Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“And do you have any more questions for me, Ms. Locke?”

“Well… um… there was one… uh,” Emily stammered. Just how does one go about asking their potential new boss if they’re secretly a supervillain?

As Emily continued to stammer her way towards her question, Ms. Luthor interrupted her. “I’m guessing this is about my brother? You are wondering why L-Corp would want to hire you when LexCorp bought your division and promptly laid off you and your team? And you’re probably also wondering if I share the same radical views as my brother? Something like that?”  

Embarrassed at being caught out, Emily answered. “Yeah, pretty much. I’ve heard nothing but good things about L-Corp, but, uh, your brother also kinda tried to murder me and my friends? Or at least his employees did. But I’m pretty sure that President Luthor was behind the whole thing, no matter what Congress said.”

The other woman sighed. “I wish I could say I was surprised,” Ms. Luthor answered, voice grim. “Lex was a good man once. That was a long time ago though. Now… Well, let’s just say that you aren’t the only one in this room he’s attempted to murder.”

Emily felt her jaw drop. “But you’re his sister!” Trying to murder strangers who had discovered your secret portal is bad enough, but trying to kill your own sister? Emily thought she couldn’t be more disgusted that Lex Luthor was the President of her country, but it turns out she could.

“I’m not his sister anymore, at least according to him. My dear brother didn’t take kindly to my endorsing President Marsdin for re-election over his own candidacy. Not that my endorsement did much good,” Ms. Luthor explained.

Turning and staring out the window, the CEO continued. “I was content to stay out of it the election. I was sure there no way that the voters would elect someone like Lex as president, but once it looked like Lex might actually win, I knew I couldn’t just sit by and do nothing. Our relationship had been quite strained ever since I started L-Corp, but apparently endorsing President Marsdin was the final straw for him.”

“I remember now,” Emily answered, tilting her head slightly as she thought back to the 2016 campaign. “You and Supergirl did a joint press conference, right?”

The Daxamite invasion, followed only a few months behind the Dominator invasion, had really helped boost Lex Luthor’s poll numbers as it fed right into his xenophobic campaign narrative full of insane conspiracies about secret alien agendas. However the longer the campaign went, the more Lex had opportunities to make long-winded conspiratorial rants. His base ate those rants up, but for the rest of the electorate it just made it clear how unhinged the potential president was, particularly in contrast to President Marsdin’s much more stable and even-handed personality. It had looked like Marsdin’s re-election was all but certain.

Just a few weeks before the actual election, that changed. Someone leaked a video of President Marsdin in her changing into her Durlan form. Marsdin’s poll numbers collapsed as Lex Luthor spewed vitriol about how this just proved he was right about the secret alien menace.

“Supergirl thought if we told the voters about how instrumental President Marsdin had been in saving the Earth from the Daxamites, and how Lex had tried to kill both Superman and Supergirl on more than one occasion, that would make voters reconsider their decision. I wish she was right; that we could have made a difference, but Lex was still elected anyway.”

Emily protested. “That press conference single-handedly gave President Marsdin a ten-point bump in the polls! You totally made a difference!”” It was true, the press conference had definitely helped boost the President’s numbers, but Lex Luthor’s lead had been high enough that even the twenty-point swing still left him with a comfortable lead. And come election night, Lex Luthor won 44 of the 50 states with Marsdin only taking the remaining 6 and the District of Columbus.

“That’s what Supergirl said. That even if we didn’t win this time, we still helped open people’s hearts to the truth. Even after Lex won, she just started looking forward to the 2020 election. She still has faith that people will see the way. I think that’s what makes her a hero. She never loses faith, you know?”

“It’s important not to give up,” Emily agreed.

It wasn’t Ms. Luthor’s political stand, or even the fact that President Luthor had tried to kill them both that convinced Emily to take the job. Ultimately, it was the look on Ms. Luthor’s face as she talked about Supergirl that convinced Emily that this is where she wanted to work. There was no way that someone who clearly believed in Supergirl the way Ms. Luthor did could be anything like her brother.

Now that she had decided this was where she wanted to work, Emily had only one other question. “And I can bring in my own team?”

“Of course,” Ms. Luthor answered with a nod. “You’re going to be heading up a whole new division for L-Corp. As the VP of Citizen Safety, you can bring in any of your former colleagues that you think will make a good fit for your team.”

“Then I would be honored to work here, Ms. Luthor,” Emily said, offering her hand to Ms. Luthor to seal the deal with a handshake. She could do some real good with this job. And Ms. Luthor seemed like a much better leader than Van had ever been.

“Welcome aboard, Ms. Locke,” Ms. Luthor said, clasping her hand in Emily’s.

Giving her new boss’s hand an enthusiastic shake, Emily added, “Please, call me, Emily.”

“Very well, Emily, it is.” Ms. Luthor said before leaning forward and in a conspiratorial whisper she added,  “But if I’m going to call you Emily, then I insist you call me Lena.”

“You drive a hard bargain, Lena,” Emily joked. “I’m honored to be on the team.”

“Speaking of being on the team, how soon can you start?” Ms. Luthor, or rather Lena, asked.

Since WayneTech had sold off their division a little more than two months ago, Emily hadn’t had much luck finding a new job. That worked out well now though because it meant she didn’t have to worry about giving notice to another employer. She would still need to go back to Charm City so she could move to National City properly, but after Jack O'Lantern had destroyed her condo earlier in the year, Emily didn’t exactly have a ton of stuff that she would need to lug across the country.

It was currently Tuesday afternoon. Doing some quick mental calculus, Emily figured she could pack up her meagre belongings and make the move to National City by Sunday, leaving her free to start her job the following Monday.

“I’ll need to finalize a few things in Charm City. Is Monday okay?”

“That’s more than fine,” Lena assured. “Believe me, I know how much effort it is to pick up your life and move it across the country. Don’t feel like you need to rush things. If you need more time, that’s perfectly okay.”

“I’m a doer,” Emily explained. “Once I have a task to complete, I like to focus on it until it's done. So Monday shouldn't be a problem.”

“I’m the same way,” Lena responded with a laugh.

Having lived in Charm City, Emily had started to get used to seeing superheros and supervillains zipping around off in the distance. So it took her a second to realize the streak of blue and red flying by that she hadn’t really focused on was getting much closer as the streak landed on Lena’s balcony. Emily was stunned to realize that the streak was actually none other than Supergirl herself!

Like any good superhero fan, Emily had followed the hero’s exploits since she had made her debut a few years prior. She knew Supergirl was based in National City and Lena had mentioned that they worked together during the interview, but Emily hadn’t expected she would have a chance to meet the woman in person. And certainly not during her first afternoon in National City.

Lena seemed to notice that Emily’s attention had drifted. Judging from the smile on her boss’ face, she knew exactly what was capturing Emily’s attention before she even turned around to face the Kryptonian that was waving at them from the balcony.

“Come on in, Supergirl,” Lena said, gesturing for the other woman to enter. “Your timing is perfect.”

“Oh, is there an emergency?” Supergirl asked, the smile on her face being replaced with a serious look. The hero stepped closer to Lena and was clearly scanning the room for any signs of danger.

“Nothing like that,” Lena laughed as Supergirl let her guard down again. “I just wanted to introduce you to the VP in charge of our new Citizen Safety division.” Turning slightly and gesturing her arm towards Emily, Lena continued, “Supergirl, this is Emily Locke.”

If you had asked her, Emily would have told you she was over her whole ‘being starstruck every time she meets a new superhero’ phase. Living in Charm City, she saw superheroes every day. She had met several of them. Her best friend was a superhero, for crying out loud! So she definitely would have told you that meeting Supergirl wouldn’t be that big of a deal for her. But any nonchalance towards superheroes she had built-up went right out the window the moment she realized that the Supergirl was standing in front of her holding a hand out for Emily to shake.

“Oh my gosh! You’re really her!” Emily shouted, taking Supergirl’s hand and shaking it vigorously. “I am such a huge fan! I still can’t believe you were able to throw an entire space station into orbit. You’re amazing! Is it true that you are even stronger than Superman?”

“Just a little,” Supergirl laughed, holding her free hand up, holding a thumb and index finger about an inch apart.

“I can’t believe you’re here. This is such an honor!” Emily said, still in total fangirl mode.

“And here I thought it was an honor to work for L-Corp? But you didn’t seem nearly as enthusiastic about that,” Lena said, levelling Emily with a cold stare.

Oh crap, Emily’s been employed for less than five minutes and she’s already managed to piss off her new boss. “It’s just, um, well,” she stammered.

“Lee, don’t tease her,” Supergirl chided, though the hero never stopped smiling.

Lena just burst into laughter. “I’m sorry, Emily. You’re just so easy to tease. You remind me of my friend, Kara. I’m always able to get under her skin too.”

“Hey!” Supergirl said, turning towards Lena.

“Yes, Supergirl?” Lena answered back, now raising an eyebrow at the Kryptonian.

Supergirl looked like she was about to protest, but then she looked at Emily for a moment and seemed to switch gears. “Um, I’m sure Kara can stand up for herself.”
“That she can,” Lena agreed. Emily had a feeling she was missing something. Perhaps an inside joke the two women shared?

Suddenly Emily realized she still had a grip on Supergirl’s hand. “Oh, sorry. I’ll give you your hand back,” she said, releasing her grip as she spoke.

“I do the same thing all the time,” Supergirl said, waving off Emily’s apology. “I’m looking forward to working with you, Ms. Locke.”

“Please, I keep telling everyone, just call me Emily,” Emily protested before realizing the second half of what the woman just said. “Wait, working with me?”

“Did I not mention that?” Lena asked. “As head of Citizen Safety, you’ll be working with our Dangerous Aliens and Metahumans Neutralization Division.”

“DAMND?” Emily asked, working out the acronym in her head.

“Yeah,” Supergirl sighed in what was clearly faux-annoyance. “You can blame that one for the name,” she said, pointing a finger at the CEO. “I wanted to go with the Proudly Utilizing Powered Protection Intelligence and Enforcement Services, but apparently PUPPIES doesn’t instill fear in the hearts of criminals!”

“Who doesn’t love puppies?” Emily asked with a chuckle.

“That’s what I said!”

“I love puppies just as much as the next person,” Lena protested. “But I don’t know how happy the mayor would be if the agency tasked with ensuring the safety of National City was named PUPPIES.”

“Wait, so we work with the city too?” Emily asked. It seems like that was something she would have heard about.

“For protection of the city, yes. Technically the city is in charge. They put out a contract and L-Corp was just the winning bidder,” Lena explained.

Supergirl immediately protested. “Lena saved us. She does that a lot. Things were looking pretty dire after President Luthor disbanded the DEO.”

That Emily remembered hearing about. It had been pretty big news at the time. One of President Luthor’s first official acts after coming in to office was to announce the existence of and then immediately disband the DEO. He said that since the vast majority of metahuman and alien attacks happened in only a handful of cities, like National City, Metropolis and Charm City, it was unfair that the average taxpayer in rural Texas was forced to shoulder the burden.

The DEO didn’t actually have any real presence in Charm City (while there were lots of villains in Charm City, they tended to to low-level villains that the local heroes were able to handle without too much trouble) so nobody really cared in her city, but there had been waves of protests in other cities around the country. President Luthor apparently didn’t give a damn about protestors though and his party had fallen in line behind him and so each city had been forced to come up with its own solution to the problem.

“So that’s when L-Corp stepped up?” Emily asked.

“Yep,” Supergirl nodded. “Though really Lena deserves most of the credit. The board was all worried about expenses and profit margins and silly things like that.”

“I just pointed out to them how much money L-Corp would stand to lose if a rogue metahuman or alien were to be allowed to run roughshod over the city. This way, we can protect our investments and generate a ton of positive PR. It was the logical thing to do,” the CEO explained.

Supergirl leaned over to Emily and spoke in a faux-whisper, clearly loud enough that Lena would hear every word. “This is that modesty thing again. She likes to pretend she is just looking out for L-Corp, but Lena loves helping people as much as anyone I’ve ever met.” If Emily didn’t know better, she would say her new boss was blushing.

Supergirl apparently wasn’t done with her praise yet. “As much as I hate the name, working with DAMND has been amazing. Lena took on all the DEO agents that were interested in transferring so I’ve still got my team backing me up. But now we’ve got so much more cool tech. Plus Lena’s like, awesome at science,” Supergirl added.

“Sounds like I made the right decision coming to work here,” Emily replied. It was clear that Lena’s admiration of Supergirl was definitely mutual; Emily felt more certain than ever that she was making the right decision to take the job at L-Corp.

Chapter Text

“So let me get this straight,” Teddy said. “You want us to come work for the Lena Luthor. The same Lena Luthor that is the sister of the man who just tried to murder us all?”

“That is insane. Even I know that’s a terrible idea, Emily,” Ron chimed in.

On the flight back to Charm City, Emily had written a lengthy list of things she would need to do to prepare for the move to National City. For the most part the list was full of things like updating her cellphone plan, cancelling her cable, researching companies that could ship her stuff and the like. Things Emily knew she could easily do.

There were two items on her list, the first two items on her list in fact, that she wasn’t sure she could pull off, but they were also the most important ones. Item 1 was convincing her best friend to come to National City with her. As soon as the plane had landed, she brought up Beatriz’s contact on her phone, intending to text her to meet up for dinner so she could tell the hero all about why she should come to National City with her.

Before she could even start typing though, Emily started worrying, what if she doesn’t want to move? She was a full-time superhero here in Charm City, arguably the biggest the city had to offer, no matter what The Olympian fans might say. What if she didn’t like the idea of giving that up to move to National City where she would be in the shadow of much more well-known heroes like Supergirl?

Emily felt herself starting to panic at the idea of being separated from her best friend. Which was ridiculous. Beatriz was her own person and she didn’t have to move just because Emily wanted her to. She was being silly.

The easiest way to get past her panic, Emily decided, was to focus on the other items on her list, starting with the second most important thing on her list, convincing her friends/former co-workers at Wayne Security to join her new team at L-Corp. So Emily closed Green Fury’s contact and instead sent a group message to her former colleagues, inviting them to come meet her for coffee so she could tell them about a job offer she thought they would like.

The next day, Emily had been relieved when she entered the cafe and saw that Teddy, Ron, Wendy and even Jackie had shown up to hear her pitch.

Emily had actually extended the offer to Van as well, but apparently Bruce had taken pity on Van and finally invited Emily’s former boss to join the Gotham office. It was probably for the best. There’s no way Emily would have let Van be the boss of their new division (nor would Lena have stood for it, to be honest), and she had a feeling that Van would have made a terrible employee. She would still miss the man, no matter how bad of a boss he had been, but she couldn’t help but feel a little relieved at his absence.

“Come on, guys. She’s nothing like her brother,” Emily protested. “Do you really think I would be taking this job if I thought she might murder me?”

“You are a pretty bad judge of character, Emily” Ron answered.

Wendy was quick to agree. “Yeah, remember the time that guy who turned out to be one of Riddler’s henchmen?”

“Okay, so I made a mistake that one time,” Emily allowed. Dating Reggie had definitely not been one of her finest moments. “But trust me guys, Lena’s a good egg. Plus she’s friends with Supergirl! Do you think Supergirl would be friends with her if she was evil?”

“And you’re sure it’s the real Supergirl?” Jackie asked.

“Not a robot double?” Ron added.

“Or an evil clone?” Teddy questioned.

“Or a stripper dressed as Supergirl?” Wendy asked.

“It’s really her!” Emily answered. She had a feeling they might be skeptical, but luckily ‘Prepared’ was Emily’s middle name. Well, not literally, of course. Her actual middle name was Christine, but that wasn’t important at the moment.

Reaching into her purse, Emily pulled out a carefully rolled copy of the latest issue of CatCo Magazine. Before flying back to Charm City, Emily had picked up at the airport when she saw the image of Lena and Supergirl posed on the cover. The two women were standing back to back, arms crossed, staring into the camera. Emily guessed they were going for an intimidating glower. Lena pulled it off, but the large grin Supergirl was sporting diminished the effect. The headline boldly proclaimed, “MAKING A DAMND DIFFERENCE!”

“Really, Emily?” Teddy asked, shaking his head in exasperation. “You expect us to take the word of a magazine that can’t even spell ‘damned’ right?”

Surprisingly, Jackie was the one to correct Teddy before Emily had the chance. “DAMND is the name of the organization, you dummy. It stands for Dangerous Aliens and Metahumans Neutralization Division. Or something.”
It seemed like Ron was speaking for everyone when he asked, “How is that you are the one that knows that? You never talk about superhero stuff.” He had a good point. Jackie generally showed very little interest in superheroes and their ‘shenanigans,’ as she called them.

Jackie just glowered, but when everyone just kept staring at her she let out a sigh. “Fine. If you must know,  figured that now since I have these ‘powers,’” she said, punctuating the word with literal air quotes, “I should start paying  more attention to the whole superhero thing.” She jabbed her finger, pointing at the rest of the group. “Still not a superhero though, so please, I’m begging you, no talk about designing me a superhero outfit.”

Shortly before they had all lost their jobs at Wayne Security, Jackie had been in a freak accident involving lightning and a bucket of chemicals. This had resulted in her acquiring super-speed. Nobody was quite sure exactly how fast she was, or what other abilities she may have picked up, as she refused to let them, or anyone else for that matter, run any tests on her. She insisted, quite firmly, she did not want to be a superhero and that she just wanted to live a normal life. But when the gang had been captured by LexCorp, Jackie had utilized her newfound powers to stop Lex Luthor’s minions..

Emily was sure it was only a matter of time before Jackie took up the superhero mantle, no matter how much she pretended not to care about other people. But Emily had also learned, after repeated failures, that trying to encourage Jackie to do anything was a futile endeavor so she chose to let Jackie’s comment pass. For now.

“Lena is really helping making a difference in National City. And I think we can do some real good at L-Corp. Plus, we get to work with Supergirl too! And the pay is way better.”

“And Lena Luthor’s definitely not going to try and kill us?” Ron asked, still showcasing some lingering hesitation.

“Guys, this is going to be great,” Emily reassured. “Trust me.”

“What the hell,” Jackie sighed. “Count me in.”

“Me too,” Ron agreed.

“You had me at better pay,” Teddy said.

“I guess it’s better than my current job,” Wendy added.

“Since when do you have a job?” Ron asked.

“Well, it’s not technically a job, but it pays pretty well. All you have to do is walk into traffic, get hit by a car and then sue the driver,” Wendy added. “Everyone’s so scared of a lawsuit that they’ll just offer you a couple thousand bucks to go away.”

“But wouldn’t your hospital bills be more than that?” Teddy asked.

“That’s what my trust fund is for!” Wendy countered. “Duh!”

Deciding to focus on the positive and ignore Wendy’s latest insane scheme, Emily announced. “Then I guess it’s official. Guys, we’re going to get work together again!” Emily cheered, raising her arms in victory. “This is going to be so great! Group hug!”

As Emily corralled her reluctant friends into a group hug, she mentally checked off item two on her list (though she knew she would be physically checking it off her list as soon as this hug ended).

Now Emily just needed to work up the courage to tackle the most important thing on her list. But first, she really should call her cable company...

For the third night in a row, Lena Luthor was working late. She really had gotten a lot better about working late now that it wasn’t just Jess, but Kara, Sam, Alex or sometimes even Leslie who would stop by her office and try to encourage her to leave, but when she was trying to find office and lab space for the new Citizen Safety Division, the CEO had decided to move the accounting team to the 11th floor. That lead to a decision to move legal from the west wing of the building over to the east wing, and from there, the whole thing had kind of just spiraled out of control until she found herself taking on a project reorganizing practically the whole building. She wanted to finalize all her changes before Emily and her team arrived in just a few days so that had meant a lot of late nights for Lena.

Everyone had been understanding of why she had to work late this week, even Kara had kept her pouting to a minimum, so she hadn’t had to put up the with usual parade of people trying to encourage her to head home as the nights went on.  

Still though, it was no surprise when she heard a gentle tapping on the window of her office. When Lena had to work late like this, Kara would often claim the couch in Lena’s office. Sometimes she would work on articles on her laptop, but more often than not she would be playing games on her phone, surfing Instagram or just reading a book. Even though they weren’t interacting much during these nights, it was still nice to have the company.

When Kara entered her office tonight though, it was immediately clear something was wrong. The superhero’s face was flushed a deep red and her eyes were downcast.

Leaping from her chair, Lena rushed across the room to where the hero stood. “Kara, what’s wrong?”

“It’s too loud,” Kara said, wincing and covering her ears as something seemingly triggered her senses. “I really need to not hear this.”

“Have you tried earplugs?” Lena asked.

Kara nodded pitifully. “Uh huh. But they don’t really work for me. Ear plugs aren’t really design for people with superpowers. Could you maybe just distract me?”

Lena would have gladly put her work on hold and done her best to distract her friend, but a possible solution to Kara’s problem sprang to mind. “I think I can do one better. Come with me,” the CEO said, hurrying out of her office and making her way to the elevator with Kara following behind.

Once in the elevator, Lena waved her keycard and pushed the button for B3, the top floor of the DAMND offices. It was a little after 10 PM and there weren’t any active incidents so at this time of night, it would just be the usual night shift crew in DAMND HQ.

After clearing security, they crossed through the central command area. Vasquez, the agent in charge of the night shift crew, was at her desk, apparently analyzing some security footage. When she was having trouble sleeping, Lena would sometimes come to the DAMND HQ and work in one of the labs. And when she did that, if all was quiet at HQ, she would inevitably end up talking with Agent Vasquez at some point and Lena was starting to consider the agent a friend.  

Under normal circumstances, Vasquez would have come over to greet Lena, perhaps asking her advice for some problem DAMND was dealing with, but in this case, Vasquez obviously must have seen how distressed Kara was looking as she let them pass with just a nod of greeting.

Guiding Kara into lab 2, Lena used her handprint to unlock one of the cabinets and pulled out a small black sphere. She pushed a button on the top of the sphere, causing it to glow light blue. “Better?”

“It’s so quiet,” Kara said, hushed wonder in her voice. “I can’t hear them anymore!”

“We’ve been working on some new sound dampeners. This one is just a prototype. It uses subsonic vibrations to create kind of a cone of silence. We’re hoping to use it as a way to safeguard against Cadmus, LexCorp or anyone else spying on our offices, but the cone stops sound from coming in to the room, just as well as it keeps sound from leaking out so I thought it might help.”

“It so does,” Kara said, rushing forward to give the CEO a tight hug, almost knocking the sphere to the floor in the process. “This is amazing! You’re my hero, Lena!”

Returning her friend’s embrace, Lena said, “I’m glad I could help.”

Once the hug had ended, Lena asked, “Is there a reason why the sounds are so bad today?” It was rare for Kara to be overwhelmed by the sounds of National City; it usually only happened when she was particularly worn out.

“Um, it’s not all sounds this time,” Kara said, face flushing red again, “It’s… well… um, Alex… and, uh, Sam…”

“Oh!” Lena knew the two women had started dating, of course. She and Kara had spent months trying to get the agent and the hero to realize that they both clearly had feelings for each other. Sam had refused to tell Lena the specifics of how they had finally admitted their feelings to each other, but whatever it was had finally happened about a month earlier and the two lovebirds had  been practically joined at the hip since then. It never occurred to Lena that the happy couple might cause issues for Kara’s super hearing.

“I can hear sounds from miles away,” the other woman explained. “Normally it’s all kind of just a low background hum. It’s a bit harder to tune out people I know because their voices kind of jump out at me. It’s even harder with people I’m really close to like you and Alex, but I can still block everyone out with a little concentration. I would never willing eavesdrop on someone without their permission. Not unless it’s related to Supergirl stuff. It’s just that when Alex and Sam are together they are like really loud.”

Pulling out a chair from one of the tables in the lab, Kara sat down with a huff. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m so happy for them. Sam is perfect for Alex. And I can see how much Sam really loves my sister. But I really, really don’t want to hear my sister when she’s… you know.”

“And you can’t block it out?” Lena asked.

“I try,” Kara responded. “And it works for a little while, but, well, when I’m trying to block out a sound from miles away, it’s pretty hard to tell the difference between a scared noise, a pain noise and a more of a… adult fun noise. My subconscious can’t seem to tell them apart so then I hear it consciously instead. It sucks!” Kara punctuated her statement by slouching down in her chair.

“And how do you normally deal with it?” Lena asked softly. From Kara’s description, surely this issue must have come up before.

“Distance works,” Kara explained. “I can just fly outside the city until I’m far enough away. Or I’ll fly a few miles up into the air. I love watching the city from up high so that’s my usual solution. But that fight with those two Hellgrammites earlier this evening really sapped my powers. If I flew far enough to outside the city to get away from the noise, I’d probably end up having to walk back. And trust me, losing your ability to fly at 30,000 feet is a definite no-no so just going up high isn’t an option either.”

“At least you didn’t blow out your powers,” Lena offered.

“Yeah, that’s true,” Kara agreed. When her power levels were low, Kara could just lie under the sun lamps for a little while, or wait for sunrise, and then she’d be back to full strength. When she blew out her powers completely though, it could take days for them to return. “Though, if I had, I wouldn’t have to worry about hearing things I’m not supposed to be hearing.”

“I might be able to rig up some sort of noise cancelling headphones that let you block just specific sounds,” Lena suggested, already running through blueprints in her mind trying to figure out how best to have the device only block specific ranges and types of sound.

Lena tossed the dampening device to the distraught hero. “For now, why don’t you keep this? It’s only a prototype so the battery only lasts about an hour if it’s not plugged in, but it should keep you from having to hear Alex and Sam’s extracurriculars. Of course, you won’t be able to hear anything else outside of the bubble either, but I’ll have Vasquez hook up the alert system to call your phone if anything comes up that requires your personal intervention.”  

“Have I told you lately that you’re my hero?” Kara asked, twinkle in her eye.

“Not for at least five minutes now,” Lena answered with a laugh.

“Just making sure you don’t forget it, boss,” Kara said softly.

“Well, like I said, I’m glad I could he…” Lena trailed off, as something occurred to her. “Kara?”

“Yeah?”

“You have trouble blocking out Alex’s voice if she gets too loud because of how close the two of you are?”

“That’s literally the reason we’re here right now,” Kara pointed out.

“But earlier you also mentioned how your hearing just instinctively tunes to people you’re really close to and you and I quote, ‘It’s even harder with people I’m really close to like you and Alex.’ Does that mean you’ve been hearing me too?” Lena teased, smirking at her friend. “I haven’t had a partner for a while, but even when I’m by myself, I know can be a bit… enthusiastic,” Lena added.

“Uh, um,” Kara stammered, face even redder than when she had been telling Lena about how she could hear Alex and Sam having sex. “Well… Oh, what’s that?” Kara tilted her head, as if listening to something, “There’s a car crash on Elm and 3rd!”

Lena decided to take mercy on her friend and not point out that Kara was currently holding a device that made it impossible for her to hear what was happening down the hall, let alone halfway across the city. “Well, then, up, up and away then, Supergirl.”

“Yeah… I’ve gotta go!” Kara said, rushing to the door. In her haste to leave, she pushed rather than pulled on the door, knocking it off its hinges.

Laughing, Lena made a mental note to ask Vasquez to have someone from maintenance come and fix the door in the morning.

Chapter Text

Having gotten agreement from her team to join her at L-Corp, and crossed off everything else off her To Do list, there was just one thing left that Emily had to take care of, talking to Beatriz. She knew it was the first thing she should have done as soon as she got back to Charm City, but she was a coward. She knew that the longer she waited to talk to her, the more likely Beatriz would be upset and the harder it would be to convince her friend to move across the country.

It was obvious to Emily that her fear was just making things worse, but every time she tried to reach out to her friend, her fear would get the best of her and she would push it off. She had even avoided hanging out with her friend, for fear she would manage to bungle things.

Tonight though was Friday night and that meant it was time for Emily and Beatriz’s weekly movie night. Every since they first became friends, it was the one thing both women always made sure they had time for. Sometimes it might start late or get interrupted when superhero business called Green Fury away, but neither of them had ever cancelled. Emily already worried she was letting down her best friend by up and moving across the country. She wasn’t about to do it again by missing out on their movie night. A little voice in Emily’s head tried to point out that it might be their last movie night, but Emily did her best to ignore that voice.  

This movie night would also force Emily to finally talk to her friend. Over half of Emily’s stuff was currently sitting in stacks of boxes, sitting in the corner of her living room, ready to be moved. No matter how scared she gets, she knows she won’t be able to put off their discussion this time; as soon as her friend sees Emily’s living room, she’ll ask her about the boxes.

Emily had first met Beatriz de Costa, better known to the citizens of Charm City as Green Fury, when Emily had tackled Green Fury from being hit from behind by a surprise attack from one of Jack O’Lantern’s pumpkin bombs. Soon after, Green Fury had returned the favor by assisting Emily with a Wayne Security commercial and from there the two had become fast friends. Even though their first meeting was only a few months ago, Emily couldn’t imagine not having her best friend in her life. Which is why Emily was really hoping she could convince the other woman to move to National City.

A tapping at her kitchen window let Emily know that her friend had arrived. Taking a deep breath to compose herself, Emily walked over to the window, flipped the latch and slid it open.

“I brought pizza!” Beatriz said, as she floated through the now open window and set down the boxes on the kitchen table. As was often the case when they had a movie night, the other woman was not in her superhero uniform, choosing a more casual look instead. The hero was wearing a faded pair of bluejeans and a comfy yellow sweater that Emily was pretty sure used to be one of hers.

Despite the casual attire, it would still be clear to the average passerby that the woman was Green Fury. The mutation that had given the woman her superpowers also gave her green hair.

One night, after a few too many beers, Beatriz had explained to Emily that when she was younger, before her superpowers had manifest and she had just been the weird kid with green hair, she had tried to dye it, but no matter what bleaches and dyes she used, her hair stayed a bright green.

She had resorted to wigs and fake eyebrows for much of her adolescence until one day she decided she was sick of hiding who she was. Beatriz had taken the wig off and made a vow she would never hide herself again.

Which is why, when she her superpowers manifest themselves after a near fatal car accident, and she decided to use her newfound ability to become a superhero, she refused to wear a mask. It meant that she couldn’t pass as a normal person, but she said she was glad she didn’t have to have a secret identity. She hated the idea of pretending to be something she wasn’t.

Even though the really obvious evidence of the upcoming move was in another room, it took all of thirty seconds for Beatriz to notice something was amiss. “Um, Em, where are the plates?” the hero asked after opening the now empty cupboard where Emily usually kept her plates. The plates were now in one of the boxes in the living room with ‘Donations’ written across the side.

“I’m afraid it’s paper plates tonight,” Emily said, going over to the dwindling stack of plates she had left on the counter and grabbing a couple.

“Did something happen to your plates?” Beatriz asked, clearly confused about the sudden absence of plates.

“Uh, I’m kind of… donating them?” Emily explained.

“What?” Beatriz asked with a laugh. “Why would you donate your plates?”

“I’m kinda… moving.”

“Decided to take a chance on another condo?” Beatriz asked. “Good thing you know a superhero that can help you move,” the woman joked, flexing a bicep, “I’m way better than having to pay a mover.”

All of Emily’s carefully prepared plans for how she was going to explain this had vanished and she found herself struggling to get the words out. “I’m not really sure what my new place will be yet. Going to stay at a hotel for a little while.”

Beatriz definitely looked confused now. “Why would you stay in a hotel instead of staying here until you find a new place?”

“Well, the new place I’m looking at is, uh, kind of in National City? I got a new job there,” Emily finally blurted out.

Emily saw the flash of disappointment on her best friend’s face before it was replaced with a smile. “That’s great, Em!”

“It’s a really good opportunity,” Emily explained. “I’m going to be heading a new division for Citizen Safety at L-Corp.”

“Wait, L-Corp as in the company run by Lena Luthor?” Beatriz asked, her fake smile now replaced with genuine concern, “Em, her brother tried to kill you!”

When Emily had told Beatriz about how the Lex Corp employees had tried to murder her, the other woman had been livid. It had taken all of Emily’s powers of persuasion to prevent the other woman from flying off to DC to confront the President.

As much as she wanted to see the man brought to justice, by the time she told Green Fury what had happened, the GOP-dominated congress had already deemed the story about the interdimensional portal and the attempt murder of former Wayne Security employees was all just the Democrats playing politics and decreed that there was no need for an investigation of the President. So they had no legal recourse. And people who got in President Luthor’s way, even superheroes, had a tendency to disappear. Emily had no interest in her friend being disappeared by the Luthor regime.

Right now though, Emily’s goal was to convince Beatriz that Lena was nothing like her brother. She said as much, going through a conversation similar to the one she had at the cafe earlier in the week and even bringing out the same, now somewhat dog-eared, issue of CatCo magazine as evidence. Beatriz proved to be a tougher sell than her co-workers had, but eventually she seemed to accept that Lena was on the level. However, that didn’t end her objections to Emily’s plan.

“Okay, you’ve convinced me,” Beatriz admitted. “If Lena ever runs for President, she’s got my vote. But if she’s really against her brother, that means he’s her enemy. And we know what Lex does to his enemies.”

“Well, she did mention that he has tried to kill her a few times…”

“And you want to work for her, Em? A guy like Lex isn’t going to care who else gets hurt if it means he can get to Lena. It’s dangerous!” Beatriz protested, pacing around the room.

“I’ve spent the last year living here in Charm City. It’s not like my life’s never been in danger before,” Emily pointed out. Off the top of her head, she could think of a half-dozen times she’d almost died since moving to Charm City and only one of those had been because of Lex Luthor.

“Yeah,” Beatriz allowed, “but most days in Charm City the worst thing you have to worry about is getting attacked by Jack O’Lantern. Even if Lex wasn’t trying to kill Lena, National City is like a magnet for every supervillain within a thousand miles!”

“Well,” Emily said, looking down at the half-eaten slice of pizza in front of her and avoiding her friend’s eyes, “What if you came with me?”

Not giving her friend a chance to respond, Emily launched into her spiel. “After Lena offered me the job, she introduced me to Supergirl. I asked Supergirl and she says that they are always looking for new heroes to join DAMND. Right now they’ve only got five heroes: Supergirl, Scarlett Eagle, Martian Manhunter, Guardian and Livewire. Plus a bunch of agents, of course. But like you said, it’s a magnet for supervillains so they are looking to expand their superhero roster.”

“And you think they would take me?” Beatriz asked. “I’m just a small-time superhero. Even The Justice League Europe didn’t want me. I can’t compare to the likes of Supergirl.”

“Hey now!” Emily protested, looking her friend in the eye for the first time since she’d brought up Beatriz coming with her to National City, her own nervousness forgotten at the note of doubt in her friend’s voice. “You are a total badass! Can Supergirl turn her body into plasma? I don’t think so! You may not have the name recognition of Supergirl, but you are still awesome. I mean, Supergirl is pretty cool too, but she’s no Green Fury.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re my best friend,” Beatriz said.

“I’ll admit I may not be completely unbiased here, but you are my favorite superhero,” Emily admitted.

Sure, meeting Supergirl was super cool, but Emily was pretty sure it was impossible for another hero to make the same impression on her that Green Fury had. “Besides, as soon as I mentioned your name to Supergirl, she was totally excited about the possibility of you coming to National City. She said she saw footage of your fight against Black Manta last year and that she’d love to have you join their team.”

Emily pulled out her cell phone, unlocking the screen and loading her gallery. “Look, I can prove it!” Emily pressed play and handed the phone to her friend.

On the tiny screen, Supergirl appeared, waving enthusiastically. “Hi, Green Fury! I’ve just been talking to your friend Emily about having you come to join us at DAMND!” The hero punctuated her statement with a nod.  

“I know, I know, DAMND sounds more like the name of some supervillain group or something, but we’re good people!” Supergirl paused a moment, face pensive. “Okay, well, I guess technically Livewire used to be a supervillain. And Scarlett Eagle kind of was too, but that totally wasn’t her fault! And there was that time I was exposed to Red Kryptonite… I’m rambling aren’t I? Sorry, I do that sometimes.”

Supergirl took a breath, getting herself back on track. “The point is, you should totally come to National City.” Supergirl put a hand up to her mouth and leaned into the camera, dropping her voice to a whisper. “Plus, I’m pretty sure your friend Emily would be super bummed out if you didn’t. She tells me she’s your number one fan.”

The video ended and Emily took her phone back, fighting to keep the blush from rising in her cheeks. Her struggle wasn’t helped when Beatriz smirked at her and raised an eyebrow, “Number one fan, eh?”

“Didn’t I just tell you how awesome you were?” Emily asked.

“Telling me is one thing. As my best friend, that’s pretty much your job. But telling the Girl of Steel? You really mean it, don’t you?” Beatriz asked, a soft smile on her face.

“Of course!” Emily confirmed. “You just said it yourself, you’re my best friend, Bea. I’d be lost without you.” That was why Emily had been scared to have this conversation. She knew it was asking a lot to ask her friend to move just because she was, but she knew Beatriz had been looking to move in to the big leagues. And what bigger league was there than working with Supergirl?
“I know it’s a big decision,” Emily reassured. Walking over to her desk, she opened the top drawer and pulled out a blue binder. “So that’s why I put together some information—”

“I’ll do it,” Beatriz cut in.

It took Emily a half-second to register just what her friend had said. “Wait, just like that?”

“Just like that,” the hero answered.

“But you haven’t even looked at any of my graphs yet,” Emily said, flipping open the binder to a page showing National City’s per capita crime rate versus Charm City’s. “I put together a whole presentation on this.”

Leveling a smirk at Emily, Beatriz responded. “If it makes you feel better, you can still do your presentation. I can pretend I haven’t decided yet until you are done.” Pulling a chair out from the kitchen table, she sat down and gestured to Emily. “Go ahead.”

Emily, for her part, was still surprised how easy this had been. Even with her presentation, she had estimated her odds of successfully getting her friend to uproot her life were 50/50 at best. “You’re really going to come to National City with me?”

“You’re right, this is a great opportunity for me to take my superhero skills to the next level,” Bea said, standing back up and approaching the other woman. “And do you know how boring Charm City would be without you here?”

“Thank you!” Emily said, rushing to hug her friend. It wasn’t until after she was already hugging the other woman that she realized she probably should have asked first. “This is a hug moment, right?” Emily asked. “This definitely feels like a hug moment.”

Laughing, Bea answered, “Yeah, it’s a hug moment, you dork.”

Chapter Text

“Kara, did you eat all the lemon chicken?” Alex asked, leaning forward from her seat on the couch to and picking through the cartons littering the coffee table.

“You mean this lemon chicken?” Kara asked, tilting the container in her hand to show it did indeed contain the last few pieces of lemon chicken.

“Give it here,” Alex said, reaching to take the carton from her sister.

Floating several feet up in the air and out of reach, Kara teased, “What’s the magic word?”

Sighing, Alex said, “Please.” When Kara continued to float out of reach she added, “Come on! You know it’s my favorite.”

“Well, I suppose since I’m the best sister ever, I can let you have the rest of it,” Kara said, floating back down and passing the carton to her sister.

“Thank you,” Alex said, accepting the carton.

It was Sunday night, which meant it was their weekly sister night. The Danvers sisters hadn’t seen that much of each other outside of work lately as, not surprisingly, Alex was spending a lot of her time with her new girlfriend. When Alex and Maggie had first started dating, Alex had kind of forgotten her sister a bit in the excitement of her new relationship, and Kara had been pretty immature about it, as she had been used to always being Alex’s number one priority. With Alex getting into another new relationship, the sisters had vowed to do better this time. As part of doing better, sister nights were now every Sunday night, barring all-hands-on-deck style emergencies (one of the advantages of having a whole team of superheroes protecting National City was it made it a lot easier for each of them to have social lives).

While they were cleaning up their food, before starting in on another movie, Alex found Kara’s new sonic dampener plugged in to a charger in the kitchen. “Kara? What’s this?” Alex asked, picking up the sphere in one hand and turning it over as she examined it.

“That’s a sonic dampener.”

“A sonic dampener?” She asked, contemplative. “Wait, the one they’re working in in the labs?”

“Yep,” Kara said, nodding. “Lena gave it to me. It blocks out all outside sounds so I can use it whenever I need a little peace and quiet.” Kara neglected to mention exactly why Lena had given her device in the first place. That really wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have with her sister.

The dampener had proved far more useful than Kara had originally anticipated. Until she had the ability to create a silent bubble around her, Kara hadn’t realized just how much mental energy she expended on a daily basis just tuning out the constant barrage of voices, vehicles, animals and other noises one finds in a city. She soon found herself using it whenever she wanted to wind down. It was particularly great for when she was trying to sleep.

“You wanted some peace and quiet so she just gave you a $10 million prototype?” Alex asked.

“Ye-es?” Kara asked, drawing out the word. Golly! The sonic dampener cost $10 million? She really shouldn’t have it sitting so close to the sink! After walking over to the counter and sliding the dampener out of range of any possible splash zone, Kara explained. “I was having a rough night and she thought it might help.”

“So she figured she’d just splurge and give you a $10 million prototype?” Alex said, apparently hung up on the cost.

“You know Lena doesn’t care about money when it comes to helping people,” Kara countered, defending her friend.

“Sure, she donates a lot to charity, but she wouldn’t give up $10 million for just anyone.”

“Well, I’m not just anyone,” Kara replied, hands on her hips. “I’m her best friend.”

Alex just snorted.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kara asked, glaring at her sister.

“You and Lena are ‘best friends’ like Sam and I are ‘best friends.’” Alex accused.

“What? That’s ridiculous!” Kara countered. “There’s nothing going on between Lena and I!”

“Let’s look at the facts shall we? There was that time you were the only one to believe in her when her mom framed her so she filled your office with flowers,” Alex said, raising a thumb on one hand.

“That was just her way of thanking me!” Kara protested.

“And when everyone was being suspicious of Lena, you were all, ‘Lena, can’t be evil,’ Alex said, putting her hands on her hips in a mirror of the Supergirl pose and doing a very poor impression of Kara’s voice, ‘I have longingly gazed into her soulful eyes and there’s no way someone with such a beautiful heart could be a bad person!’” Ending her impression, she brought her hand back up, now with a second finger raised.

“Okay, I never said that!” Kara huffed.

“Maybe not those exact words,” Alex allowed, “But the intent was clear.”

“Then there was the time Lena partnered with the city to create an entire organization to support you,” Alex added, raising her middle finger to join her thumb and index finger.

“That totally doesn’t count!”

“How doesn’t that count?” Alex asked.

“She didn’t even know I was Supergirl when she did that,” Kara pointed out.

It was actually Lena’s decision to start the then unnamed DAMND that made Kara realize she really needed to tell her best friend the truth about her identity. Up until that point, she had managed to convince herself that not telling Lena would help keep her friend safe; that knowing her secret identity would just paint a larger target on Lena’s back. But with Lena becoming the public face of the organization tasked with protecting the city, Kara realized that Lena would actually be in more danger if she didn’t know that Kara was Supergirl.

Alex wasn’t swayed though, raising another finger, “And when you had a big fight after Lena you told Lena you were Supergirl, how long was it you managed to stay mad at each other?”

“Three days,” Kara admitted. Those had been the longest three days Kara had experienced since moving to National City. Lena had been so hurt when Kara revealed her secret. Kara tried to explain why she had kept it a secret, but Lena had asked her to leave. Kara accused her of being unfair before she stormed off.

While Kara knew Lena’s reaction was totally justified, it didn’t stop the superhero from going in to full-on mope mode. Kara had sworn to always protect the other woman, but she had broken that promise by lying to her best friend about who she really was. Alex had tried to reassure Kara that everything would be okay and that Lena would give her another chance, but Kara had been the one to hurt Lena. And to make it worse, she had accused her friend of being the unfair one. She hadn’t even been sure she deserved another chance.

For those three days, Kara had called in sick at CatCo and had spent every second Supergirl wasn’t needed curled up on couch, wearing Lena’s old MIT sweater she had left at Kara’s apartment, and watching cooking shows on Netflix. On that third night, she had been startled out of her funk when she heard the sound of Lena’s heartbeat as the CEO approached her building.  

When Kara let Lena in, she was all set to go into a lengthy explanation/apology for keeping her identity secret, but before she could even open her mouth, Lena grabbed her and pulled the hero into a tight hug. Lena did eventually give Kara the chance to explain, but it turned out that Lena had been just as miserable without Kara as Kara had been without Lena and a good hug had been what they both needed most at the time.

“But best friends stick by each other,” Kara added. “It doesn’t mean she has feelings—”

Once again, Alex cut Kara off and stuck up a fifth finger. “Then there was the little love nest she built for the two of you.”

Kara was genuinely confused this time. “Love nest?”

“You know, the bedroom the two of you share at L-Corp?” Alex explained.

“It’s not a bedroom!” Kara protested. “It’s just a… room that happens to have a bed in it! That’s not the same thing at all! You know how hard Lena works. And sometimes I need to be nearby if there’s something dangerous going on.”

It wasn’t even Lena who had first set up the room with the bed. Jess had been the one to repurpose an unused office up shortly after Lena had realized that Sam was being used as a host for Reign. It was in the sub-basement and down the end of a hallway next to some storage rooms so it was quiet and nobody had been using it as an actual office at the time.

Lena, with help from Kara and Alex, had been able to synthesize Kryptonite to keep Sam safely contained and to prevent the Reign persona from re-emerging, but they had all been at a loss for ways to get rid of Reign for good.

While there was an entire science division backing them up, along with members of the Legion from the future, everyone in their circle, but especially Alex and Lena, had been pushing  themselves to help Sam.

Even though she was surrounded by people who believed in her (and worked for her), Lena was still not used to being able to share her burdens, so she took on as much as she could in the quest to save her oldest friend. And while they hadn’t known each other all that long yet, it was clear even then that Alex and Sam shared a special bond, and Alex was not going to let anything bad happen to Sam on her watch.

Years of working at the DEO had given Alex a lot of experience with working when she really should be sleeping (though most of the prior cases had been when Kara’s life was the one at stake), so she had a cot brought up from the barracks and put in the lab; whenever she had was completely burned out, she would crash on the cot for an hour or two.

Lena was still new to the whole keeping vigil/trying to save a friend’s life thing though (her first experience with it being when Reign had put Kara into a coma a little more than a month earlier) and it turned out that the CEO was was somehow even more stubborn than Alex; she refused to stop for rest when there was still work to be done, relying instead of coffee after coffee to keep herself going.

It was on Lena’s fifth day without sleep (aside from the handful of times she would fall asleep at her desk for a few seconds before jumping back into wakefulness) that Jess had pulled Kara aside and showed her the office she had converted. Jess explained that she had actually had the room put together two days earlier since Lena had been unwilling to go home and rest, but that the CEO had refused Jess’s suggestions that she take a break.

Jess was having no luck and, in her stressed, sleep-deprived and increasingly irritable mood, Lena had apparently threatened to fire Jess if she even mentioned taking a break again. Kara tried to reassure Jess that Lena would never actually fire her, but Jess said she already knew that, but the assistant also knew that if anyone would be able to convince Lena to take a break, it would be Kara.

It had taken Kara twenty minutes, and some of her most aggressive pouting, but finally Lena relented and agreed to lie down for a quick nap. The Kryptonian had a sneaking suspicion the other woman would be back in the lab the second she left, and Kara had been getting very little sleep herself ever since Lena had told them about Sam’s condition so when Lena climbed into the bed, Kara had crawled in right after her, not even bothering to remove her suit.

While Lena had slept on Kara’s couch a few times after a movie night, this was the first time they actually slept in the same bed. After the strain they had been through, it turned out to be exactly what both of them had needed. Lena had only agreed to a short nap, and Kara had honestly planned to wake her friend up after a couple hours. But it was a full nine hours later when Kara had woken up with Lena practically lying on top of her.

When Kara had tried to gently rouse her sleeping friend, the CEO had responded with an incoherent mumble and just snuggled further on top of the hero, before realizing where she was and trying to bolt of the bed, without regard to the sheet tangled around her (if not for Kara’s quick reflexes, Lena would have totally face-planted on to the floor as she tried to get out of bed).

Surprise wake-up aside, the good night’s sleep (well technically a good afternoon’s sleep) had been exactly what Lena needed to get a fresh perspective on the Reign situation. Within an hour of getting back to the lab, Lena had a flash of inspiration and a few hours of frantic sciencing later they had jury-rigged a device that allowed them to purge Reign’s persona from Sam’s body.

A side effect of the treatment was that Sam was left in control of Reign’s powers. And even though everyone reassured Sam that she was in no way responsible for the things Reign had done, having superpowers left Sam with an obvious way to try and assuage her own guilt and she had taken up the superhero mantle. One battle against some giant mutant ants and one CatCo article personally penned by the Cat Grant later and Scarlett Eagle was born.

After that day, it gradually became a habit for Kara and Lena to sleep in that tucked away little former office whenever they both found themselves at the DAMND offices late at night.

Kara would now always check to see where Lena was before she went to bed for the night. If the CEO was at home in her penthouse, the hero would just go to bed as usual. But if Lena was lingering around the office, Kara would just happen to end up back at the office herself so the two women could get a good night’s sleep.

At times, Kara wondered if perhaps Lena was intentionally lingering at the office waiting for her to show up (one time she’d found the CEO sitting at her desk watching cat videos when she arrived), but it was something they never really talked about so Kara wasn’t sure how to bring it up.

None of this meant that Lena was interested in Kara though, as she explained to Alex. “Sometimes it’s nice to cuddle with someone. You and I share a bed sometimes! It doesn’t mean you have feelings for me.”

“Yeah, we share a bed every now and then, if one of us is having a rough time or if movie night runs late, but that’s like what, three or maybe four times a year?” Alex asked. “How many nights have you and Lena slept together in the last week?”

Running through the past week in her mind, Kara came up with an answer. “Uh, five times.” Even Kara was surprised it was that many. She realized had actually only spent one night of the past week in her own bed, the other night she was recovering under the sun lamps after a nasty fight with some rogue metahumans.

“I can tell you that Sam and I are definitely not just friends and we’ve only slept in the same bed three nights in the last week,” Alex pointed out.

“Can we just stop this?” Kara pleaded. She was tired of arguing about this. She knew her sister was just teasing, but Lena didn’t have feelings for her and she just had to accept that. “I love her, okay? Of course, I love her! She’s amazing! How could anyone not fall in love with her? But that doesn’t mean she loves me back. She’s my best friend, Al. I can’t fuck that up.”

“Shit, Kar,” Alex said, dropping the hand she had been using to count and pulling her sister towards her, wrapping her in a hug. “I didn’t mean to make you upset. I honestly think Lena feels the same way.”

“But you can’t know that,” Kara countered. She trusted her sister, she really did. But she couldn’t risk losing Lena.

“I know it’s scary,” Alex said, stroking her sister’s head in a soothing motion. “You know how I know?” When Kara didn’t say anything, Alex continued, “Because it wasn’t all that long ago I was right where you are now. I was the one scared to say anything and you were the one telling me to go for it. Telling me that Sam obviously felt the same way I felt about her.”

“I got lucky,” Alex admitted. “Sam was brave enough that she made the first move. It’s always easier when the other person makes the first move. But if she hadn’t been brave enough, then maybe both of us would be sitting here tonight, feeling miserable because we were too scared to admit our feelings to the women we loved.

“But here’s the thing, just because Sam was brave enough to tell me first doesn’t mean that Lena will be the first one to take that leap with you. She might be, God knows that woman is fearless most of the time, but for all you know, she’s just as scared she’ll mess things up if she says anything.”

Logically, Kara knew that Alex was right. If Lena did have feelings for Kara she probably would be just as worried about saying something. Lena had experienced almost as much loss in her life as Kara had. Thanks to Lillian’s abuse and her own brother regularly attempting to murder her, she had a hard time opening up to new people. That was what made their friendship so special. But it’s also why Kara was terrified of messing it up.

“Having her as my best friend means so much to me,” Kara confessed. “And I know it means just as much to her. I would hate myself if I ruined that for both of us.”

“I get it,” Alex responded. “But just think about it, okay?”

“I will,” Kara promised. She really hoped that her sister was right.

“Good,” Alex answered. “I think that’s enough feelings for one night; let’s get on with our movie!”

“Can we have ice cream first?” Kara asked, sniffling a bit as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Sure, Kar. I’ll get the bowls.”