Work Text:
Lena opens the heavy doors to her office. Kara steps through waiting for Lena do what she wants to do next. Lena heads to a small safe on the side and opens it with her fingerprint.
“There is something I want to show you.” She turns around smiling at Kara. The raven-haired woman has been buzzing with nervous energy since they met for lunch early. She holds the device out for Kara to see.
“What is it?”, Kara sincerely asks.
“It’s an alien detection device.”, Lena answers exited. The moment the words leave her mouth, Kara’s smile drops. Her lips are pressed together in a thin line. Her eyes fix on the device. Lena swallows hard at seeing Kara’s reaction.
“How does it work?”, Kara asks in a neutral tone.
“It’s a simple skin test.”, Lena demonstrates by placing her thumb on the devices and it flashes green. Then she holds out the device for Kara.
“Now you try.”, Kara evades her request, by countering her with a question.
“What do you plan on doing with it?”, her tone is almost accusing.
Lena sighs and turns towards the window. Not wanting to show Kara her disappointment. She had really hoped Kara would listen to her. She had really hoped that Kara was different. That after helping her get a job, that after the lunch they just had, joking and sharing, Kara would listen to her and give her the benefit of the dough. She was so exited to be able to share her work with someone else.
“I am not like my brother. I won’t hurt aliens, but they are aliens. They are different then humans and we deserve to know.”, she turns back to Kara holding out the device to her.
Kara takes a breath and squares her shoulder. For a second the thought that she could be talking to an alien crosses her mind, but then her device lights turn green and she releases a deep breath. She chuckles nervously at the absurdity of the situation.
“For a second there I thought you were an alien.”
“Would that be a problem?”, Kara asks seriously.
“Well you can’t trust them.”, Lena answers.
“Why do you think that?”, Kara sound interested in her opinion.
“Well they are different.” The crinkle appears on Kara’s forehead, while she adjusts her glasses.
“Do you not trust black people than?”, Kara asks challenging.
“Of course, I trust black people. But that is not the same.”, Lena counters calm. She knows Kara is pushing her, but she is not about to let Kara push her into a corner. She is a Luthor afterall, and she knows how to stand her ground.
“How?”, Kara doesn’t let her of the huck.
“Well they are not human!”, Lena defends more furiously.
“So, you don’t trust them because their biology is different?”, Kara asks. Lena gets the aching feeling that Kara has gone through this argument more than once.
“They can do things humans can’t.”, Lena replies keeping her voice calm, while she feels she anger bubbling up inside. She is not going to give that wannabe reporter the victory of making her lose control. And most certainly not in her own office.
“Dogs can do things humans can’t. Do you not trust dogs?”, Kara digs deeper-
Lena can feel the air prickling between them. “That is not the same. Dogs don’t hide who they are?”, Lena states.
Kara stays quiet for a moment. Lena is about to relax, but then Kara comes back.
“If a black person where to colour their skin white, so they could get a job, would you not trust them?”
Lena knows Kara has a point there, but she is too stubborn and angry to acknowledge that. “They don’t have Superpowers! They can’t snap you keck in milliseconds.”, Lena can feel herself losing that argument, but she won’t budge without a fight.
“And you can’t shoot someone? Aliens have to obey the law just as humans have to. And if they don’t, they go to prison, just like humans do.”, Kara states. Lena openly stares at her.
“Can you honestly tell me, that if you were to stand in front of Superman, you would have not a single drought, that he wouldn’t hurt you?”
The moment Lena finishes her sentence she can see something snap in Kara. Her hands ball into fists. Her posture straightens, her shoulders square of. Her breathing becomes forced. Her features turn sharp. As she takes a threatening step towards Lena.
“You don’t get to talk about him!”, Kara voice is filled with spite. Her eyes burn into Lena.
Lena stumbles a step backward, taken aback by the anger and rage that is suddenly directed at her. “Kara.”, she breaths.
Yes, she was pushing Kara, but she never expected Kara to get so angry to be ready to punch her in the face. All the energy Kara put into being a ray of sunshine earlier, seems to be turning her into a ball of fire now. Lena makes sure to keep her breathing levelled. When Kara takes another threatening step towards her, she backs away hitting her desk. Her hands wander to search the panic button on her desk. She never in a million years imagined she would use that on Kara. The last two times she met Kara, she was a ray of sunshine, sweet and kind. But the woman that is now towering over her frightens her. Lena doesn’t look away though. Lena starts to panic when she can’t reach her panic button. “Kara.”, she pleads trying unsuccessfully to keep her voice from trembling.
Kara hears Lena’s heartbeat speed up. It becomes erratic. Her own thoughts go a mile and hour. Then she hears say her name in a panicked voice.
Kara closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Opening her eyes, she takes a step back from Lena. Her shoulders drop, her fists loosen, her features turn soft again. Lena can see a storm of emotions in her eyes.
It starts off with anger, to fear. Then to confusion and disbelieve. In the end it settles on compassion and sadness. Her eyes glister with tears her lip quivers. She swallows hard, then shakes her head. “You don’t know anything.” Kara words aren’t angry anymore. She states a fact. She takes her bag and turns to head out the door.
Lena reaches out and quickly grabs her hand. She doesn’t know what to do. All she knows is, that she can’t let Kara go. Not like this. Not when she looks so sad and Lena feels it is her fault. She never wanted to hurt Kara. All she wanted was friend.
Kara stops in her movement, but doesn’t turn around. “Kara?”, she asks in a soft voice. She is not good at this. She is not good with people. “Talk to me. Please.” Kara slowly turns around. Lena can see a tear running down her cheek. She looks heartbroken.
“You want people to give you the benefit of a doubt, to not judge you for your last name, but you are not willing to do the same for others.” It isn’t question.
Lena knows it isn’t a question. Her eyes drop to the floor. Kara presses on though.
“I really hoped that you would be different, but I guess I was wrong.”, Lena looks up at her a silent question. A plead to give her a chance. A chance she knows she already blew. Kara seems to understand though. She turns fully around to her.
“You can’t let your fears determine who you are. It makes you blind.” Lena looks her in the eyes. She wants to defend herself. She wants to say it isn’t true, but it is. She is afraid that some alien is going to come and kill her. She is afraid that Superman is going to come after her, for what her brother did to him. Kara words aren’t accusing. Instead her tone conveys understanding and pity.
Kara takes a deep breath. “Look I will write your article, but I don’t want to see you again.”, her words are firm without a hint of anger or disgust, but she does draw a line. Kara shoulders her bag, turns around and heads to the door. Before she opens though, she turns around.
“Just to let you know. The elderly woman I helped across the street, was an alien. Her eyes were purple, her ears were more pointy than what is human and she hid claws under her gloves. Yes, she is different, but she is also old and tired. She most likely travelled millions of lightyears to escape horror you can’t ever understand. And even now she has to shut down a part of herself to survive.” With that Kara opens the door and leaves.
Lena walks around and falls into her chair. She massages her temples. This is bad. No, this went horrible. She couldn’t have messed that up more. She remembers that woman. Lena only just arrived at CatCo to pick Kara up for the lunch and interview she wanted to do. She was on her way to approach her and decided to just observe for a while. The woman was barely able to carry her groceries. When Kara first approached her, she turned away and didn’t meet her eyes. Then Kara whispered something and the woman looked up at her. A smile spread across her face. She gave Kara her groceries and leaned on her arm. Kara walked her across the street and around a corner. A few minutes later she came back smiling, while apologising for being late. Lena only brushed it off, knowing Kara was late because she helped someone. What stuck to her then was, that Kara just helped. She didn’t ask for anything in return. Just like she had helped her, without a second thought.
There are four things she learned about Kara today.
First: She stand up for what she believes in.
Second: Her ray of sunshine can turn into a supernova.
Third: Aliens and Superman specifically, are personal.
Fourth: She can overcome her own anger and be kind instead.
Lena is too intrigued by her to just let her go. Kara is like a puzzle that needs to be solved.
The article Kara writes about her is surprisingly fair and fact based. It isn’t praising her, but it gives her a fair chance to prove herself. She wisely left out the alien detection device.
The next few weeks she spends her free time studding every detail about the blonde’s past. She starts from the present and goes backward. It all seems normal up until she hits a dead end when the girl is thirteen. Apparently, she was adopted by the Danvers family because her parents died in a fire, but there is no record where she lived before that. Her parents’ names are standard American names, so they could be anyone. After having checked the Danvers wider family and friends circle as well as the surrounding area of their home she finally gives up. She could be anyone.
She keeps looking and reading her articles. They are all filled with the same kind of compassion and Kara has shown her. It only makes Lena even more angry at herself, when she realises what her own stupid blindness and fear cost her. It also makes her angry at Lex, for corrupting her with his hate and for being the bastard he is.
It is even more surprising to her when Kara shows up at her office about a month later. She holds up a bag of doughnut. “I am sorry for…well you know.”, she gestures wildly. “I shouldn’t have scared you like that.” Lena chuckle at her.
“Apology accepted.”, she grabs the bag. “Just for the record, we were both suborn idiots.”, she sits down at the coach opening the bag.
“Didn’t you say you didn’t want to see me again?” Lena asks curious.
Kara sighs. “I change my mind.”
“You changed you mind?”, Lena asks raising an eyebrow. Kara huffs.
“Okay fine! I am supposed to interview you. There was not avoiding this. And besides I can’t avoid you for ever.” Kara somewhat ungracefully flops down next to her, a pouting expression on her face.
Lena eyes her for a moment. “There is some truth the things you said. I was just not willing to accept that. I am not used to people standing up to me like that. Usually everybody hushes or they are jerks because of my last name.”
“I was kind of a jerk.”, Kara admits.
“A jerk with a good point and useful advice. You were right. We cannot let our fears determine who we are. I tend to forget that when it comes to aliens. I let my mother and brother get into my head. I have to work on that.” Kara adjust her glasses eyeing the doughnut bag. Lena smirks at her.
“You want one?”, she holds out a doughnut and moves it away before Kara can grab it. Kara though is faster than she expects. She grabs the other side of the doughnut. Their movement effectively ripples the doughnut in middle. Lena’s mouth drops open as she pretends to be offended and then falls into laughter.
“You don’t joke about food!”, Kara pouts and then takes a big bit of her snatched side.
“Okay, not jokes about food and not offending aliens. I think I got this.” Kara stares at her.
“You do realise people aren’t science projects, don’t you?” After a few passing second, she asks with a serious tone.
“Did you ever have any real friends before?” Lena averts her gaze. Because did she? Did she ever have a real friend before?
“I am a Luthor. We have minions.”, she tries to let it sound like a joke.
“That is not what I asked. Anyway, I get what you mean. Aliens can be dangerous. There is not question about that. I am sure your device can help at security checkpoint, in hospitals or with police investigations. You should be aware though that a lot of aliens hide who they are. It is not because they want to hurt you. It is because they are scared of people and organisations like Lex. Not until long ago there were government organisations and branches of the military, that would dedicate their work to weaponizing alien abilities. In almost every case the alien gets severely injured or killed in the process.” Lena drops her doughnut.
“Wait you are telling me the government does that? I thought it was just terrorists like my brother.”
Kara shakes her head. “Until a few years ago one of these organisations would lock aliens up for the soul purpose of locking them up whether they were peaceful or not didn’t matter. The military has been using aliens since before Lex. It has gotten better over the last few years. A friend of my family infiltrated the facility about ten years ago after their Director died in a fight. One of the agents disobeyed orders and go into a fight with his superior. The agent gave his life to protect the alien, because he is just a refugee who already lost enough. That alien then vowed to protect his family. He assumed the identity of the Director and took over the organisation. He has been slowly changing it. Now it is more a police force slash laboratory. They still eliminate alien treads but they leave the innocent in peace. They study their prisoners, but they don’t hurt them and treat them with respect.” Lena studies her curious.
“How do you know all of that?” “The agent that died, he was my adoptive father.
” Lena picks up the doughnut. “I guess now it makes sense why you take that so personal.”
“I hope I don’t have to mention, that you can’t tell anyone about this. If anyone finds out who he is, it is going to destroy his life and ours most likely too.”
“Do you want me to sign an NDA.” Kara shakes her head. “You can hardly create an NDA for something that doesn’t exist.” For a moment Lena wonders if Kara just made that all up. But the wink with her eye tells Lena that doesn’t exist means, it doesn’t exist officially. If she understands on thing, it is sensitive information. “I heard nothing.”, she answers instead.
“Now to that interview.”,…
A few weeks later Lena trying her alien detection device before demonstrating announcing it officially. She places her thumb on the pad and it lights up red. She tries again. Green. Again. Red. Frowning, she disassembles the device. The interior is completely fried. Her attention is pulled to a news update showing Supergirl flying across the screen. Her eyes fall on a picture of Kara and her, during game night. Then drifting back to the broken device in her hands. She placed the device on her desk and take the picture of Kara. She holds Kara’s picture up next to the picture of Supergirl. “No, way!”