closed her eyes as she luxuriated in the feel of her friend’s embrace. “You really did it. You really fixed me, Lena. Thank you, so, so much.”

“I told you I would,” Lena wheezed. “But it’s getting hard to breathe, and I’m fond of my ribs, so could you ease up just a little?”

“Oh my god, I’m sorry!”

Lena smiled placatingly at Supergirl, who was scanning her torso with X-Ray vision. “It’s okay, Sam, no harm done.”

Sam stared at her hands, and then was staring through her hands, looking at bone and muscle, and then through the concrete floor, to the levels below. Sam shut her eyes. “But she’s gone, I can feel it, she’s gone, so why do I…?”

“Because you’re a Kryptonian,” Supergirl said. “Sent as a baby from Krypton, just like my cousin.”

“The constructed personality of the Worldkiller also served to bind and suppress your powers until Reign was awakened,” Queen Mera explained. “Now that she’s gone, so are the bindings. Whatever power you have is your own, and should not be feared.”

Sam opened her eyes, left a smoking scorch mark on the opposite wall, and promptly slammed them shut again. “Shouldn’t be feared? How am I supposed to do that? How am I even going to hug my daughter without being scared I’ll break her in half?”

“Fear is conquered through understanding,” Wonder Woman said, placing a hand on Sam’s shoulder. She opened her eyes at the touch, and… nothing happened. She was just looking at an impossibly gorgeous semi-divine woman. “Your abilities are new, but not uncontrollable, not with training and practice. Do not worry about showing your daughter the love she deserves.”

Supergirl held out a hand. “Here, squeeze my hand. You’re not gonna hurt me, and you need something to hold onto.”

Sam hesitated. “Reign hurt you…”

“Yeah, on purpose and going all out she was able to hurt me, but there’s no way you’ll break me accidentally. Now will you please let us comfort you?”

Sam shook her head. “No, I need to find Ruby, talk to her, apologize for what I did… oh god, I basically abandoned her who knows how many times…”

“Ruby’s safe, she’s with friends on Earth One,” Lena said, which were all words Sam knew individually, but made no sense when strung together. Fortunately, it was that moment that an interdimensional rift opened in the corner of the lab, depositing Vibe and Ruby.

Ruby ran to her mother and tackled her to the floor. Vibe looked around and let out a low whistle. “Now this is an awesome lab. Do you mind if I have a look around? I’m just going to have a look around real quick, since it looks like you guys are busy with something.”

“Mom!”

“Oh, baby girl, I missed you so much,” Sam whispered as she kissed Ruby’s head. But she kept her hands in the air, unwilling to risk hurting her daughter even accidentally. Not after everything she’d already done.

“Stand up, Samantha Arias.” Wonder Woman pulled Sam to her feet, Ruby never letting go, latched on like a limpet. She did turn her head though, and when she did, she gasped.

“You’re Wonder Woman! Mom, it’s Wonder Woman!”

“Yes, I am. Ruby, I believe I heard?” Ruby nodded. “Be proud of your mother. She has a strong will and a good heart. The ritual would not have worked otherwise.”

“Between the Lasso and my magical prowess, I like to believe we would have been successful even if you were a lesser woman, but fortunately for us, you are not a lesser woman,” Queen Mera said.

Ruby stared at her mom with a new sense of awe. Wonder Woman and the Queen of flipping Atlantis thought her mom was cool.

“Thank you again, both of you,” Sam said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to repay you, but if there’s ever anything you need me to do, I’ll do it. You helped give me my life back.”

“I hope to do more,” Wonder Woman said. “Your new strength and abilities are uncontrolled, and this city is fragile in the face of them. You need to train, learn, understand the power you now possess. To that end, I would extend to you an invitation to Themyscira, home of the Amazons, until you are ready to return.” Sam hesitated, and Wonder Woman added. “Your daughter is welcome as well. My sisters would dearly love the opportunity to pass on their knowledge, as children are rare on Themyscira. I daresay she would have her pick of mentors, no matter her interests.”

Ruby’s eyes went wide. “Mom! Mom! We have to go, you have to say yes! This is literally Wonder Woman inviting you to her magical island home, don’t wait, just say yes! You know you have a giant crush on her-”

Sam clapped a hand over Ruby’s mouth and smiled at the Amazon Princess. “I accept, and again, thank you.” She looked over at Lena. “It looks like I need to take a sabbatical from L-Corp.”

“I think it’s a wonderful idea, Sam. And don’t worry, L-Corp will have a place waiting for you when you’re ready to return.”

“As long as that place isn’t under a microscope,” Sam joked.

Lena grinned. “We’ll discuss it once you’re back.”

“Convince the Kryptonian over there to sit for tests!”

“She has, but you’re already on the books for L-Corp, and you’d effectively be doubling my subject sample size.”

“Lena.”

“And anything I learn from working with you might prove useful to Ruby down the road.”

“Lena!”

“Mom! Does that mean I’m going to get superpowers too?”

“Dammit, Lena…”

0oOo0

It was late by the time Kara and Lena returned home. Through the collective efforts of intrusive governmental tracking, alien super-technology, and Atlantean magic, the three remaining Worldkillers had been located. The purification rituals destroyed the artificial Worldkiller personalities, and the DEO were helping the hosts cope with the reality of their situations. Wonder Woman had extended invitations to all three women to join her on Themyscira, which had been met with varying levels of enthusiasm, but once they’d made it past the denial stage of things, all three had agreed to join Sam on the Island of the Amazons.

Lena collapsed face first onto the couch with all the grace of a burnt out college student. Kara grabbed them both some water from the kitchen to go with the pizza she’d picked up on the way home. She joined Lena on the couch, lifting up her wife’s feet to sit down and placing them in her lap.

“Well, I’m beat. What about you?”

Lena grunted. Kara laughed. She slipped Lena’s shoes off and rubbed her feet and ankles.

“Yeah, Kryptonian resilience is unfair, I know. Drink some water so you’re not so dehydrated. I know you skipped dinner, so come on, take care of yourself before you go to bed.”

Lena rolled over, but didn’t sit up, just rolled her ankles to stretch them out. “I would, but my wicked wife is denying me food,” she said, waving her arm in the direction of the food, fingertips barely brushing the side of the coffee table. “See? Placing food just out of reach like this is the kind of cruel and unusual punishment I was always warned aliens would subject the human race to.”

Kara narrowed her eyes. “I’ll show you cruel and unusual punishment,” she said before mercilessly tickling the bottom of Lena’s feet.

Lena laughed and kicked. “Okay, okay, stop, stop. I’m eating, see?” She reached over and grabbed a slice of pizza. “Happy now?”

“Ecstatic, my love.”

The pizza disappeared quickly between the hungry Luthor and alien metabolism. “I’m really glad we were able to help Sam,” Kara said. “I know how much she means to you.”

“I’m glad I was able to call on you and your friends. I don’t think I could have solved it on my own, not in time to save Sam or the others.” Lena grinned mischievously. “I can just see it, if we didn’t know each other, you’d still be trying to track Reign down to beat her up, and I’d still be hiding Sam in an off-the-books lab in some secret location. No doubt you’d figure out some way to track her down despite all my best efforts, burst in at just the wrong moment, assume that as an evil Luthor I must be working with the alien bent on destroying the world, and inadvertently break the containment keeping Reign from escaping, thus precipitating the end of the world.”

“That’s awfully pessimistic, don’t you think?” Kara’s smirk was undercut by the pizza sauce staining the right side of her mouth.

“I think it’s a good thing we’re married. Marrying me was one of the best decisions you ever made.”

“Oh yes, one of my best decisions ever, made after plenty of careful and rational consideration of the pros and cons.”

Lena snorted. “That’s not how I remember it.”

“My recollection of that night is just as good as yours. Better, even!”

“Uh-huh. Which is to say, you’ve watched our wedding video remix on YouTube.”

Kara pointed a finger. “More times than you did! Alex convinced Winn to hack my computer so all my links rerouted to the compilation video and he wouldn’t fix it for like two days.”

Lena took Kara’s hand and kissed her outstretched finger. “Aww, poor baby.”

Kara pulled her hand back and shoved the last half-piece of pizza into her mouth all at once. “Treat me like a child, I will eat like a child!” she proclaimed around the food.

Lena rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe I’m going to sleep with you tonight.”

Kara swallowed most of the pizza, rendering her slightly more intelligible, with just a little food left in one cheek, stored like a chipmunk. “I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“No, I’m gonna.”

Kara beamed and pulled Lena into a hug. “I love you too.”