Archive of Our Own

Hard Data

Lena spots Supergirl flying around L-Corp and has a curious thought. The building is downtown, though not the most centrally located, but she still wonders if she sees Supergirl more than most. And that thought stirs something in her scientist's brain. There's data that she can collect there, data that she can study and parse. It could make for an interesting diversion from endless meetings with small minded men.

So she collects some data. She writes a script to go through social media posts collating sightings of Supergirl, then another to go through the dataset for times and locations. She pulls a map of National City to overlay her data onto and crafts different tables and charts to better sort and view her data.

And finally she writes a script to populate her map with her data, starting with earliest sighting to most recent, and watches bright red dots fill her screen. There are clusters that rapidly appear, some she expect and some she doesn't. Downtown is, of course, littered with sightings of Supergirl, being the most populated part of the city and the most prone to different kinds of attacks. There's the warehouse district, the cheap land serving to house criminals and secret plots that Supergirl has to foil. There's L-Corp itself, the building surrounded by the most dots, as Supergirl has had to intervene so many times to save the building, the research within, and Lena's very own life.

But more interesting to Lena are the unexpected clusters of sightings. There's a cluster by a Big Belly Burger location near L-Corp. That could answer the question of if Kryptonians need to eat, and Lena knows just how big the portions can be at the burger joint. But there are a couple of other clusters, around Noonan's, around a bar that doesn't seem to have a name, and clusters that seem to form a line leading to the second largest cluster on the map.

The cluster around Kara Danvers's apartment building.

The cluster that Lena stares at until it's all she can see. The cluster that hints at something Lena had long tried to ignore.

That Supergirl is hiding in the human world somewhere, and that Lena knows her human identity.

And Lena tries to suppress the pain and anger churning in her stomach.

What had started as a light-hearted lark had turned into an undeniable discovery and a sense of betrayal. Supergirl had saved her life a dozen times, Kara Danvers had given her the most fair press she had ever received, but Lena can only think about her motivation, can only wonder why Supergirl would approach a Luthor in the first place. The only conclusion she can draw is fear, fear that Lena would turn out like her brother, fear that must have led to suspicion, to observation, to spying and infiltration into Lena's life.

Because that's what Kara had done, she realizes. Kara had poked and pried and bribed and wormed her way into Lena's life, into her trust, usually so hard to earn. But Kara had been persistent, and now Lena knows why. She's keeping an eye on her, and nothing between them is real.

She frowns at the thought. Kara is many things, but she's not the most graceful liar. There must be some things she hadn't faked, some small iota of affection, or at least understanding. Lena knows she hasn't always played it straight with Supergirl, but she always had with Kara. Surely Kara knows that, surely Lena has done enough to assuage any concerns about her mental state. But then why would she keep lying?

Lena can't answer that, and that hurts anew. She should be able to answer most questions about Kara Danvers, but now the other woman is a mystery. A lie.

But Lena isn't her brother. She won't take this betrayal and turn it into something destructive. She'll be sane about it, understanding even. She still wants to be a force for good, even if this new revelation is a stain on her improving self-image, improving only because of Kara's persistent kind words. If she's earned any amount of good will from Supergirl and her- God, how many of their friends know? How many of the people Lena had started feeling close to have also been lying to her? She pushes the thought away, packs it away in a neat little box to never open again. If she's earned any amount of good will, then Supergirl will move her surveillance to a distance, something nonintrusive. Something that will allow Lena to regain some of her slipping sanity at what she faces.

But Lena knows she's not ready to face Supergirl, so she calls someone else first. Alex is surprised to hear from her, then concerned when she mentions something urgent regarding Supergirl, something the hero can't know about, but she agrees to meet Lena at L-Corp. Lena can't tell if she's lying, if she'll call Kara as soon as she's done talking to Lena to let her know to be on standby, but Lena figures she'll deal with that if it comes up. Because Alex surely must know, the federal agent, the superhero's very sister. And she's been lying to Lena too.

No. Into the box, never to be opened again.

Lena waits, the map still on the screen in front of her, and when the waiting starts to cause her boxes to start opening she pours herself a healthy two fingers of scotch to close them right back up.

When Alex gets there she looks from Lena's face to the glass in her hand and her own face twists in worry. Lena wonders how much of that worry is fake.

"What's wrong?" Alex asks.

Lena can't speak, so she waves Alex to join her on the couch, then gestures at the laptop. Alex frowns at it for a few moments, then recognition flashes in her eyes and she looks to Lena again.

"You always were a genius," Alex says with a smile.

Lena scoffs. "I've seen them both up close more times than I can count and I never put it together. A pair of glasses and a ponytail, I swear."

"People see what they want to see," Alex says. Her smile drops and she gestures to the glass in Lena's hand. "I take it you have some worries?"

"No," Lena lies. "Some advice, maybe. If you don't want someone else finding out where Supergirl lives, have her change her flight patterns. Tell her to be more careful where she lands and takes off from."

"That's good advice, I'll pass it along." Alex says, but that damn concern in her gaze doesn't disappear. "But how are you doing? How are you taking this?"

"How do you think?"

Alex winces and Lena wants to believe it's real, but she can't make herself. "Lena, she- we, really, we kept this from you for a long time, I'm not going to blame you for feeling hurt."

"I don't need a lecture," Lena says. "I'm not going to reveal her identity over this."

"I didn't think you were," Alex says, "and I don't want to give you a lecture. I want to know how you're doing."

"Fine. I'm doing fine. Just- just pass this along to her, tell her I know and that there's no reason to come around here again."

"No reason?" Alex asks with a frown. "What do you mean?"

"This," Lena gestures between them, then vaguely to the sky, "and her, you don't have to pretend anymore. If there's an emergency that requires my help I will, but I don't need to be babysat. I hope even you can recognize that."

"Babysat?" Alex repeats. Her frown deepens. "Is that what you think we've been doing?"

"I'm a scientist, I base any hypothesis I make on evidence, and the evidence points to yes, you and her and any others who know about this have maintained this charade to keep me- I don't know, compliant? Surveilled?"

"Oh Lena," Alex starts, but Lena shakes her head.

"Don't start. Whatever you have to say, I don't care to hear it."

"I think you need to."

"What is there even to say?" Lena asks. She knows she has a right to have Alex escorted from her office, considering she's the CEO, but she can't bring herself to do so. Some wellspring of hope, unacknowledged and deep inside of her, tells her to listen to Alex, so she does.

Alex starts with a heavy sigh. "I think some of this is my fault," she says. "Well, not just mine, but my family's fault, her family's fault- Superman, that is."

Lena's jaw clenches at the name.

"She made it to Earth years after she should have, already a teenager, not knowing anything about this place, or about Superman, or even the powers she had. God, there's a lot to tell you, a lot you need to hear, but it's her story to tell." Alex's mouth presses into a thin line and she reaches out a hesitant hand. "Just- please believe me, those were some hard years, her first few here. But the one thing we all just pounded into her head was hide, hide, hide. Hide her powers, hide her species, hide the fact that she wasn't human, for her good, for Superman's good, for me and my mom and dad."

Alex looks out the window, eyes going distant, and Lena thinks she can even see the beginning of tears.

"I've tried to make up for it, over the years, but I don't know if she realizes how much I messed up." She snorts. "You know, the first time she used her powers to save someone, it was me. The flight I was on was going down, and she saved it. She saved my life. And the first thing I did when I saw her again was berate her about exposing herself, about having to keep herself hidden. I didn't even thank her, not until later."

"Alex-"

"No, no, it's- I'm not done," Alex says, though she sounds more tired than anything. "I was hiding something from her, too. She didn't know I worked for the DEO, not until after that. And I worked there to keep her safe, to try to keep an eye out for any hint that her identity was going to be exposed, and that- I know that she's taken that on as some kind of- of example for her to follow."

"To hide something from someone she cares about to protect them?" Lena asks.

"Maybe," Alex says. "She looks up to me and I-" she blinks. "Sometimes I'm sure I'm not worthy of it, when I look back at how I treated her when she got here, and how much I pushed her to hide herself. Dim her brightness."

Lena relaxes fists she hadn't realized were clenched. "So you want me to forgive her like she did you?"

"I want you to listen to her, to really listen," Alex says. "I think, maybe, you were the first person to do that anyway. You were the first person she really let in as just Kara. Even Superman- he's her cousin, but he barely made any time for her. And from her perspective I've always treated her as an alien, someone who needed to be protected. You were the first person- the first friend, at least, who treated her as a person of her own."

Lena's mind swirls at the thought. She had spent so long considering how Kara had closed the distance between them, but hadn't considered that Kara had walls that needed to be lowered as well. That Kara had opened up to Lena in the same way Lena had opened up to Kara, not about everything, but maybe about enough.

They're silent for a few seconds before Alex speaks again. "You know, she told me that you were the push she needed to jump into being a reporter. That you saw something in her that she wanted to be seen. And I was- her own sister, and I was telling her to keep a low profile, to just get through life instead of live it the way she wanted to."

"I'm sure she doesn't see it that way," Lena says without thinking. She blinks and thinks that she shouldn't be comforting someone who had lied to her for so long, but Alex's words, the truth Lena can hear in them, have softened her anger, soothed her hurt. And she's sure Alex had never shared these thoughts with anyone, the self recriminations she has over her treatment of her sister. Of Kara.

"That's the thing about her," Alex says. "She's got a big heart. It's one of the things that makes her, her. It's also one of the things that drives me crazy. And it's one of the things that I admire the most about her, with everything she's been through, with Krypton."

And there's another aspect to Kara that Lena hadn't considered. That Krypton was gone, that Kara's home, her family, her people, were gone. She doubted someone who had gone though such a traumatic event would have come out the other side capable of faking as much positivity as Kara has. The hope in her chest pokes at her again, tells her that Kara couldn't have faked everything with her.

"I don't know how she does it," Alex says. "I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to her, how I treated her for the longest time. How the entire universe has treated her. I'll protect her still, but alongside her, instead of above her, like I know what's best, even if I'm pretty sure I do know what she needs. And I think, now that you've figured out her secret, that she needs to talk to you. And I think you need to talk to her too."

Lena swallows heavily and doesn't meet Alex's stare. She can feel the intensity though, and after a minute or two of chaotic thoughts and roiling emotions she nods. "Not now, though. Give me a day or two."

"Thank you, Lena, for listening to me. For giving her a chance. I'll leave you to your thoughts now, if you want."

Lena nods and Alex rises, but when the other woman reaches the door Lena opens her mouth. "Alex, I need to know something, first."

Alex turns and waits for her to continue.

"Why me? After the interview, why did she keep coming back to me?"

Alex gives her a tight smile. "That's her story to tell too. I'll just say that she wanted to, she saw something in you too, like you saw in her." She winces then, and looks down at her hands. "And not to make you feel any worse, or make myself look any worse, but I told her not to, and she did anyway. She wanted to give you a chance, she fought me again and again and again over you. So please, please give her a chance too."

Lena nods again, silent as she tries to take in everything Alex said, and the other woman shuts the door behind her as she leaves Lena alone with her thoughts. After a few minutes Lena pours herself another drink.

It takes Lena two days to work up the courage to text- not Kara, not directly, but Alex again, to let her know that she's ready to speak to Supergirl, that night at her apartment. Alex confirms that Kara will be there, and Lena throws herself into her work and stays as late as possible so she doesn't have time to spiral between returning to her apartment and Kara's arrival. As it is she arrives home a few minutes before the time she set, and decides against pouring herself a drink.

She wants complete control of herself for the conversation she faces. She wants to hear exactly what Kara has to say, she wants to see exactly how Kara acts and reacts. And she doesn't want to cry.

She's done enough of that in the time between talking to Alex and reaching out to her again.

She expects Kara to appear at her balcony, so she's surprised when the doorman buzzes up that Kara is there, and she tells him to let her up. She knows she lives high up, but it still seems too long between his call and the faint knocks on her door. When she opens it Kara is there, a shaky smile on her face and a fearful look in her eye.

"Hey, Lena."

Two words, the first she's heard from Kara since she found out, a simple greeting, but it takes all of her willpower to skip their usual hug. She steps back into her apartment and Kara follows, closing the door behind her.

"So," Lena says. She's had time, she's thought about a million different things to say to Kara, from bitter recriminations to easy jokes, but her mouth fails her and she's left in silence until Kara speaks.

"Lena, I am so sorry that you had to find out this way," she says. Her damned guilelessness is all over her face and Lena reminds herself that this woman had lied to her for years. "I've wanted to tell you for so long, and I should have, a dozen different times, but..."

"But you didn't," Lena finishes.

Kara hangs her head. "No, I didn't. And I don't have the words to make it right, but I hope you'll let me try anyway."

"Why should I?" Lena asks.

Kara's head darts back up, a desperate look in her eyes. "Because you're my best friend. Because we work well together, and support each other, and believe in each other."

"Do you?" Lena asks. "Do you really believe in me when you couldn't even tell me- your supposed best friend- about- about your other life?"

"Of course I do!" Kara exclaims. "You've done so much to help me, no matter what I'm wearing, and to help the DEO even after all of their suspicion of you."

"And that still wasn't enough for you to tell me about this," Lena says. "Were you ever going to?"

"Yes, of course I was." Kara's eyes plead with her, but Lena can only frown.

"When?"

"I- I didn't have a set date, but I was going to tell you, I swear."

Lena's frown deepens. "That's not good enough. It's easy to sit there and say you would when you never did."

"Lena please, it's a hard thing to tell someone, especially someone I care about," Kara says. "Knowing about me can put you in danger- even more danger, and you face too much of that already."

"I don't see how," Lena says.

"You'd be surprised," Kara says. "There are all kinds of forces out there, all kinds of aliens with powers that even I don't have. A thought at the wrong time, or a feeling, even, could be all it takes for an alien with psychic abilities to take an interest in you, that they wouldn't have otherwise. Or if the DEO gets compromised and whoever does it tries to take out the people who know, you'd be on that list."

"There's a list of people who know your identity?" Lena demands.

"Not, like, a piece of loose-leaf, nothing official," Kara says. She frowns too. "I don't think so, at least. But if someone who knows gets captured, and- and there are ways to get information out of people, and someone really wanted to hunt down the people close to Supergirl, they'd get your name too."

"So you wanted to protect me?" Lena asks. She hears the edge in her own voice and sees the wince on Kara's face.

"Of course I want to protect you, Lena. You mean so much to me."

She hears the words, but Lena's thoughts keep going in circles. How much could Kara really mean what she says when there's hard data otherwise. Months, years of deceit, of opportunities to let Lena know that Kara hadn't taken.

"Well then, perhaps it would be best to keep some distance between us," she says.

"Lena no, please," Kara says. "I know you're mad at me, and you have every right to be, but I'm still Kara, you're still Lena."

"How can I trust that? Is Kara even your real name?"

"It is, Lena."

"But how can I trust that, when you've spent so long hiding this secret from me," Lena half shouts, and Kara's face twists into something she hasn't seen before.

"I get you're angry but you hid things from me too," Kara says. "And that made it hard to find the timing, trying to know what I could trust beyond just the feeling that I could."

"Like what?" Lena asks. This is an unexpected development, but with a moment's thought maybe it shouldn't have been. She had come at Kara with metaphorical guns blazing, and even Kara, the font of positivity that she usually is, can only put up with so much abuse before firing back.

But maybe Kara firing back will be illuminating. Angry people slip up, and this could be the crack in Kara's mask that Lena expects to see.

"Like with your mother, and project Medusa," Kara says. Her voice shakes as she speaks. "You didn't tell me that you were planning on neutralizing the isotope it used. You let me think you were willing to commit genocide."

"That- it was the only way to implicate my mother, to get something to stick to her. You said-"

"What did I say?" Kara asks.

"That I was a good person, that I should be my own hero. I listened to you. Should I not have?"

"Of course you should have, and I'm glad you proved me right, but I still thought..."

"That I had decided to commit genocide," Lena finishes for her. "I didn't. I called the police on my own mother, I provided evidence that put her away."

"And you kept it all to yourself," Kara says. "I could have helped you, even as just a reporter. You didn't have to face that alone, having to choose between your family and what's right. You've kept a lot from me, in the interest of keeping me safe. You went to Jack, when I tried to warn you how dangerous it could be, and you didn't even give me a heads up. And you did the same thing with Sam and the harun-el. You didn't let anyone know, not even your best friend who had a direct line to people who were trying to stop Reign too."

"Sam is my friend, I wasn't going to hand her over to people I thought would hurt her."

"What did you think we would do to her?"

"I- I couldn't know," Lena says. She hadn't anticipated this kind of pushback from Kara, the kind that feels quite valid, even to her own ears, but worse than the surprise she feels is the guilt at how some of the early parts of their relationship had played out. Now here they are, arguing over who had wronged who in their relationship, and she feels everything slipping from her fingers.

"Then you could have asked me," Kara says. "Did you even consider that I would help you? As Kara Danvers, that I could keep a secret if you asked me to, that I knew Supergirl, that my sister worked for the DEO, that I could have some insight into what they were thinking?"

Lena's frown deepens and she tries to get a handle on her roiling emotions. "I was dealing with a Kryptonian who had defeated Supergirl, I wasn't about to put your life in danger."

Kara leans back. Her face is set in- not happiness, but maybe a kind of grim satisfaction. "So you can understand it."

"What?"

"That's the exact thing I tried to tell you earlier. That I wanted to protect you, that knowing what I am is dangerous. That getting you involved in my life as Supergirl any more than you already were left me sick with worry."

"That's not the same," Lena says weakly. She's struggling with the sudden new perspective, that her own obsession with solving the Reign and Sam situation without involving anyone else had inadvertently mirrored Kara's own behavior.

"You didn't trust me with Reign. You didn't trust me with Kryptonite. And maybe I overreacted to that too, maybe I shouldn't have had James spy on you, maybe I should have asked you about it myself and exposed my secret, but I wasn't thinking of only my life. Alex, J'onn, Winn and James, the agents I fought alongside at the DEO. The citizens I wouldn't be there to help if something happened to me. My adoptive mother, the woman who opened her home to a scared alien girl and made her feel safe again. Every time someone finds out about me, I put all of them at risk."

"Kara..."

Kara steps back and her face falls. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have- I shouldn't have dumped all this on you. Maybe we do need more space." Then she's rising and heading towards the balcony and Lena panics.

"No, I shouldn't have- don't leave," she says, suddenly on her feet as well. "Stay, please. I'm glad you let it all out, I never- god I was so selfish, I didn't-"

"We were both selfish," Kara says quietly. "I just... I just want things to stay how they were, but I don't think they can."

"No, no they can't," Lena says. "But that doesn't mean- I- I still-" her throat closes up, choked by everything she's feeling, the idea of Kara betraying her, the pain that brought, and now the idea of Kara leaving her, and Lena's own words being what drove her away. The fear that they would never be Kara and Lena again.

"Lena, we're arguing about who hurt who more," Kara says. "And I hate it. Please, it's- it's still too soon, everything feels so raw."

"No, please, I-" Lena grabs one of Kara's hands, holds it in both of her own. "You've given me more to think about than I expected, and I... I didn't take my discovery well, I'll admit it, and even with the time I took I didn't properly consider your position."

"Then I should leave, give you more time."

"I don't want more time, Kara, I just want you!"

That does something, stills something in Kara and settles some of the tension in the air. Kara is breathing heavily, though Lena isn't even sure if she needs to, but she isn't leaving.

"I want you too, Lena," Kara says. "More than you realize. But this isn't how we should- how we should treat each other." Kara's head drops, her voice turns to a whisper. "Not if we care about each other."

"I do care, Kara, so much." Lena huffs a sigh. "That's why it hurt so much when I put it together. I- I thought of you as if you were Lex or Lillian, and that wasn't fair, not to you. You'd given me more in our time together than either of them, and I should have- I should have-"

She sighs again. "Those early days, with Supergirl, I wasn't sure how she- you- I don't know, what Supergirl thought of me, and I was cautious. I was cautious even with you as Kara Danvers, even if- even if I shouldn't have been.""

"You had walls up," Kara says. "I get it, I'm not saying you should have told me- either version of me- everything, just... I don't know."

"But I did let you in," Lena says, "further than anyone. That's why it hurt so much when I..." She shakes her head. "Trust is a two way street. You had all the cards, but I could have showed what I had a little more readily. You believed in me, and I don't think that was a lie, and I didn't allow myself to believe in you in the same way."

"I should have told you sooner," Kara says. She stares hard into Lena's eyes, as if she can will her sincerity to get through, and Lena almost feels like she can. "I did trust you with this, really I did. Months ago, even. I knew you would still help me, as Supergirl, when I needed the help I just... didn't want to lose what I had with you as Kara Danvers. I knew once I told you that everything between us would change, and I was afraid of losing you from that part of my life."

"You could never," Lena says. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for just jumping down your throat earlier. Like you said, everything still felt fresh, raw. But I- I'm glad you pushed back, gave me a taste of my own medicine."

She tries a smile that she's sure is watery and is pleased when Kara matches it.

"So where do we go from here?" Kara asks.

She's leaving the choice up to Lena, and Lena appreciates the gesture. She also knows that Kara is self-sacrificing, even without considering her alter ego, and that she would go along with whatever Lena wanted for them, even if that was to never speak again. She's spent so long around the other woman that she knows how much that would hurt her.

And she knows how much it would hurt herself.

Hard data can only give her part of the picture, after all. She has to fill in the rest with something. Believing in Kara could be that something, if she can overcome her nature, her upbringing, her many experiences to the contrary.

But when faced with Kara's blue eyes staring into her own, everything else seems inconsequential, and believing feels easier and more natural than breathing.

So she does.

"I want you in my life still, Kara. If you'll have me after I-"

"Of course I do," Kara says.

Lena lets out a relieved breath and closes her eyes. "Just- just don't lie to me again, please. I don't think I could take it."

"No more secrets," Kara says like it's a vow.

Lena believes her.

Kara continues. "That is a- I'd like if- if you could trust me too. No secrets from me, either."

"That's a lot to ask of me," Lena says. She looks away. "Perhaps it's hypocritical of me to say, but there is one thing I've been keeping from... Kara Danvers. I have been for some time now."

"Whatever it is, it's probably better out in the open," Kara says. "That way we can face it together."

Lena smiles a tight smile and turns back to face Kara. "I don't know if it's something to face, really. Just... something to know."

Kara nods. "What is it?"

"I don't want to make you uncomfortable, so after I tell you, whatever you feel, whatever you want to do about it, please, just let me know. I- I don't want to feel you have to accommodate me, and I can- I can continue to be the Lena you know, to act like-" she can't finish her thought and Kara frowns at her.

"Act like what?"

"Your best friend, I can still be your best friend," Lena says. "Because over the last two days one of the things that- that I realized was that, you keeping this part of yourself from me, the- the things we said to each other when I didn't know you were Supergirl, they hurt so much more because- because what I felt for you was so strong. Because I love you."

"I lo-" Kara cuts herself off and straightens her shoulders. "You don't mean as a best friend, do you?"

Lena shakes her head, and she feels a rueful smile. "Not as only a best friend, at least. I was telling the truth when I said I never had a friend like you, and I still want your friendship, even if I've made things awkward."

Kara stays silent for a few seconds, then a few more that have Lena swallowing down pleas and bile. It's out there now, and all she can do is wait, and answer any questions- if they come.

Then Kara lets out a single ironic chuckle and shakes her head. "We've really messed this up, haven't we?"

It's not an outright rejection. "I'm willing to work at it. If you are."

"I am." It slips out of Kara's mouth quickly, easily, and Lena's spirits are buoyed. When Kara adjusts her glasses in that familiar way that little bit of hope grows that much larger. "And I can't- I can't say I haven't thought about it."

"It?" Lena asks.

"You and me," Kara says. "Us."

Lena licks her lips. "And?"

"I- I always thought there was too much between us, too many secrets- which is all my fault, of course," Kara says. "I know that you can't have a relationship without trust, and how could I ask you to trust me when I was hiding something so big from you."

"It's out in the open now," Lena says, "and we've- maybe we haven't covered everything, but we've talked about enough that I feel, at least, that what we have can be-" she doesn't know what, but Kara gives her some options.

"Salvaged? Rebuilt? Solid?"

"Maybe all three," Lena says. "Maybe we don't have trust yet, not like I had in Kara Danvers before, and maybe not like you had in me, after all I've accused you of, but I think we can get there again. If- if you can still believe in me. I-" Lena swallows against the lump in her throat, "even when I was angry with Supergirl I believed she would do the right thing, as she saw it, and I always, always believed in Kara Danvers. Maybe it's a little harder to believe in just Kara Danvers, but I have the whole picture of you now, and I know I can get there. I want to get there, because I want... you."

Kara adjusts her glasses and looks away. "You really think we can get back to where we were?"

"And more," Lena says. "Provided you're okay with me."

"More than okay."

Lena lets out a sigh, as much a release of the heavy emotions of their conversation as relief at Kara's quiet admission. If they can both believe in the other, if they both work at being open and honest, she's sure they'll make it. It'll be hard going, with more difficult conversations, but Lena feels a sense of belief she's not used to feeling.

Because she has more hard data than she had first realized. She knows what Kara's favorite things are, her favorite foods and movies and games, her favorite books and songs. She knows Kara's voice, pleasing to the ear and passionate in writing, writing so full of honesty and a thirst for justice that it had turned CatCo's reputation around. She knows what makes Kara smile and laugh, and she knows what makes Kara cry. She knows her many cardigans and sweaters, her elegant and varied hair styles, the scar on her eyebrow over her bright blue eyes.

She can't plot her data the same way she had the social media posts that had revealed Kara's secret, she can't get a visual that can show her what she had been missing. But her data is everything that makes up Kara Danvers, the quirks and habits, the willingness to get out there and help people, her ability to see the best in others. Even Lena. With her data she can paint a picture of Kara in her mind, and what she gets is full of warmth and hope and love.

And she couldn't ask for any more than that.