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"Have you heard from Kara?" Lena asked Winn as they cleaned up the leftovers from Lex's modified mad-scientist gadget. She gave the armed device one more scrutinizing glance. Her mother was long gone, surely on her way to planning her next big scheme. "There's so much going on--I messaged her nearly twenty times and even tried to call. I'm worried about her."
"She's fine, just..." He looked thoughtful. "She's busy. Making sure everyone else is okay. You know Kara."
Lena had to laugh. She certainly did know her friend, her best friend, very well. "Kara's probably even worried about Supergirl's wellbeing over her own right now." Her joke seemed to really tickle Winn.
"Yeah," he said after his awkward laughter subsided. "Somehow I doubt that. She's more worried about Alex, you, me, and Mon- Mike. Mike. Her boyfriend Mike."
"Ah yes, Mike." Lena slammed the lid to a toolbox with a little more force than was needed. The building rumbled at the same time, highlighting the doomsday feeling of their current situation. The day was dark and hopeless, a feeling Lena was familiar with.
Winn grabbed the box from her hands and pushed her away from the large windows. "We need to get someplace safe. Kara will kill me if anything happens to you." At that moment, the power to the building shut down. Lena waited, hoping the backup generator would kick in, but the lights remained off.
"Come on," Lena said, grabbing Winn by his arm and directing him to her office bathroom. It wasn't the ideal hiding place, but she already knew her building was structurally sound, they just needed an enclosed space to sit and wait for Supergirl to win. She always did, and Lena's faith in her never wavered.
Lena and Winn sat beside one another on the marble floor, trying to ignore the explosions they could hear on the distance and down below. Lena needed a distraction. She needed to think of anything besides her role in this mess and where the hell Kara was. Worrying wouldn't help her.
"Is Mike good to her?" she asked quietly. The question nearly got lost in the sounds of Daxam ships flying overhead.
"Good to her?"
"Deserving of her?" Lena clarified herself and looked at Winn, piercing him with her green eyes.
"Deserving? Well, I mean, he's made his mistakes but he seems pretty crazy about her." Lena's face stiffened. "Oh my god." A broad smile split across Winn's face, tugging at the scar on his chin. He pointed at Lena. "I know that look."
She scowled at him. "What look?"
"The look you're wearing right now. It's a cross between sad and jealous but with a twist of hopelessness. I know it because I've worn it."
Lena really wasn't sure what Kara saw in Winn. He was intelligent but so weird. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Okay, I'll tell you my story and then you tell me--" a loud explosion shook the building, causing Winn to reach out and pull Lena against him. He held her there as the tremors subsided. "I loved her almost from the moment I met her at CatCo." Winn spoke in a whisper, directly into a shaking Lena's ear. "We were friends, and no matter what I did, that never changed. Then I saw how she looked at James. It killed me."
Lena pulled back from Winn, not entirely welcoming of his comforts. Her building shook again. What-ifs flooded her mind as her heartbeat ratcheted upwards. This could very well be her last day on this earth. "Somehow I find it hard to believe that I'm as transparent as you, Mr. Schott." She smiled, her mouth slightly open and her eyes shining, letting him know she was teasing.
His eyes softened, some of the panic slipping away from his features. "Not many people are, but Kara never saw it, and I don't think she sees it in you either."
"And that's definitely for the best," Lena mumbled under her breath.
"What? Why?" Winn asked incredulously. "I think you and Kara would be great together!"
Lena looked at him, her face passive. "Any straight man looking at two pretty women would say that." Her mouth turned up at the corner. Her and Kara together wasn't the worst imagery to her, either.
"No perv, promise." Winn held up his right hand, displaying the honorable sign of the Boy Scouts. "There's just, this way you two are around each other and the way she talks about you." Winn tilted his head and rested it against the wall. He had a crooked smile and nothing but honesty in his eyes.
"How does she talk about me?" Lena was so distracted, so consumed by her need to know this, that the rumbling just outside of her building did little to draw her attention from Winn's face.
Winn took a deep breath through his nose. "She's protective and proud." Lena snorted. "Don't laugh, that's rude. You asked me a question!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Lena said, waving him off. "That's how Kara talks about all of her friends--you, James, and J'onn. Hell, she even spoke of Maggie like that while they were fighting!"
"If you had let me finish, you've would've heard more." Winn shot the CEO an exaggerated eye roll. Lena remained silent, but nodded to encourage Winn to continue. "Remember last week when you were supposed to meet us at the bar for beer and pool?"
Lena thought back to that evening, disappointment flooding her chest again. She had wanted so badly to spend that night with Kara and her group of friends. She wanted to a part of that family, but more importantly she wanted Kara to see her as more than the woman she'd meet for lunch or eat doughnuts with in her office. She thought that maybe if Kara could see that side of her, she'd see her as something more...
Winn pointed at her. "That face definitely tells me you remember."
"I was so upset that I couldn't make it. I had investors trying to pull out of an important--" Winn held up his hand to stop her.
"We all heard it, multiple times that night. The rest of the night was like a Lena Luthor Pride parade. She couldn't stop talking about you with this insane light in her eyes and this super smile!" Winn faltered awkwardly then, causing Lena to look at him curiously. "You should tell her. Trust me, I'm a genius."
Lena laughed and relaxed slightly. She bit her bottom lip and looked up at Winn through long eyelashes. "I'm a genius, too, and I've yet to see a shred of evidence telling me it'd be worth risking our friendship."
"Kara and I are still friends, possibly even closer than before and I spilled my guts--"
Their surroundings grew eerily silent, Winn's cut-off syllable echoed in the bathroom. The two scrambled from their place on the floor and ran to the windows in time to see every unwelcome ship flee the skies. Lena looked at the silver box, it sat spent after detonation.
"She did it," Winn whispered. He turned to Lena and continued. "Looks like we'll live to see another day. Use that time wisely, Ms. Luthor."
Lena was stricken with fear. Living through this latest bout of apocalyptic attacks wasn't what she had planned for. She didn't expect another average day to be on the other side of today. She never saw the opportunity to confront Kara with her feelings coming. Could she?
"There's still Mike," she said.
Winn watched the sky as it grew clearer by the second. His eyes took on a lighter shade before he looked back to Lena. He looked sad for a moment before saying, "Just be her friend, see where it takes you."
"That's what I've been doing."
"But this time, open your heart and let your feelings out." He pressed his finger tip to the center of Lena's chest. "Those feels do no one any good when they're locked up in there." Lena looked at Winn's finger and then back to his face. She hitched her eyebrow. He withdrew his hand quickly and cleared his throat. "I think we're all done here."
"I suppose we are." Winn collected the very expensive trinkets he had brought with him from the DEO and walked to the office door. "Winn!" Lena called out, stopping him before he could exit.
"Yeah?"
"Thank you. Today could've been scarier. Today could've been a day where I began to fear aliens and what they're capable of, but I didn't. I wasn't afraid of what may happen and that was because of you. You..." Her voice trembled. Lena fought for the right words and to get them out before her emotions came flooding to the forefront. "You made me feel closer to her." Winn didn't say anything, he just shot Lena a wink and stepped through the door.
Lena stood in the middle of her silent office, her ears still ringing from the earlier assaults. A faint buzzing caught her attention. She found her purse tossed beneath her desk and grabbed her phone from inside. She had a message from Kara. Lena let out a long breath for what felt like the first time that day. She read the message slowly, and several times to let it sink into her beating heart.
"I'm fine. I lost Mike... Please tell me you're okay. I can't lose you, too."
Lena looked out to the city and watched as smoke still billowed from city-wide destruction. Tears pricked at her eyes and her heart broke for her friend. They all had so much to lose, but maybe, just maybe, they'd be able to gain happiness in the future. Together.
She typed out two messages, the first an affirmative answer that let Kara know she was unscathed. The second was shorter, but full of meaning.
"Whatever you need, Kara, I'm here for you. Always."
She could be Kara's friend today. And with an open heart, she no longer feared where that may take her in the future.