10. Chapter 10(1)
The DEO is a flurry of movement that does nothing to calm Lena’s suddenly raw nerves. Her brain feels sluggish as it tries to process what it could mean that Kara’s missing. She tries not think of what it means for National City that Supergirl is missing. That concern feels far more distant than the fear creeping up her spine because Kara seems to be in some kind of trouble.
Lena’s always been worried for Kara - emotionally, for most of their time together, and even sometimes physically. Ever since she saw Supergirl arrive, that worry has only gotten worse. Most of it’s been motivated by knowing what kind of example Lex has set for how to attack Kryptonians, but now - now Kara is missing, unable to be helped easily, somewhere Lena can’t reach her.
As she follows Alex further into the base, she tries to compartmentalize her feelings, shoving the unease she’s started to feel to the side and focusing on the fact that Alex brought her here to help. Having some kind of mental breakdown isn’t going to go far in the way of contributing to the effort of helping Kara.
On the central platform of the base Lena spots J’onn standing there, hands at his hips as he observes a bank of monitors with a wealth of information spread across them. Winn sits in front of him, typing vigorously at a computer and Lena tries to follow what’s happening on the screens. Not much of it makes sense, however, until Alex starts to give her context.
“We think she went through some kind of transmatter portal,” Alex says as they step up next to J’onn. Lena follows where Alex is pointing, where a picture of some kind of half-oval device is displayed on the monitor.
With a shake of her head to push out her more distracting thoughts about what kind of trouble Kara could be in, Lena squints a little at the picture, reading the information there and studying what’s being displayed. “I’m sorry,” she says, clearing her throat. Her fingers play with the clasp of her watch in fidgety motions, popping its face open and closed, but it helps a little to calm her rattled nerves. “A transmatter portal? I’m not sure I understand.”
At the sound of her voice, Winn spins slightly in his chair seeming to just notice her. “Lena,” he greets with a relieved sounding sigh and a small smile. “Finally someone here that can speak my language.”
At the first glimpse of his face, Lena jumps a bit, tilting to get a better look in concern. “What happened to you?”
Winn waves her off, smile fading. “Long story, don’t ask.”
He spins back around, grabbing a tablet and holding it out in her direction. When she rounds the desk to grab it, a layout of design schematics stares up at her. It takes a second for her to realize what she’s looking at - the blueprints to the portal. She pinches her fingers together on the screen and then pulls them apart, studying the various parts and what it all means when it’s put together.
For a moment she forgets that she’s looking at this because it’s the key to helping Kara and thinks about the different ways this kind of technology could be applied in the real world. It stuns her for a moment as she realizes the industries a portal like this could revolutionize.
Alex’s voice breaks her from her thoughts and brings her careening back into reality. “There was a pile of Kara’s clothes on the ground near this portal. We found it in a warehouse across town and we think she went through it intentionally.”
Lena frowns. “Then we know where she is? Where the portal leads?” Lena asks, looking around at the grim faces of the team. This doesn’t sound like Kara is missing and then it occurs to Lena. It’s not so much that Kara’s missing, but that she’s in danger. A new spike of fear takes hold of her throat, stronger and more insistent than before. Alex frowns heavily, her jaw tightening as she looks up at the large central screen.
“We do,” J’onn replies and he sounds distressed by it. “Agent Schott?”
“Yes,” Winn says with a twirl of his fingers in the air before he starts typing and a new window pulls forward displaying a planetary system Lena isn’t fully familiar with. “The ionization trail leads to the Arcturus System. Planet 51 ARC B.”
Lena struggles to remember nights when Kara would ramble on and on about distant planets, stars and systems, tracing patterns and constellations on Lena’s ribcage, but nothing triggers as she looks up at the planet on the screen. The name isn’t at all familiar.
“Maaldoria,” J’onn clarifies and his face conveys nothing but anxiety. “They call it Slaver’s Moon.”
“Sounds friendly, right?” Winn asks with a dry look for Lena.
“Was she -” Lena has to swallow against the sudden dry feeling in her throat. “Was she aware that’s where it would take her?”
“Unlikely,” Alex replies with a frown. “Maaldoria has a red sun.”
The low level of edginess that Lena had been fighting since the minute Alex had called her ratchets up instantly, and worry takes over in her brain, her stomach turning over suddenly. She stares down at the schematics on the tablet before turning wide frightened eyes towards the informational screen Winn still has displayed on the bank of monitors. She knew that Kara’s powers were derived from the yellow sun, and if Maaldoria has a red sun like Krypton did, Kara would be powerless, alone and unprotected on a strange planet with an ominous name. It feels like her heart nearly falls out of her chest. Next to her, Alex’s hands clench the desktop so hard that they turn white.
“Yeah,” Winn says softly, staring at her as the realization washes over her like ice water. For the first time since she’s arrived, he looks worried and scared and about as sick with the idea of Kara alone and vulnerable as Lena feels.
“Is there a - I presume you have a plan for her retrieval,” Lena says, in a careful enunciation of the words. There’s an overwhelming feeling of concern, fear and agitation growing in her gut as she starts to realize just how serious this situation is. Her hands feel like they’re numbing around the tablet, and when she looks down at them, they’re almost white. The look of unrest on Alex’s face does nothing to make her feel better.
“Agent Schott is working on getting the portal open,” J’onn supplies, his voice softening as he looks between she and Alex. “Once we’re able to do so safely we’ll send a team through.”
The DEO sounds too quiet as the four of them stare around at each other, each of them looking as terrified as Lena feels.
The only contribution Lena feels she has to offer is worry at this point and she can’t help the helpless look that crosses her face. She looks to Alex. “Is there something I can do to help?” She glances at Winn. “Do you need another set of eyes on the portal mechanics?”
Winn turns to her, but before he can speak, Alex is stepping forward. “Actually, I brought you in to help me.”
Lena turns back to Alex, quirks an eyebrow. “With what?” Anything to get her mind off of the danger Kara is in sounds like a great plan to Lena.
“I’ve been working on a device that harnesses the power Kara gets from a yellow sun,” Alex starts, looking a little more settled to be talking about something other than where Kara is stranded. “Sort of like a sun grenade. We’ve been prototyping it for a few months, but I’d like your opinion.”
It doesn’t fully explain Lena’s role, but it gives her a better sense of purpose and she nods at Alex. “You think she’ll need her powers?”
“Maaldoria isn’t exactly known for welcoming visitors,” J’onn adds. “Our team can handle themselves, but it’d be a nice thing to have when we find Supergirl. Any little bit helps.”
Lena tries not to focus on what not welcoming to visitors might mean for a powerless Kara.
“I’ll do what I can,” Lena replies and Alex makes a this way gesture with her head, and she’s already halfway off the platform by the time Lena realizes she needs to follow quickly. With a squeeze to Winn’s shoulder and a nod for J’onn, Lena follows Alex away from the platform and back towards where the labs reside.
When they’ve achieved relative privacy, Lena asks the question that’s been worrying her. “Is she alone over there?”
Alex rolls her eyes a little before answering and the causal reaction surprises Lena. “We think Mon-El went with her,” Alex says, holding the door to a small lab open for Lena to walk through. “His glasses were on the floor next to Kara’s clothes.”
“Do you think it was connected to the missing persons case Kara was working?” Lena asks, following Alex to a small workstation, where a cavalcade of tools sit out, waiting for someone to put them to use. “With that girl, Izzy? She mentioned she was meeting Maggie this afternoon to discuss it.”
“As far as I can tell, yes,” Alex answers, pulling a small case over and opening it. “Leave it to Kara that right after I tell her how dangerous it is to just go jumping through portals to places I can’t follow without backup or any kind of planning, she goes and does exactly that. All because of one missing girl and her raging hero complex.”
The turmoil in Alex is nearly palpable and Lena reaches out on instinct, grips Alex’s forearm in what she hopes is a comforting gesture. It would work on Kara, but Kara isn’t here - maybe Lena needs this small connection just as much as Alex does.
“She’ll be okay,” Lena murmurs and tries to get herself to believe in it. “She’s always been a fighter.”
“Yeah,” Alex says with a noise between a scoff and a laugh. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
They look at each other in grim understanding for a solid moment before Alex picks up a small tablet nearby and hands it to Lena. “Let’s get to work,” she says softly and Lena nods.
--
The day a mystery girl saves a plane from crashing in National City, Lena is in London. It’s well past midnight, but she’s still on Metropolis time and doesn’t tend to sleep that much anyway, and after a long day of meetings, Lena’s eternally grateful the bar in her hotel is still open and still serving food.
Halfway through her second glass of wine and just as her late night dinner is being set in front of her, a breaking news alert bursts across the TV hanging over the bar and Lena watches as blurry footage appears.
The words plane disaster averted by unknown hero captions a grainy picture of the scene - a plane that looks like it has just performed a water landing and a figure standing on the wing, dripping water into the wind. Lights are flashing all around them, but their face is tilted downward, looking down at the wing of the plane.
It’s a girl, that much is obvious, and she stands there for a long moment before jumping into the air and away. That’s all it takes for Lena to know. She’s seen that jump a million times. Has witnessed it first hand.
Kara.
It doesn’t fully hit her until the morning. The news runs a story calling Kara Supergirl and it feels like only moments later there’s images of Kara everywhere in a blue and red suit not unlike Superman’s.
Days later Lex calls her and asks quite derisively if she’s seen the news that the newest Super has leaked oil into the National City bay. It’s hard, to not act defensive, and it’s even harder not to worry when she sees footage of Kara getting blasted around by Reactron, a couple more weeks later.
The copy of CatCo Magazine that ends up in her pile of mail is what hits everything home for her. The face on the cover is undoubtedly Kara, wide blue eyes and tousled blonde hair. She looks determined, and strong, and so utterly like the girl who used to tell her quite firmly that skipping lunch was not allowed, even if she was on the verge of almost being done with her work.
The interview seems stilted and Cat Grant takes quite the brush to the story, but Kara still manages to come shining through off the page in a way that’s familiar and new to Lena all at once. It’s especially evident in the irritated way Kara grits out that she doesn’t want to be asked about starting a family if her cousin isn’t going to be subject to the same questioning.
It burns through Lena to think, for half of a second, that perhaps Kara doesn’t want to talk about a family because of the two of them. It’s why Lena avoids the questions herself when asked.
The arrival of a new Super means even more eyes than usual have turned back to Metropolis and if anyone is looking that direction, it’s practically Luthor tradition to step into the spotlight. Her brother and mother are all too happy to provide quotes about living in a city with an alien superhero, about what kind of relationship Luthor Corp has with Metropolis’s very own.
Making front page news has made it harder and harder for Lena to ignore Lex’s growing vitriol for Superman and aliens in general, which has seemed to only have gotten worse in the last few years. It had seemed distant before, something she just accepted about her brother. But now that Kara’s suddenly been thrust in front of his crosshairs, conversations with Lex seem to end in argument nine out of ten times.
It comes to a head one afternoon when Lex’s assistant finds her in her office to hand deliver a short press statement about a proposed Alien Amnesty bill with instructions to sign on the bottom. Lena barely gets past the first sentence before she’s storming up to the penthouse level of the building and barging into his office.
“Lex, what the hell is this?” She asks without any preamble. The paper in her hand crumples a little in her grip as she holds it up in front of her and her lab coat swings around her as she takes long angry strides towards his desk. Lex’s laughter sounds off-key and strange when he turns around in his chair.
“Good afternoon to you too, Lena.”
It gives her pause for a moment and she takes a breath, levels a narrowed gaze at her brother. “What. Is. This?”
“It’s a statement against Senator Crane’s introduction of the Alien Amnesty Bill,” Lex says, shrugging and adjusting his tie. His hair is unkempt, and there’s a glass of scotch on his desk. She stares at him for a beat, before looking down at the words written across the page in her hand.
“Aliens are a danger to a modern society, and Luthor Corp strongly disagrees with the so-called Alien Amnesty bill. It is no work of amnesty; it is an invitation to our destruction." Lena reads, stepping forward and slamming the paper down on the desk. Lex tilts his head to the side, considering it.
“Sounds well crafted to me,” he responds with an unaffected expression. “You didn’t even get to the best part.”
“Since when are we in the business of making political statements?” Lena asks. What she really wants to say is what the hell is your problem but isn’t prepared for that kind of throwdown with her brother.
“Since there’s a new Super over in National City trying to play God like her dear cousin,” Lex all but spits out looking nothing like the loving brother Lena’s used to. He stands, props his hands on his desk and paints an imposing picture, the skyline of Metropolis looming behind him through the floor to ceiling windows. “There’s two of them now, Lena. Wake up. There’s probably more lurking about the country like sleeper cells.”
“National City has been nothing but protected since Supergirl came out! Just like Metropolis has been for years,” The argument isn’t new to them, but Lena feels like her brother is slipping farther and farther away from her each time they have it.
There’s unchained anger in his eyes and the smile he plasters on hasn’t felt friendly in months. “And what if they decide they no longer want to play protector?” Lex posits in a calm tone that manages to sound maniacal regardless. “What if they turn on us? What then? Who will protect us then?”
“Superman has been nothing but a hero, Lex,” she says carefully, having heard this line of argument a hundred times.
Her brother regards her for a moment, critical and unyielding. It’s the kind of look she’s seen him give corporate rivals and competitors, but never at her. “Sign the statement, Lena,” he commands, sounding more like a CEO than brother.
“I won’t put my name on that,” she says, refusing to back down. “And you shouldn’t either.”
“Your name’s already on it,” he bites back and when he picks up the paper on his desk he thrusts it forward with a finger tapping against the Luthor Corp letterhead.
“Don’t release this statement,” Lena all but pleads, shaking her head. “This is bad business.”
“It’s not about business, Lena!” He all but yells, slamming the paper back down on his desk so forcefully that she jumps back. The glass of scotch sitting nearby sloshes violently and threatens to topple before he grabs for it. “Luthor Corp is Metropolis. And I will not sit idly by while a ticking time bomb waits to detonate. Superman is a wrath on this city. And so is his cousin.”
“Superman-,” she starts, but barely gets the name out before his face is darkening even further and he slams another fist down on the table.
“You don’t know him like I do,” he says in a low ominous tone that Lena has no idea what to do with. “He has to be stopped. And so does she.”
“Lex,” she breathes and she searches her brother’s face, finds only anger and pain. “You sound like you want to kill them.”
For a long moment he doesn’t respond. Then a smile crosses his face that almost looks normal, almost looks like the brother that practically raised her. He sets his drink down and fixes his tie again, tightening the knot at his throat before smoothing an unruly hair back onto his head. “We have to stop them,” he says. “They can’t win. And I will do whatever is necessary to protect you, this company, this family, the world. Whatever is necessary.”
“Lex,” Lena whispers, watching him as he stalks over to his drink tray. His hands are shaking, and when he turns to offer her a drink, the ice he’s slipped in the glass rattles loudly. Fear shakes through her, fear for Kara and her family, for Lena’s own family - for Lex, who doesn’t seem like Lex, anymore.
“It’s the truth, Lena,” he says, the glass still extended between the two of them. The gulf seems like it’s widening. “Someday I hope you’ll understand.”
A little more than a week later, after Superman gives a quote to Clark Kent that he’s concerned for Lex and his anti-alien rhetoric, Lex destroys a swath of downtown Metropolis in an attempt to kill the Man of Steel.
--
They work in relative silence for long minutes, Alex walking Lena through how the device works and what she’s trying to accomplish. It’s a brilliant design and Lena spares a moment to feel impressed by the eldest Danvers woman. Kara had always talked about Alex as though she had hung the moon and stars - getting to know Alex had shown how interesting she actually was. But clearly, her time with the DEO had done even more good for her.
The grenade is nearly finished as far as Lena can tell, and all she’s really contributing at the moment is handing Alex the tools she needs and humming confirmation whenever Alex explains a certain part or mechanic. It occurs to her that her presence in the DEO is a tad redundant. They’ve already found Kara, they’ve assembled a team to go through the portal to retrieve her and Alex seems to need little help in completing her yellow sun grenade.
Perhaps bringing Lena in is some kind of protocol or something Kara had requested in the event of an emergency. She tries not to think that they brought her in under some kind of suspicion and assuages the thought with the knowledge that Alex, at the very least, seems to trust her.
Curiosity, however, gets the better of her after long moments of working in silence and she can’t stop the question from bubbling up. It’s better than handing off small screwdrivers and imagining how exactly Kara could have died by now.
“Alex,” she starts slowly and waits for Alex to acknowledge her. “Why did you really bring me here?”
Alex looks up with a knitted brow. “What do you mean?”
“You clearly don’t need my help with this,” Lena says, gesturing towards the grenade. “And you already know where Kara is. I’m just curious why you felt the need to bring me in.”
Alex looks at her for a moment, lips thin in consideration before she shrugs and turns back towards the device. “Honestly? I needed someone else to worry with.”
Once she processes the words, Lena laughs and detects the hint of a smile at the corner of Alex’s lips. “I’m fairly certain everyone here is pretty worried. I’m sure the whole DEO has been on high-alert since you realized she was gone.”
Alex face grows serious when she looks back at Lena. “That’s different,” she says softly and sets the device back on the table. She sighs, stretching her hands into the air.
“Different?” Lena asks, until it dawns on her what exactly Alex means and she clears her throat in realization, glancing away from the hard set of Alex’s eyes. “Right.”
Silence stretches between them while Lena tries to think of what to say. She wonders briefly how much Kara’s talked to Alex about everything that’s gone on between them in the past few weeks, or months even.
“Look,” Alex says after a few seconds, turning more to face Lena and putting a hand on her hip. It’s not hard to sense the turn in conversation and she finds that she isn’t entirely thrilled to be having an emotional confrontation with Kara’s sister at the moment - certainly not while the turbulent feelings of concern over Kara’s wellbeing are still churning in her stomach.
“Alex,” Lena says, and it comes out like a warning that Alex easily ignores.“Can I just say something?”
Lena shrugs her shoulders just slightly, sighs. “Can I stop you?”
Alex gives her a bland, unimpressed look, but pushes forward. “Kara’s too nice to give you an ultimatum.”
“An ultimatum regarding what?” Lena asks, though she imagines she knows the answer.
“About you two,” Alex answers and she looks entirely uncomfortable to be having this conversation. “It’s that hero complex. She sometimes forgets she’s allowed to feel things, to be angry about stuff.”
Lena can’t disagree with that. It was true even in college when Kara would often disregard her own feelings in favor of the feelings of others. She can’t imagine that habit has gotten any better considering Kara’s new roles as city protector and superhero.
“When you guys broke up she wasn’t even mad about it. She went a little a crazy for a while there, but she wasn’t mad,” Alex says and there’s bewilderment in her tone. “The only time she’d really talk about you was to say how she hoped you were happy or that she was proud of some ridiculous thing you had done that made the news. It was so…”
Kara, Lena adds in her mind and can’t help but smile even as her chest starts to feel constricted. All those times she had turned on the news only to feel frightened for Kara, and Kara had only managed to be proud. Alex shakes her head and lets out a sad laugh.
“Do you know I caught her once eating an entire vat of mashed potatoes and watching one of your TED talks?”
The words startle through Lena with a mixture of affection and a heavy dose of despair. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Alex says with a wry smile. “She made me watch it with her. She kept talking about how smart you were and how she always knew you were going to do amazing things. All while shoveling an inhuman amount of mashed potatoes in her mouth. It was gross.”
Lena aches for the image of Kara Alex is presenting. It feels like she can’t breathe, all of a sudden, picturing Kara watching out for her in all the years they were apart, and not being angry - not hating her, like she had thought she would in her darkest moments.
“Normal people would be just a little mad if their girlfriend unexpectedly broke up with them and then went radio silent for years,” Alex continues and Lena can’t disagree.
“Kara’s not exactly normal,” Lena says just for the sake of having something to say. Her throat feels like it’s swelling with emotion. Talking about this stirs up memories of lonely hotel rooms in Tokyo, then later in London, Oslo, Capetown, Buenos Aires, Sydney, of how she did all she could to avoid thinking about Kara - and Kara had apparently embraced it.
“Kara’s amazing,” Alex corrects with conviction in her eyes for a heated moment before they soften and Alex adds, “And so are you.”
It surprises Lena and does nothing to make the heavy weight against her chest feel better. “Alex,” she breathes.
“I’m not saying any of this to be mean,” Alex tells her and the truth of it is written in the earnest expression on Alex’s face. “You are great. You’d have to be for Kara to be this attached to you.”
Lena laughs, but the sound is thick with emotion and she feels jittery with the conflicting swamp of emotions in her brain. “I know you’re not trying to be mean,” she says softly, drawn to the way the Danvers sisters always seem to look out for each other.
It’s a struggle not to think of Lex, but she restrains herself knowing that that mental path will only topple her already tenuous control over her emotions.
“I know that you guys have some weird, complicated thing happening,” Alex says. “Or I guess I should say that you guys think you have some weird complicated thing going on, but for Kara’s sake, at the very least, you have got to figure it out.”
Lena sighs, knowing this is the heart of the conversation Alex has started and she’s frankly a tad surprised it’s the first Alex has said anything to her. Another part of her feels amused it’s coming up long after she and Kara had already taken the first steps towards doing exactly what Alex is telling her to do. The amusement doesn’t last long when all it does is remind her that Kara is missing and those steps are in danger of being the only ones they end up taking.
“Clearly, something happened when you were on Earth-1,” Alex states definitively and Lena arches an eyebrow at the assumption, no matter how correct it may be. Alex mimics the expression as if in challenge for Lena to deny it. “Kara’s been weird ever since you got back and even weirder since New Year’s.”
The memory of a rooftop, of fireworks and cheering and the feel of Kara’s smile against her mouth washes over her like a warm blanket and she fights a smile. “Alex,” she says softly, but Alex just puts her hand up.
“Let me finish,” she replies, frown serious. “I think you love my sister. I think that you guys weren’t together that long, but it was still,” she makes a gesture with her hands, her eyes going a little wide and lips pursing. Lena thinks she understands.
“Yeah,” she agrees easily. It’s still that way, even having not been together for four years.
“And I think you’re one of the smartest people I know, but that doesn’t always work for you,” Alex finishes with a wry smile.
Lena laughs a little, rolls her eyes. “I think it’s worked quite well for me,” she ventures and Alex gives her a dry look that makes Lena lift her hands up in surrender. “Just saying.”
“The point is that Kara is all this,” Alex continues, putting a hand to her chest with a fond smile that Lena feels pull across her own face in reaction. “Sometimes too much. And sometimes you let yourself be all this.” She points to her head, shrugs a little. “Definitely too much.”
Her brow arches at that and doesn’t know how to tell Alex that it was listening to her head over her heart that put her back on the path towards reconciliation with Kara. If the way she’s felt since coming to National City is any indication she wishes she knew how to be a lot less heart. It’d certainly have been much less painful to leave Kara four years ago, less painful to see her again, less painful to keep them apart.
“Like I said before, Kara’s not going to be the one to say this. She doesn’t know how to put her foot down when it comes to you.” Lena almost laughs thinking of all the times Kara’s all but ordered her to do something in the past few months. “This dance you guys are doing is ridiculous and acting like everything's just fine is getting exhausting. If you’re just doing this to leave again like you did before you will break Kara and I for one am not going to-”
“Alex,” Lena interrupts as Alex starts to ramble, not unlike the younger Danvers is often prone to doing. There’s a heat building behind her eyes at the thought of leaving Kara again. It scratches at her throat and Alex looks at her, brows raised in expectation. “I do love her,” she says and the words come out rough around the edges, wet and thick sounding. It reminds her of Kara’s absence and the possibility of never getting to say the words to Kara again spikes a hot flare of anxiety through her. “I haven’t been trying to hurt her intentionally and I have no intention of doing so in the future.”
It takes a moment of clear consideration before Alex’s shoulders sag. “I know,” she says sounding somewhere between sad and fond. “But for a genius, you make incredibly stupid decisions when it comes to stuff like this.”
It makes Lena smile a little and she plays with her watch in an attempt to quell the shaky feeling in her hands. “And what, in your opinion, is a smart decision about this?”
Alex’s lips thin as she observes Lena for a long moment before her mouth twitches up a little at the edge and she huffs out a little laugh that doesn’t sound all that funny.
“I care about both of you. I’m not trying to…” Alex shakes her head, seems to lose the words, but Lena thinks she understands. Her chest feels swollen with emotion and affection for Alex she’s not used to and for the second time, thoughts of Lex knock on the back door to her mind.
Reaching out to grasp Alex’s forearm, Lena smiles and catches Alex’s eyes with a solid gaze. “I have made a decision,” she tells her, allowing herself another moment to reminisce the way Kara had looked on the rooftop of the L Corp party, beautiful in the lights of the city, looking at Lena with a smile on her face. “Has Kara not told you?”
“Told me -” Surprise shadows across Alex’s face, brows knitting together. “You’ve made a decision?”
Lena nods, thinks of the way Kara had looked as Lena asked her to dinner. “Yes.”
Alex studies Lena’s face for a long moment before clearly finding something she’s looking for, the tense lines around her eyes relaxing. “And you’ve told Kara?”
Rolling her eyes just slightly, Lena laughs. “In a way.”
After a second more of consideration, Alex lets out a little disgusted sound, but she’s smiling. “I knew you guys were doing something weird when you both disappeared at your party.”
Lena pushes against the forearm she’s holding, enough to sway Alex just a little and they both laugh. “Your big speech was really inspiring, though.”
That pinched expression Lena’s grown used to seeing on Alex’s face returns and her lips thin. “You could have stopped me at any point.”
“And deprived you of your Big Sister Moment? Never,” Lena says with feigned seriousness and a teasing twitch of her lips.
Alex makes a noise halfway between a scoff and a laugh and turns away. “How did you get more annoying with age?”
Lena props her hip up against the table they’re standing near and asks a question that’s been bothering her ever since this conversation started. “Has Kara really not told you any of this? You guys talk about everything.”
It’s odd to think that Alex hadn’t been the first person Kara had went to after their moment on the roof. Lena had been there, after all, when Kara and Alex had a weekly phone call that would last hours in college. In fact, some of those conversations involved a little too much detail for Lena’s comfort.
Alex turns back to the desk, leans forward with her arms spread out to prop herself up and blows out a heavy breath that seems to be an answer within itself. “Things have been weird lately,” she admits in a small voice and the fear Lena’s felt since Alex uttered the words Kara’s missing sits under Alex’s words and threads into Lena’s chest. “I don’t really know why.”
Before Lena can prod further, Alex straightens abruptly, her gaze locking on something outside the glass walls of the lab and when Lena turns it’s to see Maggie Sawyer standing outside in the hallway smiling hesitantly at them. Alex, however, doesn’t look happy at all to see her girlfriend. Her jaw clenches visibly and she mumbles a what is she doing here before abruptly exiting the lab.
Lena watches through the glass as the two of them engage in a conversation that seems to grow heated the longer it goes on. Maggie’s face is the only one Lena can see from this angle and she watches as it goes through a journey of emotions - worry, confusion, sadness. Eventually Maggie seems to affect an expression of resignation and with a last glance through the glass towards Lena turns to walk away.
Alex watches her leave for a few moments before turning back to reenter the room. Lena busies herself with the grenade on the table and futilely tries to look like she wasn't watching the confrontation. The uneasy vibe that had floated around them since Lena walked into the DEO seems to intensify, filling the room.
Alex wordlessly picks up a tablet, glances at the grenade Lena’s holding and inputs a few commands. Lena allows the silence for a few seconds before asking, “What was that about?”
“Nothing,” Alex says and it almost sounds genuine, apart from the telltale crinkle around Alex’s eyes that gives her away. Kara, somehow, has a similar giveaway, and the thought of Kara reminds Lena, all of a sudden, why she’s here. Another shot of fear goes through her.
Lena considers leaving it be for a moment. Alex clearly doesn’t want to talk about it and neither of them are particularly adept at these conversations, the last few minutes aside. Talking about Kara is one thing, talking about Alex’s love life feels much more tumultuous.
The thoughts of Kara, however, makes Lena feel a twinge of responsibility for the eldest Danvers sibling. If Kara were here right now, she’d be prodding at Alex further in an effort to comfort her sister.
Eyes drifting to the ceiling for a brief moment, Lena takes a deep breath and pushes on. “It didn’t look like nothing,” she says pointedly and Alex noticeably bristles.
“It’s nothing,” Alex repeats and when she drops the tablet angrily onto the table, Lena doesn’t even flinch. That kind of emotion she understand fairly well and she smiles sadly.
“You know,” she says slowly, trying to decide which angle to approach Alex’s emotions from. “We’re going to find Kara.” Her voice breaks a little on the words and she’s sure that’s lessened their credibility, but she focuses on keeping it together. Worry for her sister would explain Alex’s uncharacteristically loose grip on her emotions. It seemed to be a family trait: once, in college, Kara had nearly flown to National City in the middle of the night when Alex had mentioned she had a stomach flu on the phone.
“I know that,” Alex grits out and it sounds about as certain as Lena had. She reaches out to take the grenade from Lena’s hands and starts to fiddle with it in quick, angry motions.
Silence stretches for a bit and Lena glances out of the lab towards where Maggie once was, considering a change of tactics. “Does Maggie know?”
“Does Maggie know what?” Alex asks and she looks around the desk for something until Lena reaches over and hands her a screwdriver. Alex glares at it for a second before taking it begrudgingly from Lena’s hands.
“About Kara,” Lena answers. “That she’s missing.”
“Of course not,” Alex answers, tone dripping with incredulity. “That would require telling her Kara’s secret identity.”
“It just seems like something you might consider sharing with your girlfriend,” Lena says carefully, knowing how protective Alex feels over Kara’s identity. Idly she remembers the conversation Kara and Alex had after Alex realized Lena knew Kara’s secret - Kara walked around in a slump for a week before they finally reconciled. “Maybe not the Supergirl part, but at the very least what you’re going through. I’m sure she’s worried about you.”
It feels somewhat settling to focus on something like this instead of the fear over Kara’s well being that’s threatened to consume her.
Alex exhales noisily, finishes her fiddling and all but slams the grenade back on the table. Absently, Lena’s grateful the grenade is seemingly harmless to humans. With the way Alex is moving, the device is liable to detonate at any moment. “She’s not my girlfriend anymore,” Alex says, the words sounding like they’re ripped out of Alex’s mouth and Lena startles a bit in surprise.
“What? What happened?”
With a clearing of her throat and a straightening of her spine, Alex affects a casual expression that doesn’t fool Lena for a second. “I broke up with her.”
“Just now?!” Lena asks and she tries to keep her voice from raising, but isn’t that successful.
Alex’s face darkens, jaw clenching for a moment. “I’m not taking relationship advice from you of all people,” she snaps lowly and Lena knows it’s the fear and the sadness mixing up to make Alex want to lash out. The urge to bite back bubbles up in her throat, but she keeps control of it.
“Alex,” Lena says, but it doesn’t come out as a soft as she wants it to. She clears her throat a little and tries again. “I’m just asking.”
“I just want to focus on getting this to work and then finding my sister,” Alex says, visibly shaking her head and blinking as though fighting against tears. Lena’s chest aches a bit, but she understands what Alex is saying, understands the need to focus on something as a coping method against strong surges of emotion.
After a moment, Lena concedes with a soft, “Of course,” and pulls a tablet towards her, pushing the grenade back towards Alex.
They get back to work in companionable silence, but Lena feels the need to add one more thing and she takes a deep breath before speaking.
“I know a little bit about pushing people away out of fear.” Her voice is quiet as she says it, soft and careful as to not startle Alex and it seems to do the trick.
Alex’s shoulder sags a bit and she blows out a low breath. Lena continues before Alex can respond, hoping to get the words out before Alex has a chance to snap at her. “Just...if you want to talk to someone.”
It looks for a moment like Alex might say something scathing again, her jaw clenching for a long few seconds before she visibly deflates completely. “Thanks,” is all Alex says before turning back to her work once more.
They’re just finishing up with the first grenade when J’onn steps into the lab, striding forward with authority and purpose. She and Alex both straighten to greet him.
“Agent Schott believes he can open the portal,” J’onn says and anticipation starts to curl in Lena’s gut. “It’s time.”
“We’ve only had time to make the one,” Lena says, worried that even this one will actually do the trick, especially after Alex has just slammed it into the table a few times.
“Then we better make it count,” J’onn says. “Suit up, we’re heading to the portal in five.”
He leaves them alone again with a terse look and Alex takes a deep breath before turning to Lena.
After a moment of hesitation, Alex reaches out, squeezes Lena’s shoulder warmly for a long, profound moment. The contact relaxes her, feels solid in a way she reacts to. “Thanks, Lena,” Alex says softly and Lena waits a second before doing something completely out of her comfort zone.
Alex stiffens the second Lena brings her arms up to pull Alex into a hug, but she softens soon after and they both cling to each other for a long moment. “We’ll get her back,” Lena murmurs before they step away from each other.
“I know we will,” Alex says with a confidence that starts to restore some strength into Lena’s bones. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Lena allows herself a wry smile. “Because I’m the smartest person you know?”
“Because we both love her,” Alex says simply, but with the most genuine smile. The words beat against Lena’s chest and sit there for a few warm seconds. The fear and anticipation feels easier to control just knowing that Alex shares it, that she understands.
Lena nods, takes a deep breath. “And because you wanted someone else to yell at her for jumping through a portal without backup.”
Alex laughs and Lena feels lighter. “She had Mon-El with her.”
Lena picks up the grenade from the table and hands it to Alex with a dry look. “My point stands.”
Humming through a smile, Alex takes the grenade and turns to leave. Lena follows.
--
“So Alex is coming this weekend,” Kara tells her casually as they’re eating lunch in one of the campus dining halls.
Lena pokes around her plate and tries to control the look of distaste on her face. Campus dining is something she only tolerates when Kara forces her to and she’s mostly able to limit that to Pizza Wednesdays and Asian Fusion Fridays. “What for?”
After taking a big gulp of soda, Kara shrugs and goes for indifferent, but Lena can detect the almost tangible way she’s buzzing with excitement. “It’s my -” Kara looks around a bit, leans forward across the table until Lena does too. “It’s my Earth birthday.”
“It’s your birthday?” Lena asks and feels a stab of guilt she wouldn’t know something so fundamental about her girlfriend.
“Kind of,” Kara answers and Lena’s brows knit together.
“What does that mean?” Dropping her fork onto her tray she abandons trying to eat her food and makes a mental note to stop by the campus store. Kara is shoveling rice and orange chicken into her mouth at a near-reckless speed. It’s disgusting.
“It’s not my real like day-I-was-born birthday,” Kara says, and then shrugs. “It’s the date of when my pod landed here and Kal took me to the Danvers. Alex and I always celebrate it with this whole big thing.”
“Isn’t that a bit-” Lena trails off, not sure how to frame the question. Kara cocks her head to the side, clearly confused, and Lena tries to explain. “I mean...it’s kind of sad, right? The day you landed here? Or rather, why .”
Kara blinks, then a small smile comes across her face, as she leans across the table to grab ahold of Lena’s hand.
“I love the Danvers,” Kara says and she lowers her voice again as a couple passes by their table. “I was really, really sad when I landed here, because it meant that Krypton was - Krypton was gone. But they’re my family. And I like celebrating when I became part of their family.”
Lena suddenly wants to stand up out of her chair and hug her girlfriend, whose smile is soft and whose hand is tracing over her knuckles, as though Lena is the one who’s discussing the death of her home and forceful introduction to a whole new planet.
“You know, the symbol Kal wears, the S-shape,” Kara says, drawing it in the air just over her own chest. Lena nods, lacing her and Kara’s fingers together, watching Kara’s smile as she looks at Lena. “It’s not an S. It means el mayarah. Stronger together. That’s what it means to be a part of the House of El. On Krypton, my birthday was a celebration of being a part of my family. And so on Earth, I like to celebrate that too.”
“Stronger together,” Lena repeats, watching as Kara’s fingers and hers interlock on the wood of the table. Kara grins, tugging at her hand.
“Usually, Alex takes me out into the woods for a camping trip where she lets me do stuff I normally can’t like start the fire with my eyes,” Kara says. “And we eat so many marshmallows. It’s awesome.”
Kara’s back to shoveling food in her mouth, and the thought of marshmallows taking the place of the rice and chicken nearly makes Lena shiver in disgust.
“Alex must really love you if she’s willing to take you into the woods and watch you stuff marshmallows in your mouth for a weekend,” Lena says, with a teasing smile.
There’s food bulging out of one side of Kara’s cheeks when she smiles and Lena rolls her eyes and looks away. “You watch me eat almost every day, so what does that say about you?”
Lena laughs. “I must love you too,” she replies in a dry tone and after swallowing, thankfully, Kara smiles again.
“I mean, Alex sort of hated me when I got to Earth,” Kara says. “Last night, on our phone call, she lectured me for thirty minutes about how I shouldn’t use my powers around you, so I think she still sort of hates me sometimes.”
“She loves you,” Lena says with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Yelling at you is how she shows that she cares.”
Kara hums a little, shovels another helping of food into her mouth. “Kind of like when Lex sends you twenty page long critiques on some new engineering project you showed him?”
It makes Lena smile to think of her idiot brother, who’s somewhere down in Rio right now, setting up a new factory location. “Yeah, kind of exactly like that.”
“He must super love you then,” Kara says with a wise tone that sounds unnecessarily exaggerated.
“Be nice,” Lena warns and she pushes her foot up against Kara’s shin under the table.
Kara just shrugs, sets her fork down for a moment and looks at Lena with a soft smile. “I super love you.”
It hangs in the air a moment and Lena savors the feeling of hearing it, of seeing it so obviously reflected in Kara’s expression.
“I super love you, too,” she replies after a few seconds and the smile that stretches across Kara’s face is unmatched.
The one that comes when Kara gets back from her weekend with Alex only to find a Happy Birthday cake on Lena’s desk comes close, though.
--
The ride to the portal site is filled with Winn walking her through how the portal works, showing the tablet he’s preprogrammed and explaining what the various controls do. Lena listens as much she can, watches as Alex checks settings on her gun, rechecks them, checks them a third time. The tac team is in some other van, and so Winn’s talking is the only thing making any noise. She’s managed to borrow some more comfortable clothes for the trip, tired of walking around in heels and a skirt.
When they get to the warehouse and stand in front of the portal, Lena allows herself a quiet moment of awe, her eyes running over its edges while the team sets up equipment and double checks their gear. It’s so alien-looking, and she wishes that it was simply an engineering marvel, not a barrier between her and Kara.
Winn hovers over a small panel and Lena strides over to him watches over his shoulder as she fiddles with the controls. He shifts a bit so she can see better and she follows the commands he’s inputting with her eyes.
“Are you going to tell me what happened to your face?” Lena asks eventually in a quiet whisper. There’s a repeating loop of Kara, injured and alone on an unfriendly planet in her mind and just like it was with Alex, it’s helpful to focus on someone else’s problems.
Winn’s lips push together in consideration for a moment. “I was mugged,” he answers and Lena sees the lie for what it is. This particular evasion tactic is far too familiar to her.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she says in a deadpan tone she hopes conveys to Winn that she doesn’t believe him. From the way his eyes skitter away from hers she imagines it was successful.
Eventually Alex calls them over and Winn shows her the tablet he’s programmed, moving to hand it over to her until she waves him off.
“Keep it,” Alex says. “You’re both coming with me.”
It surprises Lena, but she has to admit she’s a bit pleased. She had assumed Alex would force her to stay here, protected and safe. It’s something Kara would have tried to do. Tried being the operative word.
Winn, however, is less than thrilled. His eyes go immediately wide and he tries to shove the tablet towards Alex, and then toward Lena when it becomes clear Alex isn’t budging.
“N-no. Look, it’s preprogrammed, so you just hit the button and you’re thinking with portals. You don’t need me.” He looks at Lena with a desperate plea in his face, fear etched around his eyes. It feels very out of character from what she knows of Winn and she wonders what she’s missing, imagines it has something to do with his claim of having been mugged.
“I want your hands at the controls,” Alex says. “And Lena there to back you up.”
Winn shakes his head, backs up a step. “No,” he says in a slow drawl of the word. “Lena knows this just as well as I do, she’ll be fine.”
“If you think for one second that Kara won’t murder me for leaving Lena alone at the portal while we go retrieve her, you’re an idiot. I need both of you there,” Alex persists. “If we can’t get the portal to work from that side we’ll be stuck there and I want two sets of eyes on it.”
“Agent Schott,” J’onn adds in a firm authoritative voice. “She wasn’t asking you. That’s an order.”
Shoving the tablet suddenly into Lena’s hands, Winn backs away with wide eyes, waving his hands in front of him. “I’m sorry, no,” he manages to get out in a tumble of stuttered words before walking away.
Alex sighs, watches him go before looking at Lena for a moment. “You want to come, right? Because I can’t exactly order you.”
Lena just gives her a droll look that Alex rolls her eyes at before walking away after Winn.
That leaves Lena with J’onn who smiles at her kindly. “Come on,” he says with a jerk of his head. “Let’s get you some gear.”
--
If anyone had told her years ago that she’d be stepping foot on a planet distant to Earth on a rescue mission because Kara had jumped through a transmatter portal, she would have laughed incredulously.
In college, the most exciting thing she had ever dreamed she and Kara might do together was get married. Maybe a honeymoon in an exotic location or start a family. Those dreams had seemed big enough. Interstellar travel hadn’t really made the list, but now they’ve done things like foil the genocidal plans of her mother and save an alternate earth from an alien invasion, so it seems perfectly in line with everything that’s happened so far.
“Outer space,” Winn breathes out reverently as he looks around them and Lena follows his gaze. She feels exactly the way he sounds and a smile crosses her lips unbidden as she takes in the sight of an entirely new planet. It’s very orange, and there’s a hulking planet up in the sky, bearing down on them. It’s amazing, reminds her of how excitedly Kara had talked about traveling through the stars with her father.
Winn turns to her with wide disbelieving eyes and an excited grin. “We are in outer space,” he whispers and she laughs.
Alex steps up to them, all business, her gun already up and ready. “And if you don’t want to stay in outer space forever, figure out how to dial us home,” she says, pointing back at the portal. She looks at Lena. “I’m tracking Kara’s earpiece. Make sure this thing is open by the time we come back.”
Instinct pulls her in the direction Alex is walking, with a strong desire to be there when they find Kara, see for herself that she’s okay, but she knows her particular skill set is put to best use here with Winn.
“You’re leaving us here alone? No guards?!” Winn asks with the same fear from earlier creeping into his voice. Lena reaches out to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
Alex puts on what Lena’s sure is supposed to be a comforting smile and waves him off. “You’ll be fine,” she says, already backing up to walk away. She gives a final nod to Lena before turning and jogging after the rest of the team.
“I am not a red shirt,” Winn starts chanting under his breath and Lena squeezes his shoulder, wonders if his fear is just a normal anxiety over being left basically alone on an unfamiliar planet or if it’s something deeper.
“Come on,” she says softly. “Let’s get this thing up and running.”
They work together efficiently, Winn standing in front of the control panel and attempting different commands, Lena watching information feed through the tablet in her hands. Winn moves with agitated motions, punching in different commands with shaky, almost angry pokes of his fingers and he keeps grumbling under his breath in a way that’s starting to give Lena a headache.
“Do you want to talk about it?” She asks after a few seconds of Winn mumbling something about his own imminent death.
“Talk about what?” He asks absently, eyes still on the control panel.
Lena watches him for a moment. “We can start with why you’re lying about getting mugged.”
He jumps at that, finally pulling his gaze up from the device and eying Lena warily. “I’m not lying.”
“Sorry,” she says with an apologetic tilt to her lips. “But I’m not very easy to lie to. And you’re not a particularly competent liar.”
“We don’t have time for this,” he says with a trace of heat as he turns back to the panel and hits a few more buttons. When nothing happens he lets out a frustrated noise and balls up his fist like he’s going to punch the thing into submission.
“Letting the fear take over isn’t going to help us get out of here,” Lena says in a slow, steady tone.
He scrubs his hands over his face, pressing against his eyes for a long moment before blowing out another angry sounding breath. “Fine. I wasn’t mugged and I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay,” Lena says, hands up defensively. “I’m just asking. We need to stay focused here and if there’s something-”
“How are you so calm?!” Winn interrupts, looking at her incredulously. “We’re here in outer freakin’ space because Kara’s powerless and got trapped here and now we’re all alone which means if we get ambushed, which we probably will be because they’re most likely watching this portal in some way, we’re going to-”
“Winn!” Lena interjects before he spirals completely. She steps up to him and puts a calming hand on his shoulder. “I’m not calm.”
“You sure could fool me,” he says bitterly, but he relaxes a little at the contact.
“Up here,” Lena replies, gesturing to her head. “I’m right there with you. There’s a lot of insane stuff going on. My girlfr -” she chokes a little on the word, shakes it out of her head. “Kara is out there powerless, you’re right, and that’s terrifying, and I’m worried about her. But the team is relying on us to get this portal open again. Which means that wasting time worrying is only preventing me from helping her. She needs us focused.”
“I - I - can’t,” Winn says, looking at her desperately.
“Yes, you can,” Lena tells him with as much conviction as possible.
“Alex gave me this speech before we left, but I’m not Alex, okay? And I’m not you, either. I don’t carry a weapon or have combat training and I’m not a cool CEO who’s a genius. I like computers and staying inside and-”
“Winn,” she says again, firmly, in a way that demands attention. “We’re in this together, okay? We’re going to open this portal and Kara and Alex are going to come back and everything is going to be fine. But only if you put your fears aside and focus.”
They look at each other for a long moment, Winn breathing visibly deep as he seems to mull over what she’s saying. On a final long inhale he nods, lifts his chin up in a show of bravery. “You’re right.”
“I am right,” Lena says, and she smiles. “Thank you for noticing.”
Winn glares a little, shaking his head and adjusting his flak jacket on his body from where Lena’s grabbed it to get his attention. He turns back to the portal, cracking his neck before trying again.
The portal remains dormant through the first few tries and Winn hits the side of the panel he’s working with in frustration. Suddenly, the portal flashes to life in a burst of purple energy before growing immediately dark again.
“That did not happen how it was supposed to happen,” Winn says to her with a sigh. Lena agrees, walks a little closer to the portal and checks something on her tablet, trying to ignore how it’s been over thirty minutes since Alex and the tac team left them, how the portal won’t open even if the team or Kara ever gets back.
A sudden yelp turns her attention back to Winn and she drops the tablet in her hands when she sees some creature pulling him away from the control panel and throwing him to the ground. She’s frozen for a moment when the alien pulls a gun on Winn who scrambles backwards a bit in fear.
“Hey!” Lena yells out because it’s the only thing she can think to do, and it does the trick. The alien pulls his weapon away from Winn and points it at Lena who puts her hands up immediately. “It’s two versus one here.”
It distracts the creature for just long enough and Winn suddenly jumps into action, picking a heavy rock up off the ground and shoving it at the gun until it’s knocked away from both of them. As Winn pushes up off the ground and winds back to punch their attacker, Lena runs towards the weapon, getting there in seconds and picking it up off the ground.
With a small hope that guns work relatively the same no matter the planet, Lena points the weapon in the direction of Winn and the alien, hovering the fight in her sights until she can get a clear shot.
Winn is handling himself just fine from what Lena can tell, but she keeps the weapon trained forward in case it turns ugly. A few seconds later Winn gets in a final punch, the alien flinging down on the ground with the impact.
Lena relaxes the weapon and tosses it aside, smiling when Winn looks at her with an expression of pleased surprise.
“I’m not the red shirt!” Winn exclaims with a happy triumphant smile, throwing his arms in the air and then grabbing ahold of her by her own flak jacket, pulling her into a tight, victorious hug. “I’m not the red shirt!”
Lena laughs a little at him, her heartbeat still pumping with adrenaline as he releases her and she bends over to pick up the tablet she dropped, grateful to see it’s still intact. Winn is still jumping around in victory over the creature on the ground.
“You! You’re the red shirt,” he’s telling it and just then she hears the distant scream of a familiar voice. When she turns around, Kara is sprinting towards them, followed by Alex and the rest of the DEO team, and a crowd of twenty or so random people she seems to have accumulated since coming here. Lena had long resigned herself to Kara gathering friends at absurd rates, but coming to an alien planet only to find twenty human friends seems a bit crazy.
“Winn!” Kara yells out followed by an even louder shout. “Lena!”
Lena feels relief flood through her as Kara closes in on them, even though Mon-El is gesturing wildly at Winn, “Start the car! Start the car!”
Winn moves quickly towards the control panel and starts to input commands just as Kara comes rushing up to her, swooping her into a tight hug that Lena immediately returns, the tablet dropping back to the ground with a distant thud. She feels the portal whoosh to life behind them and Alex yelling at the team and Kara’s new friends to go through, but she can’t concentrate on much apart from the feel of Kara in her arms again.
It feels different than it usually does, and Lena suddenly realizes it’s because Kara’s powerless. Kara's body feels warm with exertion and she's breathing like she actually needs to. There’s strength in the arms that have wrapped around Lena’s waist, but it’s not the same kind of strength as before. It doesn’t feel like Kara’s restraining herself or teetering on the edge of squeezing too hard.
Instead it feels like Kara’s really hugging her and Lena sinks so quickly into the feeling that everything else blocks out for a profound moment as Kara squeezes her.
“You okay?” Lena asks quietly, into the soft feel of Kara’s hair and Kara’s arms squeeze even tighter, the feel of a smile against Lena’s neck making her grin.
“Better now,” Kara murmurs against the skin of Lena’s neck and she just barely hears the words, but they make her pull Kara in closer.
“Kara!” Alex is yelling and they break away, turn to Alex who is gesturing at the portal with a pointed look on her face. “Hug later, portal now.”
“Right, yeah, of course,” Kara says, moving backwards and just as she’s about to pull them both through the portal a strangled, “Supergirl!” cries out from behind them and Kara freezes. They all turn to see a young blonde girl getting pulled away from them and back behind the rocks.
Kara doesn’t hesitate. She drops Lena’s hand immediately and rushes off towards the scream with a loud, “Izzy!”
“No, no, no, wait!” Mon-El yells, and Lena sort of feels similarly, but Alex just looks at Lena and pulls out the grenade they worked on from her side with a small nod.
“Let’s hope this thing works,” Alex says before pulling the pin and throwing it up into the sky.
Lena watches with anticipation caught in her throat as the grenade detonates and they’re clouded in yellow light so intense she flinches away from it, squinting. When she looks back up, Kara is hovered into air with renewed strength pumping through her and a happy smile on her face that Lena feels stretching across her own in reaction.
“What was that?” Mon-El asks as they watch Kara shoot her laser vision at an oncoming spaceship. The ship explodes into pieces around them and Lena feels herself relax.
“Yellow sun grenade,” Alex answers with a pleased smirk on her face. “A little taste of home.”
Mon-El smiles at both of them as they watch Supergirl do what Supergirl does best. “Nice,” he says with an impressed tone.
Danger abated, Kara comes speeding back to them, girl in tow, and she pushes Izzy, Mon-El and Alex through the portal. “Let’s go,” she says, grabbing at Lena’s hand and pulling them through quickly.
On the other side, Kara wastes no time in turning towards the control panel and destroying it, shutting the connection off immediately. After a tense moment, the entire warehouse breaks out into a relieved round of applause and cheers and Lena feels everything relax.
Kara lets out an exhausted sounding laugh and she squeezes Lena’s hand before stepping away to hug Alex firmly. Lena can just make out the, “Thanks for coming to get me.”
Winn bumps Lena’s shoulder companionably and Lena smiles at him while J’onn steps forward.
“Welcome home, Supergirl,” he says, before wrapping Kara up in a hug.
“Thanks, J’onn,” Kara replies with a wide grin.
The joy twists around the entire group warmly and Lena feels a sense of togetherness she’s only just starting to get used to.
“Well,” Alex says, noticeably more put together than Lena had seen her all day. Kara wraps an arm around Alex’s shoulders and they lean into each other. “Celebratory drinks?”
Kara perks up a little, looks at Lena. “Celebratory drinks on me,” Kara agrees with a little smirk.
“Yeah, they better be,” Alex says with a frown returning to her face. “But don’t think that’s going to get you out of the don’t jump through space portals without backup lecture.”
Kara groans, but she’s smiling, and Lena laughs when Alex winks at her.
--
They reconvene at the alien bar a little over an hour later and they pack the place with DEO agents and friends. Kara settles immediately next to Lena, listening as Winn explains his whole fight sequence and smiling happily as their legs bump together under the table.
A few minutes after posting up at their usual hightop in the back corner, James comes striding in with a look of concern on his face. Lena taps Kara gently on the thigh when she sees him and Kara stands up.
“James!”
“Kara!” He says, walking forward with purpose. “I just heard about what happened. Are you okay?”
Kara steps up into his arms immediately and they hug tightly. Lena can see the way James visibly relaxes at the contact and she smiles, understanding that feeling personally.
“I’m fine,” Kara reassures him, stepping out of the embrace, but keeping her hands on his biceps and smiling up at him.
“You should have called me,” he says with a little heat and he glances at Winn. Lena follows the gaze, sends Winn a quizzical look, but he just looks into his beer.
Kara’s head tilts a little, brows together. “There was nothing you could have done, James. I was trapped on another planet.”
Alex comes over to the table with a round of shots and sees the exchange. “James,” she greets with a tight looking smile and a gesture towards the drinks. “Celebratory tequila. You in?”
James looks like he’s ready to say more, but manages a nod and matching smile for Alex. The entire moment makes Lena feel like she’s missing something. From the way Kara glances at her after James steps away, it seems as though they share the feeling. Kara just shrugs a little and slides back onto her stool next to Lena, their shoulders bumping together.
They all take a shot off the tray and clink their glasses with a triumphant resounding, “Cheers!” Lena laughs at the sour expression Kara makes after throwing the tequila back and Lena hands her a lime from the small cup full of them that Alex has brought with the shots. Winn is nearly gagging across from her, with Alex patting him on the back.
“I would have thought after four years you’d be better at that,” Lena comments quietly with a fond smile, and Kara sucks on the lime in her hand for a quick second before rolling her eyes at Lena. She spins in her stool a little more so that their knees knock together, leaning closer to Lena.
“Has tequila suddenly stopped being gross in the last four years?” Kara asks, chucking the lime in her empty shot glass and throwing it back on the table. There’s still a lingering look of distaste on Kara’s face and she swipes the back of her hand across her mouth. Lena gives half a thought to kissing her to taste the tequila, then, but thinks better of it.
Lena just laughs, licks out against her lips and enjoys the taste still present there, a little salt and lime mixed in. “You don’t have to take it,” she says in a soft whisper she’s sure only Kara can hear. “It’s not like it does anything for you.”
Kara shrugs. “I don’t wanna be left out,” she says and it’s the same answer she’d given Lena years ago when Kara would choke down whatever weird shots one of their friends would order at the bar.
“Doesn’t this bar have that offworld liquor you were telling me about?” Lena asks, remembering the drunken string of text messages she had received from Kara months ago.
Kara’s eyes go wide in remembrance and she shakes her head at Lena. “We’re not drinking that.”
“Well, from what you told me I can’t drink it,” Lena laughs.
“Trust me,” Kara starts with a teasing smile on her face. “Neither of us can drink it.”
“I don’t know,” Lena says, bumping her shoulder a little against Kara. “You’ve seen me inebriated far too many times. Turnabout is fair play.”
“That’s not the same,” Kara argues. “You’re like an unfairly composed drunk person and I’m…” Kara gestures around in a way that makes Lena laugh.
“I’m sure you’re fine,” Lena says smiling even deeper when Kara looks appalled at the suggestion.
“Are you forgetting that I told you I ripped Alex’s car door off?”
“I’m not forgetting,” Lena laughs. “But I imagine avoiding that is as simple as not allowing you anywhere near cars or things equally destructible.”
Kara’s eyes narrow. “Everything is destructible for me.”
It makes Lena laugh again. “Not everything,” Lena says and she reaches out to tug at the heavy bracelet on Kara’s wrist.
For a moment, as Kara tracks the motion of Lena’s hand, she goes entirely still, her face frozen as they look at the jewelry together. “You’re right,” she says after a second, with a tight smile for Lena. “Not everything.”
Suddenly everything seems to have gotten more serious than Lena truly intended and Kara’s eyes drop significantly down to Lena’s lips. There’s still a mix of adrenaline and lingering anxiety from the events of the day warring in her system and the desire to press up against Kara’s body burns across her skin like wildfire.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Lena says in a voice barely above a whisper and Kara scoots somehow closer, their heads ducked together amidst the noise of the bar. One of Kara’s hands has settled on the back of Lena’s stool, brushing against the small of her back.
“I’m sorry I worried you,” Kara murmurs, and she reaches out to clasp Lena’s wrist right above her watch, sliding down to hold her hand for a warm moment. Their hands come together easily, settled on Lena’s thigh.
“I think that’s something I’m just going to have to get used to,” Lena comments wryly and a look of consternation crosses Kara’s face.
Before Lena can comment, something rattles the table violently and Lena jerks backwards while Kara leans forwards to steady their drinks before they tip over, her hand on Lena’s back pressing tighter. They both look to where Alex is sitting, her fist clenched on top of the table and Winn standing next to her and staring at her with wide eyes. Over Alex’s shoulder James is making a big show of not looking at anyone and Lena observes the scene with confusion as the three of them hastily try to look like they weren’t all three having a tense conversation.
“Sorry,” Alex says, looking over at them, but she doesn’t look all that apologetic as she turns away from the table. “I’m getting another drink.”
Kara looks to Winn as if for answers, but he just shrugs at them with an exaggerated look of ignorance on his face before picking his beer up and turning to James, muttering something that Lena’s sure Kara could hear if she wanted to. But Kara’s turning back to Lena.
“Anything happen to Alex while I was gone?” Kara asks, following the retreating form of her sister with critical eyes.
Lena considers the questions, but imagines Alex’s ire is largely derived from worry over her sister all day. “She spent most of the day worried about you,” Lena answers and thinks of Maggie’s impromptu visit to the DEO. Some of Alex’s edginess no doubt is also coming from that.
Kara chews at her bottom lip. “Do you think she’s actually really mad at me for going through the portal?”
Lena quirks a brow at Kara. “She wouldn’t be the only one, if that were the case.”
A startled look crosses Kara’s face before she shuffles the expression into something more chagrined. “You’re mad?”
“Perhaps mad isn’t the correct word,” Lena starts and she does best not to bow immediately to the apologetic almost-pout that takes hold of Kara’s face. “But for a person that spends so much time lecturing me on risky behavior…”
With a slight narrowing of her eyes, Kara huffs a little. “I don’t know how many times I need to explain the difference between invulnerable superhero,” Kara says in a hush, jerking a thumb at herself. “And very vulnerable human to you.”
“Remind me again just how invulnerable you were on Maaldoria,” Lena says with a pointed raise of her eyebrows.
“Well I didn’t know I was going to be powerless when I jumped through the-,” Kara argues and then seems to recognize the mistake in her line of logic the minute Lena’s eyebrows rise.
“I don’t want to fight about this,” Kara adds, but from the way her chin lifts Lena thinks maybe she actually does.
“We’re not fighting,” Lena counters. “I’m merely pointing out your hypocrisy.”
“Lena,” Kara sighs, looking exhausted for the first time since she got her powers back. Lena takes pity on her and runs her palm down Kara’s back soothingly. Kara melts a little bit, grabbing again for Lena’s hand and playing with her fingers.
“Alex might also be upset because she broke up with Maggie earlier this afternoon.”
It takes a second for Kara to compute what she’s saying, but when she does her spine straightens abruptly and a shocked expression takes hold of her face. “She what?!”
Lena hums, picks up her martini glass from the table and takes a prim sip of it. “You’ll have to ask her as to why, but as far as I know, Alex called it off before we went to rescue you.”
Kara’s jaw is dropped in an incredulous expression for a good few seconds before she looks up again at her sister and shakes her head disbelievingly. “She didn’t.”
“She did,” Lena says. “And I have to imagine it’s because Alex copes with high emotional stress about as effectively as I do.”
That brings Kara’s gaze back to Lena quickly and she gives her a startled look until she notices the teasing smile playing on Lena’s lips. “Funny,” she deadpans with a scrunch of her nose.
Lena merely sips at her drink and shrugs.
“I’m going to go talk to her,” Kara says, glancing to where Alex is leaning up against the bar talking to one of the DEO agents sitting there.
“Okay,” Lena says. “Probably a good idea.”
Kara lets out a noisy exhale before puffing her chest out a little as if bracing for something. With a quick barely-there kiss to Lena’s cheek she, strides away towards Alex.
In seconds, the stool next to Lena is occupied by a grinning Mon-El who taps his beer bottle against the glass in Lena’s hand. Her grip tightens on the drink in an effort to stop it from spilling and she sends him a startled look that he seems to ignore. Kara’s managed to push their stools close enough together that being this close to him is jarring and not particularly welcome.
“So I think I’m going to tell her tonight,” he says, with no preamble and Lena sets her drink down, turns a little towards him while moving her stool away. Out of the corner of her eye she catches Winn and James arguing over something, Winn gesticulating animatedly while James watches with his arms crossed.
“You’ve lost me,” she tells Mon-El. “Tell who what?”
It occurs to her before he even answers what they’re talking about and a feeling of dread crawls up her spine.
“Kara,” he says sagely before taking a long pull of his beer. “I’m going to tell her tonight.”
She resists the urge to roll her eyes, but only just barely and manages a practiced smile. “I’m happy for you,” she says even though she knows she’s setting him up for failure. She considers for a moment letting him know this, but decides he’s likely obtuse enough to ignore her warnings regardless. Something from their previous discussion comes nagging back into her brain suddenly and she adds, “Still unconcerned with the fact that she’s mated?”
Mon-El shrugs, leans his elbows on the table and takes another sip of his beer. “I figure at this point her mate either died on Krypton or just...doesn’t want her.” He pauses for a moment and Lena fights the uncomfortable turn of her stomach. “But that’s not what I’m talking about telling her.”
“What -” Lena stops in the middle of reaching for her drink again as she starts to think maybe the alcohol is affecting her more than she realizes. “I’m not sure what you’re referring to.”
“I want to be a hero,” Mon-El says with this proud little smirk on his face. “Like Kara.”
Lena blinks, isn’t sure why he felt the need to come to her of all people with this information, but tries to remain polite. “Good for you.”
“You should have seen her on Maaldoria,” he says in an awed kind of tone. “She was awesome.”
Lena doesn’t doubt it. Kara had always seemed amazing to her and the past few months have only solidified it in Lena’s mind. “I’m sure.”
“I mean there she was, no powers, no backup, no plan, and she just stood up between a bunch of strangers and a gun that could have easily killed her like it was nothing. They hit her a few times with some serious electricity and she still protected everyone.” Mon-El tells her this like he’s reporting something benign and not letting Lena know just how close she came to losing Kara forever. It feels like ice is pumping through her veins, and she imagines that Kara can probably pick up her rapid heartbeat.
“She’s amazing like that,” Lena manages to get out in an even tone, even though her hand feels like it might start shaking at any moment. She crosses her arms and digs her fingers into her biceps just to stay steady.
Mon-El hums appreciatively and Lena’s not thrilled with how that sounds, but he seems oblivious to the exasperated look on her face. “Plus, I think working with her will definitely go a long way in proving myself worthy.”
Lena arches a brow. “Worthy?”
He smiles. “Of mating?”
“Excuse me,” she says no longer willing to engage in this line of conversation with him. She stands up with a soft clearing of her throat. “I need to use the facilities.”
“Of course,” Mon-El says with another grin and a saluting gesture with his beer bottle. Lena swallows a sigh and walks away.
As she rounds the corner to the bathrooms, the familiar sound of the Danvers sisters arguing halts her in her tracks.
“You went through the portal without so much as a second thought!” Alex is saying and Lena doesn’t have to see the two of them to visualize their faces - the glare on Alex’s face and the stubborn indignation on Kara’s.
“I told Mon-El to tell you what I did. It’s not my fault that he has terrible decision-making skills.”
“You should have called me yourself,” Alex argues.
“Why don’t we talk about the fact that you brought Lena to space!” Kara says, her voice rising in pitch.
“Oh don’t try to change the subject-”
“I’m not changing the subject. I’m asking you why on earth you thought it was okay to bring my - my - to bring Lena to space. Especially after you lectured me not weeks ago about bringing a civilian to another universe.”
“It’s Lena,” Alex retorts and Lena barely suppresses the laugh that wants to come out at that, her eyes darting to the ceiling as she covers her mouth.
“Oh, so that’s a good enough reasoning when you use it, but when I-”
“I use it for different reasons than you do, Kara and-”
“She didn’t need to know I was in trouble, Alex. Everything was under control and all you did was freak her out and then put her in a dangerous situation.”
“Oh, I’m sure Lena would just love to know you wanted me to keep her in the dark about things that affect you. I don’t know if you’re aware of this but typically you tell one’s-”
Considering she’s now become the subject of this argument, Lena feels entitled to interrupt them and turns the corner with a clearing of her throat loud enough to startle both sisters.
Kara’s eyes go wide at being caught, but Alex just rolls her own, shoulders sagging in exasperation.
“Hi,” Lena says simply, looking at them both with amusement playing at her lips. “Don’t mind me. I’m just trying to use the restroom.”
Lena points beyond them and she sees a blush start to dust Kara’s cheeks even as Alex continues to glare at both of them.
As she squeezes past them and towards the door at the end of the hallway, brushing against Kara’s front as she does, she barely makes out a snapping of fingers and Alex’s hissed, “Focus, Kara.”
--
The explosion can be heard all the way across campus and even in the small enclosed study room in the library, Lena feels the walls rattle. Grabbing her laptop and notebook before it goes skittering across the table, Lena freezes, waits to see if anything will follow and wonders if it’s possible to have earthquakes this far inland.
Long seconds pass before another boom can be heard reverberate against the walls. This one muted, but still loud and Lena grabs her cell phone out of her bag.
Just as she’s unlocking her phone, a group of students go running down the hallway past her study room and she stands quickly to open the door. It lets in a sound of muted panic and she catches the next person that comes jogging towards her.
“What happened?”
He doesn’t stop much, but turns to answer. “Explosion in Newland,” he says, slightly out of breath. “Chem labs I think.”
The information drops like a weight in her stomach. Newland Science Hall. Kara’s there right now, working on a project with her lab group.
Abandoning her stuff, Lena tears out of the room and follows the stream of students already heading towards the building in question.
It’s chaotic.
The sound of the fire alarms can be heard blaring out of broken windows and there’s shattered glass all over the ground. The building is still standing, but Lena can smell the scent of something burning, chemical and acrid in her nose.
There’s only one thought in the forefront of her mind and she doesn’t hesitate in running towards the building entrance knowing Kara’s likely still inside. The only thing that stops her is a hand latching onto her arm and pulling her to a halt so abruptly her heart leaps up into her throat.
“Hey, hey,” the familiar voice of Kara’s friend Aaron beats through the chaos in her mind. “You can’t go in there, Lena. It’s not safe.”
It takes a second for her to react, but when she does it’s to pull her arm so violently out of his hold that he has no choice but to let her go. Kara’s inside and Lena doesn’t really care what anyone has to say about what she can and cannot be doing right now. Without saying anything to him, she makes as if to leave again, but his words stop her.
“She’s not in there,” he tells her softly and she looks back at him to see his hand outstretched, finger pointing to the side where a group of people has congregated.
Pushing people aside with little regard for how aggressive she’s being, Lena makes her way through the crowd until she finally finds what she’s looking for.