6. Chapter 6(1)

The DEO, it turns out, has a gorgeous view of National City from the small landing balcony on the far end of the base. It reminds her of her own office and she understands why Kara pulled her out here after long minutes of watching Mon-El do absolutely nothing in a medical bed.

Kara sags her head forward on crossed arms, leaned up against the balcony’s railing. “I hate feeling like there’s nothing I can do.”

“Alex and Eliza are two of the brightest minds in astrobiology and medicine. They’ll figure it out,” Lena soothes, stroking a palm down Kara’s back, underneath the cape, and watching as Kara leans into the touch.

They’re silent for a few moments, just the sounds of the city around them. Despite the looming danger of their circumstances, Lena feels at peace.

“It’s beautiful,” Lena murmurs.

“Yeah,” Kara breathes out, picking her head up and smiling a little. “Reminds me of Argo City, actually.”

The mention of Kara’s hometown makes Lena smile, her curiosity piqued. “Really?”

“It’s a lot like my bedroom when I was a kid. I could see the whole city from the window,” Kara says, eyes roaming National City. “All the lights and the pods zooming by.”

Lena hums encouragingly and tries to imagine what the city of Kara’s youth must have looked like. Kara had talked about it before, trying to create the image for Lena out of fragments of memories from her childhood and Lena feels a longing to see something she knows she’ll never be able to.

“I loved that city,” Kara confesses in that broken kind of voice she always has when she talks about Krypton. It’s darker now, something Lena didn’t know was possible, and Kara lets out an uncharacteristically bitter laugh. “What a joke.”

“Your memories aren’t a joke, Kara,” Lena says, turning to face her. Her hand presses into Kara’s back, trying to get Kara out of this slump.

“I went my whole life thinking my parents-” Kara shakes her head, looks out towards the city. “Now their legacy is nothing but death and destruction.” The crushed and betrayed tone in her voice is something Lena understands on a deep level.

Hating the defeated look of Kara’s entire body, Lena shifts closer, slides her arm through Kara’s until their fingers are tangled together. “Did you know you were the first person in my life that ever wanted to be my friend without any agenda?”

Apparently confused by the random divergence, Kara’s brow furrows when she looks at Lena. “I couldn’t have been.”

Lena hums, smiles fondly at the memory of running headfirst into Kara in the lobby of the science building. “My last name comes with some baggage,” Lena says softly, watching Kara’s face. A wave of understanding passes over it. “It’s especially true today. Most people wouldn’t touch a Luthor with a ten foot pool.”

“Those people are dumb,” Kara grumbles. “About you at least.”

Lena laughs a little. “I was used to people making all kinds of assumptions about me. Whether it was because they knew my brother, or they had heard of my parents, or maybe they’d noticed that my last name was on a few buildings around campus.”

“Lena,” Kara draws out, a little sadly.

“You never saw me as a Luthor,” Lena says quietly. “I remember being so surprised when I realized you didn’t even know I was one. You made me feel so...normal.”

“You’re more than your last name, Lena,” Kara says defensively, like she always had, and it wraps around Lena’s ribcage tightly.

“Yeah,” she sighs. “I know. But I like my last name. It’s the only one I’ve ever really had and I’d like to think I have some say in its legacy. Regardless of Lex or of my mother.”

“You do,” Kara answers quickly, squeezing Lena’s fingers.

“And so do you,” she says emphatically. “You’re the legacy that matters. The House of El lives on in you. Not in anything else. You’ve done so many good things, Kara Zor-El. Saved so many people here on Earth. Are you telling me all that can’t outweigh the sins of your parents? This one thing they’ve done?”

Kara’s lips thin, her jaw cutting a tight line as she looks at Lena thoughtfully. It’s only then that she realizes just how close they’ve gotten, Kara’s hip is touching Lena’s and their sides are pressed together. If Lena leaned forward just a few inches their foreheads would touch. The air around them heats up just a tad before Kara breaks the tension with a soft, small voice.

“I missed you,” she says and Lena eyes well up a little. It’s a wonder something hasn’t broken in her body with how often she’s had to restrain from crying the past few weeks. “Missed having you around,” Kara adds with a wry smile. “Even just as a friend.”

“I missed you too,” Lena confesses, soft but sure and she leans heavily into Kara’s side, ignores the warning bells that go off as she places her head against Kara’s bicep. “I’m glad we’re friends again.”

“You make me feel normal, too,” Kara says. It isn’t a new sentiment, but the fact that Lena can still help Kara feel at home nearly breaks her heart, like it always had. “Thank you for helping me with this.”

“Of course,” Lena whispers. Kara’s fingers are playing with hers now, tracing the bones of her hand.

“You know you were wrong about something,” Kara says suddenly, and she sounds like she’s smiling. Lena’s brows pull down as she picks up her head to look at Kara. She’s hardly ever wrong.

“About what?”

“I had an agenda,” Kara says, but there’s a curve to the edge of her lips. “When I wanted to be your friend.”

“Did you?” Lena asks with a matching smile, enjoying the teasing glint to Kara’s eyes.

“Yeah,” Kara replies, lifting her chin a little. “You were so pretty. How could I not want to be around you all the time?”

“Kara,” Lena all but groans, rolling her eyes.

“I was just trying to get some coffee and all of a sudden, someone was running straight into me. And then I had to catch you, because you like bounced right off me and humans are so fragile,” Kara says, and she pokes at Lena’s side. “And you looked so mad.”

“I thought I had run into a wall,” Lena says, and she tries not to lose herself in the memory, of how she had turned her eyes up and stared at a beautiful girl. Definitely not a wall.

“You had that stupid baseball hat on and that thick navy sweatshirt with the little horse guy on it,” Kara says and Lena shakes her head, remembering the disheveled way she had dressed hastily for class.

“Stop,” Lena commands in a whisper, fighting a smile as well as a blush.

Kara relents with a sigh and straightens, turning with a more serious expression. Their hands unclasp and Lena steps back to put some space between them. “You should probably go find Alex,” she says even though she looks about as pleased with the idea of separating as Lena feels about it. Being near Kara had always intoxicated her. This is no different. “Your brain is put to better use than sitting out here trying to cheer me up.”

“I’m where I want to be,” Lena replies softly and Kara deflates noticeably with a soft smile.

“But not where you need to be,” Kara says wryly. “I’m okay.”

Lena looks at her skeptically, but Kara laughs it off. “I really am. Go find Alex. Figure out what the hell is going on with this virus so I can punch something.”

“We’ve both had a really long past couple of days,” Lena says pointedly. “It’s okay to need a few minutes to decompress.”

Kara blows out a heavy breath. It ruffles the edges of Lena’s dress. “Yeah, but we have a responsibility. One I’m letting you neglect.”

Everything in her wants to say out here with Kara, try to smooth out the last wrinkles of despair that still linger around her eyes, but another part of her wants to be in the lab, doing something with her hands and her mind that can figure out the key to stopping her mother’s plan.

“Lena,” Kara says, interrupting her internal debate. “Please go put that big brain of yours to use.”

“I’m here if you need me,” she tells Kara softly. 

“I know,” Kara replies, with the prettiest of smiles. If it were four years ago Lena wouldn't’ be able to stop herself from kissing it. Even now she’s having trouble resisting the urge. They’ve crossed some barrier that’s allowed them to touch more freely now and it’s only making it worse. The smart thing would be to revert back to the boundaries Lena so strictly advocated for weeks ago, but she’s not sure she could even if she tried.

They touched as friends like this anyway, soft and sure and often absentmindedly. She can handle it now. Even if every time she feels Kara’s hands on her all she wants to do is press full bodied against her ex-girlfriend and drown the world out.

“I’ll see you later,” Lena says against the thick wet feeling in her throat.

Kara reaches out, squeezes Lena’s bicep lightly in a way that does nothing to help the warm feeling pooling in her stomach. “You will.”

Before she does something that will further blur the fading lines drawn between them, Lena turns and leaves Kara on the small platform as she walks back into the base in search of Alex and Eliza.

J’onn is standing just inside when Lena starts down the stairs and he watches her with an unreadable expression. She smiles at him and he returns it, though it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. He glances outside to where Kara is still standing, and Lena looks back as well - Kara is leaning again against the railing, looking out on the skyline and rubbing at her wrist absentmindedly. She feels a burst of affection rush through her, wants to go back out there and hold Kara. But she turns back, and J’onn is looking at her again, nodding to himself as if he’s decided something.

She thinks to ask him, to say something, but he’s already walking past her, up the stairs towards Kara before she gets a chance.

--

Tokyo is a city that never seems to truly sleep and it fits Lena like a glove. She works all day and all night. The new lab is coming along swimmingly and her almost maniacal devotion to working through the night fits right in with the normal Japanese work ethic. It’s not hard to convince a few techs to burn the midnight oil with her or find a restaurant still serving food when she takes a break at 4am.

The work is the only thing preventing her from calling Kara and breaking down. Every time she stops, takes a moment for herself she can't stop the avalanche of emotion that floods through her - wishful thinking that Kara was there with her, still a part of her everyday. If she closes her eyes it's easy to imagine Kara sitting on the edge of her bed talking absently about her day, or pressing up against Lena before bed, laughter traded between kisses. The images haunt her so badly that sleep seems an unreachable goal. So she gets back out of bed most nights and stares at blueprints and readouts and sets her phone in the hotel room safe so she won’t give in. It would be so easy to just call Kara. Tell her she misses her. She knows Kara would be there in a heartbeat, zooming across oceans to find Lena.

When she does sleep, it’s exhaustion-induced, after days of being awake. Those are the worst days, because she’ll wake up and the sun will be shining on her bed, and she’ll forget for a moment. Forget that Kara's not here. For a brief heart stopping second it's easy to believe that if she reached out across sheets, her hand would hit a warm body and Kara would roll over sleepily, tug Lena into an embrace and coax her back to sleep. The feeling of cold that fills her out when she realizes that Kara’s not there is earth shattering, every time. So she works, and avoids sleep, and works some more. And it goes on and on.

After two weeks of nearly nonstop working she’s surprised to walk into the lobby of her hotel and see her brother waiting there, dressed immaculately in a pinstripe suit and scrolling through his phone in an oversized chair.

She paces over to him quickly, “Lex!”

His head picks up and he grins wide and easy when he spots her, standing and pocketing his phone. “Hey, little sister,” he says stepping forward and wrapping her up in a hug.

The familiarity of his embrace settles something thick in her throat and it feels so undeniably good to see him. The cold, isolated feeling she’s had the last few weeks ebbs away in that moment and she grips at her brother’s shoulders longer than normal.

“You okay?” he asks when they break apart and she just nods, knows that if she tries to talk her shaky voice will give her away. He seems to notice, but he doesn’t push, just wraps an arm around her shoulders and steers her towards the elevators at the far end of the lobby. “I hear things with the lab are going well.”

“They are,” she says, grateful to be talking about something neutral like work. “Did you come all the way to Japan just to check up on me?” 

He laughs. “No, of course not,” he tells her, squeezing her shoulders a little. “I was actually hoping you’d help me with something.”

“Really?” Lena asks, turning to look up at him. She presses the button to call the elevator and waits for him to elaborate.

“Let’s go get a drink and I’ll tell you all about it,” he says with a charming smile. “I’ve been craving a Suntory 30 ever since I touched down.”

“You have disgustingly expensive taste,” Lena teases as they step into the elevator.  

“I have great taste,” he retorts, adjusting his tie with exaggerated movements and winking at her. While he waits for her to freshen up in the hotel room, he doesn’t talk - doesn’t mention the stack of coffee cups on the desk or the way she’s drawn all the windows closed so the sunlight won’t get in.

They end up at at some bar Lex insisted they go to - it’s way too far from Lena’s hotel in her opinion, but he raves about the view and goes on for twenty minutes about the whiskey selection, so she relents. It’s better than trying to sleep.

“So,” Lex says, taking a sip of the amber liquid in his glass. Lena cuts into her steak and arches an eyebrow at her brother. He’s been looking at her carefully since they’ve sat down, and she doesn’t love his tone.

“So.”

“Takano says you’ve been working almost non stop since you got here,” he says, observing her with a critical narrowing of his eyes. “Barely stopping to eat or sleep.”

Lena scoffs. “You’ve been speaking to my employees?”

“They’re my employees too,” Lex reminds her, setting his glass down and reaching over to pluck a potato off her plate.

“I’m just trying to get this lab open. It’s a lot of work.”

“Sure,” Lex agrees with a shrug. “But I don’t think that’s it.”

She laughs, sets her silverware down and takes a sip of her wine. “I don’t know what you mean.”  

His face grows serious and Lena looks away for a moment, out at the city lights and dark water below them. “Tell me you’re not throwing yourself into work to avoid…” he trails off, looking just a pinch uncomfortable. “Personal problems.”  

“Personal problems,” she repeats with an incredulous tone. “Lex, please.”  

A part of her wants to scream, all of a sudden, that Kara could never be a simple personal problem. That Kara not being with her was a life problem, a broken thing that could never be tinkered at or solved. She sips her wine instead.

“Lena,” he says, sounding so big brotherly that Lena responds to it, her shoulders dropping. “I know a little bit about working hard as a distraction tactic.”

“That's not what this is.”

“Your decision to break up with Kara,” he starts and just the sound of her name jolts something inside her so violently she has to set her wine glass down for fear she might break it. It’s the first time anyone’s spoken it to her in weeks and it feels like she’s slipped a bone from its place.

“You wouldn’t have done it any differently,” she interrupts and she tries not to sound angry, but isn't entirely successful. 

“I understand why you did it, yes,” he says, picking his whiskey back up. The liquid sloshes against the sides of the glass and Lena watches it to avoid looking at the kind expression on her brother’s face. “But I’m worried about you.”

“You needn’t be,” she says, clearing her throat and picking her silverware back up. She cuts another piece of her steak, eyes trained on her plate. “It’s only been a few weeks. I’ll be fine.”

“Lee,” he sighs. “You love her. You’re torturing yourself by doing this.”

“Lex,” she says. “I don’t want to talk about this. I thought you came for my help on a new project, not to check up on me. Or give me-” she waves her fork around, stumbling over her words just a little, "relationship advice." 

He stares at her for a long moment, jaw tight, before reading the warning in her eyes and relenting. Pulling his phone out of his inside jacket pocket, he brings up a blueprint on the screen and passes it to her.

“What is it?” She asks, abandoning her food to flip through the images.

“A suit,” he responds. “A Superman suit.”

It startles her, reminds her of Kara, and she looks back up at him, confused. “You’re making a suit for Superman?”  

“No,” he laughs. “It’s for me. Or I suppose for anyone that needs it.”

It occurs to her then what she’s looking at and her eyes race over the table of equations Lex has laid out, the plans for all of its different components. “You finally figured it out?”

He nods, smiling gleefully, proud even as he leans back in his chair and takes a heavy sip of his drink. “We can harness his power. It’s going to revolutionize this world. If we get this suit to work, we won’t have to rely on one single Superman for the rest of our lives to come and save us. We could save ourselves.”  

It reminds her of Kara immediately and she struggles to quash the images of her ex-girlfriend, the sound of her voice in her head. Kara’s hands, wrapped around her, carrying her away from her car crash. Kara's voice confessing a desperate need to help people, to use her powers for good, to do the things her cousin gets to do. Fear claws at her chest like it always does when she imagines Kara flying headfirst towards a disaster, an enemy, a fight. She clears her throat against the feeling. 

“What do you need me for?”

“Well,” he says with a playful smile. “I’m having a little trouble with the cooling system and the bio readings are all over the place if the suit is in use for too long. I also can’t seem to get it to stay in flight for long enough to be viable. I thought the second smartest person I know could maybe see something I can’t.”

She thinks of the encrypted spreadsheet she has saved on an encrypted hard drive, stored in her safe. Kara’s powers, all laid out and measured. She could do this. Help save the world. Help Kara from having to save the world.  

“The second smartest person?” She teases with an arch of her brow.

“After me, of course,” he says with a wide grin and a shrug.

Later that night, she falls asleep and dreams of the suit. Imagines a world without Superman, a world without Kara ever feeling the need to walk in his shoes. It’s the best sleep she’s had in weeks.

--

Eliza and Alex are hugging tightly when Lena shows back up at the lab and if she hadn’t just opened the door noisily enough to startle both women, Lena would have backed out and left them alone.

“I’m so sorry for interrupting,” Lena says, eying them apologetically.

Eliza waves her off. “Not at all,” she says and Lena tries not to look at the way Alex wipes at the corner of her eye. “I should go check on Mon-El’s vitals. I’ll be back in a minute.”

And with that, Eliza walks past Lena and out the door. Alex sits back down on a stool and Lena approaches her cautiously, noticing the shaky way she takes a breath.

“You okay?” Lena asks, unsure if Alex will even respond.

Alex smiles though, wide and rare and Lena finds herself responding to it herself. “Yeah, actually. I’m great.”

“Good,” Lena says, eying Alex a little warily as she walks over. It doesn’t seem like Alex is going to offer anything further, not that Lena would expect her to. She glances at the monitor in front of Alex. “What are you working on? Can I help?”

“I’m breaking down the virus at a molecular level,” Alex tells her, reaching out her hands and starting to type at her computer. “See if we can find anything out from that.”

Lena watches over her shoulder and hums affirmatively.

Alex turns a little to glance at Lena. “So…” she starts. “What do you think of the DEO?”

“Impressive,” Lena admits with a small shrug of her shoulder. “But some of your equipment is a little dated.”

“This equipment is state of the art,” Alex argues and Lena tries not to smirk. It’s true that there is a significant amount of tech she’d love to get a closer look at, but she doesn’t need to give Alex the satisfaction of knowing that.

“I work with state of the art everyday at L Corp,” Lena says with an air of indifference. “Just because you have access to alien technology...”

Alex thins her lips, crosses her arms. “If L Corp would consider government contracts, you could have access to that alien technology.”

It’s an intriguing thought, but Lena laughs. “You can’t afford me,” she says plainly.

“And if I sent Kara to negotiate the contract?”

Arching an eyebrow, Lena shoots Alex a half smile. “Do you play chess, Alex?”

A bemused smile spreads over Alex’s lips. “Not if I can help it.”

“You’d be a formidable opponent,” she tells her kindly.

Alex is still smiling, but there’s something serious in the set of her eyes. “Not against you, I’d imagine.”

Before Lena can respond, Winn walks into the lap holding a tablet and is halfway through a sentence about synthesizing the virus when the words choke to a halt in his mouth when he sees Lena.

“Lena!”

“Hello, Winn,” Lena says with a smile, watching his mouth flounder around as he looks between her and Alex.

“I had no idea you were here,” he says, walking forward and setting his tablet on the desk. He looks surprised, but happy that she’s here.

“It’s Lena ,” Alex tells him dryly, leaning back in her chair. It’s meant to be an imitation of Kara, that much is clear, and Lena blushes.

“Of course,” Winn says with a knowing look, and Lena wonders if it’s merely because he knows she and Kara are friends or if he’s figured something else out.

“Did you find anything out about the virus?” Alex asks him and he shakes his head with a shrug.

“So far, all the crystal Kara brought back has is a lot of information about how to synthesize and disseminate the virus, but I don’t think they ever considered a cure,” Winn says with a helpless shrug.

Eliza comes back into the room, Kara trailing behind her. “How’s Mon-El?” Alex asks. 

“Not getting any better,” Eliza says and Kara purses her lips. “He needs a cure.”

“The entire alien population of National City is going to need a cure if Cadmus successfully weaponizes it,” Winn adds wryly.

“Maybe we need to start thinking like Cadmus,” Alex offers. “They have the formula. What’s missing? What do they still need?”

Lena tries not to notice the way everyone but Kara seems to glance right at her.

“A dispersion agent,” Eliza answers. “But the virus is Kryptonian. There wouldn’t be one available on this planet.”

A molecular breakdown of the virus is still up on Alex’s screen and as Lena stares at it, the answer pops straight into her brain. “Isotope 454,” she whispers to herself, remembering long nights spent cataloging Lex’s old projects.

No one seems to hear her and they keep talking to each other, bouncing off ideas, but Kara’s eyes are trained on her and it’s clear that her superhearing picked up what Lena was saying.

“Lena,” Kara says, and the sound of it cuts the rest of the group off mid sentence. “What is it?”

“The dispersion agent,” she says. “There’s an analogous one here on Earth.”

“How do you know that?” Winn asks, brow furrowed.

“When I took over from my brother,” she says, trying not to stumble over the last word. “I went through a lot of his old projects. Primarily to weed out some of the more world domination oriented ones.” Kara shoots her an encouraging smile. “He created a lot of different biological weapons - synthetic plagues really.” No one noticeably reacts, but Lena can sense the unease that settles over them. “Isotope 454. It’s nearly identical to the Kryptonian version. My brother spent a lot of resources on trying to create Kryptonian elements on earth.”

“Isotope 454.” Alex repeats. “What is it? Where could Cadmus find it?”

“It’s incredibly rare,” Lena adds. “Because it’s produced exclusively by my company.”

The room is silent for a long moment before Eliza speaks, looking at Lena with quiet sympathy. “It’s all Cadmus needs to weaponize the virus. With the isotope they’d be able to spread the virus all over the city.”

“I just spoke with my mother,” she says without thinking of it. “I’m surprised she didn’t just ask me for it. Or at least hint at it. She had full access to the building, but I checked the security logs.”

“You what?” Kara replies with a deep disapproving glare that Lena pulls back from, just realizing what she’d confessed to.

“I checked the security logs,” Lena repeats, looking at Kara and trying not to notice the small, barely there thread of distrust that swirls its way among the group. “She didn’t go anywhere apart from my office.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Kara grits out, frowning.

“I set a meeting with my mother because she has no idea I know about Cadmus and I thought-”

“After you promised not to,” Kara interrupts, hands on her hips.

“I never promised that,” Lena replies, chin lifting in defiance. “I wanted to see if she’d give anything away. I told you I was going to.”

Kara keeps glaring at her, but Alex’s voice pulls Lena’s gaze away. “Well did she?”

“No,” Lena says. “I mean, she acted a little suspicious, but other than that it was a normal frosty meeting with my mother.”

“Maybe she knew you wouldn’t give it to her if she asked,” Eliza says and Lena feels something warm inside her at the subtle way Eliza presumes which side of it all Lena would fall on.

“She needs it though,” Lena says, shaking her head. “She’ll try to acquire it somehow.”

“Probably send her henchmen for it,” Winn comments. “You guys store it at L Corp?”

“There’s a stockpile there,” Lena replies. “It has a very unique radioactive signature. You could track it. Make sure it hasn’t been moved.”

Winn straightens at that, picks his tablet up off the desk and puts his finger up in the air as he walks out. “On it.”

“Winn’s right,” Alex says, standing and grabbing her phone. “If Lillian needs that isotope it’s highly likely she’d send someone for it. Tonight.”

“Then we should secure it before she can,” Lena says thinking of the employees that might still be working over the holidays, the night security shift.

Before anyone can say anything else, Lena walks away from the group, intent on collecting her bag with her keycards and computer and heading straight to her office. If she can get there in time she can do something with the isotope before Cadmus or her mother gets to it. Distantly, she hears Kara yell after her, but she keeps walking until a strong hand is pulling her to a halt just outside the door to the medical lab.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kara asks, looking furious.

“Getting my bag,” Lena answers, trying to pull her arm out of Kara’s grip. When Kara notices, she releases her immediately, but steps between Lena and the door.

“And then what?”

Realizing that there is no way she’s going to get Kara to let her return to L Corp without a fight, Lena changes strategies. “And then you’re going to fly me back to my office and-”

“No,” Kara says vehemently. “You stay here and I will go to your office to get the isotope.” 

“We’re on a clock here, Kara. We don’t have time to argue about this,” Lena retorts, hands on her hips in a mimic of Kara’s own angry posture.

“I’m not letting you go back to L Corp Tower where I am sure Lillian will send her goons to collect the isotope. I brought you here to keep you safe.”

“You don’t know what you’re looking for,” Lena insists. “I will be perfectly safe if you come with and the longer we stand here arguing about it the less time we are going to have to stop my mother.”

“She’s right,” Lena hears from behind her, and she turns to see Alex standing there.

“Stay out of it, Alex,” Kara warns.

“Kara, we do not have time to debate this. Lena is the best person to get the isotope for us and you’re the best to protect her while she does it. Stop arguing and get moving,” Alex says with a certain amount of authority that even Lena finds herself responding to. “I already sent Maggie and whatever units she has available that direction.”

Kara looks all set to fight her sister and lock Lena in a closet somewhere, so Lena moves forward, shielding Alex from Kara’s eyeline. She puts her best pleading expression on and smooths a hand down Kara’s arm. “We’ll be fine,” she says softly and after a brief moment of staring, Kara relents, stepping aside to allow Lena back into the lab.

“In and out,” Kara says, when Lena steps back next to her, bag slung over a shoulder.

“In and out,” Lena agrees with a raise of her eyebrow. This time she doesn’t hesitate before stepping up into Kara’s personal space and slinging an arm around her shoulders.

Kara looks a little taken aback by the action, but recovers quickly and slides an arm around Lena’s waist, bending to put another under her knees.

--

The first time Lena meets Alex Danvers is one of the most terrifying and nerve wracking experiences of her life. And considering she grew up in a household run by Lillian Luthor, that’s saying something.

It doesn’t help that Kara talks about her older sister like she hung the moon and the stars and Lena’s pretty sure that Alex’s approval of her is a make or break it kind of thing.

The fact that she was raised to keep calm in intimidating situations is the only thing that saves her when Alex gives her an immediate once over with a critical stare that can only be described as frosty. Kara is watching them with a wide easy grin like she’s completely unaware of what is happening and if Lena wasn’t so afraid to break eye contact with Alex first, she’d cut a glare in her girlfriend’s direction.

“Nice to meet you, Alex,” Lena says with a smile. “Kara has told me a considerable amount about you. I hear you’re in medical school?” 

“Yes,” Alex responds simply.

They’re at a local bar, one of Kara’s favorites because it serves its full kitchen menu until 3am, and Alex has said about three words to her since they sat down.

“I’ll get us drinks,” Kara says, bouncing away from the table and Lena almost yells at her for suddenly leaving her alone with her sister.

Except Alex is leaning forward now that it’s just the two of them and a smile plays a little at her lips. “So. Kara thinks you’re pretty great,” Alex says, watching Lena with a hard stare.

“I think she’s pretty great too,” Lena responds, glancing away only to see Kara leaning over the bar trying to get the bartender’s attention.

“Yeah, because she is,” Alex deadpans like it’s unspeakable for someone to think otherwise. “I love my sister.”

Lena just barely bites back against the I love her too that wants to come out. “I know.”

“And I trust her judgement,” Alex says, the tense lines around her eyes softening for a moment. “But Kara likes to assume the best about people.”

Feeling suddenly defensive, Lena bristles a little, but before she can say anything Alex continues. “I don’t know you,” she says with a little shrug. “I just want Kara to be happy.”

“I do too,” Lena replies and Alex seems to transform into a normal human being, smiling genuinely.

“Then we’re good,” Alex says just as Kara returns with three beers clutched in her hands. She hands one to her sister before sliding in next to Lena and pressing a quick kiss to her cheek as she sets the drinks down in front of them.

“What are you guys talking about?” Kara asks, glancing between the two of them.

Alex points at Lena with her beer, smiles like they’re good friends. “Lena here thinks she can beat me at pool.”

“Alex is really good,” Kara stage whispers to Lena with something like worry in her eyes.

Lena laughs a little. “I’m always game for a challenge.”

Later, when she and Kara say goodbye to Alex and walk back to campus, Kara swings their hands happily between them. “I think Alex likes you,” she says.

Lena’s not so sure that’s true, but all in all it seemed to work out. “She’s very protective of you,” Lena observes.

“Sometimes Alex forgets that I’m invulnerable,” Kara laughs with a shrug.

It’s not really what Lena meant, and it’s not what Alex is protective over, but she lets it go. “I like her,” she admits. Once Alex dropped the cold overprotective big sister routine, they got along just fine. Alex is smart and funny and good enough at pool to give Lena a run for her money.

Kara grins wide, happiness practically bursting out of her. “I’m glad.”

--

L Corp is quieter than Lena expected despite the late hour. The desperation of earlier had her convinced Lillian would have already sent a cadre of loyal Cadmus followers to raid the place. Kara sets them down in her office and Lena slides immediately into her desk chair, pulling out her laptop and logging into the L Corp mainframe.

“What are you doing?” Kara asks, eyes searching the room on high alert and one hand arriving at Lena’s shoulder, warm, heavy, and somewhat reassuring.

“This company is massive,” Lena tells her, bringing up project inventory logs. “It’s not like I can just walk to the hall closet and find the isotope. I’m figuring out which storage unit it’s in.”

It occurs to her that even at this late hour Lana Lang might still be awake and in the lab despite the holiday weekend. Just as she’s about to see if Lana’s logged into the system, Kara gasps loudly, her entire body straightening in a telltale sign she’s picked something up with her superhearing.

“What is it?” Lena asks, fingers hovered over her keyboard.

“Stay here,” is all Kara says in answer, zooming out the balcony door and out of sight. What was wrong with explaining things before flying off to punch them?

Instinct pulls her in the direction Kara fled to, but she turns back to her computer and works quickly to find out where the isotope is, locating it a few moments later and mentally cataloging the location.

The security alarms go off not seconds later, and without a moment’s more hesitation, Lena flees her office, heading for her private elevator and hitting the button for the lobby.

The minute she rounds the corner from the elevator banks, she spots Kara engaged in a battle with a man that looks suspiciously like J’onn J’onzz except with a metal plate obscuring half his face. With wide eyes she watches Kara get thrown like a rag doll into the large cement L Corp sign and it topples over with the force of it.

Lena feels frozen at the sight of Kara on the ground looking hurt and broken, like she’s been ripped straight from Lena’s nightmares.

She’s so stuck on it that she doesn’t even notice the sight of the man Kara’d been fighting walking over to pick up a heavy piece of the cement L and throw it in her direction. The last thing she sees is Kara picking her head up to look at her and the next second she’s in Kara’s arms, flown around the corner into relative safety.

“I told you to stay in your office,” Kara growls, setting Lena back down and looking over her shoulder. Her hands are holding at Lena’s waist, and she looks frustrated, but Lena doesn’t care.

“Are you hurt?” Lena asks, running her hands down Kara’s arms. The wall suddenly reverberates loudly and Kara pulls Lena’s head down protectively, covering her with most of her body and her cape. It must be the rest of the L Corp sign being thrown in their direction, Lena thinks.

“Get somewhere safe,” Kara orders her, when they straighten back up. “Now.”

Kara steps away, pokes her head around the corner before looking back at Lena, who hasn’t moved. “Lena,” Kara says with force. “Move.”

“I have to get across the lobby,” Lena hisses, gesturing towards the other set of elevators that lead to the basement levels on the other side of the lobby. They both cower a little when they continue to hear crashing and growling. Kara looks at the elevators in question with a helpless expression like she can’t decide what to do.

“Stay here,” Kara seems to settle on, echoing her earlier command. And with that she’s gone, speeding back around the corner and Lena hears what sounds like two bodies colliding forcefully.

The sound of the fight rattles in Lena’s brain painfully and she tries not to imagine Kara fighting, not to imagine the pained expression she had on her face just seconds ago. Back pressed against the wall just around the corner from the lobby, Lena hears sirens pull up to the building and the loud yelling of what must be a SWAT team storming through the front door.

When the bullets go off, Lena can’t help but jump. She listens as they bounce around the walls of the building. Something shatters and it echoes across the space and she spares a thought for the amount of money it is going to cost to clean up after this. L Corp doesn’t really need any unnecessary expenditures right now.

But then all sound cuts off so suddenly that Lena’s curiosity pulls her forward until she’s poking her head out around the corner and gasping at what she sees.

It isn’t so much the fact that the J’onn doppelganger has Kara pinned to the floor, an angry maniacal expression on his face. It’s the blueish anomaly floating in the air above the front doors that has her wide-eyed. The same anomaly that appeared over Kara’s dinner table on Thanksgiving.

Kara must have picked up on her gasp because she turns her head to Lena and while the man attacking her is distracted by the floating thing above their heads, Kara takes advantage and gets out of his hold, kicking him down in an efficient motion. Just as he’s down on the ground the blue anomaly pops out of existence as quickly as it appeared, Kara turning to look before it disappears. Lena can’t place the look of disappointment on her face when it goes away.

Which is about when the man shoots what looks a lot like Kara’s heat vision towards the cadre of police officers on the other side of the lobby and hits one in the shoulder.

“Maggie!” Kara yells and Lena’s heart squeezes in realization. Kara abandons her fight and scrambles over immediately. With a window of opportunity, the man leaps to his feet and takes off just as Lena comes out of hiding. She’s halfway across the lobby towards Kara when she realizes he’s disappeared.

Maggie Sawyer is on the ground clutching at her shoulder where a wound is flashing blue and red and Kara’s face is a mixture of fear and concern as she comes to her knees next to her. Absently Lena wonders if Maggie is aware of Kara’s identity. Kara’s hands hover over Maggie’s body like she doesn’t know what to do and Lena watches from over her shoulder.

“Just get the bastard,” Maggie grits out in obvious pain, sparing a glance to where Lena is standing.

“He’s gone,” one of the SWAT team members calls out and Kara stands, spits out a word that Lena recognizes as a Kryptonian slur and blows out a heavy breath.

“We need a medical team over here,” Kara says to a passing officer and she turns back to Maggie to help her to her feet.

The wound is still glowing a little, but it’s fading, and suddenly, Alex Danvers is bursting into the L Corp lobby with her gun raised. “Alex!” Kara exclaims, propping Maggie up with an arm around her waist. Alex’s eyes go wide when she sees the scene and Lena understands that feeling so intimately she nearly laughs.

“What happened?” Alex asks, stalking over, but only lowering her gun halfway. The question is directed at Kara, but her eyes stay trained on Maggie.

“Henshaw was here. He got away,” Kara replies, moving Maggie until she can sit in an abandoned chair at the security desk. Lena follows, throws a tight smile to Alex when she glances over.

“The isotope?” Alex asks, this time finally looking at Lena.

Kara turns to her as well and her expression startles a little as if she just remembered Lena was there. “Did you find it?”

“I did,” Lena responds watching as Alex crouches over Maggie’s sitting form to observe the wound in her shoulder. “Or at least I know where it currently is.”

“I’ll take Maggie to the DEO,” Alex says, her hand on Maggie’s unwounded shoulder. Lena watches the soft way the detective observes Alex through the pain still evident around her eyes. “You guys go secure the isotope.”

“Right,” Kara says with a nod, hands on her hips and looking grateful to have some kind of instruction. Turning on her heel she shoots Lena a tense expression and ushers her away by the elbow in the direction of the elevators Lena had indicated earlier.

“You okay?” Lena asks softly when they’re alone in an elevator car, the soft whoosh of it the only sound.

Kara’s body is tight, rigid even and there’s a look of exhaustion permanently etched into her features even when she looks at Lena. “I told you to stay in your office,” Kara says, but the words don’t come out angry. The tone is sad, almost scared.

“We’re here to get the isotope,” Lena says reasonably, keeping her tone light and even. What she wants to say, to reiterate for the millionth time, is that Kara is no position to be telling her what to do. But she doesn’t want to argue, not with the worried crinkle around Kara’s eyes. “I was making sure that part got done.”

“Lena,” Kara sighs, backing up against the wall of the elevator and throwing her head back a little, eyes on the ceiling. Lena knows Kara hates small spaces, knows the look on Kara’s face of anxiety and fear, and she can’t help but let her own annoyance drift away.

“Relax,” Lena murmurs, reaching out to run her hand down Kara’s forearm, her fingers tracing the smooth fabric of her suit. Kara takes a deep breath, and squeezes Lena’s hand when it arrives in her own, just briefly.

The elevator doors open and Lena strides out of the car, taking long steps towards the labs at the far end of the corridor.

To her surprise, Lana Lang is in fact still in the labs, taking a screwdriver to some device at a workstation as if there wasn’t just a massive showdown in the lobby not five minutes ago. The sound must not have reached this far down, but the alarms should have evacuated the building.

“Lana!” Lena greets, shock coloring her tone. Lana’s head picks up immediately and she smiles wide at Lena, setting her device down and only hesitating when she glances over Lena’s shoulder where Kara must be standing.

“Supergirl,” Lana says with a strange kind of reverence. Lena knows for a fact that Lana has met Superman on more than one occasion, but from the look on Lana’s face it’s as if it’s the first time the other woman has ever encountered a Kryptonian in the flesh.

Kara just sort of glances between the two of them, hands at her hips. “Hello.”

It makes Lena want to laugh, a quick moment of normalcy amongst all that’s happened in the last few hours, but she bites her lip instead. “Lana Lang, Supergirl. Supergirl, Lana Lang.”

“Nice to meet you,” Kara says, but she doesn’t move forward to shake Lana’s hand, just continues to look at the both of them with a wary expression.

Lana must pick up on it because she stands suddenly and focuses on Lena. “Something I can do for you, Miss Luthor?”

It’s formal, as if Supergirl’s presence requires some kind of professionalism and Lena’s struck that for most people it probably would. Supergirl is some kind of icon, an otherworldy figure, a symbol more than anything. She forgets that sometimes. Forgets that Supergirl isn’t just Kara the way she is to Lena.

Before Lena can answer, Kara steps forward, close enough to Lena that they touch, and sends Lana a polite smile. “We’re just here to get something,” she says vaguely and Lena turns a furrowed brow her direction. Kara puts a palm at the small of Lena’s back, just a little pressure that says move on and Lena sighs, understands Kara’s meaning.

“She’s right,” Lena says, knowing how thin the reasoning sounds. “We’ll be out of here in just a moment.”

Lana shrugs a little and continues to look confused, but nods. “Okay.”

Already feeling Kara pushing them away from Lana, Lena smiles at the other girl. “Go home, Lana. It’s late.”

“Yes, Miss Luthor,” Lana says with a little laugh as her shoulders relax.

They leave Lana there and pace to a back door leading out to a long hallway full of storage units. Lena leads them down the corridor until she can find the right one.

“I didn’t know Lana Lang still worked here,” Kara says quietly, while Lena’s swiping into the correct room that holds the isotope. When she pushes the door open, the storage unit’s lights flicker on.

She sends a curious glance over her shoulder. “You know Lana?”

Kara’s arms are crossed as she follows behind Lena, her gaze raking over the shelves upon shelves of cataloged projects. “Not really.”

“Then why would you know if she worked here or not?”

“I don’t know,” Kara says softly, squinting to read the name on a nearby box.

Lena stops, turns to look at Kara full on. “You’re being particularly evasive.”  

“No I’m not,” Kara denies so hastily that Lena almost laughs.

“Kara,” she chastises.

Kara deflates a little. “My cousin knows her,” she admits and while Lena had been aware that Lana had run into Superman a few times in Metropolis, the way Kara says it implies something more intimate than the casual rescue now and then. “Or, he used to.”

“I didn’t know that.”

Shrugging, Kara looks away, traces her fingers over a shelf. “It’s not really something people know I guess.”

Kara had always been protective over Superman, and it makes sense that she might be confused to see a maybe former love interest of his, but she’s still acting strange.

“Is there something I should know -” Lena steps closer, lowers her voice. “Lana is my employee and -” she stumbles a bit, “a friend of mine. If there’s something I should be aware of-”

“No,” Kara says, cutting her off firmly. “No. I was just surprised to see her. She doesn’t even know me and I don’t know her.”

“Okay,” Lena says unconvinced.

“I’m happy she’s your friend,” Kara says with a strange emphasis on the last word. Kara’s reaction makes even more sense then, but she doesn’t have time to think about it.

With a roll of her eyes, Lena turns back around, paces down the row of boxes to find the one she’s looking for and she pulls it off the shelf with a heavy tug. “This is it,” she says, double checking the tag on the shelf.

“Great,” Kara says, plucking it from her hands immediately. “Let’s go.”

--

They get back to the DEO with little trouble and Lena feels a certain amount of ease as soon as she hands over the isotope to J’onn.

“Good work,” he says to them and she feels Kara puff up a little at the praise.

Eliza smiles from behind J’onn where she’s standing next to Alex and she gestures towards the briefcase Lena’s just given him. “Hopefully this can bring us closer to finding a cure for Mon-El,” she says, taking the isotope when J’onn hands it over.

“How is he?” Kara asks with concern.

Eliza doesn’t answer, just thins her lips and looks at Kara with a gentle expression. “We’ll work hard,” she says, and then looks at Lena. “I could use another pair of eyes.”

Lena blinks, a little surprised even though she’s been helping this whole time. Part of her assumed her role at the DEO up until now had been more to keep her under surveillance than anything. A very small part, but the inkling had been there nonetheless.

“Of course,” Lena says, stepping forward towards Eliza. As they turn to go she hesitates just a moment, looks at Kara over her shoulder who is watching them with worried eyes. Kara looks tired and Lena knows she’s the cause of some of it.

But her ex-girlfriend merely smiles when she notices Lena’s glance. “I’m going to go check on Mon-El,” she says and stalks off in the opposite direction. Alex watches her go for a minute, before shooting an identical smile at Eliza and Lena.

“I’m going to make sure she’s okay,” is all she says before following after Kara.

J’onn looks at Lena for a moment, his expression the same as it has always been and Lena feels something prick at the back of her neck, but he just smiles at the both of them and it manages to look genuine. “Let me know if you need anything, ladies,” he says before walking over to where Winn is twirling in his chair, typing away at something on the computer in front of him. 

“Come on,” Eliza says to Lena, gesturing with her head towards the labs. “Let’s go cure this thing.”

--

The first thing Lena ever notices about the Danvers family home is that it feels like home.

It’s so different than how she grew up and though she has deep affection for the house she was raised in, it’s never quite felt so full of life as Kara’s home does.

“So this is my room,” Kara is saying, spinning around in the small bedroom and Lena looks around, observes how different it is than her bedroom in the west wing of Luthor Manor. Not better nor worse, just different.

“I like it,” Lena says, running her finger over the desk against the wall and looking at the plethora of pictures of Kara and Alex as kids. She laughs at one in which Kara is shoving a pie in Alex’s face, a murderous look on Alex’s face and an expression of pure joy on Kara’s.

Kara paces over to see what Lena’s looking at and smiles. “Alex wanted to kill me,” Kara laughs.

“She looks like it.”

“Well, Alex always kind of looks like that,” Kara jokes, wrapping her arms around Lena from behind and setting her chin on Lena’s shoulder. “I’m glad you came.”

Tangling her fingers with the ones sliding over her stomach, Lena sinks against Kara. “I didn’t have much of a choice,” she teases, thinking of the horrified expression Kara had affected when she learned Lena didn’t have plans to go home over Thanksgiving break.

“You had a choice,” Kara tells her, straightening to turn Lena around in her arms. 

“I’m teasing, Kara,” she says, tugging on a strand of loose hair. Kara doesn’t have her glasses on and her hair is down around her shoulders. It’s a look Lena doesn’t get to see very often. Kara is comfortable here, in her childhood home and surrounded by her family. Lena likes it, wants to live in the feeling of it forever.

“Right, I knew that.”

Lena laughs, presses forward to kiss Kara and lets it go on a little longer than she should considering they’re only a floor away from Kara’s adoptive mother and her older sister. Kara’s hands are lower on her back now, warm and strong, and Lena’s happy.

As if sensing what’s occurring, Eliza’s voice calls out from down below. “Girls! Come help set the table.”

Kara jumps out of the kiss with wide eyes and an attractive blush that makes Lena smile. Just as Lena’s ready to tease her for it, Alex’s voice interrupts her and they both jump this time, turning to see Kara’s sister leaned up against the door to Kara’s room. “You guys going to spend all your time up here making out or are you going to help?”

“Alex,” Kara hisses, her blush deepening and Lena feels her own cheeks warm. Alex laughs, shaking her head at her sister and Kara grips Lena’s hand, tugging them both towards the door. When they get there, Kara makes a point of shoving past Alex, bumping her on the shoulder and Alex feigns considerable pain, gripping at her arm and mock crying out.

Kara rolls her eyes, but she laughs, and Lena laughs, and Alex laughs, and in that moment everything feels so normal. It’s the first time Lena’s ever been to the house, but she doesn’t feel like a stranger in it, like she’s an outsider watching a family interact. It makes her miss her brother for a brief, fleeting moment, but then Alex is shoving at Kara, laughing and then yelping when Kara tackles her into the air, hovering up above the stairs with Alex dangling from her hands. It’s such an open display of Kara’s powers that Lena can’t help but smile at it, even as Alex is yelling curse words at Kara.

“Put me down, Kara! I swear to God, I will tell Lena about that time in gym class-” Alex gets out, and Kara immediately has Alex on the ground, grinning nervously up at Lena and gesturing for her to come down the stairs.

“Kara, please don’t tell me you were flying your sister around the house again against her will,” Eliza says, and Lena can see her peak her head out from the kitchen, counting all their heads and smiling gently at Lena. Kara looks sheepish then, and Lena can’t help the feeling she gets to soothe Kara, reaching out to squeeze her hand.  

“She was, mom,” Alex says, looking victorious and then grabbing Lena by the shoulder, pulling her toward the dining room. “Please yell at her while Lena and I, your two competent and nice guests, set the table.”  

“I’m competent!” Kara says, glaring at Alex while Eliza comes closer to her. Lena can’t hear what she’s saying to Kara, but the smile that breaks across her face is certainly not a response to a lecture. It’s complete, unburdened happiness, and Kara’s eyes glance over to hers long enough that her smile grows wider, listening to Eliza speak.

“I’ll still tell you about the gym incident, don’t worry,” Alex says, and Lena laughs, taking the dinner plates Alex hands to her, setting the dinner table for four.

--

They work in relative silence. Eliza shares with Lena the work she’s done so far on trying to reverse engineer the virus and Lena works on inputting the data she has from Isotope 454.

It’s comfortable, soothing even, for Lena to have something to focus on with the warm presence of Eliza working at her side in tandem.

That is until she sense Eliza looking at her, clearly gearing up to say something. After a few seconds of feeling the stare, but no words forthcoming, Lena arches an eyebrow at her in question. 

“How are you doing, sweetheart?” Eliza asks in a kind voice, setting her tablet down on the desk and looking at Lena with an expression Lena’s seen on Kara’s face many a time.

“I’m fine, Eliza,” she says, shifting her eyes back down to the microscope back in front of her.

“It has to be hard,” Eliza continues and Lena has to take a deep breath to avoid her usual defensive reaction to this line of questioning. “Everything with your mother. Kara told me some of it.”

“It’s not,” Lena denies with a casual shrug, but Eliza continues to stare, the feel of it hot on the side of Lena’s face. She sighs, knowing Eliza is almost as unrelenting as Kara in these situations. “It helps to focus on something like this,” she says, gesturing around the lab.

“If you ever need someone to talk to,” Eliza offers and it settles warmth in the hollow of her chest.

“Thank you,” she says, meaning it.

Eliza nods in understanding, smiling softly. “And how are things with Kara?”

“Things with Kara?” Lena asks, just barely managing to keep her voice even. It feels a lot like the first time she ever met Eliza after she and Kara started dating.

“Are you two…” Eliza trails off, but there’s a hopeful look in her eye that makes Lena’s heart rate increase. She takes a deep breath against it - the last thing she needs is Kara walking in right now, asking why her heartbeat is going crazy.

“No,” she says with a sound somewhere between a laugh and a scoff. “We’re friends.”

“That’s nice,” Eliza replies, but she looks utterly unconvinced and Lena wonders why it is no one seems to believe she and Kara are capable of being friends. They were friends for months before they ever dated.

“It is,” Lena agrees, turning back to her desk in hopes the conversation is over.

But Eliza clearly isn’t done and she takes a step closer to Lena, leans her hip up against the table. “You’re good for Kara,” she adds and Lena shoots her an incredulous look. Eliza smiles when she sees it, stares at her kindly.  

“I’m not sure about that,” Lena says, each word slow and careful. She eyes the door to the lab and considers making a completely indiscreet exit, but Eliza is talking before she can even move.

“You were always too hard on yourself, honey.” The only reaction she can think to reasonably have is to laugh, but Eliza is staring at her with kind, sympathetic eyes and Lena feels heat spike in her own. “Kara needs family in her life. A family you are a part of.”

“She has Alex,” Lena answers because she can’t think of anything else to say. The knowledge of how close Kara and Alex are had comforted her in the dark moments of guilt Lena had often felt, the feeling like she had abandoned Kara as so many other people in her life had.

“Alex gives Kara strength,” Eliza says with a fond smile. “You give her calm.”

This time she does laugh because she’s fairly certain nothing in the past few days between the two of them has been calm. “Kara and I are complicated,” she says, feeling adrift in this conversation, and it isn’t as though she needs to hash this out with her ex-girlfriend’s mom. “We can’t just - it’s been four years and I -”

Eliza cuts her off mid sentence with a soft smile and a casual, “I’m not saying you two should get back together.” She studies Lena for a moment like she’s an equation capable of solving, but her smile never falters. “I’m merely expressing my joy that you’ve found each other again. Even as friends.”

It sounds a lot like Kara telling her I missed you a few hours ago on the balcony and Lena swallows against a lump in her throat. “I’m happy to have her as a friend again,” she says quietly.

Eliza smiles affectionately and pats Lena on the arm. “Do me a favor and go check on Mon-El’s vitals?” She says and Lena sees the reprieve that’s being offered. She smiles, nods and without another word, leaves the lab.

As she’s walking up to the medical bay checking off things on a chart glowing at her from the tablet on her hand, the sight inside the small room stops her in her tracks. She blinks and inhales sharply.

Mon-El, now conscious, is sitting up in bed and has pulled Kara’s face close, pressing their lips together for what feels like a long frozen moment. Lena can’t do anything but watch it happen wide-eyed until suddenly Kara’s shoving him away, stumbling backwards and crashing into about four different pieces of equipment that Lena’s sure are all expensive.

Everything Kara hits breaks in some measure, and Mon-El is watching it happen with a stunned, feverish expression. Lena doesn’t know if laughter is appropriate, but it’s catching in her throat because Kara’s still flailing about trying to get away from the man on the bed. It’s at least a better reaction than the burn she feels low in her gut at watching Kara kiss someone else.

She must actually laugh at some point because Kara turns towards her suddenly, her eyes growing impossibly wider just as Mon-El flops backward on his bed seemingly falling immediately back asleep. “Lena!” Kara exclaims loudly and Lena regains her ability to move again, striding into the small medbay with a bemused expression.

“Hi,” she draws out with a hint of tease.

“That - that was - I didn’t - you know he - you see,” Kara sputters, gesturing at Mon-El in a series of nervous movements. She hits a monitor, cracks the screen and nearly trips on the broken arm of a surgical laser.

“Kara,” Lena laughs, walking over to a small, thankfully still functional console next to Mon-El’s bed and double checking a few numbers. “It’s fine. Though I think the bill is going to be pretty high for all that equipment you just broke.”

“I didn’t want to kiss him,” Kara blurts, still sputtering a little. “He kissed me.”

Lena looks over her shoulder and shrugs one casually. Her conversation with Eliza burns in the back of her mind and Lena just wants to brush aside all the complicated cadre of emotions she keeps feeling around Kara. They’re friends and Lena has to start acting like it - she accesses the young freshman college student she once was and tries to remember how it was to be friends with Kara Danvers. The smile on her face stretches across like an old memory. “Kara, it’s fine,” she says, laughing a little. “I could tell you didn’t want to kiss him by the three computers you broke jumping away.”

“He just - I mean I was just sitting here checking on him and he woke up and was all -” Kara gestures vaguely, eyes wide and Lena laughs.

“He has a pretty heavy fever,” Lena tells her, checking something on the monitor. “Not that he’d need that to want to kiss you.”

Kara blushes, and Lena doesn’t know what possessed her to say something so overtly flirty - maybe tapping into her freshman self was a mistake, but Kara’s reaction makes her feel warm all over her skin. “I just want to make sure you’re aware. Of the - of the circumstances.”

“Okay,” Lena says, because she can’t control the part of her that’s pleased to discover Mon-El’s crush is extremely one-sided. “You don’t have to explain it to me.”

“Still,” Kara says, twisting her hands nervously, fingers plucking at the cuff of her suit.

Knowing they’re wading into dangerous territory, Lena focuses on recording Mon-El’s vitals onto the chart in her hands. “Any word on whether or not my mother has discovered we’ve secured the isotope?”

“We don’t think so,” Kara replies, fiddling with a broken piece of monitor to her right. “Now it’s just a waiting game to see what her next move is.”

A crawling feel of fear wraps its way up Lena’s spine and she hates it. Playing defensively is one thing, being unable to read her opponent’s moves is another one entirely.

Kara must notice the uncomfortable expression she feels spreading over her face because she steps a little closer, bending slightly to catch Lena’s eye. “We’ll get her, Lena. I swear.”

“Yeah,” she says with a smile Kara clearly doesn’t believe. “I just wish there was more I could be doing.”

“Right now all we can do is focus on figuring this virus out and seeing if we can cure Mon-El,” Kara says, glancing again at the bed. There’s a sheepish expression on her face that Lena wants to laugh at. “We couldn’t do anything to her right now anyway. We don’t have any proof apart from my word that she’s leading Cadmus.”

It occurs to her that they may never have that kind of proof. Her mother is a lot of things, but stupid she is not ,and she’s slippery, clever, discreet as all Luthors are taught to be. If they’re going to do anything significant to her mother they have to catch her red handed. An idea starts to form.

“Lena,” Kara says, interrupting her formulating.

Clearing her throat, Lena goes back to swiping through chats on her tablet, ignoring Kara’s critical stare. “Yes?”

“Why do you have that face?”

“What face?”

“That I have a genius plan to sabotage Bobby Fuller’s robotics project face,” Kara says, hands on her hips.

Lena laughs, startles to learn Kara can still read her so easily. It secretly pleases her, but it’s not something she needs right now. “That was a flawless plan and he deserved it.”

“Sure,” Kara agrees easily. Bobby Fuller was easily one of the skeeviest guys they went to college with and when he finally crossed a line with one of their friends it was all too simple for Lena to figure out a way to take him down. “But what are you trying to plan right now?”

Knowing that there’s no way Kara is going be agreeable to any plan that put Lena in harm's way, she shrugs off the question. “Trying to think of ways to reverse engineer the virus and find a cure,” she answers, with a tight smile for her ex-girlfriend.

She doesn’t allow Kara time to answer, just turns on her heel and walks away as her brain continues to piece together a strategy to effectively defeat her mother.

--

It’s surprisingly easy to sneak out of the DEO, all things considered. The only person that even looks at her twice is Eliza when she strolls back into the lab to grab her computer bag.

“Going somewhere, honey?”

Lena smiles engagingly, long practiced at fooling people. Even people that know her reasonably well. “Just moving my stuff,” she lies, glancing at the tablet Eliza is holding and diverting her attention. “Any luck with the virus?”

“It’d be a lot better if I had a living sample of it,” she muses, focusing back on the data in her hand.

“I’m sure,” Lena murmurs. “It’d be easier to engineer a cure that way.”

“Absolutely,” Eliza agrees and Lena reaches out to give her shoulder a friendly squeeze.

“I’ll leave you to your work,” she says with a soft smile.

“Are you okay, dear?” Eliza asks just as Lena’s at the door. A hand on the frame, she turns back and keeps a casual smile on her face.

“Of course,” she answers and Eliza has the same look Kara gets when she’s not buying any of Lena’s bullshit.

“If you need to talk to-”

Lena waves her off, growing a little impatient and nervous Kara is going to spot them at any moment, foiling Lena’s window for escape. “I’m just worried about my mother,” she says and it’s not entirely untrue. “I’m really not ready to talk about it.”

“I understand,” Eliza replies with a caring smile. Lena returns it before waving goodbye and heading out of the lab.

It doesn’t take much for Lena to find her way out. There’s a guard stationed near one of the landing platforms and Lena risks asking him where the exit is - he responds so promptly and obediently that for a second Lena suspects Kara’s strong armed most of the base into respecting her. It’s definitely something Kara would do.

When she finally gets outside the base she’s surprised to find that she’s not far from her office in downtown National City. She had known, of course, that they were still within city limits, but it’s disconcerting to know that a secret government base existed less than a mile from where she worked every single day and she was none the wiser.

Back at L Corp, she’s happy to see that the previously destroyed sign in the front lobby has been removed, the area cleaned and she walks past it with an air of determination as she heads towards the elevator that will take her down to the R&D labs. She makes a mental note to give her night clean up crew a raise. 

Predictably, Lana Lang is still in her office despite Lena's previous orders and she's standing with another engineer whom she's giving brisk orders to. It’s not often that Lena comes down here in the light of day and the man shoots her a bewildered look clearly conveying disbelief - like he wasn't sure Lena was real until this very moment.

“Miss Luthor,” Lana greets politely and Lena smiles, grips tightly at the strap to her bag.

“Hello, Lana,” she says, sending an arched eyebrow towards a man standing to their right, clearly waiting for instruction from Lana. He notices her expression and his eyes widen before he scurries away. When she looks back at Lana there’s an amused smile playing at her lips. “I’m beginning to think you live here.”

“Not far from the truth,” Lana jokes with a shrug. “I like my work.”

“I’m glad,” Lena says, understanding a devotion to work as few others do. 

“No bodyguard anymore?” Lana asks with a teasing smile and it takes a second for Lena to catch her meaning.

A spike of guilt hits her, but she smiles despite it, chuckles a little. “I’m afraid Supergirl has more important things to be doing.”

“I can’t imagine what,” Lana replies, still smiling. “Anything I can help you with this time?”

It’s a gamble to trust anyone at this juncture and something Lena has made an almost lifelong habit of not doing, but Lana doesn’t need to know the whole of it to offer assistance.

“Yes, actually,” Lena answers with an easy smile before pulling Lana away from listening ears and telling her what she needs.

--

It feels a little like there’s a ticking clock in the back of her head the longer she is away from the DEO. Kara will surely notice that Lena isn’t there at any point and her ex-girlfriend has never had particular difficulty in locating her when she needs to. Isn’t exactly known for her patience either, and the last thing she needs for this plan to work is Supergirl flying through the window right when she’s trying to convince her mother that she’s on her side.

Thankfully it doesn’t take much to talk her mother into visiting her office again and Lena’s only a little surprised. It must help that Lena prefaces the request with a I believe I have something you want.

Her mother walks in on the offensive, just as Lena expects she would and it eases something inside her. She can see all the pieces on the board now, can predict the moves. Confidence builds as she turns and affects a smug look.

“The Medusa virus,” she tells her mother. “You sent your goon here looking for Isotope 454.”

An exact replica of the isotope sits in a briefcase on her desk and she notices her mother glance at it briefly. “You’re in charge of Cadmus,” Lena finishes.

A smile spreads over Lillian’s face. “Am I in for another one of your little lectures now? Like you used to give to Lex?”

The mention of her brother spikes an ache in her chest, but she forces her heartbeat to stay calm and she walks towards the case on her desk. “No,” she says, trying to look at her mother with as kind eyes as possible. “We’re family, mother. Ask me for my help and I’ll give it to you.”

Lillian glances at the briefcase again, shoots Lena a disbelieving smile. “It’s that easy?”

It’s almost tragic how simple it is to get her mother to believe her. Then again, it’s always been simple to lie to people that don’t know her at all.

“It’s that easy,” Lena answers with a smile, opening the briefcase and showing it to her mother, the red glow of the isotope flashes across Lillian’s face.

“I didn’t think you believed in the cause,” her mother says, almost reverently. Lena imagines for a moment what it would be like for her mother to actually be proud of her, to love her. What it would be like to garner the kind of look on Lillian’s face through something genuine instead of a lie.

Arching an eyebrow and playing the part of the dutiful daughter, Lena smirks. “Then maybe it’s time you got to know your daughter a little better.”

--

The fake isotope is as close to the real deal as Lena could make it, as deep as the radioactive signature she knows Winn is tracking. It’s as much as she’s willing to involve the DEO and by extension Kara, in the plans.

As soon as they move offsite towards a warehouse her mother has informed her houses the nearly completed weaponized versions of the virus, Lena knows the DEO will be alerted. There won’t be much time between that and Kara showing up.

They make their way quickly to the Port of National City and Lena tries to wheedle as much information out of her mother about Cadmus as possible. She doesn’t get very far - her mother is a master of avoidance and it’s clear she hasn’t completely bought into Lena’s sudden showing of loyalty.

Hands in the pockets of her jacket, Lena follows her mother to a massive weapon sitting in the middle of the port like it belongs there and she pulls the tarp off it with a flourish. Lena can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the moment. Especially when her mother pulls a chain off her neck from which the keys to the weapon dangle.

“Some mothers wear lockets with pictures of their children,” Lena says with some amusement. “You wear the keys to a bazooka.”

“It’s a rocket launcher,” Lillian corrects like she’s teaching Lena about the Sicilian Defense in chess. “And it’s yours,” she adds, turning to Lena with a careful smile. Lena had expected this. The test of loyalty. “Take it. Prove you’re with me. Unleash Medusa and end Earth’s alien menace once and for all.”

The words turn her stomach over, but she’s no novice at hiding emotional reactions. With one hand still in her pocket she reaches out with the other and takes the keys. The weight of the watch on her wrist feels heavy and she wonders how long she has until Kara touches down.

It turns out not long at all. Just as she’s sliding the launch key into its slot a telltale thud resounds behind her and both she and her mother turn. Kara is standing there with J’onn and they both take a few steps her direction. A look of complete and utter confusion is plastered across Kara’s face and Lena falters for a moment, doubting her decision to keep Kara in the dark.

“Lena!” Kara exclaims with wide, hurt eyes and a desperation. The look of it makes Lena feel guilty, but she forces herself to focus on the task at hand.

“Get out of here, Supergirl,” Lena warns darkly, ever aware of her mother’s watchful gaze. “It’s too late. We have the isotope and now Medusa will do its job.”  

Kara shoots a bewildered expression towards her, a glance at J’onn. “Lena, what are you doing?!”

It comes across far too familiar to not register with Lillian, and Lena knows she needs to do something about it. “I’m a Luthor,” she says even as her hand shakes where it’s still holding the key. “What do you think I’m doing?”

And with that she turns the key to release the weapon, watching Kara’s eyes go impossibly wide in reaction. Lena’s sure her heart is going to come bursting out of her chest it’s beating so quickly and loudly.

J’onn doesn’t have the same concern on his face that Kara does, but his mouth is set in a frown of disapproval before he turns to Kara. “I’ve got that,” he says, eying the rocket that’s just shot out of the launcher. “Watch her.”

Lena and Lillian both watch as he transforms into another form, different this time than what she remembers from the fight club, and shoots off into the sky after the rocket. It leaves Kara there staring at her like she’s a stranger, her eyes darting between Lillian and Lena like she’s trying to figure out what’s happened.

“You heard my daughter, Supergirl,” Lillian says stepping up in front of Lena to face off against Kara. “It’s too late.” 

“I - I don’t understand,” Kara stutters, taking a step towards them. From behind her mother’s back Lena’s eyes grow wide and she tries to communicate with Kara, tell her something, but before she can, J’onn look-a-like, Henshaw, she remembers, comes stalking towards them. Her mother turns just enough to give him a sardonically pleased smile.  

“Now, if you don’t mind,” Lillian is saying and Kara is just staring at her, a silent plea for an explanation in her eyes that Lena finds herself pulled towards.

“It won’t work,” Kara yells out, coming closer to Lillian and Lena, her eyes starting to glow. She gets one step closer before she’s being launched backwards, into two shipping containers. Henshaw is grinning, saying things about how Kara is a monster. Kara’s body thumps awkwardly to the ground and one of the containers falls on her. Lena tries not to gasp, tries to school her expression for when her mother turns back to grin at her.

“To think that alien defended you to me,” Lillian says. “If only she had known.”

Her face is so motherly and kind, a smile that Lena would have once been so thrilled to receive. And now it feels like poison, seeping through her, as Kara rockets through the shipping container and grips ahold of Henshaw, pulling him up into the air. The punch she gives him is thunderous, sends his mask flying off, and he crashes into the ground so hard it leaves a small crater.  

“Goodbye, Supergirl,” Lillian says. Kara is coming toward them then, her eyes glowing red. She looks undisciplined, angry and upset, and it wouldn’t be obvious to anyone else. But she can tell from the unsteady way Kara’s hands shake. Lena’s mother flips a switch, and the sky explodes above them. Kara’s head turns upward, watching the bomb plume outward, curiosity coming across her face. Lena wants to rush forward, to Kara, but if she does now, Lillian will know. J’onn lands, his face looking calm as the orange, inert virus falls from the sky and drifts over them like snow.

It doesn’t work. J’onn doesn’t fall to the ground gasping for air, and there are no screams echoing around National City. Pride floods through her, along with relief.

Kara’s face turns to Lena, and it’s silly, but Kara looks so beautiful surrounded by what could almost be small, falling stars.

“They should all be dead,” Lillian says, and Lena’s distracted from Kara’s gaze by her mother staring at her.

 “You,” her mother says with clear accusation, but there’s this hint of surprise in it that Lena latches on to - it’s wrapped in something almost like pride, as if her mother didn’t expect Lena to be capable of such an underhanded plot. It disturbs her to feel warmed by such a thing, but she feels it nonetheless. “You switched out the isotope. You made the virus inert.”

A smile crosses her face as her jaw lifts and it’s a strong feeling to stand in front of her mother like this, to know that her plan succeeded. “I did,” she says just as red and blue sirens come flashing into her peripheral. “And I called the police.”

Lillian turns to see the cars arriving and Lena can sense Kara watching them from a distance, her hearing picking up on the conversation no doubt. “You’re making a mistake,” her mother says, but it doesn’t hold the same kind of condescension as it usually does.

A few police officers stalk towards them, hands on their guns. One steps up close to them, “Lillian Luthor, you’re under arrest for the-” Lena tunes it out, focuses on her mother’s stare, unwavering as she’s handcuffed and read her rights in front of Lena.

“We’re family, Lena,” her mother says with a half smirk that stutters in Lena’s chest just a little. It’s almost impressive the way Lillian exudes a commanding presence over the situation despite her hands being literally tied behind her back. “You’d do well to remember that.”

“We’re not really family, mother. Remember?”

“This isn’t over,” Lillian says even as she’s being pulled away. Her chin stays high in the air, a dare in the way she observes Lena, looks down at her. “The cause is bigger than both of us. Your brother understood that.”

“It’s over, mom,” Lena replies, stepping forward as Lillian gets pushed towards a waiting patrol car. “You’re going to jail for a long time. Last I heard, attempting to commit genocide doesn’t go over great in court.”

It unnerves her a little that Lillian’s smile barely falters. “Oh, Lena,” her mother says, shaking her head and tutting like she’s scolding her for not having proper manners or forgetting to do a chore. “Don’t think you’re so safe out there,” she continues and the threat is obvious in the hard cut of her eyes. “This little blip changes nothing. You’d do best to choose the right side before anything has to get too messy.”

Any response she might have gets preempted by the firm slamming of the car door and Lena’s left to watch her mother’s smiling face through the window as the police drive her away. An officer steps up to her immediately, hesitation in his stance as he eyes her warily.

“Miss Luthor? I need to take your statement,” he stutters out and she takes a deep breath, plasters on a practiced smile and turns to him.

“Of course.”

-- 

The first few weeks after Lena’s car accident, Kara won’t even touch her. Every move her girlfriend makes is as if Lena’s liable to fall apart if she so much bumps into something.

Lena allows it for awhile, understands Kara’s fears and the unease they’ve both felt since it happened, but Kara doesn’t seem to recover from it, can’t move past it. Lena’s woken up on more than a few nights when Kara’s stayed over to the telltale signs that her girlfriend is having a nightmare.

It’s not unusual, but she knows Kara’s not having the nightmares she usually has - the ones of her planet exploding, of her parents faces, of Alex dying along with them. This time, Lena knows she’s the star player in the dreams, can tell from the way Kara mumbles her name out in a pained broken whisper while still asleep.

She knows they both need to heal, but Kara’s treating her like she’s made of glass and it’s not helping either of them move on.

Like most moments in their relationship, Lena realizes she has to be the one to push through it, to confront the problem and solve it. So when Kara sits down on Lena’s futon with about two feet of space between them, Lena sighs heavily and stands. Before Kara can so much as realize what’s happening, Lena’s straddling Kara’s lap, both hands on Kara’s cheeks. 

“Lena!” Kara exclaims, but her hands grip at Lena’s hips immediately, and Lena settles into the feeling.

“I’m not going to break,” Lena says softly, and Kara’s eyebrows pull down, her lips thin.

“I don’t know what you-”

“You’re walking on eggshells around me,” she says with a pointed look, daring Kara to argue.

Kara looks away, but doesn’t move her hands and Lena’s fingers play with the ends of Kara’s ponytail, hoping to relax her. “I don’t mean to be.”

“Kara, what happened was a freak accident,” Lena says, bending a little to force eye contact. “I’m okay.”

Kara chews on her bottom lip nervously. “Humans are so fragile,” she says in a whisper and Lena laughs a little.

“Well compared to you, sure.”