Chapter Text
It had taken Kara months to convince the powers that be that it was beyond safe for Lena to know, officially, that she was Supergirl. Beneficial even! Think of the tech she appealed to Winn, think of the rest of the science-y stuff she appealed to Alex. You can read her mind for crying out loud, she appealed to J'onn. No one so much as budged. Also for future reference, the whole, “I trust her with my life argument,” apparently isn't as impressive when your skin is impenetrable. And still...it took months. She even tried the "keep your ‘suspected’ enemies close” argument. If there was anything Lena wasn't however, it was an enemy, but Kara was desperate.
After months of begging and pleading during every spare moment Kara had, that wasn't spent saving the world, reporting for Catco or hanging out with Lena, Alex finally caved. "She is my best friend Alex and she doesn't even know who I really am! I don't want to lie to her. She's a genius, she probably already knows and is more and more hurt every day that I haven't told her! How would you feel if you were her!? What if something happens and she finds out accidentally? That's so much worse! Please Alex? You KNOW she's good! She isn't her brother! She is the..."
"ENOUGH KARA, FINE!" Alex finally shouted, effectively ending Kara's fountain of worried pleading. "I'll talk to J'onn."
Kara at least had the sense to look somewhat abashed by her outburst...at least for a moment. Then in true Kara fashion she attacked her sister with a hug so fierce she had to be gently reminded of Alex's human frailty.
"We'll do it together! A united front! He'll have to say yes Alex. After all, I know it's the best thing for everyone involved and I just know that having Lena know will make everything so much easier, and I.."
"KARA!" Alex shot her a look that was a mix of annoyance and defeat, "Don't make me regret agreeing to talk to J'onn so soon after I've made the decision hmm?"
"Sorry," Kara shot back, a small apologetic smile on her face. "Can we go now before I
do
manage to make you change your mind?" She threw a hopeful look at Alex, with maybe a touch of puppy dog eyes.
"Kara it's after midnight...we can go in the morning."
Completely against the idea of giving Alex even an hour to reconsider, after the months of begging, Kara was quick to dismiss the idea of waiting. "J'onn is still at the DEO, I can hear him talking to Winn"
To say that the sigh that left Alex's body was pained, would be the understatement of the year. Her whole being seemed at once to deflate, and simultaneously harden with resolve. Something Kara was sure only Alex could manage. "Fine." was all she said.
It only took 2 minutes to fly to the DEO and Kara was still worried it had given Alex time to reconsider.
"I haven't reconsidered Kara." Alex snarked, shooting her sister a look and rolling her eyes. "Lets just get this over with so I can finally have some peace in my life again."
Kara tried her absolute best not to look as excited as she felt about the prospect of
finally
telling Lena the truth while they waited for J'onn to finish whatever he was saying to Winn about upgrading their system security. The millisecond the conversation seemed over, Kara verbally attacked J'onn, practically yelling that Alex had agreed that Lena Luthor deserved to know the truth.
Alex cringed and then looked sheepishly at J'onn, "I said we would discuss telling Lena
with
you." At J’onn's unreadable face she mumbled, "I think we should let Kara tell Lena. I'm tired of listening to Kara and tonight she said something that made me rethink not telling her."
"What exactly would that be?" J’onn inquired, still no discernable expression on his face.
"If Lena were to find out by accident, it could potentially poison her against us. Sometimes all it takes is one act of perceived betrayal to spark a fire of resentment and subsequent animosity that could push Lena more towards her family's way of thinking, and she does actually seem like a good person. I think we can trust her, and I would like for her to remain on our side in the future rather than becoming an enemy, possibly of our own making."
Kara could have cried at the look of conviction on her sister's face.
J'onn appeared unmoved by Alex's speech, but surprised both of the girls when he said, "She'll have to sign all of the NDAs and Kara, it would be nice if you could convince her that working alongside the DEO would be in everyone's best interest when it comes to her company's technology. I'm sure Winn would appreciate that as well." At that J'onn sent a small tight lipped smile over Kara's shoulder at Winn who was doing his best to look like he wasn't eavesdropping.
“What? Did I hear my name? What's up?” Winn asked trying his best to look innocent of said eavesdropping as he lept from his seat to get closer to the trio.
“I finally get to tell Lena that I am Supergirl!!!” Kara exclaimed, the pure excitement in her voice enough to make Winn smile and put his hand up for the high five he knew she was itching to give him. The fact that she was a little too excited to remember that Winn wasn't a super was made evident by the way Winn grimaced and let out a yelp. “ Sorry...Winn, I'm so sorry! I am just so excited!”
Kara’s smile was contagious and soon Winn was excited too. “Do you really think we will get access to LCorp tech? That would be so cool!” Winn’s eyes sort of glazed over for a moment just imagining the possibilities.
J’onn was nodding, “It would be useful to have another genius at our disposal with all of the alien tech that's floating around now days, not to mention if Lena has access to Lex’s files on Superman, there should be a good bit of information there that could prove useful when it comes to helping us avoid potential... issues with Supergirl and maybe even other aliens.”
“Guys, Lena may not even want to work with the DEO, she's super busy as it is, but I promise to ask her about it.” At seeing Winn’s face fall, she quickly amended, “But I’m sure she will Winn, she’s really into talking about science stuff, so I’m sure she’ll be excited to have new people to talk to who are as passionate as she is.” Winn appeared to be slightly mollified.
Kara was more interested in finally being able to just be herself around Lena than she was having Lena become part of the DEO team. Lena was so separate from all of that part of Kara’s life.
The gravity of that realization finally hit Kara as she was flying home from the DEO. Her relationship with Lena mainly existed outside of the rest of her life.There was the overlap with CatCo in the beginning, when their times together were interviews, or the occasional encounters Kara had with Lena as Supergirl. Those particular times weren't really conducive to forming an actual friendship seeing as the meetings meant some sort of terrible event was taking place. It had taken Kara two months of inviting Lena to game nights for her to finally convince the CEO to come to one. It had been somewhat awkward and a little tense, but Kara figured introducing a new person into a group sort of always went like that. Lena had declined the following invitations, citing work obligations and Kara hadn’t invited her again. Besides, in truth, she cherished the alone time they shared. She loved it when Lena would finally let her hair down, both literally and figuratively, and the CEO persona would finally fall away, her posture relaxing and her expression softening. She laughed more, and finally seemed like the young woman she was and not the badass CEO she had to be everyday in order to be respected as a woman in a man’s world. Lena was amazing, and Kara considered herself truly lucky to have found a such a friendship.