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“What’s your real name?”
Kara should have expected that question. She should have. How could she get upset at Lena for keeping secrets if she herself had kept such a massive secret from the youngest Luthor from the moment they’d met? Dread wormed its way through Kara’s gut. She was a hypocrite.
Alex pulled her out of her stupor. “Oh no,” she said, “I know that look! You know what will happen if you tell her!” Her voice held warning and worry, though only her words caught Lena’s attention. She flicked her eyes between the two DEO members.
Meanwhile, Kara sighed. “Alex, I’ve wanted to tell Lena the truth for over a year now. You know better than anyone how true that is, but…you’re right.” Kara looked directly at Lena. “Whomever I tell is put into danger. You may think that you’re threatened now, but Lex has been quiet for a while. If it was ever found out that you know who I really am- that you’re this close to me – he wouldn’t rest until you were dead.”
“I don’t care!” Lena replied, “I can handle it. I know I can, but with all these secrets – you need to understand. You didn’t tell me your identity, so what right do you have to tell me what to do about Sam’s?”
Kara lowered her head. “It’s only fair, and this is as good a time as any.” She held out her hand, allowing Lena to grasp it in a firm handshake. “Zor-El,” she said, looking up to meet Lena directly in the eyes. “Kara Zor-El.”
Lena, who’d relaxed, suddenly froze. Her whole body tensed as she stared, wide-eyed, at Kara. Her head spun to look at Alex, who’d dropped her own head into her hands, exasperated. Lena looked back at Kara, her eyes flitting over her face to catch every detail that she hadn’t seen before. Every detail that she’d ignored, her attention drawn by the suit, the symbol, the hair. It was then that she noticed how Supergirl’s disguise was so ingenious.
“K-Kara?” she stuttered.
“Yes,” Kara said. “And when I came to earth, I adopted the name Kara Danvers.” She took a step forward as Lena stepped back. “Lena- I’m… I’m so sorry!”
“It’s…” Lena’s words died on her lips. She couldn’t speak. Her tongue felt like lead in her mouth and the words – they were like stones settling in her stomach. She turned away from her best friend. Given the situation they were in, she should have just brushed it off. They didn’t have time for this. She had to move on, finish the mission, and deal with her best friend’s – only friend’s – secret life later, but she couldn’t. Why couldn’t she?
“Lena?” Kara asked. “Please…say something. You’re scaring me.” She coughed then, the effects of their mission bringing her almost to her knees.
It was then that Lena didn’t see the superhero. She didn’t see the person who was angry with her for keeping kryptonite. She didn’t even see the person who, only hours earlier, had accused her of being just like the rest of her family, despite the trust they had once shared.
No.
Instead, she saw Kara. Her one and only true friend in National City, her only friend anywhere, really. It didn’t matter that Kara had kept such an important secret from her. Not then. Kara had her reasons, and Lena wouldn’t allow herself to be the hypocrite in this situation. She was angry enough that Kara had demanded answers from her about Sam without sharing secrets of her own, only for Kara to admit that she wanted to tell her, to actually let her in on the big secret that Lena should have figured out on her own. Of course, she was angry that Kara was a hypocrite, but she wasn’t angry about being kept in the dark.
Finally, Lena told herself that they would have this conversation later after they saved Sam and stopped the eclipse. Before anything else, they had a world, and a friend, to save.
“Come on, Supergirl,” she said, hoisting the hero up. “Sam needs us.”