Chapter Text
It’s a strange thing, seeing the Earth from space. It’s a strange thing, knowing it’s the last time she’ll ever see it.
Kara knows she signed up for this. She knows that someone needs to find a new home for the human species, and she knows she’s qualified. She just wasn’t prepared for the lurch she feels in her stomach when it hits her that she’s never going to go back.
“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” Mike says beside her.
He smiles, all perfect teeth, and puts a hand on her shoulder.
Kara shudders. She knows the other women swoon over Mike, but she’s different. And besides, there’s someone else.
“Whoever he is, you’ll never see him again,” Mike says, as if reading her mind.
As if anyone could possibly take the place of the boy she’s leaving behind.
He’s not her boyfriend. He’s too young for that. His name is Hunter, and he’s four years old, and she loves him.
Maybe she volunteered for this mission because of him, because of the guilt and shame that courses through her like an electric shock every time she looks in his eyes.
Sometimes, she thinks that his mother knows. Lindsay, she’ll narrow her eyes when she sees Kara smiling and laughing as she plays with Hunter. And the shame of that, it’s too big. It’s too much.
But now Kara will never see Lindsay again. She’ll never see Hunter again. She’ll devote her life to science, she’ll work herself to the bone, and she won’t be around any children again for a long, long time.
Maybe it wasn’t the right choice to make. Maybe Kara deserves to let herself feel the love in her heart after all. But as the Earth gets smaller and smaller in the viewport, all brilliant blues and greens, Kara knows one thing: she can’t go back.