16. Chapter 16(1)

Life starts to return to some kind of level of normalcy. For the first few weeks, it’s nice.

She and Kara take advantage of being able to live their lives without constant interference from some creepy trickster. They take the time to relearn what it means to be together and the routines they’d started to fall into recently become more and more entrenched.

Some nights, when Lena can get out of the office at a reasonable time and Kara’s done with her nightly patrol, they’ll order food and spend their evening lounging on Lena’s couch. It becomes familiar to see Kara land on her balcony with a long-winded story about some fire she put out earlier or a car crash she averted.

Sometimes Kara gets called away at four in the morning - an urgent call from Alex or Winn or J’onn about whatever’s set off DEO alarms. She’ll press a kiss to Lena’s head as she slides out from under the sheets and wakes Lena up with the chill of her absence.

On those nights, Lena rarely falls back asleep. Instead she’ll wake up and make a pot of coffee, get going on checking her inbox for the day and wait to see if Kara will return before the workday begins. If Kara does, it’s usually with apology donuts and a steaming hot latte from Noonan’s.

By week two, Lena starts to forget what life was like without these kinds of routines. On Tuesday, Kara convinces Lena to try some new Indian place that Lena falls in love with and then Thursday, Lena returns the favor with reservations for an impossible-to-get-into new fusion restaurant on the other side of town.

She had never really given herself a chance to think of what being with Kara would be like, into her twenties and an adult. And even if the world isn’t quite what she probably would have imagined - she’s a CEO, Kara is a superhero - it’s still nice. It feels like normal, or the kind of normal Lena would settle for if it meant having Kara.

On Friday night, just as she’s about to get in the shower she turns back to the kitchen with the intent of reminding Kara to preheat the oven for the pizzas and Kara nearly takes off a chunk of the counter when she turns and sees Lena.

“Lena, where are your - why are you wearing a towel?” Kara asks, looking up at the ceiling for a moment before she directs her eyes back down to the kitchen island.

“I told you I was going to jump in the shower,” Lena says.

“Yes, but why are you in a towel in the kitchen?” Kara asks pointedly.

Lena shrugs a bare shoulder, enjoys the way Kara’s eyes can’t seem to land on anything in particular. “I wanted to remind you to preheat the oven.

“I know I need to preheat the oven,” Kara says with a hint of exasperation but there’s a flush in her cheeks and her eyes continue to dart around distractedly.

It makes Lena laugh. “It’s not as though any of this is new to you,” she says, gesturing down her body.

Kara sighs - an exaggerated, longsuffering sound - and presses a button on the oven to turn it on before looking back at Lena, her eyes flitting up and down. “Just because it isn’t new doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect me. Or are you forgetting that time I broke a bed and exploded a cup of coffee on Earth-1?”

It hadn’t been her intention to go down this path when she returned to the kitchen in only a towel, but she’s certainly not complaining. Kara’s moving closer to her and the memory of their tiny hotel room on Earth-1 floods her with warmth. “I remember,” Lena says with a smirk she can’t suppress.

She also remembers the feeling of Kara pressing her against a wall, the strong tense line of her forearm when it nearly ripped a hole in the drywall and intent lips against her jawline.

Kara’s eyes narrow even as she reaches forward and picks Lena up by the hips to hoist her onto the kitchen island like Lena weighs nothing. Absently, Lena wonders if casual displays of strength will ever stop affecting her so much. “You’re taking advantage of me,” Kara teases, trying to sound threatening, but not really succeeding.

Lena glances down with a pointed arch of her brow to where Kara’s pressing in between her legs - the white towel creeping up her thighs. “I’m taking advantage of you?”

With a laugh, Kara ignores the implication and just noses at the juncture of Lena’s neck and collarbone, kissing the skin there in a way that floods heat across Lena’s chest.

Between the chill of the countertop beneath her and the warmth of Kara’s body and lips, Lena’s mind starts to go a little hazy.

“You’re the one that came out here in a towel,” Kara says, the words taking a second to break through to Lena’s brain. Kara’s kisses have turned more insistent, her fingers pressing against the bare skin of Lena’s thighs.

“Because you’re not trustworthy in a kitchen alone,” Lena jokes and Kara makes a sound between a scoff and a laugh. It’s right under Lena’s ear - her breath puffing there soft and hot - and they’re about to have sex in this kitchen if Lena has anything to say about it.

“Don’t be mean,” Kara says, but there’s smile in her voice and when she pulls back to glare at Lena the expression falls a little short of serious.

“Half the time you’ve used my stovetop, you’ve burnt something,” Lena points out even as she lets the top of her towel sag a bit and Kara’s gaze flits down immediately.

“One time, Lena,” Kara says with a roll of her eyes.

“One time out of the two times you’ve used my kitchen. That’s a fifty percent fire rate.”

Kara laughs. “Are you trying to give me a stats lesson?”

“Well it sounds like you need one,” Lena replies, but her words kind of trail off breathily when Kara’s fingers slide higher on her thighs, and her lips go back to mouthing down Lena’s neck.

Conversation ceases then and Lena gets lost in the sensation of having Kara so close, of the warm way their bodies fit together and the soft sound of Kara whispering affection in a mixture of English and Kryptonian.

Her towel nearly falls away completely and she’s got the top four buttons of Kara’s workshirt open when she registers the sound of crackling and the smell of something burning.

“Kara!” Lena says with some alarm as she notices the kitchen has gotten noticeably more smoky.

Kara pulls away suddenly and looks over her shoulder to see a not-so-minor flame sprouting from the pan she’d been cooking bacon in - why Kara needed to add bacon to every meal she ate was beyond Lena but at least pizza made more sense than say...a fruit salad.

A curse leaves Kara’s lips in Kryptonian before she’s flashing to the stove and pulling the pan away from it with a quick burst of her frost breath. Seconds later she has the stove off and then the oven and the entire area is frozen from Kara’s solution to the growing flame.

Pulling her towel back up to cover her rapidly chilling body, Lena sighs. “Do you think it would be suspicious if I got some of that superhero insurance for my apartment?”

“I’ll fix it,” Kara says with a sheepish grin, but she doesn’t look that upset about it. It seems now that the flame is taken care of, Kara’s back on track with their previous plans. Her hands go straight back to Lena’s thighs.

When their lips connect, Lena lets out a little sound at the feel. “Your mouth is cold,” she murmurs even as Kara keeps kissing her. The sensation is certainly interesting, and Lena finds herself chasing the feeling after a few kisses.

“It’ll warm up,” Kara says, nudging back into Lena’s body to press her backwards.

“On the counter?” Lena asks, but the question comes out breathless and slightly strangled when chilled lips and tongue make their way down her body.

Kara’s grin is playful when her chin props up on Lena’s sternum, fingers pulling the towel away from her body and Lena shivers. “This is where people eat, right?” Kara says and Lena groans at the joke, but she laughs a little even as she shoves at Kara’s shoulder.

-

By week three, Lena starts to question the easy routines her life is falling into. She starts to lose trust in the normalcy, the silence. The newness of having a normal kind of life with Kara starts to fade and in its place comes the paranoia. Instead of comforting, the normalcy starts to feel threatening and she finds herself getting antsier the longer they go without a peep from her mother or Cadmus.

“Maybe – have you thought maybe she didn’t actually make it out of the warehouse?” Kara asks delicately one night when Lena casually mentions her concerns.

It’s a different thing to confront – the idea that maybe her mother died – and she’s nowhere near ready to unpack all that could mean for her so she doesn’t. Instead, she sticks to the stubborn belief that her mother did survive because, frankly, that’s the most likely scenario.

“This is my mother we’re talking about,” Lena says, swiping through digital spec sheets on a new proposal she and Lana had been working on that week. “That woman is like a cockroach.”

They’re perched on opposite ends of Lena’s couch, Kara’s feet in Lena’s lap as she types away on her laptop – some opinion piece on giving aliens the right to vote.  

Kara sighs and sets her laptop to the side. Lena can feel her gaze on the side of her face, but refuses to look up, keeps her eyes trained on the tablet in her hand.

“Lena,” Kara says softly and she shifts her feet off Lena’s lap until she’s scooting closer on the couch and plucking the tablet out of her hands pointedly.

“What?” Lena asks and it comes out icy and defensive, but she can’t help the rattle of nerves it causes when she even begins thinking about what her mother has planned.

If Kara’s affected by her tone, it doesn’t show. Her expression stays soft, a small smile playing on her lips as she reaches over and scoops Lena’s legs up so that this time it’s Lena with her feet in Kara’s lap.

“It’s okay to enjoy the quiet,” Kara says, running a strong thumb up the arch of Lena’s foot in a way that actually does melt some of the tension out of her spine.

“I am enjoying it,” Lena says, her eyes fluttering a little at the feel of Kara’s fingers working magic on her feet – the ache from having worn tall heels all day at work starts to ease.

“You’re waiting for your mother to jump out at us from around a dark corner,” Kara corrects with a little arch of her brow.

“Because she probably will,” Lena deadpans, unaffected by the exasperation that takes hold of Kara’s face. “I can enjoy something and still prepare for the worst at the same time.”

“I’m well aware of your mutli-tasking skills,” Kara replies with a laugh that makes Lena smile and wiggle her foot where it’s trapped in Kara’s hands. “But you shouldn’t let your cynical –" 

“Hey!” Lena protests, but she laughs a bit at the teasing look on Kara’s face.

“Your cynical penchant for constantly worrying get in the way of living your life.”

Lena tsks, kicks a bit at Kara’s thigh even though it’s like trying to push a rock and rolls her eyes. “I’m sorry that my mother is the evil genius behind an anti-alien paramilitary organization bent on murdering you and that makes me worry a little bit.”

At that, Kara sobers and looks at Lena. “Winn has been tracking any Cadmus activity whatsoever since the warehouse. He has you on speed dial. The minute she surfaces, you’ll know.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Lena says, slumping further against the arm of the couch and trying to let Kara’s strong fingers crawling up her shins comfort her.

“What are you worried about?”

“About what will happen after that,” she says and Kara doesn’t really have an answer for that other than shifting on the couch until she’s lying down next to Lena and scooping her up into a solid hold.

--

Apart from things settling down with Kara, Lena feels like she finally gets a chance to settle into her life in general in National City. It’s a bit ridiculous considering she’s been living here for the better part of a year, but it’s the first time she hasn’t had some pressing issue constantly distracting her.

The threat of her mother and Cadmus is more like an afterthought – an always present fear that becomes so much a part of her every day that it’s practically normal. Other than that, there’s nothing else world changing for her to worry about – no sudden reunion with her ex-girlfriend, no trickster imps from the fifth dimension, no ritual assassination attempts on her life, L Corp starts to find its stride.

It also means Lena starts to find herself settling into a life with an actual social calendar – something she hasn’t really experienced since college.

She and Lana start to have semi-regular happy hours. They never have the lunch Lena originally intended – the one meant to discuss the possibility of more of Lex’s vaults and their whereabouts – but instead they meet for drinks in which business is a prohibited subject. It becomes a nice reprieve from a busy work week.

“So how is Kara?” Lana asks, pouring more pinot noir into Lena’s glass.

“Fine,” Lena answers with a bit of a pointed look in Lana’s direction. It’s still a bit awkward for her to discuss personal matters with an employee – with anyone technically – but she reconciles that Lana’s the closest friend she’s made in National City that isn’t already Kara’s friend and she should probably try to nurture that relationship.

Lana laughs as she pours wine into her own glass and sets the bottle back on the bar. “Come on, Lena. You’re never any fun. This is what girl talk is supposed to be about.”

Lena arches a brow, but she chuckles and takes a sip of her wine. “I wouldn’t know.”

On the small television above the bar the news is covering an ugly car crash on the interstate and predictably Supergirl is there, pulling people out of a burning car and assisting with search and rescue.

It makes Lena smile a bit to see Kara cradling a small child and handing them off to relieved parents.

“Yikes, that looks ugly,” Lana comments and they both watch as Supergirl hovers over the scene, blowing frost breath to eliminate lingering fire.

“Supergirl seems to have it handled,” Lena says, lips pressed together to stop a smile that always threatens to break on her face every time she sees Kara these days.

“You know, you never did say what was going on between you two,” Lana says, turning to face Lena with curious eyes.

“I beg your pardon?” Lena asks, hoping the flush creeping in her cheeks isn’t giving anything away.

“How did you guys become friends?”

Lena takes a careful sip of her wine. “Did I say we are?”

Lana laughs a bit. “I guess not. But she was with you that one day at work, and I’ve seen you guys on the news a few times. Whether you like it or not, a Luthor and a Super fighting crime tends to make headlines.”

She tries not to sour at that description, but she can’t help remembering the front page of the papers the day after her brother was apprehended. “Yes, well. I’m not my brother,” Lena says and Lana’s face softens, her hand coming to rest on Lena’s forearm.

“I didn’t mean it like that, Lena.”

The delivery is genuine enough that Lena believes her, relaxes just a bit. “Supergirl is a friend, I suppose. She’s saved me more times than I can count at this point,” Lena says, thinking of the way Kara came crashing back into her life. “I’m sure you can relate. Didn’t Superman save you a few times?”

Lana’s face drifts towards something a little more withdrawn, but she has a small smile on her face as she tilts her head back and forth.

“A few,” she admits. “Everyone from Metropolis seems to have a Superman story.”

Lena hums agreement, shrugs a shoulder and looks back to the TV where Supergirl is giving an interview now - bright cheery eyes at having saved the day and an easy smile that Lena finds herself mimicking on her own face.

Lana follows her gaze, sighs. “Those Supers and their jawlines. I’m pretty sure you could cut glass with them,” Lana comments and Lena laughs, taking a sip of her wine as Lana affects an exaggerated lovestruck expression.

“Probably literally,” Lena suggests and Lana’s expression warps from teasing to thoughtful consideration.

Thankfully, the scientific implications of a being able to cut glass with a jawline manage to distract Lana thoroughly through the rest of their happy hour. Lena’s content to sip at her wine and let the intelligent sound of Lana working through a problem waft over her.

--

A few days later, Winn invites her out for drinks and she agrees easily enough. Kara’s working late at CatCo that night trying to meet a deadline and nothing pressing needs her attention at L Corp so she puts on a casual dress and heels and heads out.

They agree to meet at their usual alien-friendly bar and Lena’s all prepared for a quiet few drinks with Winn discussing improvements to their battlebots or whatever weird tech problem Winn needs help with. Which is why she’s so blindsided when she walks in the bar to see that the whole gang is there. Everyone except Kara.

“Lena!” Winn calls over from where he’s sitting next to Mon-El. Alex and Maggie are at a pool table together – Alex studiously observing the table as she bends over it and Maggie watching her with an amused smile.

She’s never really hung out with everyone without Kara acting as her connection to the group. Not unless there was some kind of world-ending threat to take care of or some other reason. Her stomach flutters nervously, but she lifts her chin and crosses the bar to Winn’s side.

“Hey,” she greets, leaning over to give him a one armed hug and a kiss on his cheek. Mon-El stands to greet her and without preamble, wraps her up in a tight hug, lifting her a bit off the ground in a surprising move that makes her yelp.

The sound draws the attention of Alex and Maggie who give her matching smiles and nods and that’s when James walks over, somehow managing to hold five beers in his hands.

“Hey, Lena,” he says with a warm easy smile. “Sorry, I didn’t get you one.”

“Not at all,” she says, waving him off as he hands the beers around.

M’gann approaches at that with a smile, dusting her hands on a small towel. “Welcome, Lena. Your usual?”

Everything feels oddly overwhelming for a moment before she manages to compose herself and nod at M’gann. “Thanks.”

M’gann retreats then to make her drink and she’s left sliding into a stool Winn pulls out for her and smiling as James sits down.

“Winn here was just telling us about his failure with the ladies,” Mon-El says with a cheery grin. He pats Winn on the back with a loud thud that sends Winn sprawling forward on the table, just barely moving his beer out of the way in time.

“Dude,” Winn complains with a cough and Lena smothers a smile at Mon-El’s contrite expression.

“My bad, bro,” he says and James laughs.

“And I did not say I failed,” Winn clarifies with a glare for Mon-El.

M’gann returns to slide a perfectly crafted manhattan in front of Lena and she takes a grateful sip, the nerves at being involved in this slightly unfamiliar social situation not entirely calmed.

“I think if the girl cries on the first date it’s not exactly a success,” James says, taking a swig of his beer.

Lena nearly chokes on her drink in surprise and both her eyebrows shoot to her hairline as she looks at Winn who just sighs. “I didn’t say she cried.”

A shadow of confusion crosses Mon-El’s face and he laughs. “You said she cried on the first date,” he says in a slow enunciation of the words.

Winn’s cheeks are a little red, but he rolls his eyes exasperatedly. “Okay, maybe she did.”

“What on earth happened?” Lena asks once she finds her voice and she tries to settle into hanging around these people – her friends she realizes.

“I don’t know!” Winn answers, indignantly. “One second we’re just talking and the next I know she’s sobbing.”

“So, you said something,” James offers and Lena agrees with a nod of her head.

“I’m telling you, it wasn’t anything I said,” Winn insists.

At that, Alex appears at the table, a happy smile on her face and seeming a little out of breath. “Hey, what are we talking about?”

“Winn made a girl cry,” Mon-El offers immediately.

“I did not,” Winn says, shoving at him, though it seems to have no effect on the Daxamite.

Alex ignores both of them with a pinched look before addressing the rest of the group. “Shots? Maggie’s buying because she’s terrible at pool.”

“You cheated, Danvers,” Maggie interjects as she comes over.

The look of innocence on Alex’s face is so obviously fake that Lena nearly laughs, but she hides the sound in her drink as Alex replies, “I’ve never cheated a day in my life.”

“I’m not doing whiskey,” Winn says, looking a little green just at the thought.

“Whatever we’re doing, it’s going to be cheap,” is all Maggie says before Alex slings an arm across her shoulders and gives her a smile.

It sparks an argument over what kind of shots they should do, but Lena sits back as it happens, watches the group interact around her and wonders for the millionth time in the last year how much her life has changed.

In the pocket of the jacket she still has yet to take off, her phone buzzes. It’s a text from Kara - miss you accompanied by a grumpy selfie of Kara at work. In the background she can make out Snapper studying what are probably proofs spread out over a table.

Everything about the moment feels too good to be true and Lena drinks it in for a bit, long enough to let it settle around her before adding her two cents into the shot conversation.

“Has anyone ever had a Death By Sex?” Lena asks, remembering a favorite shot of the astronomy club in college.

The group all seem to pause at once, turning to her with matching looks of surprise. No one answers for a long few seconds before Mon-El grins. “We are so getting that one.”

--

Kara picks her up later – two manhattans and two rounds of shots in – and is appropriately bewildered to find her just tipsy enough to be leaning into James and laughing at Mon-El’s attempt to chug a beer while doing a handstand.

“Did I miss the party?” Kara asks as she approaches slowly. Maggie and Alex had disappeared somewhere about a half hour ago, but she, Winn, James and Mon-El are still congregated around the table.

“Yes,” Lena answers simply, pushing off from James and extending her hand towards Kara. “Hello.”

Kara takes the offered hand quickly and steps up into Lena’s side. It’s much nicer to lean against Kara than James and she does so immediately, slumping into the solid way Kara wraps an arm around her back and keeps her upright.

Winn’s squinting at Kara, one eye closing more than the other as if he’s trying to get his vision to focus. “We may have had shots,” he tells her just as Mon-El falls over from his attempted handstand and cracks a nearby table in half.

James stands, a little unsteadily and glances to where M’gann is glaring at them from behind the bar. “I think that’s our cue to leave.”

Kara laughs, but helps Lena up from the stool and subtly carries her out of the bar. “You’re my favorite,” Lena murmurs sleepily into Kara’s shoulder, happy for her solid, unwavering strength as they make their way home.

A warm kiss presses to the top of her head and Lena feels at peace.

“Everything is so nice right now,” Lena says, barely reacting when Kara gives up trying to get Lena to walk and just scoops her up off the ground. “I don’t want it to end.”

It makes Kara laugh again and Lena opens her eyes to realize they’re already in Kara’s apartment. “Why does it have to?” Kara asks with a pretty smile that Lena can’t stop herself from kissing.

--

“These protests are getting out of hand,” Lena tells her brother, looking out of his office window to the streets below.

There’s a line of picketers that have been there since that morning. Their signs all contain a similar anti-Luthor Corp sentiment after recent announcements regarding military contracts.

“It will blow over,” Lex dismisses with a wave, his eyes still on the binder of reports Lena had handed him minutes ago.

“And if it doesn’t?” Lena asks, striding over towards Lex’s desk and propping her hip against it to try and draw her brother’s attention. It does the trick and he finally looks up, leaning back in his office chair and running a hand through his hair.

“It will,” he insists with a shrug and a quick glance towards the window.

“Maybe we should make a statement,” Lena suggests. “Hold a press conference.”

“I’m not going to be goaded into responding to the opinions of those sheep,” Lex says with a curl of his lip. “Press conferences are just opportunities for them to scream some more.”

“They just want to feel like they’re being heard, Lex. Maybe if you talked to them, they’d back down.”

A considering look crosses Lex’s face – a testament to how the everyday picketing has worn on him – but he shakes his head. “I’m not giving them a soapbox if I don’t have to.”

Lena sighs, but before she can say anything else a loud sound goes off in the streets below – a car backfiring, fireworks, gunshots – Lena’s not sure.

“What was that?” Lex asks, but before Lena gets a chance to look out the window, another explosive sound shoots out – this time closer and very distinctly in the building. The sound of someone screaming echoes through the door and Lena’s eyes go wide. Lex shoots out of his chair.

“Lex,” she draws out slowly. Lex is halfway to the panic button on the corner of his desk.

The door bursts open suddenly and two men rush in, one of them holding a gun and the other with what looks to be C4 strapped to his chest. Lena gasps in reaction as Lex pulls her behind him and watches the two men.

“This represents the children your technology has killed,” the man holding the gun says before smashing something against his chest that bursts in a bloom of red down his white shirt – paint, Lena thinks.

The other man, with the explosives on his chest holds his hand out where Lena spots a trigger and her brain goes blank with the knowledge that these two men are here to kill them. She’s heard plenty of ill will directed her and her family’s way over her life, but this is certainly the first time a real threat has made its way to her.

“You don’t want to do this,” Lex says, hand outstretched in front of him. “Let’s just talk.”

“We’ve been down there trying to talk to you for days,” the man snarls at him, his gun flickering in aim between Lex and Lena, and Lex takes a reflexive step back, pulling at Lena until she’s more behind him. “You wouldn’t listen.”

“We’re listening now,” Lena says, her fingers gripping into the back of Lex’s starched blue shirt as she tries to project some measure of calm at the attackers.

“Shut up! You deserve this as much as he does,” the man yells, his gun focusing now on Lena. Lex reacts very characteristically to the more obvious threat to Lena, in that he starts to let his anger slip through.

“If you think blowing your way into my building and threatening my sister is the way to get me to listen to you, you are sorely mistaken,” Lex says. Lena grips tighter at the back of his shirt, watching as the man glares heavily at Lex’s ire. She’s considering just pulling them both under his massive desk and hoping for the best when a loud popping noise comes from outside. “I hope you enjoy rotting in a jail cell for the rest of your lives.”

The next thing she’s aware of is the sound of shattering glass as a red and blue form suddenly bursts into the office and in the blink of an eye their two attackers are just…gone.  

A rarely spoken expletive drops out of Lex’s mouth and he falls forward, hands catching him on his desk as he heaves in deep breaths. “You okay?” He asks over his shoulder after a few seconds, but Lena’s not sure how to answer him.

Not that she gets a chance, because as quickly as it happened, the red and blue blur is back and standing in Lex’s top floor office. Superman stands at his full height, his chin proud and his hands on his hips as he looks over the room.

“Lex,” Superman is saying – the name sounding comfortable and familiar in Superman’s mouth, somehow. “Are you alright?”

Lex has straightened from his hunched over position, eyeing Superman with what Lena can only read as contempt. “I’m fine, Kryptonian.”

The air feels like it gets sucked out of the room. Either from the tension between Lex and the Man of Steel, or because Lena suddenly realizes with a kind of mind numbing clarity that Superman is Kara’s cousin.

Her brother and Superman exchange a few more words and Lena should probably be paying attention, but she can’t. Her eyes fixate on Superman – on the crest across his chest, the way his hair is perfectly styled, the strong line of his jaw.

It’s there, in the little details. Lena sees Kara clear as day and it’s like something tight and overwhelming takes hold of her throat. God, she wishes Kara were here.

It’s the adrenaline, she tells herself. You’re fine. You’re fine. Like a mantra in her head.

“Lena?” Lex asks, hand at her arm and the hard lines of his face suddenly softened as he looks at her with concern.

Superman is eyeing her curiously as well and she knows her face is probably pale and her hands shaky. She dismisses it with a clearing of her throat and fingers tightening her ponytail. “I’m fine. Just a bit shook up,” she says, glancing at Superman once more. “Thank you for your assistance.”

“Of course,” he says, chest puffing up a bit. “Happy to see you are both okay.”

“I’m sure,” Lex says dryly, and he turns away from Superman, reaching for his suit jacket and pushing it onto Lena’s shoulders. “We’re leaving now.”

“I’m not sure it’s safe for you to leave, Lex - ” Superman says, still looking kind and so much like Kara that Lena certainly can’t breathe.

“Then make it safe,” Lex snaps, his hand tightening around Lena’s. “Isn’t that what you do?”

A conflicted look crosses Superman’s face - one Lena doesn’t really know how to read. “I’m just trying to help, Lex. Same as you.”

“Except this is my planet and you’re just a visitor.”

“It’s my planet too,” Superman says with considerable heat and Lena glances over to see Lex’s face twist up into a snarl.

“Your planet is dead,” Lex says in an even dark tone that nearly makes Lena gasp. “Isn’t that the angle your little reporter Lois Lane is always trying to push onto the public?”

“Lex,” Lena whispers in soft admonishment, eyes flitting from her brother to Superman.

Lena is sure Lex doesn’t know how many buttons he’s pushed at the same time, and a dark look crosses Superman’s face as he takes in Lex’s countenance. Lena watches his eyes drift over to her, and the blue of his eyes hits her square in her chest. Whatever expression she makes seems to snap Superman out of it, and he nods once to her.

“I’ll clear the way,” he says, and then he’s gone again, out the window. Lex deflates a little, his arm coming up around Lena’s shoulder and pressing his forehead into her temple for a long moment.

“You could have been nicer,” she says when they break apart. “He did just save our lives.”

Lex shakes his head, but a smile plays at his lips. “I’m sorry that my people skills go out the window when someone points a gun at my little sister,” he says and a shiver runs down her spine.

Her brother must notice because he steps back in close to her, brings her into another hug. She grips at his arm, trying to blink the tears gathering in her eyes away, trying not to think about how close she just came to dying, trying not to remember the maniac look in their attackers eyes, but mostly trying not to think of Kara getting a news alert about this ridiculous attack, trying to resist calling her and asking her to come.

“Remind me to put you in a bubble for the rest of your life,” Lex mutters, after a few moments as she slowly starts to lead them out of his office towards the stairs, where a group of Metropolis police are just making it to the top of the building.

--

It stops feeling so startling to have a semi-normal kind of life again with a girlfriend and friends and as much as a routine as she’s had in a long time. And almost exactly as that thought crosses her mind is when she gets a text from Winn RED ALERT. DEO.

Not that the text was necessary because the tracking program Winn has been using to track Cadmus sends notifications to her desktop interface and she can already see that they’ve gotten a hit.

Fear grips her throat suddenly and she’s up and out of her office chair, picking her phone up and dialing the first number she thinks to.

The telltale sound of wind whipping past the speaker accompanies Kara’s greeting when she picks up. “We don’t know what it is yet,” Kara is saying and Lena’s standing at her floor to ceiling windows as if she might be able to catch a glimpse of Supergirl.

“What triggered the alarm?” Lena asks, wishing she were at the DEO with Winn, taking advantage of their high powered surveillance technology.

“A convoy leaving one of the suspected weapons facilities,” Kara answers. “J’onn and I are en route.”

“Be careful,” Lena says, heart pounding at the more immediate prospect of having to battle against her mother again.

“Go to the DEO. Winn will fill you in,” Kara instructs and Lena doesn’t even want to protest.

“I’ll see you there after,” she says, already grabbing her coat and bag.

“You will. I love you,” Kara says before disconnecting the line.

--

The second she gets into the DEO she waves a badge at security and strides quickly towards the central platform where a video feed is showing Kara and J’onn taking down a few of Cadmus foot soldiers somewhere outside the city.

“What happened?” Lena asks abruptly and Winn jumps in his chair before noticing her.

“Hi, Lena,” he says with a bit of an affronted look at her surprise presence, but she can’t be bothered to care.

“Is it my mother?”

“We don’t know,” Winn says. “We just got an alert that they were moving something big.”

“We haven’t heard a peep out of them in weeks,” Lena says, surveying the video playing on the monitor with narrowed eyes. Kara and J’onn have handily taken care of the Cadmus henchman and are now headed towards the massive trailer they were protecting to check its contents.

“Guess we got lucky,” Winn says with a shrug.

It doesn’t feel like luck to Lena. Everything about the situation is making her heart quicken and her palms clammy.

Kara’s ripping the door off the trailer and stepping inside and the whole room hears an oh my god come across the comms.

“Kara?” Winn asks, tapping into the feed. “What is it?”

It’s J’onn that answers and his voice sounds about as bewildered as Kara’s did. “It’s Jeremiah.”

A sharp gasp behind them alerts Lena to Alex’s presence and she turns to see the eldest Danvers sister staring wide eyed at the monitor, all the blood gone from her face. “What did he just say?” Alex asks, voice like steel as she approaches. “Did he just say Jeremiah?”

The video answers the question for them as Kara’s scene carrying a large body out of the trailer and Alex makes a strangled kind of noise. It’s an involuntary reaction that Lena reaches out to grasp Alex’s shoulder in sympathy – worry about her mother set aside for the moment at the glossy look in Alex Danvers’s eyes.

J’onn’s voice comes over the line again. “Agent Schott, prepare the med bay.”

--

Lena’s never met Jeremiah – he had gone missing long before she met Kara – but she’s seen pictures of him. A few hung up around Kara’s dorm room – family shots and the like – and some in scrapbooks Kara had from when she was first came to Earth. She saw even more when Alex tasked her with searching for him – his soldier files in the DEO archives and various other reports.

When he comes into the DEO, slung over Kara’s shoulder and face swollen with bruises and lacerations – he doesn’t look very recognizable, but Alex goes sprinting across the floor to his side.

“I didn’t believe it,” Alex says as she nearly crashes into him and pulls him into a hug. He makes a sound of pain, but doesn’t push her away, just hugs her back.

Kara’s eyes are noticeably glossy even from where Lena’s lingering behind with Winn and she has a bright disbelieving smile on her face as she glances at Lena quickly before joining Alex in hugging her adoptive father.

The scattering of DEO agents around them must recognize him because a muted round of applause rings out as Alex and Kara help him through the base. Jeremiah smiles and waves, nods humbly like a good soldier and lets his daughters lead him towards the med bay.

Lena stays behind a bit, watches him with careful eyes and doesn’t know what to do.

Lucky, Winn had said.

It’s nearly impossible to shake the idea that this wasn’t about luck at all. The voice of her mother swirls through her mind, taunting and menacing: you’d do best to choose the right side before anything has to get too messy.

She’s spent the past few months helping Alex search for any sign of Jeremiah after Kara reported his reappearance and not a peep, not a word of it. And now here he is, waltzing back into the DEO after fourteen years.

Lucky.

“Are you coming?” Winn asks, looking at her strangely as she stares down the hallway the Danvers family just retreated down.

It startles her out of her thoughts, but doesn’t stop the nervous crawl of paranoia twisting in her guts. “Of course,” she says before following him towards the medical room at the end of the corridor.

--

The room feels thick with emotion.

Alex tends to her father delicately, tears still welling in her eyes while Kara watches, arms crossed over her chest and a soft smile on her face. J’onn has much the same posture as Kara, but without the smile and he stands nearby.

When Lena enters the room with Winn, Kara turns to her, holds her hand out for her to take. Winn goes immediately to a computer station and logs on – silently keys in a few commands.

Jeremiah watches Lena take Kara’s hand with a strange kind of intensity in his gaze, but the rest of his face remains impassive. Lena’s curious if he recognizes her, knows who she is or her connection to the woman that’s supposedly held him hostage for over a decade.

“Jeremiah,” Kara says with a proud little smile as Lena comes to her side. “This is-”

“Lena Luthor,” Jeremiah finishes for her, satisfying Lena’s curiosity.

Lena arches a brow, but doesn’t say anything, still unsure of this entire situation. Alex is watching them now, hand paused over her father’s arm where she’d be swiping gauze over the blood there.

Shifting just slightly on the bed, Jeremiah appraises her for a second, the tension in the room palpable as Kara clearly doesn’t know what to say.

“You’re Lillian’s daughter,” he adds and her jaw tightens involuntarily just as Kara’s fingers do around her hand.

“Adopted daughter,” she corrects with what she hopes is a polite smile, but she imagines it doesn’t quite succeed.

“Lena and I went to college together,” Kara says with a wary smile for both of them. “We’re dating.”

That flashes a note of surprise across Jeremiah’s face before he chuckles, his body language softening. “Well, that certainly explains a lot.”

At the matching looks of curiosity he gets in response, he adds, “Lillian may have made some not so nice comments about her daughter cavorting with alien ruffians when she took over,” he says with a quirky smile. “In between torturing me for my disloyalty.”

That answers a question Lena had largely avoided thinking about – her mother is alive.

Alex visibly reacts to the mention of her father being tortured and sits back on her stool. “What happened, Dad?”

He shrugs. “I don’t remember a lot of how I got to Cadmus, just that I woke up there after the mission in the Amazon and they kept me alive so that I could keep Henshaw alive and turn him into…whatever it is he is today.”

Jeremiah looks at J’onn who shifts at the mention of Henshaw. “It is strange seeing you in his skin,” he adds.

“But what happened after that?” Kara asks, pulling Jeremiah’s attention back to her. “I mean, you were gone a long time.”

“I guess Cadmus wanted me to stick around for help with other projects. And then Lillian came along - I tried to escape a few times, but,” he lets a wry smile cross his lips and looks himself over before sparing Lena a glance and then back to Kara. “Lillian doesn’t appreciate deserters very much.”

“Dad,” Alex sighs, a tortured look on her face.

“It’s okay, Alex,” he says softly. “What I did was to keep you and your sister safe.”

Alex shakes her head, looks down at the hand she’d been examining. “This arm,” she says softly. “It has extensive nerve damage.”

Jeremiah smiles easily. “It’s okay,” he repeats. “It’s worth it to see you two again.”

Lena squeezes Kara’s hand, but before anyone can speak again, Mon-El is walking into the room at a quick pace.

“I just heard,” he says and Jeremiah sits up again.

“Mon-El of Daxam,” he greets and it’s then Lena remembers they’ve already met – when her mother kidnapped both Kara and Mon-El for information. Everything about the situation is making Lena feel cold and wary.  

“Nice to see you again,” Mon-El says as he comes to a stop next to Lena at the foot of Jeremiah’s bed. “Under different and slightly better circumstances.”

“I’d say,” Jeremiah agrees with a wry chuckle.

“I was worried about you after you helped Kara and I escape,” Mon-El says and Lena suppresses the urge to make a face at the unusual words of compassion out of the man.

“I’m just so lucky to be here,” he says, reaching out with his uninjured hand to grab for Alex’s and looking at Kara. “With both of you girls.” Kara releases Lena’s to step forward and put her hand on top of her sister’s and Jeremiah’s.

“I’d say it’s more than luck,” Mon-El says and it’s a casual statement, but the whole room tenses. Lena looks over to him, curious to hear her own suspicions voiced.

“What do you mean?” J’onn asks and even Winn has spun away from his computer terminal to watch.

“We got an alert from Cadmus,” he says, shrugging. “We only ever get alerts from them if they like…send out a video or we catch them red handed.”

Kara’s gaze is hard when it cuts to him, eyes narrowing. “We did catch them red handed.”

“Did we?” Mon-El asks, looking around with a skeptical smile. “I mean weren’t they kind of waving their red hands around in the air literally like they just didn’t care so…”

Alex’s glaring heavily at Mon-El and Kara looks like she’s about to protest, but Jeremiah speaks up. “He’s right. You need to keep your guard up. Cadmus is planning something.”

A bitter taste builds in the back of Lena’s throat and her stomach turns over. “What is it?” She asks, the first words she’s spoken in long minutes.

“A nuclear fusion bomb,” he answers and Lena’s stomach drops. “They’re going to destroy National City and blame it on hostile aliens.”

As he says the last part he looks dead on at Lena before moving to Kara. “They built it from the radiation Lillian mined from your solar flare when she had you kidnapped.”

“Great,” Winn says inappropriately loudly. The word bursts out of him so abruptly that the room kind of jumps – just seeming to remember he’s there. “Is this place bomb proof?”

J’onn shoots him a look before focusing back on Jeremiah. “So, where is it? How do we stop it?”

“You could trace the radiation signature from Kara’s heat vision,” he suggests.

Winn sticks his hand in the air, spins his chair back around. “That sounds like a job for Schott. Winn Schott,” he says with exaggerated flair before spinning around again and looking at Jeremiah. “That’s me, by the way. I’m Winn. Kara’s friend. And Alex’s too, also a DEO agent and-"

“Winn,” Alex interrupts in a snap with a pointed look at him.

“Right, yes, tracking,” he says before getting to work.

--

They find Jeremiah a clean change of clothes and get him fitted with a sling for his injured arm.

Alex takes the task of calling her mother and Kara just stands in the middle of the DEO as if she’s still in shock.

“It feels too good to be true,” she tells Lena, a wondering smile playing at her lips.

Lena doesn’t know how to tell her that’s exactly how she feels too except she’s fairly sure it is too good to be true. There’s something off about everything – it’s too easy, too neat. Jeremiah has too many good answers. Rehearsed answers.

Kara, who had been pacing around a little waiting for Alex and Jeremiah to return, stops and furrows her brow at Lena. “Why do you have that thinky face on?”

“Thinky face?” Lena asks with an arch of her brow.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” Kara asks before her forehead smooths. “Is it because he called you Lillian’s daughter? Because he just doesn’t know you, but I assure you when he does that-“

“It’s not that, Kara,” she says, interrupting that ramble with a laugh and a hand on Kara’s forearm. “I’m just – I’m just thinking.”

“Share with the class,” Kara murmurs, stepping in close.

Lena shakes her head, isn’t ready to break the happy spell around Jeremiah’s return if she doesn’t have to. “It’s just the first we’ve heard of Cadmus – my mother - in a long time,” she says.

“It’s good,” Kara tells her emphatically, reaching out take hold of Lena’s hips. “We know what they’re planning and Jeremiah is like our inside guy now.”

That’s the part that worries her. Just which team is Jeremiah really the inside guy for.

“Definitely,” she says and Kara’s face doesn’t look like she believes Lena’s smile, but Mon-El is stepping up to them suddenly and Kara pulls away to look at him.

“Lena,” he says uncertainly, glancing at Kara. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

Kara looks taken aback by the request, and Lena can’t blame her – she feels that way a little as well – but she doesn’t say anything. “Sure,” Lena says, shrugging at Kara’s questioning look and following Mon-El into the privacy of an empty hallway.

When they get there, he doesn’t say anything right away. Instead he just shifts nervously back and forth on his feet, his hands propped on his hips.

“What’s wrong?” Lena asks, wondering why she was the one chosen for this conversation or what Mon-El could possibly have to tell her. For a brief second she hopes this isn’t some revival of Mon-El’s intentions to mate Kara or something equally absurd, but then he finally speaks.

“I was there,” he says. “When Lillian made Kara solar flare.”

The memory of Kara in her kitchen after that incident rears up in her head. Kara had looked so vulnerable then and their relationship so tentative. It feels like a lifetime ago.

“I know,” Lena replies quizzically.

“It didn’t look like they were trying to farm radiation,” he says emphatically, his voice lowering as he steps closer to her. “It just looked like she wanted Kara to lose her powers.”

A cold shiver runs through Lena. It’s much of what she suspects as well. She isn’t sure what kind of nuclear fusion bomb her mother is building – and even just thinking that makes her chest seize – but mining radiation from Kara’s heat vision seems like an extreme way of planning a power source.

“I’m not a scientist,” Mon-El says. “But you’re like a genius here, right?”

Lena’s brows arch, her lips thin, but she doesn’t deny it. “I know enough to be dangerous,” she says.

“There’s something weird going on,” he says and she sighs. She doesn’t want to betray Kara’s trust or seem to take sides in this scenario, but she can’t help but agree. “I don’t think Jeremiah is what he says he is.”

“I know,” she says, glancing around to make sure they’re still secluded. Not that it’d help much. If Kara wanted to eavesdrop there’s not much Lena nor Mon-El could do.

“What if they’re forcing Jeremiah to-"

“Mon-El,” Lena interrupts with a soft warning in her tone.  

“I’m just saying,” he says and she shakes her head.

“There’s nothing we can do about it now. Kara and Alex-”

“Kara will listen to you,” he says and she takes a deep breath.

“We could just be paranoid,” she adds trying to avoid what her brain is screaming at her. Mon-El just gives her a look.

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean there’s not someone creeping up behind you trying to kill you.”

As if on cue, Kara’s voice booms out from behind them and they both jump in surprise. “Hey,” Kara says, looking around warily as she approaches. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Lena says with a soft clearing of her throat.

Mon-El rocks back and forth on his heels, hands behind his back in a picture of innocence. “Yeah, all good.”

“Okay,” Kara draws out, looking entirely confused. “Well, we’re making plans for family dinner tonight, you free?”

The last bit is directed at Lena who tries to calm the startled beating of her heart. “I think so,” she says, nodding.

Kara brightens, bounces forward slightly and kisses Lena on the cheek. “Great, you can get to know Jeremiah and the whole family can be together.”

Kara’s delight is palpable and as she turns to pull Lena back towards the central platform of the DEO, Lena gives Mon-El one last glance. There’s trepidation on his face and his significant look her direction is the last thing she sees before Kara’s asking her if she wants a ride back to L Corp.

--

It’s nearly impossible to get any more work done the rest of the day.

All her brain can think about is that her mother is out there possibly building some kind of nuclear fusion bomb and that she might have to tell her girlfriend that she suspects her adoptive father is some kind of Cadmus mole. She imagines, for a moment, telling her younger self that these are the kind of problems she might’ve had if she kept on with Kara, and knows far too well that she would’ve done the same thing.

On top of that, Hector – her usual number two assistant after Jess – is out sick and his replacement – Alana – doesn’t know how to make Lena’s coffee right.

It’s a small thing, but when everything big in her life is all twisted, it’s small comforts that she likes to rely on.

By three o’clock she gives up on trying to actually get any work done and leaves the office. She can handle the rest of her meetings remotely and with a bottle of wine.

--

“I can’t believe it,” Kara says, pacing around Lena’s bedroom while Lena gets ready for dinner. “After fourteen years.”

Lena hums to indicate she’s still listening and focuses on picking out a pair of earrings for the evening.

“Sorry,” Kara says, coming up behind Lena just as she’s decided on a pair and winding her arms around Lena’s waist.

“For what?” Lena asks, looking at Kara in the mirror on top of her dresser.

“Here I am freaking out over Jeremiah and we haven’t even talked about the other thing.”

“What other thing?” Lena asks, turning in Kara’s arms just as she gets her earrings on.

“Your mother,” Kara says and a chill runs through the bedroom.

“Ah, that thing,” Lena says wryly.

“Yes, that thing,” Kara parrots with a short smile. “We haven’t talked about finding out Cadmus is planning to drop a nuclear bomb on National City.”

Lena arches a brow, moves away from Kara’s hold. “Are you surprised?”

“That’s not the point,” Kara says, clearly a little confused at Lena’s reaction.

Bending over to pick up a pair of heels from where they’re lying next to the bed, Lena glances back over at her. “Then what is?”

“You’ve been worried about your mother and Cadmus ever since the warehouse and-“

“Understandably,” Lena points out. “She wants to kill you.”

“Apparently she wants to kill all of us,” Kara says and Lena’s mouth goes dry just thinking about that.

“My mother was always ambitious,” she deadpans, but it’s not funny and Kara doesn’t laugh.

“I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“Of course I’m not okay,” Lena says with a barking laugh. “But there’s nothing we can do about that.”

Kara steps a little closer and she looks so young and honest and perfect right now – soft looking pants, oversized sweater and face devoid of glasses. “Lena, we can stop her. We have Jeremiah now and he can help us figure out where this bomb is and how to stop them. It’s going to be fine.”

The mention of Jeremiah again makes a strange kind of guilt build up in her chest and she knows she can’t keep harboring these suspicions without at least trying to talk to Kara about them. Secrets have done nothing but hurt them in the past.

“Kara,” Lena starts, drawing the name out slowly and hesitantly.

Kara’s brow pulls together at the sound of it. “Yeah?”

After another moment’s hesitation, Lena decides to just get it out in the open. “Have you considered the possibility that Jeremiah’s timing is a little…”

“A little what?” Kara asks when Lena doesn’t finish the sentence and she straightens, eyes narrowing as if she knows exactly what Lena’s going to say.

Lifting her chin and willing herself not to be deterred by the possibility of Kara getting defensive. “A little suspect.”

A long pause precedes Kara’s next words. “I’m sorry?”

“We haven’t heard so much as a whisper from Cadmus in weeks and then he just waltzes back into the DEO to tell us about a fusion bomb that we’ve never heard about and only he knows about?”

Kara looks at her for a long moment, jaw slightly dropped before laughing. The sound so surprising that Lena’s eyebrows shoot up in reaction.

“You’re just being paranoid,” Kara dismisses with a roll of her eyes.

Now it’s Lena’s turn to feel defensive. “I’m not being paranoid.” Mon-El’s words ring in the back of her head and she almost repeats them to Kara. Just because she’s paranoid doesn’t mean she’s wrong.

“Yes, you are,” Kara says in an almost condescending kind of tone that Lena bristles at. “You’ve been paranoid for weeks about your mother popping out from around every corner and you’re looking for a reason to mistrust Jeremiah.”

“I don’t have to look very hard,” Lena points out with a quirk of her brow that Kara frowns at.

“Why is it so difficult for you to trust him?” Kara asks and Lena balks incredulously.

“Why is it so easy for you?”

Kara scoffs. “Because he’s only ever protected me. He was the only father figure I knew for years and he-“

“Was with Cadmus for fourteen years, Kara,” she insists, feeling heated as the argument starts to escalate. “That changes a person.”

“He was their prisoner,” Kara says emphatically.

“How are you so sure?” Lena asks, praying for Kara to just see past emotion to the logic of the matter.

“What?”

“How are you so sure he was just their prisoner?”

Kara doesn’t seem to have a direct answer for that, her mouth opens and closes a few times before she’s scoffing again. “You’re being ridiculous.”

“No,” Lena says slowly. “You’re just not seeing straight.”

“Not everything has to be some tragic messy dark thing, Lena,” Kara says with a certain amount of heat and exasperation.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Lena asks defensively and she can feel this argument about to escalate unnecessarily, but she’s not sure how to stop it. The adrenaline of Cadmus’s sudden reappearance and the fear Jeremiah’s presence has created in the back of her mind all seem to come to a head.

“Jeremiah was rescued today and now he’s back and he’s going to help us defeat Cadmus once and for all and-"

“I want to believe that just as much as you do, Kara, but the fact remains that he was with Cadmus for fourteen years, and even if he’s only known my mother for a year at most, she has very effective ways of inspiring loyalty.”

“You were with your mother for a lot longer than a year, should I make assumptions about where your loyalties lie too?” Kara says and Lena can tell she regrets it immediately by the face she makes as the words come out, but it’s too late. They’re out there, slicing through Lena’s chest painfully.

Something stills between them. Frozen and tense. Kara’s eyes widen just as Lena’s narrow.

“I can’t believe you just said that,” Lena says, wondering how just a day ago she was drowning in feelings of contentedness and peace and now she’s here – staring at Kara with hurt and disbelief. It takes everything in her not to just snap back.

“I didn’t mean it,” Kara tries, scraping a hand down her face and blowing out a low breath and Lena does believe that, but it doesn’t erase the sudden stab of pain she felt. “This has just been a long day. We’re both on edge.”

Lena purses her lips, tries to quell the sudden surge of hurt and anger that’s bubbling up in her chest. “The only thing putting me on edge right now is the idea we’re letting a spy for my mother get close to us.”

An answering look of anger tightens in Kara’s jaw and they both observe each other for a long second. “If that’s the way you feel then maybe you shouldn’t come to dinner tonight.”

Throat going suddenly thick, Lena swallows against the feeling and forces her expression to remain neutral. “Fine.”

Kara looks hurt at that, like she expected Lena to protest, but Lena can’t find a mutually satisfying way out of this argument at the moment. It’s probably best if they both take a second to cool off anyway, even if the thought of Kara walking away from her right now is painful.

“Fine,” Kara repeats, observing Lena for a tense moment. After a second of hesitation, she steps forward and kisses Lena swiftly on the cheek before turning on her heel and heading for the door. “I’ll see you later, I guess.”  

Lena watches her retreat with what feels like a band around her chest squeezing too tightly. The sound of the door shutting echoes throughout the now empty apartment and Lena twists her lips together to fight the spike of heat in her eyes.

Kicking off the heels she just put on, she reaches up to undo the bun her hair has been twisted up into and heads for her kitchen and straight for her wine chiller.

--

“Can I stay here tonight?” Kara asks when Lena opens the door to her knocking. Without waiting for an answer, Kara just pushes inside and flops down onto Lena’s couch, sprawling over it.

“Of course,” Lena says though her acquiescence feels redundant. She paces back over to her desk where she’d been working on a design for class and sits down. “Have you been sex-iled from your room or something?”

An adorable crinkle appears in between Kara’s brows as she hangs her head upside down off the side of the couch and observes Lena. “Sex-iled?”

“Exiled from your room for sex reasons,” Lena clarifies with an arch of her brow and an amused smile.

Kara’s cheeks go pink. “No, more like exiled because my roommate hates me.”

“What is it this time?” Lena asks, pushing her homework away in the interest of looking at Kara - a much more enjoyable prospect.

“What isn’t it?” Kara answers, rolling over onto her stomach and propping her chin up on the arm of the couch. A pout takes form on Kara’s lips that Lena finds hard to resist.

“You should really talk to your RA about a mediator or something. They provide dispute settlement services,” Lena points out.

“I don’t need a dispute settlement,” Kara sighs, sitting up and then looking around the couch for something.

It occurs to Lena what that could be a few seconds later and she points a finger to the coffee table. “It’s under my physics textbook,” she says and Kara scrambles forward to pull the television remote out from hiding with a triumphant smile.

“Hiding out in my room every time the two of you have a tiff isn’t really solving the problem,” Lena says when it’s clear Kara’s moved on to the conversation in favor of finding something to watch on TV.

“Nothing is going to solve the problem,” Kara huffs, settling on some old moving playing on LifetimeTV. “Not until she gets an attitude adjustment and stops being offended every time I trip over her shoes.”

“I don’t know how you trip over so many things when you can fly,” Lena mutters. Kara makes a hmph noise that has Lena quirking her lips in a smile.

“The point is that I wouldn’t trip over anything if she’d stop leaving her stuff all over the place.”

Lena just smiles at her and turns back to her homework. “I don’t know how to help you.”

“Tell me how to not make my roommate hate me,” Kara whines. Lena laughs at the high-pitched sound. “There were no roommates on Krypton, Lena.”

“There were also no dogs, and you seem to do just fine with those,” Lena says, glancing upwards. Kara looks affronted, her arms crossing as she pouts yet again. Idly, Lena wonders if Kara’s aware of the effect she so effortlessly has on Lena’s heart.  “I don’t know. How do you resolve fights with your sister?”

“Alex doesn’t count,” Kara says. “Alex is Alex. That’s totally different.”

“Seems very normal,” Lena says wryly. Kara laughs a little, scooting over on the couch and patting the now empty space.

Weak to the inviting look on Kara’s face, Lena joins her, sliding into Kara’s side. Their relationship is new. Really new and tends to overwhelm Lena whenever she thinks about it too hard. But when Kara wraps an arm over her shoulder and presses a kiss to her temple it just feels warm.

“I still think you should talk to your RA,” Lena says, letting her shoulder fall into Kara and focusing her eyes on the movie Kara’s chosen.

“I don’t want to involve other people.”

“You’re involving me,” Lena points out and Kara shrugs.

“That’s different.”

“Is that your excuse for everything?”

“Yes.”

“Kara,” Lena tsks in admonishment.

Kara sighs. “It’s not that I - I mean I like to be honest and figure stuff out, but that only works if the other person does too. When I took my girod tests, I scored really high on truth.”

The sudden Kryptonian word isn’t one Lena knows and she picks her head up to blink at Kara in abject confusion.

Kara laughs. “Sorry. The girod. They’re the,” Kara pauses as if searching for the right translation. “The eleven virtues.”

“Eleven?” Lena asks. “High expectations.”

Kara holds her hand up and starts to tick her fingers off, “Truth, peace, synergy, imagination, purity,” she switches hands to the one by Lena’s shoulder. “Justice, restraint, hope, industriousness, altruism.” Out of fingers, Kara just kind of stares at her hands for a second until Lena laughs and holds up her own finger in between them.

With a happy smile, Kara taps Lena’s finger and concludes, “ Zehdh.”

At Lena’s inquiring look, Kara tilts her head back and forth a moment. “It doesn’t have a great translation. But it’s about belonging. Home. Family.”

Lena nods, scrunches her finger back and forth before putting her hand back in her lap.

“So the point is to try and remember these virtues and balance them in your lives,” Kara says, letting her hands fall too.

“That’s nice,” Lena replies, looking up at the wistful look that Kara always gets when she talks about Krypton.

“Yeah,” Kara says softly and then the distant look passes as she focuses back on Lena’s face. “But I can’t really tell my roommate that.”

Lena laughs. “I’m not sure it would help even if you did.”

Kara acknowledges the truth in that with a soft hum. “How did you fix fights with Lex?”

“We mostly just yell at each other,” Lena admits with a shrug. “Not that we fight very often. Luthors are big fans of the restraint virtue. Or as some might call it, the repress your feelings forever virtue.”

Kara tsks, frowning. “I don’t think that strategy will do me much good.”

“You’re probably right,” Lena says and Kara’s head drops back on the couch with a soft groan. “But you’re here now, so stop worrying about it.”

That, at least, makes Kara grin when she picks her head back up. “We can’t ever fight or else I’ll end up sleeping on the bench outside your building.”

Lena laughs. “You could fly back to Midvale or to Alex’s.”

“Lena!” Kara says with considerable indignation. “You’re supposed to agree that we can never fight.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t get the script,” Lena teases, charmed by the bright glint in Kara’s eyes.

--

By the next morning, Lena hasn’t spoken to Kara – though the urge to call her later that night just to check in had been strong.

A year ago, not speaking to Kara was the norm – something Lena was just starting to get used to after four years – but now it feels like a lifetime every minute that passes with no contact.

Her work day feels slower than normal. Her morning meetings drag on and by lunch she’s ready to fire the next person that needs to talk to her just to avoid it.

All she can focus on is what’s happening at the DEO. It’s unsettling to think of Jeremiah entrenching himself back into his old life. It feels a lot like her mother is sitting somewhere with a self-satisfied grin watching the whole thing.

Instead of hearing from Kara like she half expects at some point, it’s Winn that shows up at her office in the middle of the afternoon.

He looks slightly harried as her assistant, Alana, shepherds him inside the office and Lena stands in reaction, a look of concern crossing her face.

“Winn?”

“Hey, Lena,” he says, trying for a smile as he paces forward and the door closes behind him. “Sorry to drop in like this.”

“Not at all,” she says with a gesture towards one of her office chairs. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” he says at first as he drops down into his seat. He makes a face, wincing a bit. “Not really. Maybe. I don’t know.”

Lena arches a brow, but the pace of her heart picks up thinking of what kind of problem Winn could possibly be coming to her with. “Is Kara okay?”

“Oh yeah,” he says, sitting forward to reassure her. “She’s fine.” He pauses a second, his brows coming together. “Apart from being on a warpath today. Are you guys fighting?”

The memory of Kara’s face before she left her apartment last night twists in her gut. “Not especially,” she answers, but Winn seems to see right through that answer.

“That’s not why I’m here anyway,” he dismisses, waving it off. “Though I’m sure everybody at the DEO would appreciate you guys making up and returning Kara to her usually happy self.”

“Noted,” Lena says with a short laugh and a clearing of her throat. “So why did you stop by?”

His face goes serious. “Right, yeah. I was talking to Mon-El,” he starts and Lena starts to get an idea of where this is going.

“About Jeremiah,” Lena fills in for him and he nods solemnly.

“He’s back at work today,” Winn says with a pinched look. “J’onn gave him full access.”

A knot of worry tightens in Lena’s stomach. “Full access to the DEO.”

“Yup,” Winn says with an ominous pop of the word. “And after J’onn gave him a tour of the building I sort of…saw him go straight into the central mainframe.”

It’s suspicious enough, but Lena knows half of that is her own personal paranoia regarding Jeremiah so she keeps her tone even and calm. “And?”

Winn takes a deep breath. “He broke into the DEO mainframe, Lena.”

“How are you so sure?” She asks just because she needs to be sure. Jumping to a conclusion just because she – on some level – wants it to be true isn’t the smartest course of action.

He gives her a look, pulls a tablet out of the bag still slung across his shoulder. “I’m sure,” he says and he hands over the tablet – on the screen are security logs and Lena reads it clear as day – Danvers, J – followed by a series of workaround commands to get into the system.

Lena reads through it and can already feel a headache coming on. “What was he looking for?”

“He accessed a number of classified files,” Winn says. “I haven’t actually swept through it all, but he forced his way into the system all sneaky and-”

“Did you tell Kara?” Lena asks, handing the tablet back and wondering why Winn came to her with this. It occurs to her just as he answers.

“I was hoping you could help me with that.”

“I really don’t think I’m the best person for that job right now,” Lena says with a bitter laugh.

“Mon-El and I tried,” Winn says. “But she doesn’t want to listen to either of us. She’ll listen to you.”

“You showed her this?”

“It didn’t get that far,” Winn explains. “As soon as she saw us she walked the other way.”

It makes Lena laugh, a little exasperatedly, as she rolls her eyes. “I’m not sure she won’t do much of the same if it’s me.”

“You know that’s not true,” Winn says, but Lena is much more uncertain.

“Have you tried to talk to Alex?”

“Oh please,” Winn says with a loud exhale. “Alex is even worse. I get it, it’s their dad, but still. This guy is loose in the DEO and if he’s a mole for your mother…”

The thought dangles out there – the same thought that kept Lena up most of the night despite the bottle of pinot noir she managed to get through. With a heavy sigh, she closes the laptop on her desk and stands. “Okay,” she says. “Let’s go talk to her.”

--

They meet Mon-El in the empty training room of the DEO and Winn pages Kara with a message that he needs to see her immediately.

Then they wait, Lena feeling uncharacteristically nervous at the prospect of seeing Kara for the first time since she walked away last night.

A few minutes later, Kara’s opening the door – dressed in street clothes and adjusting her glasses as she enters. It does something warm to her stomach to see Kara after an unwanted absence and she takes a moment to drink the sight in. Wishes it were different circumstances. “Winn, what did you-"

The words choke out of her mouth as she notices the three of them in the room and she looks like she’s about to bolt back the other direction before her eyes stick to Lena significantly.

“What’s this?” Kara asks and the question comes out sounding dark as she crosses her arms over her chest.

Mon-El is the first to speak. “It’s about-"

“I think I know what it’s about,” Kara interrupts, her eyes bouncing to him for only a second before back to Lena. There’s a hint of accusation in them that she forces herself not to react to.

“Hear them out,” Lena says, lifting her chin and mimicking Kara’s posture with her arms over her chest.

For a moment, it looks as if Kara might protest some more, but she just thins her lips before giving a defeated looking shrug. “Fine,” she says. “What is it?”

Winn steps forward and explains what he told Lena earlier, shows Kara the logs and everything.

The look of muted anger on Kara’s face fades to one of solemn resignation as her eyes scan the screen. “He broke into the mainframe,” Kara murmurs, eyes glancing at Lena’s for a moment.

Kara’s jaw is tight, her shoulders tense and Lena aches with the urge to touch her.

“Believe us now?” Mon-El asks and Lena sighs, knowing that’s not going to improve Kara’s mood in the least.

As expected, Kara graces Mon-El with a frosty look, but she doesn’t respond to him other than handing the tablet back to Winn and chewing her bottom lip a moment. “Let’s go talk to him.”

--

Jeremiah is standing next to Alex and J’onn observing the radiation tracking program they have pulled up to find the fusion bomb and Lena overhears the tail end of their conversation as they approach.

“Do you think they could have some kind of cloaking device?” Alex is asking.

“No,” Jeremiah says, eyes on the screen. “They’d need me to build it.”

Lena furrows her brow at that – as if her mother wouldn’t have the resources to build such a thing herself. Cloaking technology had been a Luthor Corp project since Lena was a teenager.

“Jeremiah,” Kara says when they’re in earshot. “Do you have a minute?”

“Yeah, of course,” Jeremiah says, turning to look at her. Alex turns as well and when her eyes fall on the way Lena, Mon-El and Winn are all standing behind Kara, they harden.

Lena’s sure Kara likely filled Alex in on their argument the night before and it’s only confirmed when Alex’s shoulders brace themselves when she looks at Lena again.

With a touch to her glasses – a move Lena recognizes well – Kara takes a breath and asks, “Earlier today you accessed some highly classified files from the mainframe.”

“That’s true,” Jeremiah says with a picture perfect expression of innocence, his face barely reacting as the group watches him.

Alex looks up sharply at that. “Why?”

“I’ve missed so much,” he answers with a soft smile for both Alex and Kara. “I wanted to see what my daughters had been up to.”

“Why didn’t you just ask?” Kara asks, a frown on her face.

“I wanted the whole story,” Jeremiah says. “You two always keep everything so close to the vest.”

Winn’s head tilts quizzically, and his eyes dart to Lena before asking, “But then why the…”  

“The workaround?” Jeremiah supplies with a friendly quirk of his lips. “I tried my old passcode, but it didn’t work so I found another way in.”

Kara leans over to look at the tablet in Winn’s hand. “Is it true?”

The question is soft, meant for Winn, but Alex noticeably bristles and moves closer to her father, an uncharacteristic look of anger directed straight at her sister.

“Uh, ye-yeah,” Winn says as he scrolls through the information on his screen. “These are all your case files from the last two years.”

Jeremiah shrugs, a smile on her face. “I guess it made me feel a little bit like I was there.”

It shouldn’t surprise her that Jeremiah has easy answers for all of this and it does nothing to ease her concerns.

Kara, however, seems completely appeased by his answer. Her steely gaze lands on Mon-El and Winn and Lena in that order.

Alex looks even more enraged by the entire confrontation and she moves to guide her father away from the group. “I can’t believe you,” she says as they start to move away and though it seemed as though the words were directed at all of them they land on Kara the hardest. “Of all people,” Alex adds, with a last look at her sister and it’s then that Lena hears the hurt in Alex’s voice.

Kara’s entire being is rigid and Lena can practically feel heat radiating off of her from where she’s standing. If Kara had been in a bad mood before, she’s certainly not in any better one now faced with the ire of her sister.

“Kara,” Lena starts, but Kara shakes her head, cuts her off with a quick glance.

“Don’t,” is all Kara says before she lets out a long sigh and goes off presumably to track down Alex.

“Well, that went well,” Mon-El says, hands in his pockets as he rocks back and forth on his feet.

Winn actually winces and Lena resists the urge to take her frustration out on him. Settles for just putting as much ice as she has into her glare and walking past him.

--

In lieu of spending the rest of her afternoon in her office getting little if any work done, Lena sends Alana a message that she’ll finish the day at home and buys two bottles of wine at the liquor store down the street from her building.

If she’s going to worry the rest of the night alone she’d like to do it as tipsy as possible on mid-priced cabernet sauvignon.

Half of her expects to hear from Kara at some point that night, but she winds up disappointed and goes to bed early, her fingers spreading across cold sheets.

--

The next day she isn’t any less distracted as she heads into work, but she’s got a full slate of meetings for the morning and it keeps her occupied as much as possible.

Lunch, however, is eaten in her office and she spends the entire time twirling her phone on her desk with the urge to call Kara and check in.

Maybe she could call Winn and ask or even Mon-El, but she’s pretty sure Kara wouldn’t appreciate the subterfuge.

Instead she decides to head down to the labs in the hopes Lana has some project Lena can tinker with to keep her mind off it.

As it turns out, Lana does indeed have a project for her and she greets Lena with a happy smile and a laugh. “Actually yeah, we have tons of stuff, boss. Take your pick.”

She hands Lena a small tablet with a list of unfinished projects and Lena takes a seat at one of the work stations.

“I’ll make coffee,” Lana says with a wink. It settles some of Lena’s nerves just to be around a friend.

“Thanks, Lana.”

After a few seconds of scrolling through the inventory, something catches Lena’s eye and gives her pause. She checks the storage location of the project inventory and sets the tablet down on the desk before pulling out her phone.

“Winn?” She asks when he picks up. “Can you meet me? Somewhere not at the DEO?”

--

Lena heads to the alien bar – whose name she should probably deduce at some point – because Winn was already there and she knows Kara and Alex won’t be.

He’s throwing darts at a board while Mon-El perches on a nearby pool table and laughs every time Winn misses dramatically.

“Hey!” Winn greets, his arms wide in an exaggerated greeting. Lena glances around to see if anyone’s watching them with an exasperated roll of her eyes. Winn just waves her off, moves forward to hug her in greeting and Mon-El slides off the pool table to do the same.

“So, what’s with the impromptu hang?” Winn asks as they walk to a nearby table and take stools.

“Drinks?” Mon-El offers and Lena shakes her head.

“It’s barely four, Mon-El,” she says with a soft laugh.

“It’s the happiest hour, Lena,” he says pointedly and Winn rolls his eyes. “Plus after today…we deserve a drink.”

It pulls Lena back to the memory of their confrontation with Jeremiah and she barely contains a cringe. “How were things after I left?”

“Oh, just great,” Winn answers sarcastically and Mon-El laughs.

“Yeah, totally great. Alex and Kara yelled at each other for about twenty minutes and then Kara threw a cement block at my head.”

Lena’s eyes go wide at that, but Mon-El waves her off. “But I dodged it,” he says with a cocksure grin. “Like a ninja.” He makes a ridiculous motion with his hands as he says it and nearly knocks a glass off the table before scrambling to right it. “Oops.”

“Anyway,” Winn drags out, giving Mon-El a side-eye before looking back at Lena. “What’s up?”

For a moment, Lena hesitates. It feels so much like going behind Kara’s back – which is probably because it is – and she hates the idea that she might create more conflict between them. But a stronger urge to protect Kara and those she’s come to consider her friends and family makes her move on.

“I’m going to assume neither of you were very convinced by Jeremiah’s explanations,” she says, more as fact than question.

Winn nods and Mon-El let’s out a scoffing sounding laugh. “Neither was Kara from the sound of it.”

That tidbit puzzles Lena for a moment. “How’s that?”

Mon-El shrugs. “She basically said so to Alex when they were going at it. I mean half the DEO could hear them at one point.”

“And it’s possible we followed them and eavesdropped,” Winn adds with a slightly contrite look.

The idea that Kara spent the afternoon fighting with her sister makes Lena ache to call her and check-in all over again. Kara and Alex don’t fight often as far as Lena’s aware but she can remember the handful of times it had happened in the past. Kara had been nearly inconsolable.

“Well, regardless of how Kara feels,” Lena says, the words slow and strange in her mouth. “I thought I might have something to help us.”

“What’s that?” Winn asks and Lena reaches into her purse, glancing around to make sure they’re not being watch too closely before sliding a small black box across the table to Winn.

Mon-El watches with a furrowed brow and Winn leans across the table and picks the box up.

“A tracking device,” Lena explains in a low tone.

Winn’s eyes go a little wide as he opens it up and peers at the contents.

“Nearly undetectable. It dissolves into the bloodstream and emits a signal we can track,” Lena adds.

“And it works?”

That’s the bit that Lena’s not entirely certain of, but it had passed the first few stages of testing so it should work. “I believe so,” she says, keeping her face neutral.

“For Jeremiah,” Mon-El says, much more serious than his easy grins of earlier.

“In the event something happens,” Lena says. “I don’t really have the opportunity to get very close to him. At least not in the immediate future.”

In light of their argument, Lena’s not entirely sure Kara will ever want Lena around Jeremiah, but she shakes the thought from her head. It’s one fight and they’ve certainly had worse ones. She remembers a particular clash in college over leaving drawers open that somehow became like the cold war among them for a week.

“Leave it to us,” Winn says, pocketing the small box as Mon-El nods in agreement.

“Yeah, no problem,” he says and he gives Lena what she thinks is meant to be a thumbs up, but from the way he fumbles the gesture she’s not totally sure.

Just then a loud beeping sound emanates from Winn’s pocket and he jumps, scrambling around to pull his phone out. A wide smile spreads on his face.

“What is it?” Lena asks and Winn puffs up triumphantly.

“Okay, remember that time when I was just like literally good at everything?”

Mon-El and Lena manage to simultaneously respond, “No.”

“Well, it paid off,” Winn says, ignoring them with a triumphant grin. “Found the fusion bomb.”

He holds his phone up to show them the display just as he slides off his stool.

Lena’s heart rate skyrockets at the news and she doesn’t know what to do – does she go back to the office, home, to the DEO? Should she call Kara?

Winn doesn’t seem to notice her internal dilemma. He’s already grabbing his discarded jacket and heading for the door, but Mon-El hesitates, looks at her face a second.

“Do you want to – I mean are you – should I - ”

Lena shakes her head, gathers her composure and stands. “Call me if anything happens,” she tells him even though every cell in her body is dying to follow him to the DEO and monitor the mission herself.