Chapter Text
She’s only been in National City for a few tense months now. Between the Venture explosion and Lex hiring John Corben to try and take her out, Lena is still on the defensive wondering when the next shoe will drop.
L-Corp is quiet at this hour as she strides through the doors at five am with a small nod to the night guard that will soon be finishing his shift, a murmured Ms. Luthor following her toward the elevators as she walks by.
Lena knows her current schedule is unhealthy. In before dawn and not leaving the office until well after nine pm is starting to wear her thin. But, the board has been breathing down her neck ever since she rebranded from LuthorCorp, and it’s taking every ounce of control she possesses not to snap and unleash all of her pent up fury at their persistence. So, burning the candle at both ends is easier. Subsist on a few hours of sleep, drink copious amounts of caffeine to stay awake, and let exhaustion drag her into the depths of her comfortable bed to repeat the exact same cycle the next morning.
The silence that greets her inside the office is a welcome reprieve knowing how nonstop her schedule will be today. Once the computer whirs to life and she’s logged into her personal server, her email begins to chime softly with several things that need her attention. She lasts for all of fifteen minutes before her mind starts to drift.
It’s been three days since Supergirl landed on her balcony and Lena can’t stop thinking about it. Three days. Lena hasn’t seen the other woman since and she isn’t sure whether that’s a good thing or not. She’s of course seen her in headlines in the news. Sure, maybe to the average person she looks like her usual, sunny self, but now that she’s seen some of the cracks up close, it’s easier to spot the microexpressions that Supergirl can’t hide when she’s been caught off guard once you know what to look for.
Something about the unprompted visit has sat heavy for the CEO. Lena lets her eyes drift toward the biometric safe on the sleek cabinet adjacent to her desk, a small prickle of unease taking up residence in her mind. She knows what’s in there and how easily it would fall into hands with less than savory agendas.
The board was getting impatient. Bandying words around like marketability and profit margins once the device goes to market and how it would push L-Corp’s profits above their current conservative projections next quarter. Lena couldn’t refute their stance that it would drive up profits for the company. She feels her stomach twist in discomfort at the thought, her mouth dry before a sudden rush of saliva floods in and she has to choke down the bile that wants to make an appearance on her pristine office floor. While not the worst of Lex’s projects she had been made aware of, Lena knows she can't let her company go through with its production.
The last two years had been consistently overshadowed by Lex’s crimes, his subsequent trial and sentencing, and the media frenzy that ensued when it was leaked she was the one who turned state’s evidence against her own brother made it even worse. Lena had thought the social stigma of the Luthor name couldn’t get any worse, but the resulting fallout was nothing in comparison to the shame, guilt, and isolation that followed and piled on top of the already heavy emotional trauma she endured at the hands of her adoptive family.
“Focus, Lena,” she tells herself with a shake of her head before diving back into a few emails labeled urgent. Within minutes she’s lost herself to the lull of her routine and before she notices, it’s seven am and Jess is giving her office door a brief knock before setting a steaming cup of coffee down against the surface of her desk.
“Have I given you a raise recently?” Lena quips jokingly, her eyes flashing up toward the other woman. “If I haven’t, put it on the calendar and I’ll push it through to HR and payroll,” she finishes with a sigh of relief once the smooth taste of coffee settles across her tongue.
“You say that every time, Ms. Luthor,” Jess says with a roll of her eyes. Lena warily zeroes in on the stack of folders in her free hand and has to hold in a groan knowing what’s waiting for her. She can feel a migraine forming already.
“These are stacked according to priority. I need the top two before the end of the day, please,” Jess indicates as she sets everything down at the edge of the desk. The CEO eyes them with a distinct displeasure before chancing a glance at her assistant.
“I’m betting you stuck the financials on top, didn’t you?” Lena grumbles and nudges the folders petulantly toward the very edge of the desk. Instead, she grabs for her coffee again and takes a slow sip as she crosses her legs and turns to face Jess fully.
“You keep shuffling it to the bottom,” Jess laughs with a shrug, “I’m honestly shocked I haven’t found that one in the trash yet. I’ve kept the vultures at bay for as long as I can.”
“Clearly you’re not the miracle worker I’ve ordained you to be,” Lena huffs lightly, a small smile gracing her lips, “I’ll have it out to you before the end of day.”
“Very well,” Jess nods and makes her way from the office before popping her head back in. “Oh, I’m not sure if you’ve checked the calendar yet, but I fit in a request for an interview from CatCo before your eleven am meeting. They said it wouldn’t take long and that was your only availability,” she finishes, ducking out before Lena can curse the woman any further.
Two conference calls and one signed off financial request later, Lena groans as she settles down into her office chair and briefly closes her eyes. The financial report wasn’t that bad, but she always loathed the numbers game. She recognized she really needed to get someone hired in as CFO to avoid these reports in the future and wondered if she could lure Sam from Metropolis. The small chime of her intercom easily draws her attention away from her moping.
“Ms. Luthor, the CatCo reporter is being shown up from the lobby and I put in an order for lunch from that deli with the salads you prefer. It’ll be here by noon.”
“Thank you and please send them in when they arrive, Jess,” Lena instructs, shuffling the remaining papers and folders scattered across the surface of the desk into a more organized mess for later. With barely enough time to spare, the CEO hears the brief knock and the door opening before the reporter is being ushered in.
“Ms. Luthor,” the reporter greets, her hand outstretched once she’s drawn close enough to Lena’s desk.
“Lena, please. It’s good to see you again, Ms. Danvers,” she offers easily once their hands separate and the shorter woman begins to settle behind her desk.
“Well, if I’m calling you Lena,” Kara gestures with a wave and a smile and Lena watches as the reporter settles her bag against the floor.
“Kara it is,” Lena acquiesces with an ease that surprises her considering the tense relationship she often has with reporters. They’d had a handful of interactions up to this point and Lena would tentatively say she wouldn’t be opposed to getting to know the other woman. “Oh, and if you have a parking ticket I can have it validated for you,” she offers while they both get comfortable.
“Oh, no, no, no,” Kara hurries out with a small nervous wave, “that’s fine. I flew here,” Kara pauses while she fidgets with her glasses, “on-on a bus.”
“Well,” Lena pauses and quirks an eyebrow at the curious transportation comment before continuing, “I’m glad to see you decided to give reporting a shot." Leaning forward on the desk, she already has a sense of what this meeting is about. “Although, if you’re here on the same day the President is in town to sign her Alien Amnesty Act then…” she trails off, watching Kara while she gathers up a notepad and a pen.
“I must be here to ask the sister of Earth’s most notorious alien hater her take on the President’s executive order,” Kara finishes her thought and Lena notices a faint flush across her cheeks and is curious about what has the other woman flustered.
“I want to show you something,” Lena supplies quickly, pushing out of her chair toward the small biometric safe across the room, the door opening with a small swish. The device looks innocuous, almost like a computer mouse. It had evidently taken R&D several months to get a prototype that size working with the fingerprint scanner.
“What is it?” Kara asks and Lena watches her eyes narrow, a small crinkle forming between her brow as she takes in the device that’s outstretched toward her.
“It’s an alien detection device that allows humans to find out who among them is not truly one of them,” the CEO explains, walking back toward her chair. “It’s not market ready yet,” she says while leaning against the frame of her desk. “I mean, we’re still developing the prototype. The board is pushing to have this device in every store, in every town all across America.”
“How does it work?” Kara clears her throat and Lena can see a small tick at her jaw while her focus remains solely on the device held between them.
“It’s just a simple skin test,” she explains, bringing the device between both hands and activating it with a small press of her thumb and offering a quick demonstration, its touchpad briefly flashing green.
“See?” Lena indicates with a small turn of the device toward the reporter. “Right, now you try,” she pushes as she resets the device and extends it forward.
“But, won’t a device like this,” Kara pauses with her pen raised before continuing, “doesn’t it go against everything America is supposed to stand for?”
Lena knows if she goes forward with this device it would tether her to Lex’s antagonistic and xenophobic sentiments and she would never shake the stains his actions left across the company she was desperately trying to rehabilitate. She isn't quite sure what exactly compelled her to expose the device to the woman sat across from her before her thoughts flicker briefly toward the caped superhero who graced her balcony just a few days prior. The CEO takes a steadying breath.
“It does,” she offers and something eases in her chest once her decision has firmly settled on how she will approach the device with the board. “The initial concept for the device was to help medical professionals in monitoring surgical wounds. Its purpose was to detect spikes in inflammatory proteins or pH changes which would assist in monitoring for things like sepsis or other severe viral or bacterial infections post-surgery. I could think of several other medical applications the tech could be adapted for,” Lena explains as she lets out a soft sigh, unfurling her arms from across her body and shifting to grip the edge of her desk firmly.
“What changed?” Kara asks and Lena can see the curiosity that's sparked behind those slim frames masking the clearest blue eyes she has ever seen.
“Off the record?” Lena asks cautiously, not necessarily wanting to disclose this tidbit to later find it attached with Kara’s name in the byline. She watches the reporter pause before lowering her hands, the pen and notebook momentarily forgotten.
“Of course,” Kara lends without hesitation and the shorter woman feels her taut shoulders lower just a fraction as she finds herself explaining more than she is usually willing to disclose, the words spilling from her mouth before she can stop them.
“By the time I took over LuthorCorp, my brother had eliminated the majority of the company’s interests in the medical sector,” Lena licks her lips before continuing, “while I was studying at MIT, I often worked remotely with a small R&D team. The framework of the sensor was something that was worked on quietly. At the time, I had been consulting with a biomedical engineer about the project and the easiest way to file a patent was through LuthorCorp as I had the connections for it. Shortly after the filing the project was shut down,” Lena finishes while trying to hold the bitterness in check at Lex’s duplicity.
“Did you ever find out why it was shut down?” the blonde questions and Lena swears she can see the gears turning in the other woman’s mind while she rapidly tries to piece together the information the scientist has boldly let slip.
“The generic explanation the team was afforded in an email detailed that LuthorCorp was shifting its focus away from medical ventures and expanding its investment into weapons development and government contracting,” Lena scoffs with a tense set to her jaw. Even after being at the helm for the last year, the CEO knew there were still designs and plans she had yet to uncover that her brother was responsible for setting in motion.
“He buried it? Just like that?” The reporter asks incredulously and Lena appreciates the clear display of ire at this newly revealed information.
“It’s how Lex has always operated,” Lena explains flippantly with a shrug, “It was a powerplay to exert and maintain control he was already losing. It's how I found out he repurposed my design by using it as the base component of the detection device. Since taking over, I’ve slowly been combing through each piece of approved research and technology my brother initiated before he was arrested. I’ve been doing what I can to internally dismantle things quietly but have met pockets of resistance that are still loyal to their preferred Luthors,” Lena supplied with a good-natured eyeroll to show her annoyance.
The last six months alone have been an uphill battle in moving the company to National City from Metropolis while painstakingly trying to phase out L-Corp’s more problematic contracts and employees that remained sympathetic to Lex’s ideologies. It didn’t shock Lena that her brother had sabotaged her progress and stolen her designs for his own nefarious purposes. It still hurt though, knowing that the man she thought she knew no longer existed, destroyed by his own mania and obsession with Superman.
Lena takes a measured breath before settling herself back down behind her desk, its solid form acting as a barrier and a reminder to quell the unfamiliar desire to keep talking about the intricacies of her relationship with her brother with the woman in front of her. The blonde settles back down and the CEO watches her balance the notepad precariously along her crossed legs.
"That's," Kara begins with a shake of her head, "I can't imagine having my work stolen and turned into something like that."
"One might say I have issues with betrayal and lies," Lena waves it off flippantly, "or so I'm told from my therapist," she finishes jokingly with a small smirk. "But, on the record? I support the Alien Amnesty Act and my hope is that it begins to pave the way for off-worlders to find their place here. There will always be fear and discrimination from those who are intolerant of what is different from them, but it's important to show there are safe spaces and individuals who are willing to look past those differences."
The faint static of her intercom interrupts their brief moment and Lena takes a second to collect herself as her assistant's voice fills the room.
"Ms. Luthor, Mr. Lawson from engineering has arrived."
"I'm just finishing with Ms. Danvers, Jess. It'll be just a moment," Lena says as she casually rises and walks around the desk, settling by Kara's chair while the reporter hastily shoves her items into her satchel before slinging it across her body.
"Well, I think that's all I need," Kara offers with a small smile while she adjusts her glasses against the bridge of her nose.
"Of course," Lena says as she leads them toward the office door, "if you need anything else, don't hesitate to reach back out. I'll make the time." The offer is out of her mouth before she can stop herself while she opens the door to the office lobby. Disbelief and something else Lena can't identify colors Kara's face briefly but it's gone before the CEO can parse what it might mean.
"I'll be in touch," Kara concludes with a friendly nod and makes her way toward the elevators before offering a small wave after she's stepped inside.
"Dick," Lena drawls unpleasantly toward the man that's sat across from Jess, clearly impatiently waiting. She swears she hears a muffled laugh as the elevator doors slide closed.
The coffee table in her living room is littered with the disassembled tech from the alien detection device, a notebook with hastily scribbled notes across its pages, and a half eaten carton of chicken lo mein that was forgotten about almost an hour ago.
Lena is so absorbed in examining the changes Lex made to her original design that she doesn't notice the figure dropping, quite literally, on to her balcony. The resulting crash causes the scientist to snap her head toward the noise, dropping the small screwdriver at the startling disruption.
"I'm okay!" Supergirl all but shouts through the glass while she fixes the potted plant her landing overturned. Lena watches as her lithe frame lengthens to its full height before the blonde's eyes fix upon her own.
Unfurling from her seated position on the floor, Lena drifts over to the alarm panel and quickly disengages the system and swiftly unlocks the entrance to the balcony. Once she draws up even with the super, she can tell it's just like last time as the other woman sways unsteadily where she stands. Once she has the door open, she steps aside and lets the taller woman enter before quietly sliding the glass door back into place.
"Ms. Luthor," Supergirl drawls and if Lena had to guess, the super just might be more drunk than the first time this happened. She watches as the woman's eyes focus on the abandoned food on the coffee table. "Oh, is that from Wu's on Park?" Supergirl asks and Lena wonders how the woman can tell that just by glancing at a generic takeout carton.
"It is," she says while walking forward and pushing the carton toward the other woman with a small nudge, "it's cold but help yourself." Lena watches her face light up with an expression of glee and it only takes a few moments before the carton is empty, the chopsticks tucked beneath the folded flaps and back on the coffee table like nothing had even happened.
Lena blinks owlishly at the carton before her eyes slide back in the super's direction. She lifts her eyebrow and watches a sheepish smile appear across the woman's face.
"Sorry," Supergirl starts with a shrug, "I forget to slow down sometimes."
"Don't apologize," Lena waves her off and settles back down across from her project. She watches Supergirl stumble out of her boots, setting them aside before sinking down onto the floor with an ungraceful flop and instantly notices the socks. "Are those beans?" she asks abruptly, doing her best to smother her laughter.
"Did you see their little sunglasses?" Supergirl asks and points them out with an unsteady hand. "They're 'cool beans', get it?" Lena thinks the other woman looks rather proud of the pun and lets out a chuckle.
"I never would have pegged Supergirl as having a sock obsession. The more you know," she concludes and leans back against the couch. The new position affords her the ability to see the blonde a little better. During the brief lull in conversation, she hears a loud grumble come from the direction of the super's stomach. "Still hungry?" Lena surmises as she watches a deep blush spread across tanned skin.
"It's been a long day," the blonde offers while she twists a section of her cape between her fingers. Lena could imagine dealing with a rampaging off-worlder at the edge of the city and helping tow a freightliner back to port would indeed make for a long day.
"You can raid the kitchen if you'd like or I could order delivery," she insists while snagging her phone from beneath the notebook on the coffee table. It takes only a few seconds to unlock it and pull up a food delivery app before she's holding out her phone toward the super.
"Ms. Luthor-" Supergirl starts before she's cut off.
"Lena, remember?" she admonishes with a groan, "besides, it makes me feel older than I am and I'd rather not be reminded of my mother," she finishes with a shudder.
"Wait, how old are you?" Supergirl questions and Lena offers a deadpan expression in response to the tactless question.
"I'm twenty-five," she lets slip before turning the question back toward the other woman, "since we're trading secrets like we're at a slumber party, how old are you?"
"Almost fifty-two if you want to be technical about it," the blonde says casually and Lena chokes on air and scrutinizes the woman sitting next to her.
"Technically?" Lena stammers out with a bewildered look gracing her features. The unlocked phone lays forgotten on the carpet between them.
"I spent twenty-four years in space before I landed here," Supergirl adds solemnly while refusing to meet Lena's eyes. Her fists are balled up tightly, the cape held captive between hands that have turned white from the amount of pressure she's exerting.
"Huh, well," Lena starts gently, recognizing that this conversation is the most either of them has shared with the other, "you look pretty good for your fifties by Earth standards then," she confesses with a grin as she tries to reel the conversation back to their earlier light-hearted banter.
Supergirl snorts and the younger woman watches the tension bleed from her clenched fists before loosening their hold on the still intact cape held between her fingers. Lena reaches out and nudges the phone against Supergirl's leg.
"Pick what you want. I'll be right back," Lena suggests as she gracefully lifts from the floor and disappears, her footsteps quiet against the floor as she heads to her bedroom and briefly leaves the super to her own devices.
Upon her return, Lena sees her phone set aside and finds Supergirl has stretched her legs beneath the coffee table. Assuming tonight would end up similarly to the first time, she figured she would at least let the other woman get comfortable and held out her coveted MIT sweatshirt and a soft pair of sweats Lena stole from Sam years ago.
"Go shower and change. I'll take care of the food," she announces before Supergirl takes the offered clothes and disappears quietly down the hall.
Picking up her phone she looks at the cart and notes the selection is slim. Deciding quickly, Lena doubles it, adds a couple of different things, and adds a single chicken lo mein again for herself having hardly touched her own order earlier. Leaving a hefty tip on the placed order, she discards her phone and wanders to rummage around in the kitchen.
Once she has sat back down in front of the coffee table, armed with a few bottles of water and a couple bags of protein chips, Lena is once again engrossed in the components spread across its surface. As much as it pains her to admit, Lex's adjustments to the biosensor had clearly refined her initial design. The rudimentary circuit design his R&D team went with, however, was sloppy in its execution.
Lena sketched out a basic premise, the layers needing to account for a series of transistors to help amplify chosen biological signals, converters which would turn those signals into readable, real-time data, and flexibility which would allow for the device to bend or stretch with the skin where it was attached.
"I'm twenty-seven," Supergirl chirps up from the other side of the couch and the suddenness of her return catches Lena off guard again, dropping the pen with a small clatter against the notebook paper.
"Jesus Christ," Lena hisses out quickly before shooting an unamused look in the super's general direction, "has anyone told you that you need to wear a bell?"
"Where's the fun in that?" Supergirl questions amusedly while reaching for a bag of chips and Lena can tell from that look alone this isn't the first time the woman has done this to someone. She would hazard a guess it was likely a frequent occurrence that she found amusing.
"What are you working on?"
"Destroying my brother's attempt at pandering to xenophobic bigots and reclaiming what's mine," Lena mumbles distractedly as she snaps the device's housing while brushing the pieces aside.
"That's oddly specific," Supergirl remarks and the scientist glances over and takes in the crinkle forming at her brow at the new information.
Lena sighs and looks down at her hands in her lap, twisting the small screwdriver around between her fingers.
"I thought I knew him, you know?" she ponders aloud, letting out a shaky breath, "I struggle to reconcile the boy he was growing up to the man who was willing to sacrifice lives needlessly if it got him what he wanted with Superman's death. I often think that I never really knew him at all," she trails off while she tosses the screwdriver on top of the coffee table.
"All of this," she exclaims with a sweeping wave of her outstretched arm, "was mine. He took my design and patent and corrupted it, circumventing its intended purpose so that he could create something that would facilitate his depraved ideology that off-worlders should be identified and eventually eliminated."
"Some days I'm so tired of being made to feel obligated to repent for the sins my family have been responsible for committing," Lena trails off tiredly. She can feel the guilt and anger thrumming in her veins simultaneously and clenches her teeth together to let the space between them settle.
"Surprisingly, I do understand," Supergirl responds quietly and Lena stills her movement and glances at the blonde curiously. Very little is known about the super despite her brother's obsessive notes on Kryptonians.
"Once my pod crashed on Earth I was lost and I struggled to acclimate to my surroundings. At twelve years old I couldn't understand why I was spared," the blonde laments. She watches as the super draws her legs to her chest, resting her cheek against her knees and staring toward the balcony door.
"It wasn't until I was older that I began to comprehend what my parents had done. Growing up, I had romanticized this version of them I had from my memories," she offers and Lena can gather from the hard set of her muscles that these are waters Supergirl doesn't venture down with others, so she remains silent.
"My ukr was responsible for trying to help reverse the damage that was pushing Krypton closer to destruction and my jeju was a part of the council that oversaw litigation and the dissemination of information to all its citizens," the super explains, her voice flat and eyes unseeing while they stare ahead blankly.
"My parents knew the implosion of Krypton's core was inevitable, so rather than inform the council so they could prepare its citizens and devise an exit strategy, they secretly built contingencies in the form of escape pods. They only managed two, one for myself and my infant cousin, before the core reached maximum instability. Before I knew what was happening, they were explaining that this pod would send me to Earth, where my biology would adapt and react differently under a yellow sun and that I was to raise and protect my cousin."
"That clearly didn't work out," Supergirl scoffs, fidgeting until her back thumps against the couch. "Instead, I carry the last memories and teachings of a dead civilization and images of my world exploding. Do you know what a planet sounds like when it explodes?"
Lena swallows the lump in her throat and shakes her head. The scientist inside of her already knows but she can't bring herself to say it.
"It's silent," Supergirl describes, her voice rough with emotion, "but inside that pod? My own screams were the only thing that resonated enough for me to realize I was still alive while everyone else was just… gone."
The silence that follows is heavy and Lena knows there is nothing she can say to ease the very visible pain those words evoke. So instead, she lets Supergirl's words settle between them, resolving to be someone who shoulders the weight of the other woman's raw anger and grief without judgment.
"Everyone thinks I've moved past it," Supergirl motions wildly before placing her splayed hand across the symbol covering her chest, "but anytime I even show a hint of anger, it's used against me or I'm told to calm down," the blonde snaps her mouth shut and Lena watches a slight flare beneath her eyes, the super's heat vision simmering below the surface while she contains the words trapped behind a steely resolve.
"May I?" Lena gently asks, drawing the blonde's focus away from her ruminating thoughts as she watches the heat vision fade once blue finds green.
"What?" Supergirl questions with confusion clearly written across her features.
"You're allowed to be angry at what's happened in your life. It's hard to untangle everything it makes you feel let alone where to put it all once you do," Lena offers cautiously, her softly spoken words filling the silence around them before continuing. "I can't even begin to imagine the immense pain you've had to carry in losing everything you've ever known. I think sometimes it's easy for people to forget that grief is not linear and just expect others to move on and get over it. We both know it's not so simple," the younger woman trails off as her own tumultuous thoughts push to the front of her mind.
Lena watches Supergirl offer a small nod in acknowledgment before they both fall silent. The few minutes of silence allows the tension to slowly dissipate and the younger woman realizes she's grateful for the quiet so that she can settle her own mind.
The quiet chirp of her doorbell breaks the stillness that's settled comfortably across the living room.
"That'll be the food," Lena states while she rises from her position on the floor, "hope you've worked up an appetite," she chuckles before answering the door and collecting the food from security who took over for the delivery driver.
"Ms. Luthor," the male says politely, his arms laden down with three paper bags stuffed and almost bursting at the seams. Lena can tell from his expression he's a little confused by the amount of food and she offers her thanks while quickly relieving him so he can return to his post in the lobby.
"Thanks, Henry," she offers and watches him nod before retreating to the elevator and disappearing behind the rapidly closing doors. Lena makes her way back to the coffee table and realizes Supergirl had quickly cleared space on the coffee table, her work stacked neatly and out of the way.
"Rao, that smells good," the blonde says and Lena swears the woman is vibrating in anticipation as she unpacks the food and spreads it across the table. She swipes the carton of chicken lo mein and a pair of chopsticks before gesturing to the rest.
"Your order seemed a little light so I added a few things," Lena points out while she snaps the chopsticks apart and opens her own food. "Whatever you don't eat we can toss in the fridge. You can take the rest of it when you go," she suggests knowing there's no way she could ever finish this amount of leftovers before it spoiled.
"So," the younger woman drawls curiously, "how exactly does a Kryptonian get drunk around here?" The question leaves the other woman laughing, a faint glimmer shining in mischievous cerulean eyes.