Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Year One

The first time Kara meets Sam Arias is days after the woman and her daughter move to National City. Sam had reached out to her via email asking to meet in person and saying only that it was in regards to the Luthors. Kara had gotten many an email similar to that and only a few had actually been worth her time, but any chance at finding evidence on Lex or Lillian Luthor meant Kara had to try. So she let Alex know what was up and met with Sam at Noonan’s during her lunch break, not wanting to have to report the meeting to Snapper just in case it was sensitive… or baloney (which Alex bet $20 would be the case… again).

So Kara walks into Noonan’s fifteen minutes early planning to buy her usual mountain of food while she waits but instead finds herself making a beeline towards the woman in the back of the small restaurant, her sole cup of coffee untouched as she shreds a napkin above an already-very-large pile of napkin shreds. Kara of course has no clue what Sam Arias looks like but she figures even if this woman isn’t who she’s meeting with she needs some kind of help regardless, and… well, even though Kara has never met her before she seems familiar, but that thought falls away as soon as she has it.

When Kara stops in front of the woman’s table, rubbing her forehead absently, startled brown eyes meet hers and widen with relief. “Kara,” the woman breathes. Then she pauses, frowning. “Uh, Miss Danvers, I mean.”

“That’s me. I take it you’re Miss Arias?” Kara makes sure she shakes the woman’s hand before sitting down, and she allows her hearing to zoom out for a moment and take in her surroundings, wary of any eavesdroppers. Not catching anyone or anything suspicious, Kara allows most of her focus to go back to the woman across from her. Sam is beautiful, warm brown skin and long dark hair and wearing a suit even Cat Grant would approve of. What Kara mostly notices, though, is how fast her heart is beating, how her eyes are scanning the crowded restaurant for anything out of place, the light sheen of perspiration on her brow, and that she’s already reaching for a new napkin to shred.

“Yes, I… I’m sorry I was so vague in my email, but this is… I know you’re a reporter and not a detective…” Sam trails off and her next words are so quiet Kara is glad she has super hearing. “I can’t go to the police because most of them are in the Luthors’ pockets, and you’re one of the few people who ever speaks out against them with… actual evidence.”

“Not that it ever sticks, but I do try,” Kara can’t help but interrupt, scowling.

Sam winces. “The judges and most useful government officials are… also in their pocket. So that doesn’t exactly surprise me.”

“You seem to know a lot about them,” Kara prompts as gently as she can.

“I… used to hold a high-level position at LuthorCorp,” Sam admits, unable to meet Kara’s eyes. “That’s…” She takes a deep breath. “That’s why I need your help. My friends are missing and I know the Luthors took them. I… I think they already killed our… my other friend, Jack Spheer, last year… his business partner was arrested but the footage… it was doctored, I know, and it fooled even experts, but…” She takes a deep breath and meets Kara’s eyes. “I can’t lose anyone else to them. I don’t care about evidence or any of that, I just want my family back.”

Sam’s words seem to surprise even her, and she stiffens before surveying the room again. Kara gets the sense she didn’t mean to reveal just how close she is to the missing people, though if that’s due to her talking to a stranger or revealing it to anyone potentially listening in Kara doesn’t know. Still, that revelation makes Kara’s calm facade crack, because this woman’s family is missing, and Kara rarely finds anyone suspected to have been taken by the Luthors still alive. Sam must see the apprehension on her face because she immediately shakes her head.

“They aren’t dead. They wouldn’t kill them. Not… not immediately anyway. They probably need my… best friend for something, she’s the smartest person I know, but she always refuses to help them with things she knows are, well, nefarious.” Sam rolls her eyes and almost smiles and Kara’s heart aches for this woman and her family. “My other friend, they probably took her for— for insurance, motivation.” She grimaces. “I just… you’re good at uncovering their schemes, and if I’m going to find them I need… something, anything to go on. I haven’t seen either of them in a month, and they’ve never disappeared on me before, not for this long. And my best friend has never,” here Sam meets Kara’s eyes with ferocity, “never missed Ruby’s birthday.” Again Sam seems surprised to have revealed that, but she sighs and looks down. “She especially wouldn’t miss Ruby’s tenth birthday, and that was last week and she’s… she’s just gone.”

“Ruby?”

“My daughter. I had her when I was a teenager and we raised her together even if she won’t admit it,” Sam mutters, and again she stiffens. This time she gives Kara a funny look. “I… should not be telling you all of this, and I don’t really know why I am, so assuming you aren’t secretly working for the Luthors I would appreciate you not telling anyone else.”

“I’m not one of their evil minions, thank you,” Kara drawls, and her hand squeezes the edge of the table enough that she hears it creak in protest. She drops her hand to her lap and gives Sam a small smile. “And I’ve been told I have one of those faces, so.” Sam gives her a dubious look and Kara elects to change the subject. “Where were your friends last seen?”

“Metropolis. We live there, uh, lived there. Ruby and I just moved to this city, we needed to get away from LuthorCorp now that…” Sam doesn’t seem inclined to finish that sentence and Kara has an uneasy feeling in her stomach now.

“There’s a reporter in Metropolis who—“

“Mr. Kent refused to help,” Sam says flatly.

“Ah.” Kara wets her lips. “May I ask why?”

Sam raises her head and stares Kara straight in the eyes, shoulders back and clearly primed for a fight. “My best friend’s name is Lena Luthor.”

Kara blinks at her. “Yeah that would explain it.” When Sam’s eyes blaze with fury Kara holds her hands up in surrender. “Not that I agree with him! Just, uh, it’s kinda personal for Ca— Clark, is all. Not that that excuses it either,” Kara adds in a hurry. And it really doesn’t, not that she can tell Sam that. Yes, Lex used kryptonite on her cousin, and yes he was still pissed he couldn’t prove it. But that didn’t mean he could just write off a missing person because of their last name, especially not when Superman was probably the woman’s best chance. Speaking of… “I kinda hate to ask this,” Kara says, “but have you tried talking to Superman?”

“I managed to talk to him shortly after Mr. Kent and he was equally unhelpful,” Sam says, an odd look in her eyes. Kara wonders idly if her cousin has unwittingly revealed his identity by being so petty, not that she’s going to tell him. It would explain why Sam and Ruby moved to the only other city with a Super. Kara takes a moment to memorize the woman’s heartbeat just in case the Luthors come for her next.

“Lovely,” is all Kara can say to that. “Well, I’ll see what I can find, but… I don’t know how helpful it will be.”

Sam just nods. “I know. I don’t expect much, I just. I need to know if... here,” she interrupts herself, sliding a folded paper to Kara. “This is all I know about their last whereabouts for sure, including the date and time. Lena was in her office and her secretary, Jess Huang, was at home. Just… if you find anything please…”

Kara takes the paper with a nod and promises to do her best. She isn’t sure Sam believes her, but once the woman has swept her shredded napkins into another to throw away and left, shooting one last confused look at Kara before she goes, Kara heads straight back to CatCo, forgoing her own lunch and interrupting Winn’s instead.

After several hours of searching, Winn hacking what he can and Kara flying around to fill in the gaps while avoiding her cousin at all costs, they manage to find that only hours after her last text with Sam, Lena Luthor was herded into a car by her mother, brother, and a blonde woman and from there was last seen boarding one of the Luthors’ private jets just before sunrise.

The only reason the footage of that even exists is that the airport had set up a camera system separate from their security system to keep track of birds that had been spotted nearby. The security cameras had experienced a five-minute ‘malfunction’ at the time, but a bird watching camera had caught a clear image of a dark-haired woman with a pale face looking directly at it. At no point were any suitcases loaded onto the jet, and the burly men flanking them seemed to be more focused on keeping Lena penned in than on watching their surroundings for potential threats.

All Winn can find on Jess Huang is that she received a single text from Lena Luthor, a ladybug emoji, minutes before the footage showing Lena being taken from LuthorCorp, and after that she vanished without a trace— her apartment empty despite no footage of her ever leaving. Men of a similar burly nature to those at the airport had entered her home and exited empty handed only hours after Lena had been taken.

Kara isn’t willing to send any of what they found via email, so sets up another in-person meeting with Sam Arias for the next day. Sam is even more anxious this time, and when Kara slides her a manila folder her hands shake as she opens it.

“This is all I could find, I’m sorry,” Kara says quietly.

Sam doesn’t respond, leafing through the grainy images and skimming the descriptions. When she gets to the photo from the airport, the clearest of them all and the only one that actually shows Lena’s face, she seems to sink on herself. “Oh, Lena…” It’s so quiet Kara knows she wasn’t supposed to hear it, or the heartbreak therein. Sam finally takes in the rest of the photo, narrowing her eyes at the blonde woman, and Kara hears her mutter a quiet, angry, “Eve”. Then Sam gets to the image of the text chain between Lena Luthor and Jess Huang, and her eyes widen. “Fucking hell,” Sam hisses, and Kara startles.

“Does that… mean something?” Kara asks, wondering if Sam will even answer her.

“Bug out,” Sam says quietly, still staring at the paper. “Lena was gathering evidence on Lex and Lillian, she has been for awhile.” Her brow furrows and Kara wonders if she meant to reveal that. “Uh, she knew they may find out so she… put precautions in place. She kept Ruby and I safe by hiding our… friendship, but she knew Jess would be in danger due to her position so… if she knew things were bad she would send her a ladybug and Jess would know to run. Immediately, and without contacting anyone. Even me. It was… another precaution, in case she was already being monitored.”

“So that means Miss Huang is probably safe, at least,” Kara says, hoping to raise Sam’s spirits at least a little.

Sam nods, then tucks the folder away. When she looks up Kara almost flinches at the hard look in her eyes. “Thank you for your help, but please forget any of this ever happened. If Lena sent Jess away then this is… as serious as I was worried it was. That’s the only reason I told you as much as I just did, so you would understand— please do not contact me further or continue to look into this. Goodbye, Miss Danvers.” Sam stands and strides past Kara without looking back, and once again Kara’s heart aches for Sam and her best friend.

Sam is several blocks away when Kara accidentally overhears her make a phone call, and only manages to quit eavesdropping after she hears the beginning of the conversation, which begins with “Olivia, I’m calling in a favor.”

Later, Kara tells Winn to keep an eye out for Lena Luthor but they both know that now that the Luthors have her she’ll be as impossible to find as anyone else they’ve taken, regardless of whether or not they’re more inclined to keep her alive.

When Alex demands her $20 later, expecting Kara to hand it over with a story of meeting with some new conspiracy theorist, Kara gives it to her and simply says she doesn’t want to talk about it.

The next time Kara meets Sam Arias is weeks later, but it isn’t a meeting between ‘Sam and Kara’ but rather between ‘the DEO’s new Director and Supergirl’. Kara doesn’t work for the DEO, not exactly. Her sister does, and they do help her a lot (especially with finding alien tech and old ships), but Supergirl is more of a… contractor. She doesn’t trust the DEO, especially now that J’onn has left for Mars with M’gann and they’ve replaced him with an outsider. How Sam managed to get the position is a mystery to Kara and Alex both (though rumor is President Marsdin was involved… wait, Olivia Marsdin… oh), and the only reason Alex doesn’t quit after being passed over for what should have been her promotion is that she is immediately head over heels for Director Arias.

Sam doesn’t say much to Supergirl, though at one point Kara is certain she’s about to ask her for help looking for Lena, but, likely recalling how Superman had treated her request, Director Arias just gives Supergirl a brusque nod and gets back to work.

It’s only the second week of Sam being the Director and she’s pacing and talking on the phone with someone in the DEO’s command room, Kara on her way out after bringing in a very aggressive alien who had burst into a restaurant during the dinner rush and demanded salt in exchange for letting people live. Kara hears Ruby’s name mentioned and ends up tuning in, and from what she can tell Sam’s babysitter needs to leave a few hours early for some reason or other, and Sam can’t leave work yet.

“I can watch her if you want,” Kara says, before realizing that Sam doesn’t even trust Supergirl enough to tell her about Lena Luthor, much less allow her to babysit her child.

Sam turns to her, clearly frazzled. “How soon can you get there?” She tells Kara the address (which Kara already knew since she’d decided to memorize Ruby’s heartbeat just in case, not that she’s telling Sam that), and once Kara reminds her of her super speed she sighs and goes back to the call. “Alright, my friend is almost there so you can head out now, tell Ruby she has two minutes of alone time max.”

Kara waves off Sam’s thanks and takes off, and on her way to the Director’s house she hears her sister asking Sam where Supergirl is going, and after Sam answers, both her and Alex’s bio signs register surprise, which nearly makes Kara laugh even as she watches the teenager slowly backing out of Sam’s driveway. Sam had apparently been so desperate she hadn’t realized what she agreed to until it was done.

After a moment of deliberation Kara swoops down and lands in the Arias’ backyard, which is thankfully shielded by a tall fence. She knocks on the door and when she hears a squeak of surprise she peers in with her x-ray vision and watches a small child clamber down from a step stool. Ruby approaches the door cautiously and pulls it open just enough to see through, the deadbolt chain still in place. The one eye Kara can see widens when she sees who’s on her back porch.

“Did… my mom send Supergirl to babysit me?” Ruby asks.

“Yep,” Kara says happily, now hearing Sam back at the DEO muttering to herself to pay better attention and quit trusting random blonde women. “So can I come in or did you wanna go back to snooping in your mom’s office first?”

Ruby’s eye narrows. “Okay so you may have x-ray vision,” she says. “But can you prove you’re Supergirl?”

Kara shakes her head and uses a burst of super speed to grab a baseball-sized rock from the other side of the yard. When she’s on the porch again, she crushes the rock to dust, which she catches with her other hand, and after turning long enough to blast it with heat vision, she turns back, idly molding the new rock into a cat shape before cooling it with her freeze breath. She holds it out with a small grin.

The eye Kara can see narrows again and Ruby slams the door closed, but Kara hears the deadbolt being undone and it opens fully. The girl takes the cat figurine, her hand brushing against Kara’s as she does, and slips it into her pocket, then looks Kara up and down, which usually Kara finds annoying, but having a very tiny, very recently-turned-ten child do it is, Kara is now learning, adorable. Ruby has the same long brown hair and warm skin tone as her mom, and she even manages to mimic her unimpressed look when she meets Kara’s eyes again. “Fine, but I don’t need babysitting.”

She turns and Kara follows her into the house, tying her hair back in a ponytail as she goes. Kara does her best not to laugh at the girl’s posturing, but she does end up snickering when Ruby hurries back into Sam’s office and grabs the foot stool before carefully closing the door and toting it back to the kitchen.

“You didn’t see anything,” Ruby says, turning to glare at Kara as she slides the stool into a cabinet. “Just cuz you can look into people’s houses doesn’t mean you should, ya know.”

Kara holds both hands up in surrender. “I have no clue what you mean,” she says easily, grinning at the frown the girl gives her. “Supergirl would never peek into someone’s private residence, just as you of course would never snoop in your mom’s office.”

Ruby hums and looks her up and down again. “If Mom sent you here, she was in a hurry, so she probably hasn’t told you how much ice cream I’m allowed to have…”

“Most kids would be demanding to be flown around by now,” Kara muses, recalling the times she’d babysat Cat’s son, “but all you want is ice cream?”

Ruby turns and rummages through a drawer. “We can do that after, just in case she thinks to call you to tell you all the rules.” She pulls two spoons out and turns to Kara with a grin. “Now, I watched all your interviews when Mom said we were gonna move here, and we both have the same favorite flavor, so please get some bowls out of that cupboard, Supergirl.”

Kara, now wearing a matching grin, obliges, and after two monstrous bowls of ice cream she does indeed float Ruby around the house, only pausing when the call the girl had predicted comes, Sam rattling off a slew of babysitting rules, none of which include not flying her child around, much to both Kara and Ruby’s amusement.

‘Supergirl’ ends up babysitting Ruby at least a few times a month after that, usually at Sam’s house but sometimes at the DEO, going to get the girl and flying her in when there’s a particularly tricky villain around that Sam is too busy hunting to leave work on time. Kara keeps the child company until it’s time for her to go handle the villain, and after that Alex usually takes over, at some point having decided that babysitting the very stubborn child is much more fun than ordering Kara around via her comm (which is probably good, since Sam has also taken to doing that and Kara can only handle one backseat driver at a time, thank you). If it’s a case where Alex wants to be in the field as well, Ruby is all too happy to hang out with Sam in the command room, and despite everyone knowing to keep her away from the technology Kara inevitably ends up with more than one Arias ‘giving advice’ in her ear mid-battle.

Meanwhile, Alex’s crush on Sam grows and grows— and hanging out with Ruby only makes her like the whole family even more— until she finally talks to her about it a few months into working together. She doesn’t tell Kara the specifics, but she does spend the weekend at Kara’s apartment, eating ice cream and trying not to cry.

“She said she likes me too but she can’t right now,” is all Alex will say.

Kara wonders if it’s because of Sam’s search for Lena Luthor but isn’t sure it’s her place to say anything so she doesn’t, and focuses on comforting her sister instead.

As for Lex and Lillian Luthor, they’re still constantly in the public eye, and despite the world’s growing suspicion of them no one has found any evidence of their more heinous deeds, and what little is found on more benign things is easily swept under the rug.

Sam does manage to find a few places they all know are connected to the Luthors— Kara busts in to hidden labs in warehouses and nondescript buildings every few months, freeing alien hostages and arresting unscrupulous scientists, but there’s never anything there to tie them to anyone, and Lena Luthor is never there either. Kara is pretty sure Sam nearly punches something each time they come up empty handed, but then she huffs and gets back to work.

Year Two

About a year after Sam and Kara’s initial meeting Sam and Alex start dating. Even as she celebrates with her sister Kara wonders if this means Sam has given up on ever finding Lena Luthor. It isn’t a fair thought, she knows. Kara of all people understands that you have to continue living your life eventually, regardless of what else is happening.

When Alex introduces her sister to Sam a few weeks later, the woman’s face betrays nothing, and she doesn’t say a word to Kara about their having met before. Knowing Sam, she probably already looked into Alex’s sister and realized who she was, though why she doesn’t say anything Kara doesn’t know. She hasn’t heard her mention Lena Luthor at all since their first two meetings.

At some point Alex makes the very poor decision to have her sister go babysit Ruby as Kara and not Supergirl, and Kara knows she’s doomed when Ruby lets her in the front door with nary a question. Kara idly cards a hand through Ruby’s hair as she passes her, just as the child’s phone dings with a text, and Kara winces when she glances at it and sees that it’s the one telling her Alex had just called Kara and she would be there soon… her sister really should have texted Ruby and then called Kara at least. She gives Ruby what she thinks is an excellent excuse for how fast she arrived but the girl just smirks.

“So,” Ruby says, already getting the ice cream out of the freezer. “Do you need me to tell you where the bowls are again, or…?”

Kara sighs and gets the bowls and spoons ready. “Don’t tell Alex or she’ll try to make you sign an NDA.”

“I’m barely eleven,” Ruby says, scoffing and already filling her bowl with far too much ice cream. “And I think you’ll get into more trouble than me. Plus, the birthday gift you got me was… kinda sad.”

Kara gasps, offended, and starts overfilling her own bowl. “I made that myself!”

Ruby pauses, frowning at her around a bite of ice cream. “It’s a doll house. It is made of… some kind of wood and metal, so it’s kinda fancy, I guess, but…”

Kara frowns then. “I maybe should have shown you how to use it. Come with me.” She takes her bowl and leads the way to the large doll house sitting in the living room. Once Ruby, now very confused, is beside her, Kara reaches down and rings the doorbell.

There’s a flash of red light and then Kara has to use her super speed to catch Ruby’s bowl of ice cream when the child drops it, because instead of standing outside of the doll house they’re both in it, and doll-sized at that.

“Fucking hell,” Ruby whispers.

“Language,” Kara says, frowning and sitting the bowl on the entryway table.

“I get to say that once a month,” Ruby says absently, spinning slowly and taking everything in. “Super— uh, Kara, does this mean you gave me a whole house?”

“I thought you would have fun with the pool at least. If you do this,” Kara flips a switch and the lights come on, and they both hear the pool a few rooms away filling with water. “And there’re plenty of safety measures in place,” Kara adds, waving her hand vaguely. “It won’t let you drown, and no one can grab us or anything even though we’re tiny. All you have to do to exit is walk through the front door or say you want to.”

Ruby is still wandering around and gaping at everything, but now Kara is thinking about how she really doesn’t know what kids like, so this gift may still be lacking. As Kara continues following the child and eating her ice cream, she tries to think of gifts she’d gotten when she was Ruby’s age, and… she really doesn’t have the parts to make those.

“Oh,” Kara says, coming to a stop and watching as Ruby does a cannonball fully clothed into the pool. The girl surfaces and swims over to her, placing her arms on the tile ringing the pool and tilting her head expectantly. “I know you like to deal in bribes, so considering that and you finding this gift subpar,” she continues, barely noticing when Ruby opens her mouth, “and that I don’t have the parts to make the kinds of things I got at your age, well!” Kara crouches with a grin. “We can just do what my Aunt Astra and I did!”

Ruby slowly closes her mouth, a considering look in her eyes. “And what did you two do?”

“What time is your mom getting home again?” Kara asks. When Ruby tells her they have a few hours still, Kara’s grin widens, and she pulls the girl out of the pool, ignoring the child’s surprise when she instantly dries, clothes and all. She doesn’t set Ruby down til she reaches the house’s front door, and she idly stores her empty ice cream bowl and Ruby’s melting one in her glasses— the side with the pocket dimension she usually uses for shopping, not her super suit. “I need to grab something, but I’ll be back in a minute,” Kara says once they’ve both exited the house.

It’s thirty minutes later that Kara finally gives Ruby her still only slightly melted ice cream, and the girl takes it automatically, her eyes never leaving the window.

“I think I’m gonna start calling you Auntie Kara,” Ruby mumbles, eating her ice cream now.

“That’s fine, but why?” Kara asks, pressing a few of the buttons on the control panel in front of her and scowling when she realizes just how many parts she’s going to need to manage to go any farther out.

“Well you gave me a whole house, and now… we’re in space,” Ruby says, her gaze now fixed on the curve of the Earth below them. “And there’s no way I’m telling Mom any of this, and I was told once that I should only keep secrets from my family if it’s… for my family’s safety.”

Kara looks up finally, frowning. “Why would not telling Sam be keeping me safe?”

Ruby finally looks away from the window, though her eyes slip off of Kara quickly when she spots the moon out the other window, much closer to them now than Earth is. “If Mom finds out you took me to space she may actually kill you, Aunt Kara.”

“Aunt Astra took me to whole other planets all the time,” Kara says, pouting now. “And my parents… hm, they didn’t know, actually. I liked having something secret only we knew about, and I didn’t want them to be mad at her since I almost got eaten… a lot…”

The rest of the trip passes quickly, Ruby still staring out the windows and Kara regaling her with her trips to other planets with her aunt, which for some reason occasionally causes Ruby to look at her with very startled expressions. When they land and Kara gets Ruby back home just as Sam is unlocking the door (after a heavy makeout session with Alex, which Kara did not appreciate hearing on the flight over even if this is their date night and it gave her enough time to get back without getting caught), Ruby whispers that she wants to go on a secret flight for her next birthday too, and Kara agrees, still wondering why the girl thinks Sam would be mad in the first place.

Months later when Alex and Kara reveal Kara’s Super secret to Sam, Kara watches a spark of hope flare to life in Sam’s eyes and then instantly die. It takes her a moment to wonder why before she realizes: yes, Supergirl who trusts Sam with her secret would help her search for Lena… but she already did and wasn’t particularly helpful. Kara winces and shakes her head and Sam blows out a breath and doesn’t say a word about it, simply telling Kara to not let Ruby know she’s Supergirl for now, to which Kara gives a simple nod.

Secretly, Kara is glad that Sam hasn’t given up on her missing family member yet, even if Kara herself doesn’t know that anything will help at this point. The Luthors have become especially slippery lately, even with Lex having two broken arms somehow, and Kara hasn’t found a bit of evidence on them for even petty crimes in months. Anytime she’s called to a scene they should be at, that there is literally no escape from, no one is there, and Supergirl leaves empty handed yet again.

Sam continues finding places with hostages and what Alex dubs ‘evil scientists, and not the fun kind’, though when Kara asks her how she’s doing it she just shrugs and says the DEO got some ‘anonymous tips’.

It’s about a month later that Sam calls Kara and Alex into her office, and even as Kara taps Alex’s shoulder and brushes against Sam’s arm, ignoring her sister’s look, she idly wonders if Sam found out about her taking Ruby to space, or the specifics of the doll house since Ruby told her that needs to stay secret as well.

“So, good news,” Sam says, and Kara relaxes slightly. She places a photo on the desk, a familiar face scowling at the camera.

Alex scoffs. “That bitch tried to kill my sister, the only good news would be if she’s dead.” She looks at Kara then, as if reassuring herself she’s still alive and well, and Kara resists the urge to roll her eyes.

Yes, the person in the photo had attacked her with… essentially a gas bomb made with kryptonite, and yes, Kara had been unconscious in the sun bed for a few days, but she was fine, and there had been no other casualties so Kara doesn’t really care much.

“Like I said,” Sam drawls, “good news.”

Alex’s head whips back and she stares at her girlfriend in surprise. Then she pales. “It wasn’t me, I promise.”

Sam shakes her head. “I know, babe— it happened last night and you were with me at the time,” she drawls, and Alex’s face turns red. Kara turns to leave. “No, Supergirl, wait, there’s more.”

Kara turns, nose wrinkled. “I don’t know that I want to hear any more, thank you.” She has accidentally heard far too much thanks to her super hearing already.

Alex looks away and Sam sighs. “Her death is being investigated as an assassination, because who, or… whatever, did it, broke into the prison.” When Alex looks at her, mouth agape, Sam places another photo on the table: bars that look like they’d been bent and quickly straightened, and a black blur at the edge of the photo, likely the perpetrator, though they were moving far too fast for the camera to get a clear image.

“Interesting,” Alex mutters, scrutinizing the photo. “Anything else to go on?”

Sam scowls, crossing her arms. “No. No one saw anything, no one heard anything, and all we know about their powers are that they’re fast and strong.”

“And they knew where their target was somehow,” Kara adds. She shrugs when they look at her. “It’s a big prison, maximum security, and they got in and out without arousing suspicion. They do good reconnaissance work.”

Her sister hums an agreement and goes back to staring at the photo, and Kara leaves after Sam waves her off.

It’s awhile later that Kara finds a spaceship with three people in stasis, and when they’re all awake she learns, to her slight annoyance since it means she can’t salvage it for parts, that the ship is mostly functional and from the future of all things, which she finds incredibly odd since its parts are very similar to what a Kryptonian ship would have.

Kara is watching all three of them, brow crinkled and debating how best to initiate physical contact, when the one whose name she didn’t get steps forward, a sad kind of smile on their face, and holds out a hand for her to shake. She does so, and once the other two have followed suit Kara finally relaxes.

One young man, who is very insistent that everyone call him ‘Brainy’, asks her to help him fix their ship, and seems oddly confident she’ll be able to despite Supergirl not being known for her mechanic skills. Once she’s assessed the problem with their engine she hovers, head tilted as her brain speeds ahead to decide the best way to fix it with the parts she currently has, and when she settles down a second later she can see the question on his face.

“It’s easier to think if I don’t have to regulate my strength,” Kara mutters, flushing. He seems even more confused and she tells him she’ll be back in a few minutes before leaving to get the parts she needs.

The group is from some kind of planetary defense force Earth will create at a date they won’t specify, ‘Legion’ or something like that, and all of them have been watching Kara oddly the whole time, though since she’s mostly near Brainy while they fix the ship, he’s the worst of all.

“What?” Kara finally asks, turning to him once the engine is repaired.

Brainy’s eyes widen. “Nothing…” He almost says something and clamps his mouth closed. “Uh… Supergirl,” he finishes, lips flattened in a tight line.

Kara narrows her eyes. “I already know you all know my name, I heard Imra say it earlier. You can just call me Kara.”

“I really cannot,” Brainy mutters, and flushes suddenly. “Anyway, thank you very much for helping me fix our ship, and I apologize for needing you to supply some of the parts, but I believe—“ His ring makes a small sound and vibrates on his finger, and he frowns down at it. Brainy taps it and the ring projects some kind of document, Kara thinks, though the tech has something similar to what Krypton did, because she can’t make out what it actually says since the words are a blur to her.

Brainy pales as he reads, and once he’s done he taps the ring and the projection disappears. He stands and stiffly walks out, and it’s only once he’s gathered everyone in a small conference room at the DEO, Kara physically brushing past them all on her way to the back of the room, that he speaks again.

“The ship has been repaired, but while you all must leave, I will be remaining here,” Brainy says evenly, and when Imra steps forward, face stormy, he holds up the hand with the ring on it and gestures to it. “My…” His eyes dart to Kara again and then fix on Imra. “Legion’s commanders left me a… note. There are… records of my presence starting at this date, and so here I must remain.”

Imra comes closer, arms crossed. “Do you really think that’s a good idea, considering?” She nods to Kara and Brainy stiffens further.

“I am sure…” He opens and closes his mouth, and much to Kara’s shock he mutters a Kryptonian curse before flushing again. He turns to her and meets her eyes. “I am sure… Kara…” He grimaces. “Will be most accommodating.”

Alex steps forward then, arms crossed much like Imra’s are, though when Imra looks over and notices that she drops her own arms to her sides. “Is there a reason you can barely say my sister’s name?”

Brainy gulps and his hands twitch slightly. “I… have heard quite a lot about this time period… Supergirl especially, so I simply… need a bit to adjust to… meeting her in-person, is all.” He gives a Kara look then that’s half glare and half pout before forcing his face into a neutral expression.

The androgynous person whose name Kara didn’t catch, with wild, curly hair and an odd smirk steps forward then, placing one hand on Imra’s shoulder and watching Brainy intently. “And was that all the ‘note’ said, Brainy?”

Brainy and Imra both glare at them and they look away, shoulders shaking with laughter. “Fucking hell, you!” Imra mutters a Kryptonian curse then and Kara’s eyes widen, but Imra ignores her, still intent on the person beside her. “You already knew,” she hisses. “Why the fuck didn’t you warn us?”

The person turns back, still a little too smirky for Kara’s liking, and… there’s something familiar about them, but… she starts rubbing her forehead idly as a dull throb starts in her mind, and the curly-haired person notices the movement, their humor vanishing. “I didn’t know for sure,” they mutter, stepping back and scuffing one foot on the floor. “I just… it was around this time, I thought.”

Imra is comforting them now, wrapping one arm around their shoulders and pressing a kiss to their cheek, but Kara, brow crinkled, has her focus drawn back to Brainy when he clears his throat, and her curiosity about the curly-haired person falls away along with the pounding in her head.

“The note also mentioned that Winn Schott Jr. will be taking my place aboard the ship,” Brainy says stiffly.

“I get to what?” Winn yelps. “I— but it’s the future! Why am I going to the future?” He’s already bouncing up and down with excitement.

“The note said there is no record of you after today’s date,” Brainy says calmly, “and that, according to a document from an old DEO server, you departed to the future on a ship which perfectly matches our own.”

Kara smiles when Winn turns to her, hands flapping and radiating joy, even as she feels a sort of emptiness within herself, because Winn is leaving, and to a place she has no way of following. He’s been her best friend for years now, and… she… can’t ask him to stay, not with an opportunity like this, and not when the only reason it’s happening is that it already happened, in a way… She sees, then, Brainy watching her again, and there is a sort of grief in his eyes she doesn’t understand, though if it’s for his having to stay or Winn’s having to go, she doesn’t know.

So Winn leaves that day, along with Imra and the person whose name Kara never learned, and Brainy stays, and the DEO has a new tech guy who is valiantly trying to call Kara by her name but mostly resorting to calling her Supergirl, and at one point Kara overhears Sam asking Brainy about Lena Luthor, but Brainy simply says he’s never heard of her, and that no records of anyone with that name exist in the future, and Sam mutters a curse and stomps away.

It’s only a week later and Kara is doing a morning patrol before work when a young girl on a rooftop waves her down. A dull throbbing starts at the base of Kara’s skull when she lands nearby and the girl immediately muffles a cough. “Supergirl,” she says, smiling at Kara even as her eyes start to water. Kara wants to be anywhere else for some reason, and starts to lift off but the girl lunges forward and latches onto her cape. “Please, I just wanted—“ She coughs, shoulders shaking. “They’re going to kill your sister,” the girl manages finally. “They won’t let you save her, and, um, it’s okay to break the rules as long as it’s for your family… remember what the Captain, uh, your aunt Astra said, you have to fight for your family no matter what.” She hugs Kara then, and pulls away, wincing and rubbing at the rash blooming on her skin. “I would help you if I could, but that’s all I know, there… was a note that said to say all that…“ She sneezes this time and Kara finally gets out of reach.

The girl is still watching her, though Kara refuses to even look at her, rubbing her forehead as the pain in her mind worsens. Then she hears a sound that makes her freeze, and a moment later her own voice is being broadcast at a level only she can hear, and speaking in ancient Kryptonian no less: “We have to save Alex, come now.”

Kara mutes her comm and turns off her tracker, heart already pounding, and zooms off, her memory of the girl already falling away. She follows the soft pinging sound to find her ship hovering thousands of feet above National City, invisible and untraceable aside from the sound it’s emitting. The door opens and she flies in to find herself already standing at one end of the wishbone-shaped device she cobbled together along with her ship shortly after she landed on Earth, determined to never be at the mercy of time again and for some reason not fearing the time wraiths…

Even as the dull throb in her head at that thought fades, Kara meets her future self’s red-rimmed eyes and sees her anguish, the tears still slipping down her cheeks, the way her breaths come fast and uneven and how her fists are clenched so tightly Kara can hear her bones creaking in protest, and she’s pretty sure some of them have already cracked.

Kara goes to the other end of the device and places her hand on it, squeezing her eyes shut and dreading whatever she’s about to experience, and when her future self touches it as well—

Alex is missing, and Kara can’t find her. Nia can’t dream her location, Brainy is confused he’d never heard of this happening, and Sam and Kara are both turning National City upside down to no avail.

Sam actually does punch a wall when they find another dead end, a place Alex should have been, that everything pointed to her being, and no one is there, though Kara idly thinks it’s awfully foggy for afternoon. The thought is gone a moment later when Sam rattles off a new location in her comm, and the cycle repeats.

They don’t find her until the next day, and her sister is… she’s…

Alex is dead.

Sam collapses, clutching her head and screaming in a way that hurts Kara’s, and Kara… Kara remembers, suddenly, how often her aunt told her to fight for her family, and even though she knows she shouldn’t break the rules, it has to be okay for this, for her sister.

She flies to her apartment so quickly she can vaguely hear all the glass in her path shattering, can hear the sonic boom she makes, but it doesn’t matter because none of this is going to matter.

Kara bursts through the wall into her apartment and grabs the rock on her coffee table shaped like a cartoon spaceship, and she takes it with her up, up, up above the city, and when she’s high enough that no one will notice she activates it, red lines coursing through it as it grows and grows, and even the minute it takes to finish expanding is too long, and Kara can feel her chest burning and she’s sobbing and struggling not to punch something with her full strength, but that is destruction she cannot risk, not ever, and—

It’s going to be okay, and she scrubs at her cheeks and flies into her ship and goes back to yesterday.

She calls for her past self, tells her what’s happening in a language only they should know, and even the few minutes it takes her to arrive are excruciating, and controlling her strength has never been so difficult. Kara can feel the smaller bones in her hands cracking with how tight she’s fisted them but it doesn’t matter, because soon she’ll be gone, and Alex will never have died, and her past self will save their sister.

Past Kara walks in and takes one look at her before placing her hand on the device shaped like a wishbone and—

Kara blinks back into herself, tears slipping down her cheeks at the memories and she stares down at her hands, flexing them and struggling to understand why there’s no pain, no broken bones… right, that version of herself is gone, that whole time line, that whole possibility was erased as soon as she came back here and merged the souls of her past and future selves…

But if Kara doesn’t act soon it may happen again, and she shoots out of her ship, comm still muted and tracker still deactivated, and sends a quick text to Cat that she doesn’t know what time she’ll make it to work today, if she does at all. She orders the ship to return home and merge with its past self before zooming off towards the sound of Alex’s heartbeat.

Kara stalks her sister from above, doesn’t let her out of her sight, yet again Alex goes missing, white fog in her wake that makes Kara’s head hurt, but this time Kara already knows all the places she should be.

Kara ignores the comm in her ear crackling with Sam and Brainy and Nia’s panic when they realize Alex is gone, and she flies to the final location they’d checked, where her sister’s body had been floating—

She pushes the thought away, forces her tears to subside when there’s no one there, and starts backtracking, checking every spot they’d tried before. In the third to last spot she has left to search, Sam now yelling into her comm for Supergirl to fucking answer her already, she finally sees Alex, in a tank slowly filling with water and cussing out someone they had grown up with in Midvale.

Kara lands in the center of the building so heavily the tank her sister is in shatters, water flooding out, and Alex immediately knocks the man unconscious, and a moment later Kara is hugging her and they’re surrounded by white fog… and time wraiths.

Alex stiffens but Kara hugs her closer and glares at the wraiths, and a tall one, the tallest she’s ever seen, appears, and there’s a painful pounding in her head now that feels twofold somehow, but the tall wraith glares at the others, all covering their faces and shaking with coughs, until they all leave, and then it glares at Kara before vanishing as well.

“Kara—“ Alex starts.

“No,” Kara growls. “You’re alive, and they’re gone, and it’s fine.” Even though she said it, she no longer knows who ‘they’ was referring to, but it doesn’t matter, because her sister is alive and everything is okay again.

Her sister sucks in a breath. “Did I… die?” Her voice is quiet, pained, and it makes Kara’s chest hurt.

Kara pulls away enough to glare at her. “You’re alive now, so no.”

Alex takes a shuddering breath before hugging her again. “Thank you,” she finally whispers. Then, “Don’t tell Sam, she… there’s too much going on already.”

Kara hugs her as tightly as she dares, and idly wonders why no wraiths showed up like they did when Barry Allen messed with time, but the thought falls away. She pulls back and gives Alex a cheeky grin. “In that case you had better call her because she’s been cussing me out for the last ten minutes.”

“God dammit— Kara!” Alex ends up stealing her phone and calling Sam, and she gets cussed out for a solid thirty seconds before Sam pauses long enough to realize who’s on the other end.

Chapter Text

Year Three

Kara takes Ruby to space for her birthday again, and this time they have a picnic in the middle of her ship, with cake and ice cream and potstickers, and Kara continues regaling Ruby with tales of her and her aunt Astra’s adventures on other planets.

About halfway through a small ship pulls up beside them, and since Kara is confident in her own strength and her ship’s defenses she allows the lone visitor to board, and she and Ruby have to sit through a solid hour of nonsensical stories from a very drunk alien who eats the second cake Kara was saving for later. Eventually Kara manages to shepherd them back onto their own vessel, and she strongly suggests going to visit Mars instead of Earth along the way, much to Ruby’s amusement.

It’s a few months after their second secret flight, and a new gift she makes for Ruby that she is again sworn to secrecy on for some reason, that Kara attends Alex and Sam’s wedding.

Well, their show wedding. The two had taken Ruby and eloped for the real deal, and Kara had only found out a few days later when Ruby told her smugly over the phone. As it is, Kara is fairly certain they only have the ceremony they are now for Eliza’s sake, though Kara was also pouting enough the last few days that her sister started avoiding her.

Kara is Alex’s maid of honor, Ruby is the flower girl and ring bearer, and Sam leaves her maid of honor seat empty. At this point Kara doesn’t really remember what Lena Luthor looks like, a flash of dark hair and pale skin from a grainy photo taken years ago all she can recall. Still, she can’t help but mourn a bit even as she congratulates Alex and Sam, especially when she overhears Ruby whispering to her mom about how she wishes Auntie Lena and Aunt Jess were there, and… Uncle Jack too.

It’s the first time Kara has heard Ruby mention Lena, and at the thought of the Luthors Kara can’t help but feel frustrated. Lillian and Lex Luthor have been focused lately on ‘doing good deeds’ as they put it, and now they’ve almost entirely repaired their public image, even as the schemes Kara knows they’re behind continue uninterrupted. She hasn’t found any evidence on them in ages, and the only reason she ever finds anything likely connected to them is Sam’s ‘anonymous tips’.

Kara still babysits Ruby often, and now the girl can openly call her ‘Aunt Kara’ around her parents, though at twelve years old Ruby Arias-Danvers really and truly believes she should be allowed to stay home alone and tells Kara as much every time she comes over now. Kara just ruffles her hair in the way she knows makes her niece both indignant and happy and lets herself in, locking the door behind her when Ruby gives her the same look Sam always does.

“You almost forgot again, didn’t you?” Ruby asks, shaking her head.

Kara huffs. “Look, if a locked door is enough to stop whoever is trying to come in then they really won’t be a problem for me.”

Ruby heads to the kitchen. “Mom doesn’t want me to know that yet, remember?”

Kara follows, already pouting. “You figured it out before we even told Sam… maybe don’t mention that when the time comes though.”

Ruby grabs some ice cream from the freezer and fills a bowl with twice as much as Kara is supposed to let her. At Kara’s frown the girl grins. “Let’s make a deal, Auntie Kara,” Ruby singsongs, “I don’t tell Mom I know Supergirl is my aunt and I get as much ice cream as I want.”

Kara sighs and agrees, knowing that anytime her niece is making a deal she already knows she’s won. So they both have what Sam would deem an ‘unhealthy amount of ice cream’, and when Kara accidentally cracks both of their bowls when she goes to put them away her niece just shakes her head, idly watching as Kara retrieves what looks like two post-it notes from the pocket dimension in her glasses, slapping one onto each bowl and nodding to herself as the ‘paper’ melts into them and repairs them.

“Some day you’re going to run out of those,” Ruby muses. “And then my moms will realize what a menace you are. Well, Ma kinda knows already, but…”

“These are the one thing I did have to Earthify,” Kara grumbles, shuddering at the memory of figuring out Earth tech enough to replicate what she needed. “Otherwise I’d spend all my time replacing… everything.”

“Menace,” Ruby repeats happily. She pulls her homework out, already scowling at it. “Also, I am going swimming in the doll house after this. Or using the room I made a tiny punching bag for, we’ll see.”

“I can help?” Kara offers.

Ruby shakes her head. “No, I can do it, I’m not gonna make you read another one of my textbooks.”

“It only takes a few minutes,” Kara says, hoping nonetheless that her niece won’t make her have to learn… so-called ‘advanced’ Earth math. It’s so backwards, and she worked very hard to forget it all once she’d graduated.

At Kara’s comment Ruby gives her a look she definitely picked up from Alex. “That was one of the things that tipped me off, by the way.”

Kara waves her hand. “Yeah, I’m sure that was what did it, not that the first time Alex sent me to babysit you as Kara she texted you that she was busy and had just called me, only for me to show up before the text arrived.”

“That,” Ruby says, wrinkling her nose and playing along, both of them knowing she knew as soon as she saw her, “and the fact that you told me you flew over… on a bus.” She starts on her homework as Kara sputters, and when she gets to one of the more annoying questions (or stupid ones, in Kara’s opinion), she sighs. “My godmother would definitely find this easy, but… ugh.”

“I’m your godmother,” Kara says indignantly.

Ruby blinks at her. “Okay, fine, my… original? First? Godmother.” She bites her lip. “I don’t know if it… was ever official or if… it still is…”

Kara tilts her head, brow crinkling, before it clicks. “Oh, Lena Luthor?”

Ruby’s eyes widen and Kara is pretty sure she’s more shocked than when Supergirl showed up to babysit her. “You know about her?” Ruby whispers.

“Uh, yes?” Kara pauses. “Well, it’s not like Sam… I mean, she did tell me a little, but it was before she and Alex even met. She wanted me to look into her, uh, disappearance.”

Ruby’s face darkens, but she nods, watching Kara as a few things seem to click for her. “You’re the reporter who managed to hack Aunt Jess’s phone.”

“I mean, my friend did that, but yeah. Can I… ask you something?” Kara knows she shouldn’t, but she’s been curious for awhile now. At her niece’s nod, she continues. “Why are there no pictures of her anywhere? Not just here,” Kara says, waving towards the living room, which is a virtual collage of Sam and Ruby and now Alex and even Kara, “but even online? How did she… manage that?”

Ruby sets her pencil down and sighs. “Any pictures that got online she took down almost immediately— she even edited herself out of group shots. She didn’t want to be publicly tied to… the Luthors,” Ruby’s small hands curl into fists, “in any way. As for here…” Ruby sighs and flattens her hands on the table, frowning down at them. “It’s one of the rules,” she whispers.

“Rules?” Kara prompts gently when her niece has been quiet for awhile.

“To keep us safe,” Ruby says, monotone. “There are… more than I probably know, but one of the big ones is no pictures. We do have a lot, but they’re hidden. I have to ask Mom to get them out so I can look at them, but then Mom gets sad so I… don’t ask as much as I want to. All of the pictures of Aunt Jess and Uncle Jack are also hidden, since they both worked with Auntie Lena.” Ruby gives Kara a wan smile. “Mom and I both agreed to not break the rules, so even now we try to follow them, probably cuz Mom still remembers how pi— uh, mad, she got when Mom went behind her back to get a job at LuthorCorp to try to help her. I… still can’t believe Auntie Lena let Aunt Jess be her secretary.”

Kara watches her niece for a moment, remembering Sam’s description of Lena’s precautions and how she somehow got Jess to safety, how Jack’s death was suspicious, and how surprised Sam had been that she’d told Kara as much as she had, which… Kara is also now surprised by, honestly. She reaches out and carefully squeezes Ruby’s hand, as usual monitoring her strength even more for the gesture. “I know you don’t like it,” Kara says quietly, “but she’d want you to stay safe, and so far her rules are working. None of the Luthors or their people have come after you or your mom, and I think, wherever she is, Lena is happy you’re both okay.”

Ruby takes a deep breath and eventually pulls her hand away to keep working on her homework, but they both know Kara can hear her mutter that she’d be happier if Lena was okay too.

Kara is pretty sure Sam is still looking for Lena, especially with her focus on tracking the Luthors, but even with the help of Dreamer and Brainy, both of whom know quite a lot about the future, she has yet to find the woman.

As for Brainy, he and Nia finally start dating, and it only takes Kara, her sister, and her sister-in-law, to make it happen. Why Brainy was convinced Nia hated him until recently Kara does not know. Oddly enough, it’s the newest alien the DEO is babysitting, Mon-El, hitting on Nia that convinces Brainy that the half-Naltorian doesn’t hate him, as the looks she gives Mon-El both before and after his attempt at flirting with her are pure hatred indeed, though Mon-El never tries again since she sics a large, pink panther made of dream energy on him the first time.

Brainy is still muttering Kryptonian curses and seems very confused anytime Kara accidentally breaks something, and he still calls Kara by her super moniker far more often than her name. Sometimes he looks at her with a sadness she doesn’t understand, and occasionally when he talks to her he opens and closes his mouth silently a few times before managing to call her ‘Supergirl’. He’s getting along easily enough with everyone else at least, though he always calls Sam ‘Director’ and sometimes he stutters on Alex’s name, and she’s even heard that he and James go to bars some nights, though she’s pretty sure that’s only because Brainy’s girlfriend wants to ensure he has friend-friends as well.

Brainy has a funny look on his face when Kara touches down on the DEO landing pad today, already tying her hair back despite her sister hating when she does that in her suit, and when Alex doesn’t even comment on it as she pulls Kara into a conference room a moment later she finds out why. Alex doesn’t even give her the usual look when she idly brushes against both her and Sam.

“He’s dead,” Alex growls, “and I didn’t do it.” She slaps a photo down on the table, a grainy shot from a security camera, a blur of black and brown headed out a window. “Again.”

Sam shakes her head. “For the last time, babe, I cannot let you kill someone once we have them safely in custody.”

Alex slams the table with her fist. “If he had been ‘safely’ in custody the first time he wouldn’t have almost killed my little sister.” She’s breathing heavily, and Kara winces and looks away.

The man in question had been brought into the DEO for harassing patrons at the alien bar a month ago, and when he’d seen Supergirl he had broken free from the agents surrounding him— Kara feels a dull throb in the base of her skull when she wonders how he managed that— and run at her, and a moment later a small kryptonite knife had been coming at her heart. She hadn’t realized he even had the blade, it had been… foggy? She winces at the memory and rubs her head absently. Anyway, she had moved so that the knife missed her heart but it was close enough that her sister had effectively ‘grounded’ her for weeks even after she’d recovered, and she had spent most of her free time playing with Ruby in the doll house she’d made her, both of them hurrying out when the alarm her niece had had her add alerted them that Alex or Sam was back home.

“Shouldn’t you be glad he’s dead?” Kara grumbles.

Her sister scowls. “This person got into a high security prison twice and killed someone, and all we got was this.” Alex gestures to the photo in disgust. “I know they’re… getting rid of people who tried to kill you, but their skills… and their fixation on you… they could be a threat.” She glares at the photo for a long while, Kara and Sam watching her warily. “I’m going to find you, ‘kryptonite killer’,” Alex hisses, and Kara and Sam look at one another and shake their heads slightly— it’s never good when Alex gives a villain a name.

Year Four

Kara takes Ruby on another secret birthday flight for her thirteenth birthday, and this one nearly goes awry. Just as the ship settles into Earth’s orbit and Kara is getting ready to lay out the picnic, her gift already wrapped and surely one her niece won’t insist stays secret this time, her radar picks up… a concerning number of ships nearby.

Then there’s an incoming transmission, and after ushering Ruby into a space her camera won’t pick up, she answers the call, and of all the people to see on her screen she was not expecting it to be Queen Rhea of Daxam, Krypton’s sister planet which… apparently had to be vacated when it was showered with Krypton’s debris.

Rhea is just as rude as Kara’s mom had made her out to be, but for some reason when Kara calmly introduces herself Rhea pales, and a moment later she politely asks Kara if she’s seen her son who… hm, Mon-El being a prince is a surprise, but him being a prince of Daxam is… less so. Kara assures the queen she will bring Mon-El to her by the day’s end and the ships retreat, and she keeps her word once she’s dropped Ruby off, the girl watching her oddly after that even when Kara tells her about her mom sending her aunt to Fort Rozz of all places.

Annoyingly enough, Ruby tells Kara to keep this gift a secret as well, even though she assures her she’ll make good use of her new lunch box, especially the pocket dimension Kara built into the zipper pocket of it.

Kara had thought things would be calmer with Mon-El finally gone, but now Brainy and James are fighting. Neither will tell Kara why, and even Nia doesn’t know what happened, just that Brainy had nothing nice to say about his no-longer friend after he’d come back early from a night out with him. Kara subtly touches them both when she can just in case, Alex says Brainy looks ready to kick James’ ass, and Sam calmly says she doesn’t care if they fight as long Brainy removes his Legion ring first since otherwise it’s her jurisdiction. James moves back to his home town shortly after that, and for some reason he avoids Kara’s gaze and barely lets her hug him goodbye.

Sam is still receiving ‘anonymous tips’ sometimes, and at this point none of them can tell who the places may be related to, but even without those she’s had Kara fly out to different areas around the world to search for ‘potential evil lairs’ many times now, and only rarely does Kara find more than a warehouse or bunker filled with harmless, junky Earth tech, though once she found an alien fighting ring on the outskirts of National City.

A potential ‘evil lair’ search is once again underway, and once again Sam refuses to tell Kara or even Brainy what they’re looking for or how she found this location, which… is a desert. Not a portion of desert, no, but an entire desert, which Kara has been combing over for hours now.

Sam is a lovely sister-in-law and a highly competent director but at the moment she is nothing more than a pain in Kara’s side, a thought she does her best not to say aloud. Kara had responded to the urgent call before the sun had even risen, and now she’s still flying above the endless sea of sand hundreds of miles away from any civilization, trying to listen for any signs of people while Sam ‘checks in’ every other minute.

“Sam!” Kara finally snaps. “How am I supposed to hear anything with you constantly talking in my ear?”

Sam goes quiet.

Then Alex growls, “Supergirl.”

“Don’t ‘Supergirl’ me, your wife is making my job impossible,” Kara says, huffing.

Alex is about to go on a tirade. Even after having worked alongside her wife for so long now she’s still as overprotective as she was when they were newlyweds almost two years ago. So everyone knows what’s coming, and everyone except Alex is thankful when Brainy steps in.

“How about we all refrain from speaking while Supergirl searches for the evil lair,” Brainy says evenly. At everyone’s silence he goes back to reading the satellite scans of the desert. “Change course by five degrees, Supergirl.”

Kara has been flying over the desert for hours now and not seen a single sign of non-desert-creature life, even with Brainy guiding her to potential locations. She also doesn’t know whose evil lair she’s searching for, just that Sam has never been this tightly wound in the four years Kara has known her. She doesn’t mind the heat or the sun beating down her, no, those are quite nice. All the dust scraping against her skin and eyes and scratching along her throat, however.

“Can I give up yet?” Kara asks.

“No,” Sam says immediately.

“Can I at least break for lunch?” Kara can hear the whine in her voice but doesn’t care at this point. Sam knows how important lunch is for her Kryptonian sister-in-law and Kara should have eaten at least an hour ago.

“Just keep flying,” Sam says. “They have to—“

“Quiet,” Kara interrupts. She can hear… something. “I need to turn my comm off for minute.”

“Supergirl,” Alex says sharply.

“I’ll be fine, I can hear something but I’m not close enough and the static and electric hum are throwing me off. Over and out.” Kara turns her comm off before Alex can lecture her or remind her of how horribly things went last time (to be fair, that was entirely Alex’s fault— had she not been flirting with her wife so much Kara would have been fine keeping her comm on and not had to resort to using her laser vision as a flare gun when she got caught in the paralyzing alien equivalent of a bear trap).

With her comm off Kara can make out… the hum of electricity elsewhere. She follows it, flying as high as she can while still able to hear it. She flies for miles and eventually she can hear voices now as well, though even when she knows she’s directly over them she can’t understand the words. It seems the evil lair, if that’s what she has indeed found, is somewhat soundproof.

Not enough, though.

Kara looks down, through the undisturbed sand oddly void of small critters, and sees, well, a giant box of lead. So the odds are it definitely is some kind of evil lair. There’s an underground tunnel fairly well camouflaged against x-ray vision leading to a hidden entrance miles away, but Kara has had quite enough of this ridiculous search. She contemplates turning her comm back on but then remembers how much Alex complains anytime Kara drills through the ground or breaks buildings or just generally causes loud destruction whilst wearing her comm.

So, now regulating her strength as carefully as she does when touching someone, Kara picks a space near the tunnel and begins spinning, then plummets feet first into the ground like a drill and bores down until she has a nice little tunnel of her own with only a few inches of sand between her and the wall of the lair’s tunnel. She reaches out and sticks her fingers through the hard material lining the tunnel, ripping it apart easy as paper and tearing a Supergirl-sized hole into it. As soon as she steps inside alarms begin blaring and what seems to be an endless line of booby traps is sprung at once.

She maybe should have turned her comm on.

As it is she doesn’t exactly have time now, what with dodging plasma blasts and green-tipped darts and laser beams. She makes steady work of the traps, darting from one to another and ripping them out at the roots, and now that she’s inside she can make out voices ahead… kind of. In between destroying traps and getting them to shoot one another, at least.

“We have an intruder in—“ Kara rips what she’s pretty sure is a bazooka launcher from the ceiling. “—girl! We need to evacuate!” She speeds up then and can’t make out what they’re saying as she closes in on the entrance of the lair proper.

When she rips the vaulted door from its hinges the few still-active traps turn off, apparently programmed to deactivate when the main room is no longer protected. The inner walls of the underground dwelling are also lead-lined so Kara isn’t quite sure of where exactly the voices are coming from but she heads in their general direction.

“No, wait, if you release it from containment—“ a desperate voice, a young woman.

“Quiet, it’s not as if she has the capacity to rebel at this point.” An older woman’s voice, cold and clipped.

“Mother, hurry up we have to—“ a man’s voice, annoyingly unruffled despite Supergirl bearing down on them. “Ugh this stupid watch, I should have programmed it myself.”

The man and older woman’s voices sound familiar, but… well, if it’s cuz she’s heard recordings of them at some point that’s no help— digitized audio is too distorted to her sensitive hearing for her to easily match it to real-life voices, and she’s definitely never heard them in-person before, at least. She’s broken from her thoughts by new sounds, small clicks and whirs, and then the sound of a heavy door unlocking nearby. Kara is almost to the room when she hears what sounds like shackles hitting the floor.

Then someone screams and it brings her to her knees so fast and hard the ground under her cracks.

Pain, agony, hatred. It floods her mind and it’s more crippling than kryptonite. Kara curls up on the floor as the building shakes around her. She hears the sound of metal tearing and then smashing into the cement floor, what may be bones breaking and sickening squelches, and it goes on and on and on. The scream doesn’t let up, the pain doesn’t lessen, there’s lava in her veins and her chest is white hot with rage, her skin feels like hundreds of tiny blades are cutting it, needles poking her, a dozen different things burning and eating away at her.

Kara has a high pain tolerance, she knows, but this… her mind is being flooded with pain and emotions that are not her own— it’s overwhelming and it’s everything she can do to just control her strength right now. It’s at that realization that a kind of… mental shield slips around her consciousness, instinctive and somehow familiar, but her immediate curiosity about that falls away when a bolt of pain flashes through her mind.

The other pain is still there, but muted now, and after taking another moment to acclimate she manages to stand. Uses the wall as a crutch to make her way along the quaking ground to the door. It opens into a lab of some kind, filled with equipment Kara doesn’t bother focusing on, computers lining the walls and everything in disarray, from the attempt to flee or the tremors she doesn’t know which.

In the back corner of the room a large metal door is open. A pale figure in a grimy hospital gown is standing there, mouth still open in an endless scream, elbows bent and their hands moving up and down like they’re shaking some invisible thing. Not far from them an enormous hunk of machinery is flying up and down in time with their movements, smashing into the floor again and again and again, and Kara can see and smell the blood from here. A cracked watch lays in the pooling red and she focuses on that as she moves closer.

Kara staggers towards the screaming figure, and not once do they even look her way or pause to breathe, entirely focused on their task. Kara finally reaches them, her vision too hazy from pain still to make out much of anything, and acting on instinct she embraces them from behind, letting her mental shield fall away. As soon as her skin makes contact with theirs the scream stops and the person freezes, the hunk of machinery falling to the ground one last time with a wet thud. Kara realizes then that the scream was definitely in her mind, not aloud, though her ears are still ringing. The mental invasion now stymied, the pain starts to ebb and Kara forces herself to breathe through it, takes a moment to find the calm place within herself, a red sun shining over a long dead city, a soft blanket pooled around her and her family at her back.

When she opens her eyes the pain is gone entirely, and she feels greasy hair pressed against her cheek and a cold, bony body shaking slightly in her grasp. She can hear how weak the person’s heartbeats are, the sluggish way their blood flows through their veins. The bare skin touching hers is frigid, filthy, and riddled with upraised scars. Kara has to find her calm place again when she feels her own spike of hatred for the people now puddled on the floor.

Calm once more, Kara turns all her focus to the person she’s still embracing. “You’re safe now,” she says quietly. “You took care of them. They can’t hurt you anymore.” The person sags against her and Kara slowly, carefully picks them up. “I’m going to take you outside, okay? We’ll go slow, you’re safe, I promise.” Cloudy green eyes meet her own and Kara makes a decision. She loves her sister, she loves her sister-in-law, but she cannot trust the DEO. Not with how many aliens they’ve made disappear just for being ‘dangerous’, not with how many promises they’ve made her break. Kara will not let them have this person, will not even let them suspect they exist. It’s not the first time she’s hidden someone from them, and it won’t be the last. “I’ve got you now, and I won’t let anyone hurt you again.”

Something tells Kara that she needs to keep this person with her, and as she has the thought she holds them closer, a surge of protectiveness overwhelming her as she turns to survey the room. It’s full of medical equipment that Kara knows was not used in any way humanely, and between that and the person’s powers a normal hospital is not an option. No DEO, no hospital, she has to keep the person with her— this is what Kara takes for fact, and she nods to herself, her path forward clear. The person in her arms relaxes against her as she has the thought, and Kara’s grip tightens just a bit.

She slowly flies out the way she came in, skirting around collapsed bits of the ceiling along the way. When she passes through the hole she ripped in the side of the tunnel and sunlight hits the person she’s cradling she feels their body stiffen and then curl into her, trying to escape it. Kara immediately backs up, shifting the too-small body into just one arm and unclipping her cape with her free hand.

“I have to take you out of here, but you’ve been here awhile so I’m going to put this over you for a bit, okay?” Kara holds the cape up and waits til the person peeks at it. “It will protect you from the sunlight.” She slowly drapes it over them, making sure they’re completely covered before she finally exits the tunnel. Kara flies a bit more quickly now, and takes the person to the closest shady spot she can find. She settles them there and starts to pull away, freezing when bony fingers dart out of the cape and clutch at her.

Kara pulls the cape aside just enough to see wide, terrified eyes.

“It’s okay, I’m not leaving you. I just need to step away for a minute,” Kara tries. She pulls back and the person darts forward, letting the cape fall away and pool around them. Pain-free and in a relatively safe place, now, Kara can actually see the person. The… human? Maybe?

Their skin is sickly pale and pulled taut across sharp cheekbones, dull green eyes sunken in but focusing on Kara as best they can, hazy with confusion or exhaustion, Kara doesn’t know. The person’s black hair is long and hangs in ratty clumps down their back, and Kara can see the blue of their veins stark beneath their skin. The hospital gown is grey and heavily stained with blood at the least, and hangs off their bony frame in such a way Kara is amazed it hasn’t simply slipped off. Their arms and legs are scary-thin, the bones of their elbows and knees looking almost like they’re about to pierce through the skin stretched over them.

The hands gripping Kara are cold, far too cold really, and she can feel the bones of the person’s fingers digging into her as best they can. Despite shaking from the strength of their grip they barely make divots in Kara’s skin.

Kara uses her x-ray vision then, and sees just how little there is between the person’s bones and skin. And just how many of their bones have been broken and healed, or are still healing. When she lets her vision return to normal Kara finally makes out the scars, recalls the feeling of being cut and poked and burned from when the person had screamed and realizes where exactly all that pain had originated. All the skin Kara can see is littered with tiny and not-so-tiny marks, many nearly hidden under the grime and old scabs coating them.

Without warning Kara reaches out, grabs the neckline of the hospital gown and tears it in two, then tears some more until the filthy scraps fall from the person’s body. The person… the woman doesn’t flinch, doesn’t look away from Kara’s face.

But Kara does look away, looks down, sees ribs and hip bones nearly poking through skin and even worse scarring on her torso, a particularly grisly one above her heart and a large burn on her side. She listens to her heart again then, but it sounds normal, and she hopes that whatever they started they didn’t finish. There is no fat left on the woman’s body, and not much muscle either. Kara is amazed she could stand as long as she did, amazed she is even conscious right now.

Kara pulls her glasses out and places them on the woman’s face, fiddles with the button on the side and watches the clothes she’d thrown on in a hurry that morning appear on the woman. Socks that slouch around her ankles, jeans that would fall immediately if she stood, a soft t-shirt and cardigan that swallow her whole. The woman looks down once they’re on her, tilting her head and watching Kara hurry to catch the glasses that slide off her face when she does so.

Kara picks up the scraps of hospital gown and sets them on fire with her heat vision, doesn’t release them until they’re ash in the wind. She tucks her glasses back into the hidden pocket on her suit and bends down, placing a kiss on the crown of the woman’s head. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, baby girl, just wait here.”

This time Kara manages to go and she flies straight back into the lair. If it weren’t for the deep scar over her heart, the worry they did something that may need fixing, Kara would have destroyed the place immediately. Instead she remembers Winn’s old lecture on not destroying hard drives at least and she speeds around the main room gathering all she can find. Data now safely tucked into one of the many pockets on her suit, Kara calls on her anger and horror at what this place did to the woman outside and lets her heat vision burn it down.

She wants to scream and rage but somehow feels that that may frighten the one she now desperately wants to protect, so instead she focuses her anger into her eyes and maintains an island of calm in her heart as best she can. She burns and burns and burns it all until everything is puddling on the floor, the instruments and the lab itself molten and destroying the evidence of the woman’s crime, a metal tomb for the (five? eight?) people she killed.

The other rooms suffer the same fate, Kara barely registering the few cars parked in one of them that only fuel the fire.

Then she speeds through the miles-long tunnel, melting the ceiling as she goes and zipping past as it drips and burns into the floor behind her, determined to destroy anything that may point to there being any kind of survivor here. When she flies out of the actual entrance she goes up, up, up, and shoots back down, flying along the top now and pummeling the earth with carefully measured force, collapsing the tunnel all the way back to the lair where one final punch craters the desert around it and buries everything under at least a mile of sand.

Breathing heavy now, Kara searches for the woman, worried she may have tried to flee. But she’s sat exactly where Kara left her, the only difference that she’s pulled the red cape up and over her head, and though she must be too far to see Kara she quite nearly meets her eyes across the miles between them.

Kara realizes then that she doesn’t know what all the woman can do. Telekinesis, at least. Projecting her thoughts as well. She may be able to sense Kara’s own, may have some kind of increased healing abilities? Kara doesn’t know. For now, she takes a deep, calming breath, and turns her comm back on.

Here’s the thing: most everyone Kara knows assumes she’s bad at lying. And she is… when she doesn’t think the lie is worthwhile. Eliza catching Kara and Alex sneaking out for night flights? No actual danger there. Kara floundering when Cat Grant asks a very pointed question about where she was during a Supergirl fight? She already knows anyway. Her niece’s gifts and space flights have only stayed secret so long because Kara can simply not bring them up. So yes, Kara is bad at lying… unless someone is in danger. And right now, someone is.

“Supergirl!” It’s Sam, of course. Kara has been offline for probably ten minutes now, but the way she says her name it may as well have been an hour. “Did you find it?”

“Maybe?” Kara says uncertainly. “I found what… could have been a lair? I was following the hum of electricity and when I got closer there was some kind of earthquake and it all collapsed.” She grimaces for effect, knowing they’ll be able to hear it in her voice. “The whole tunnel leading up to it is gone, and the area I think was the lair is uh, well… a crater now?”

“Did you hear any voices?” Sam demands.

Kara lets a bit of truth slip in. “I think I heard a guy mention some kind of watch?”

The expletives that leave Sam’s mouth at that are enough to make Kara elect to not admonish her for her language, especially given that Alex tattled to her wife about Kara’s cursing in Kryptonian long ago. (Brainy still hasn’t told Nia, at least.)

“Director?” Kara asks.

“Send me your coordinates and go to lunch,” Sam growls.

Kara gulps. “Will do.” She sends the coordinates and turns her comm off, pushing down the niggle of guilt when she catches the beginning of Alex trying to comfort Sam before the line goes dead. She doesn’t know what exactly Sam was hoping to find in this place, she hadn’t disclosed that even to Supergirl. Trust begets trust, and Kara already knows she cannot trust the DEO, so Sam not trusting her either… she made the right call. She hopes.

For now Kara zooms back to the woman sitting under the scraggly tree, dressed in Kara’s too-big clothes and with her red cape wrapped around her like a safety blanket. She doesn’t know how she came to be there, or what all she can do, or even what her name is, but she does know that right now she needs to be Kara’s priority.

“C’mon, baby girl, let’s go home,” Kara whispers. She picks the woman up gently and wraps her more securely in her cape, ensuring her face especially is shaded even as the woman presses her clammy forehead against the curve of Kara’s neck. She can’t let anyone or anything see her face, just in case something is recovered from the wrecked lab. Her precious cargo as secure as she can be, Kara lifts off and heads home.

Chapter Text

Kara gets the woman home and into her apartment without even the nosiest of her neighbors spotting them, which is a small miracle in and of itself, especially considering her options are super suit or nude and she chooses the former. Even once they’re inside the woman does not lift her head from where it has settled against Kara’s neck, though Kara can tell she isn’t quite asleep.

Kara’s phone dings just as she notices the grocery bags and small stack of papers sitting on her kitchen table. She shifts the woman to one arm and walks over, already checking her phone even as she skims what seems to be a recipe on the table.

Nia Nal: i dunno what you’ve gotten into this time and i know you won’t tell me but i dropped off some recipes and stuff that you were gonna text me to bring you, good luck

Kara replies with possibly her shortest text ever: a single emoji depicting two hands clasped in gratitude. She slips her phone back into her pocket and ties her hair back with one hand on the way to the part of her apartment that serves as the living room. She goes to set the woman on the couch but cold arms wrap around the back of her neck and she suppresses a sigh. Seems she’ll be making dinner one-handed.

She goes back to the kitchen, the woman now more comfortably settled in one arm and blearily peeking out from under the cape. Kara sings softly as she gets to work, putting all but a few of the ingredients away before washing her free hand and getting out the knife, cutting board, measuring cups, ladle, and pot she needs to make what she’s fairly certain will be the blandest stew in existence.

The small blurb on the recipe sheet says it’s a highly nutritious and hydrating stew designed to be easily digestible even for someone who has been starved or is unable to eat much. It also says brewing a big pot all at once is best as the person needs to consume small portions throughout the day whenever they feel able. Kara is fairly certain that the woman in her arms is far past the point of starvation most humans can survive, so she slices the solid ingredients so finely they’re practically powder, but other than that she sticks to the recipe verbatim.

Kara’s lunch break will definitely be over before she has the woman settled but luckily she took care of all her interviews yesterday, so she resolves herself to use the old laptop Winn had modified for her to cheat and type her articles at super speed when she gets the chance. The woman makes a small, mental sound at that that may be a laugh and Kara decides that yes, she probably can read her mind.

As the stew starts to boil Kara realizes she never introduced herself. She nudges her cape back off the woman’s head a bit and catches her eye. “I’m Kara by the way.” Then she glances down at her super suit. “Uh, and I don’t usually dress like… this. I’m more partial to cardigans and the like.” The woman is predictably silent so Kara continues on as she is wont to do. “And I have no way of knowing your name or if you even, er, know your name right now, and giving you a name feels weird to me… plus the one time I named something it was a cat I called Streaky and it was like a decade ago and my sister still teases me about it so anyway I am not going to give you a name, but I do need to call you something so until you can tell me what to call you I am going to call you ‘baby’ or ‘baby girl’. Mostly cuz I already called you that kinda on instinct and so that’s what you’re stuck with now, you’re welcome.”

Kara ends her own ramble by taste-testing the stew and she immediately regrets it. She looks longingly towards her spice rack and has to remind herself several times that the woman needs easily digestible nutrition at the moment.

“Okay I’m not gonna lie this stuff is pretty awful,” Kara admits as she uses the ladle to put some into a mug. “But for now you need something warm to eat that your body can handle so until you’re feeling better your taste buds will have bear with it.” She looks down and sees the woman gazing at the cup with an unreadable expression on her face. “Sorry in advance.”

Kara puts the excess stew in a tupperware and stashes it in her fridge before grabbing the mug and heading to the couch. She sits with the woman curled in her lap and holds the cup to her lips. The woman doesn’t seem to know what to do with that.

“Listen, baby girl, I know it’s bad but you gotta drink it.” No reaction. Okay, then. Kara goes back to the kitchen and grabs a spoon, the woman still tucked into one arm, then resumes her position on the couch. One spoonful at a time, she gets the woman to eat the stew. When the mug is still half-full the woman turns her face away and hides against Kara’s neck again.

A quick blast of heat vision has the mug of stew steaming once more and Kara takes it like a shot, doing her best not to gag. Cold fingers tap her side and Kara decides to interpret it as a question.

“Well I can’t add it back to the pot cuz germs or whatever, and all my other tupperware is full of old takeout, and I am vehemently against wasting food,” Kara rambles. Then she eyes the empty mug with suspicion. “Though I don’t know that this should count as food. Anyway, we’ll suffer together. At least until I learn to anticipate how much you can eat in one go.”

Cold fingers pinch her side and Kara rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I’m sure you’ll make sure I have to suffer a bit each time too.” Kara stands and takes the mug to the kitchen, rinsing it and tucking it into the dish washer with all the soup-making supplies. She starts it up and heads to the bathroom, absently thinking that it’s odd she got through all that cooking without breaking anything, especially given the horrid taste of the stew. Well, she is paying extra attention since she’s holding someone right now, so it could be do to that.

The woman is starting to nod off now that she’s had some food but her eyes open blearily when Kara places her in the tub. She reaches out but Kara easily avoids her grasp. “I’m not going anywhere, chill. Oh, I am gonna strip you again though. And then clean you. Thoroughly.” The woman’s eyes narrow and Kara shrugs unapologetically. “For the sake of you and my bed you must be bathed, and I don’t think you’ll be up for doing it solo anytime soon. All your wounds are healed over from what I saw but if anything hurts let me know.”

At the mention of her wounds the woman squeezes her eyes shut and her hands curl into fists. Kara kneels beside the tub, reaching out and gently uncurling the woman’s hands.

“You don’t need to look at anything right now, just relax and let me get you cleaned up. I’m very strong, in case you haven’t noticed, so if you want to sleep you can do that even. I’ll be quick and efficient. And gentle. All the things.” Kara waves her hand vaguely and the woman’s lips quirk up a bit despite her eyes still being tightly shut. Kara can’t resist dropping a kiss to her temple. “Good girl, just relax.”

Kara once again sets her glasses on the woman’s face, pressing the button so the clothes disappear as easily as they appeared before. The woman shivers at the sudden loss and Kara quickly grabs the removable shower head and adjusts the temperature so the water is warm. She begins to gently spray the woman’s legs, watching with a mix of satisfaction and disgust as the water runs reddish brown down the drain. It takes a few minutes of adjusting the knob and checking in with the woman but soon the water is hot and the woman is lying limp in the tub, relaxing in the now-steamy bathroom as Kara continues to rinse her, unwilling to actually start the bath until she has at least cleared away enough of the grime to see the woman’s skin.

Her front now rinsed, Kara carefully maneuvers her and rinses her back as well, then her face and finally her hair. Her hair… takes awhile. She honestly gives up on the hair at one point and considers just shaving it off but then the woman flicks water at her face and Kara sighs in defeat. The hair will stay.

Once she is convinced she’s gotten as much grime off as she can, Kara puts the plug in the tub and upends her best bottle of body soap, generously drizzling it over the woman from her shoulders to her toes. A wet hand comes up and flicks water at her face again. “Okay, baby, that was undeserved,” Kara says defensively. “You need as much soap as you can get. I’d add more but then I’d lose you in the bubbles— ack.” This time the flicked water lands in her mouth, effectively cutting off her defense. “Bossy,” Kara comments. The woman, eyes still resolutely closed, arches a single brow and Kara can’t help but grin. She’s much more lively than she’d been just an hour ago.

Humming happily to herself now, Kara turns the shower head back on and slowly runs it up and down the woman’s soapy body, filling the tub with hot, sudsy water. When the woman has relaxed into her bath, nose barely peeking out over the bubbles, Kara soaks her hair one more time before beginning to massage 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner into it (she is not about to do this twice, thank you), using so much the woman probably would have flicked water at her again if she hadn’t fallen asleep almost as soon as Kara had started.

Satisfied with her work now that she can’t see any of the woman’s hair under the shampoo’s lather, Kara begins to gently but thoroughly clean her body. She wets a cloth in the soapy water and carefully wipes down the woman’s face, clearing the last of the grime and sweat from her brow, her cheeks, along the ridge and slopes her nose. She swipes the cloth as softly as possible along her chapped lips before moving to her chin, her neck, around her ears and into the many crevices and divots therein.

She cleans along her collarbone and shoulders in broad strokes, grasps the wrist closest to her below the angry rash left by the shackles and raises her arm up to clean it from her shoulder down. Kara takes special care when cleaning her hand, swirling the cloth in circles along her palm before moving to her fingers, swiping gently between them and then washing under her jagged fingernails as best she can. She does the same with her other arm and hand next before moving to her torso, taking her time with the scar tissue above her heart to clean it as gently as possible.

The whole time Kara is acutely aware of her strength, of how careful she has to be with humans and how she has to be even more so with this one, whose skin seems paper thin and whose bones have already been snapped far too often. She uses the absolute bare minimum force for every touch, devoting as much of her brain power as possible to regulating her strength, more so even than she usually does when in physical contact with someone.

And so Kara continues to move down her body, washing her chest, her back, her thighs and calves, forcing down a blush as she scrubs first between the woman’s legs and then behind, before finally moving to her feet and giving them the same care she had her hands. She sits back and surveys her work, and can’t help the pang of worry she feels when she realizes the woman is far paler than she’d initially thought. She starts to wonder exactly how long they had her down there, starts thinking too much about the various scars she’d been cataloging as she cleaned her, and then sees the woman’s face, peaceful in her rest, start to frown.
Right, telepath.

After taking a few deep breaths to calm her spiraling thoughts Kara leans forward and presses her forehead to the other woman’s. She thinks again of her calm place, of a red sun and sloping architecture so unlike Earth’s, of her parents proud in their official robes and her aunt sneaking her out to explore places unknown. When she pulls back the woman has relaxed again, smiling a bit, even.

Kara blows out a relieved breath and then looks at the woman’s hair, still sudsy and piled haphazardly atop her head, and struggles a moment to maintain her calm before deciding the best thing she can do is just get started.

She drains the tub halfway and grabs the shower head again, then pauses to ponder how best to do this. After a moment and a mental shrug she ends up hovering over the tub, still in a kneeling position. She then considers her suit, still sandy and a bit grimy, and with a sigh uses her glasses to disrobe, leaving herself only in her undergarments which stay on regardless of if she’s in her suit or civvies. Kara leans the woman forward so her face is resting on Kara’s thighs, and she can’t suppress a shiver at how cold her skin is despite the warmth of the room. Kara is going to try to get her to eat more stew after this.

The woman makes a soft, annoyed sound in Kara’s mind and Kara presses her lips together to keep from smiling at that.

Kara begins the arduous task of rinsing the woman’s hair, massaging the suds from her scalp and doing her best to finger comb the strands without snagging as she works the shampoo-conditioner combo from it. She has to reach back and half-drain the tub several times to keep it from overflowing as she rinses and gently detangles the woman’s hair.

Eventually, not sure if she’s actually satisfied with her work or just giving up, Kara pulls the plug one last time and rinses the woman down again as it finishes draining. She uses her fluffiest towel to dry the woman off, and after a moment’s contemplation decides her hair should wait until she’s settled in bed since it’s… going to take… so long. Kara scrutinizes the tangles and mats awaiting her as she wraps the towel around them.

Once again Kara imagines just shaving it all off, so lost in the fantasy that she isn’t prepared for the icy fingers pinching her side. Her still very naked side. Kara yelps and scrabbles away from the sudden cold. When she looks up to see green eyes narrowed at her she scowls.

“I know I run hotter than humans but Rao,” Kara says. “Stew time.”

The woman immediately pretends to fall back asleep even as Kara scoops her up, cradling her rapidly cooling body to her own hot one and doing her best not to shiver. She carries her into the bedroom corner of her studio apartment and after perusing her closet and realizing literally nothing will fit the woman anyway she sighs and wonders if she should ask for her preferences.

A hand reaches out and tugs at the sleeve of the old NCU sweatshirt Kara has hanging in her closet, then points to the part of the closet dedicated to pajama pants. Kara remembers, then, the woman’s reaction to her mentioning her wounds, and feeling the woman tense at the thought she banishes it and tugs the sweatshirt off the hanger, sidestepping to her pajama pants and choosing the softest pair she owns. She grabs some boxers and fuzzy socks from the top drawer of her dresser on the way to the bed and sets the woman down. Kara sweeps her eyes over her body a few more times, both with and without x-ray vision. She uses a burst of super speed to grab the two non-food items Nia had dropped off in the kitchen, as well as her own nail clippers from the cabinet in the bathroom. She sets them beside the pile of clothes and the woman eyes them warily before sighing and slumping ever so slightly in defeat.

Kara considers apologizing but figures if she does that’s all she’ll ever say to the woman so instead she leans down and presses a soft kiss to her forehead. “Thank you for letting me take care of you, baby girl,” Kara whispers, and when she sees some of the tension drain from the woman she can’t help the small, pleased smile blooming on her own face.

First Kara applies the lip balm Nia had brought, which proclaims itself the best you can get over the counter, and Kara hopes that’s true because the woman definitely winces just from the bit of pressure it takes to smooth it across her lips. Next she opens the large tub of scar ointment, frowning when the woman immediately tenses and closes her eyes again.

Kara puts the tub down long enough to help the woman stand and pull her gently away from the bed, then uses a bit of super speed to rub the ointment into all of her scars, from the massive one over her heart to the dots littering her inner elbows to the cuts down her arms and burns littering her torso and thighs. When she’s done she whirls around her a bit to dry it all before helping her slip into the boxers and pants and sitting her back on the bed. Kara isn’t sure why she has boxers with drawstrings but she does, and she ties the boxers and pajama pants so they’ll at least stay up, making fancy knots so the now very long strings won’t get in the woman’s way. Once she manages to finagle the woman’s towel-wrapped hair through the sweatshirt and she has that settled on her, already sliding off one shoulder a ridiculous amount, Kara quickly clips all her nails, forcing herself not to wonder at how exactly they became so jagged and torn.

Finally, Kara delicately slides the socks over her feet. The woman wiggles her toes almost experimentally before tugging the sleeves of the sweater down to her knuckles, likely doing her best to hide the scars on her hands from her own view. Kara gives her half a minute to get settled as she grabs a fresh mug of stew from the kitchen, arriving back in front of the woman with the mug and spoon in hand.

“Oh, right, whoops.” Kara turns around and blasts the stew with a quick bit of heat vision before turning back. “Okay now it’s stew time.”

The woman raises both eyebrows incredibly high.

“It’s food-safe!” Kara exclaims, highly offended. “Eliza checked when she found me and Alex using it to make popcorn. And do you really think I would risk poisoning you after all this?”

The woman purses her lips and tugs at the towel around her hair, and Kara notes that her head is already drooping from its weight.

“Baby, I’m not gonna kill you just cuz I don’t wanna brush your hair. I have super speed. That rat’s nest on your head will take me like, a year tops.” Kara dances away from the fingers that reach to pinch her. Then she realizes something. “I forgot to put clothes on myself. Huh.” Kara doesn’t even bother putting the mug and spoon down, she just releases them, slips into her own pajama set, and grabs them before they’ve fallen a few inches.

Kara smirks at the wide-eyed look on the woman’s face. Her smirk only grows when the woman rolls her eyes, far too late to be believable.

“Yes, yes, you’re already tired of my powers after knowing me a whole two hours, good for you,” Kara teases as she slips onto the mattress behind her. She drops the spoon into the mug and wraps her arm around the woman’s waist, pulling her flush against her front and then wrapping her legs loosely around her torso to keep her secure. The woman rests her head against Kara’s shoulder as she relaxes against her.

When Kara readies the first spoonful of stew the woman leans back into her a bit more in a weak effort to escape it.

“Please eat what you can. The more you eat the sooner we can move on to more… flavorful food,” Kara says, shoving the memory of the other not-great recipes they’ll try next to the back of her mind.

The light pinch she gets tells her she didn’t manage that fast enough.

Kara resorts to bribery. “If you eat as much as you can I’ll let you try to brush your own teeth after.” She honestly isn’t sure if that’s a good thing or not but she also knows she will not be great at brushing someone else’s teeth and she will definitely have a lot of toothpaste to wipe off of the woman’s face in the event that she attempts to. Then Kara wonders if now that she’s eating she’ll need to go to the bathroom and if she can do it on her own or not.

The woman grimaces and pinches Kara’s side over her shirt, and Kara accepts that at the very least she’ll try. A cold hand slips under her shirt and pinches her side again and Kara bites back her yelp and accepts that yes the woman can use the bathroom on her own. (Probably. And that thought earns her another pinch.)

After the loudest sigh Kara has ever heard, the woman does actually do her best to eat the stew, managing to eat almost all of it this time, much to both of their surprise. Her stomach then makes a slightly disgruntled noise, as if displeased at suddenly having to deal with sustenance two whole times in one day, and after blasting and chugging her portion of the stew Kara sets the mug on the small table by her bed and floats them back so they’re against the headboard.

“You’re doing great, baby girl,” Kara whispers. She slips her hand under the woman’s sweatshirt and rubs slow, soothing circles over her stomach. “We’re gonna relax for a little bit, then we’ll get you ready for bed and I’ll get your hair sorted out.”

A soft sigh is the only response, and Kara smiles when the woman turns to press her forehead against Kara’s neck, her heart beating a bit more strongly and a lot more steadily than it was before.

Kara lets herself focus solely on the woman’s heartbeat then, using it to drown out the sounds of the city around her and committing it to memory. She continues caressing the woman’s stomach all the while, and when she resurfaces she discovers the woman has pulled her head away and is watching Kara with an intense gaze. Kara has to blink a few times to come back entirely, and she gives her a small smile. “What’s up, baby?”

The woman nibbles her bottom lip and Kara quits stroking her stomach and raises her hand to free her lip instead. A warm sigh ghosts along her face for her efforts. The woman raises one hand, gently touches Kara’s ear with the tip of an almost-warm finger and then touches that same finger to her own chest.

“I listen to your heart,” Kara interprets.

The woman nods, then reaches up and taps her forehead once before moving to tap Kara’s forehead with the same finger.

“And you listen to my mind,” Kara says.

A nod, a tilt of the head. At Kara’s blank look the woman makes a thumbs up sign.

“Uh, yeah that’s fine. We’ve kind of already been doing it, I thought?”

The woman makes a so-so gesture. She points from her forehead to Kara’s again, then points to the mug on the table and back to her forehead, then waves her hand around as if to encompass, well, everything. It takes Kara a moment.

“Oh! Your powers are getting stronger from eating so you need a focus point?” Kara guesses.

A nod, another tilt of the head.

“Yeah, that’s fine. If it’s anything like my super hearing it’s only going to get more overwhelming so it’s good to work on regulating it now.” Kara frowns. “Though I should warn you that once you’re asleep I will be typing up three articles at super speed meaning I will also be, uh, I dunno, super thinking, or whatever. So you may get a headache—“

The woman rolls her eyes and Kara gets the distinct impression she would be getting a very snide comment under other circumstances.

“Suit yourself, smartypants,” Kara drawls, a very undignified ‘eep’ escaping her when the woman presses a kiss to the underside of her jaw and pulls back with a devilish smirk. The effect is only somewhat diminished when the woman tugs her wrist and points imperiously to the bathroom.

Kara dutifully scoops her up and settles her in front of the sink, only releasing her long enough to dig out a spare toothbrush for her to use. The woman is indeed capable of brushing her own teeth, and even manages to floss to Kara’s surprise.

When she’s done she stares at Kara, who stares back. Eventually the woman sighs and points to the toilet.

“Do you need— ah!” Kara squeals when her side is pinched by cold fingers. “Okay, okay I’m going. Holler, uh, knock something over if you need anything!” She makes her escape before she gets pinched again.

Since she has a free moment Kara zooms into the kitchen and wolfs down as much food as she can without choking, desperately needing to replenish her calories after how many she burned destroying the evil lair. Once that’s done she grabs her laptop bag and heads back into the bedroom, huffing in annoyance when she notices the mug still on the table. She swaps it with the bag and zooms back to the kitchen, washing the mug and spoon quickly in the sink before putting it and the things in the dishwasher away. After sighing she loads the newly emptied tupperwares into the dishwasher but leaves them for tomorrow’s cycle.

Kara’s eyes catch on a certain painting then, a red sun rising over a city more familiar to her than this one, three little dots disappearing over the horizon that even now she doesn’t know why she painted, and she lays her hand on the glass covering it, murmuring in Kryptonian for her apartment’s other occupant to be added to her security system as an ‘untouchable’— a role she’s only assigned to a few key items within her apartment but that her companion will now have as well. Should anyone unauthorized enter, they will not so much as see her, much less be able to take her anywhere.

By the time she’s dug out the myriad of combs and brushes she’ll need to tackle the woman’s hair— along with a jar of coconut oil because several of those tangles looked a little too permanent— and set them on the bed Kara is wondering what’s taking so long and if she should check on her. The toilet flushes before she can finish the thought and after washing her hands the woman opens the door, leaning heavily against the frame and glaring at Kara.

“What now, baby girl?” Kara asks lightly, already scooping the woman into her arms.

The woman squeezes Kara’s bicep, holds up her own thin arm and gestures to it angrily, then makes swooping motions and taps her wrist where a watch would go.

“Uhhh… I’m strong and you’re weak— Rao, baby don’t pinch me when it’s true— and I can fly and… tell time?”

After several more agitated gestures it finally clicks.

“Oh I have super powers and was speeding around, and you’re insulted I thought you were taking too long since you’re weaker than the average human at the moment.”

A nod.

Kara settles the woman on the bed, laying her on her stomach and pulling the blanket over her before slowly unwrapping the towel and fanning her hair over it as she works out her best plan of attack. The least tangled of her hair stops about mid-thigh.

“By the way, are you human?”
Kara dodges the incoming pinch without really meaning to, moving from her kneeling position beside the woman to straddle her calves instead, holding her entire weight up with her knees so she doesn’t accidentally hurt her.

“I’m not trying to be rude, you know. I’m an alien. I have alien and human friends and family. I even have some metahuman friends but they’re from another universe so I’m not sure if the term applies in this one…” Kara trails off with a thoughtful frown, carding her fingers through the dark hair before her and carefully separating the mats and working through the tangles.

The woman beneath her is silent but doesn’t seem quite so offended now, at least.

“I guess it depends on where your powers come from,” Kara decides, grabbing the first comb and beginning to whittle away at a small mat near the bottom of the woman’s hair. “If they pulled them from alien DNA or something then you’re probably closest to a half-alien, but if you were, I dunno, tossed in a particle accelerator or something you’re a metahuman. Or was it a lightning strike?” Kara purses her lips and holds tight to the hair above the mat so she won’t tug at the woman’s scalp as she works. “I’ll have to ask Barry next time I see him.”

Kara works in silence for a few moments, the woman settling more comfortably beneath her. Then she has a disturbing thought.

“Okay so when Leslie, Livewire, whatever got her powers it was a lightning strike but it was specifically one funneled through me, so does that mean she’s a metahuman-alien? Does she have my DNA now? Is she technically my daughter? Oh Rao did I put my daughter in prison? I mean I of course didn’t give birth to her but I did kinda give birth to her powers?”

For once Kara is thankful when chilly fingers reach under her shirt to pinch at her side.

“Yup, right, best not to think about that. Totally not gonna ask Alex to get her a DNA test later, nope.”

Another pinch.

“Fine, fine, I won’t, Rao, baby girl.”

Kara conquers one mat and moves onto another. She wonders what she should think about while she works. She’s never had someone else in her mind… Kara instinctively raises a mental shield when that thought causes a dull bolt of pain through her mind, and she lets the thought fall away, the shield slipping with it. Even J’onn couldn’t read her mind, and he was a 300+ year old Green Martian. It’s honestly fascinating that this woman is able to glean anything from her mind at all, much less hone in on it.

Kara has a thought then, or rather a flash of one, remembering green-tipped darts flying at her and old lessons on Kryptonian biology from when she was a child. She pushes the thought down and away before the woman beneath her can grasp it. The woman tenses up immediately and turns around as best she can to look at Kara.

“It’s nothing,” Kara lies.

Green eyes narrow dangerously.

“Okay it’s something, but it doesn’t matter.”

Kara isn’t sure if it’s intentional, and it definitely isn’t as strong as it was in the lair, but the woman’s emotions wash over her then. Confusion, fear, frustration. She can’t remember who she was before she was taken, she only knew fear underground, she’s trusting Kara but Kara isn’t trusting her and she can’t even fucking communicate it properly—

Kara leans down and presses a kiss to her cheek and the wave of emotions calms and vanishes. “I’m sorry, baby, I’ll tell you, it’s okay. I just didn’t want to worry you and it really doesn’t matter to me but it does concern you and you have a right to know.” Kara strokes a thumb along the woman’s cheek. “And you’re right, you are trusting me with a lot and it’s only right I trust you too. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

Green eyes stay fixed on her and Kara offers a small but genuine smile.

“Kryptonian children are perfect,” Kara begins, smiling wider when the body beneath her shakes with a scoff. “I mean it literally. Only the best genes are chosen from our parents, and from inception to first breath we’re kept in a securely monitored environment. Kryptonians aren’t born, we’re forged, cell by cell. We are all the best versions of ourselves.” Kara pauses. “Well except my cousin. He was born and it was… strange. Please don’t tell him if you ever meet him but he’s honestly lucky to have grown up on Earth cuz he would have been treated like a zoo animal on Krypton.” Kara shudders at the thought, and feels a dull throbbing at the base of her skull that she instinctively shields the woman from. “Anyway, each generation is more perfect than the last, and even a thousand years ago it was well known that no species in the multiverse could read a Kryptonian’s mind. The only ones even able to affect our minds are the phantoms, but from what I remember we gave them that ability so they could… keep our most heinous prisoners contained.” Kara pushes away her own memories of the phantoms before her companion can grasp them, can see the nightmares firsthand. “Sorry, anyway, our intelligence is what we value most, so of course that is what many focused on protecting as time went on.”

Kara takes a break from working on the woman’s hair to stroke her hands down her sides over the blanket, and she doesn’t continue speaking until her heartbeat has slowed back to its usual steady rhythm.

“Today when I was breaking into, uh, well everyone was calling it an evil lair…”

A curl of curiosity that is not her own tickles Kara’s mind, and this she’s fairly certain is intentional, the woman learning from earlier, perhaps.

“Oh, I’m a superhero. If, uh, the powers and suit didn’t make that obvious.” Kara blushes. “I officially work solo but I have a lot of people who help me and vice versa, and the evil lair was actually found by the DEO— they’re like the secret alien police, I guess.” Kara’s face scrunches up and she thinks of a few (of many, she’s certain) aliens they’ve unjustly vanished away. She’d found some of the ones she herself had brought in and managed to get them out and to safety, but there are so many others… Kara takes a breath. “We do good work together, but they can’t be trusted. They found the evil lair but I wasn’t expecting… they didn’t tell me what I was even looking for.”

Kara remembers the urgent call she’d gotten that morning, suiting up and flying out to scour the desert for… something. How vague and frazzled Sam sounded and how Alex did nothing to temper her.

“Some people I care about work for them. My sister is second-in-command and her wife is the Director. I love them, and I… I trust them with my life.” Kara looks down and meets somber green eyes. “But I can’t trust them with yours. Luckily my comm was off when I found the lair so all they know is I went radio silent for about ten minutes. I, uh, destroyed everything as best I could. I got some hard drives, first, at least. If you wanna, I dunno, look at those later and see if there’s anything helpful there.” Kara shrugs. “They don’t trust me enough to even tell me what I’m supposed to be searching for, and they’re even more by the book than they were when J’onn was in charge. I can’t… you’ve been hurt enough, I can’t risk them handing you off to someone who will hurt you more.”

Kara leans down and presses her forehead to the woman’s, yet again thinking of a red sun and family long-gone to help center herself. When she sits up again she resumes her monumental undertaking of combing the woman’s hair.

“Anyway, the DEO found the general location of the evil lair and named it as such. I found it and broke in, which led to them releasing you and you pancaking them,” Kara feels a foreign spike of guilt at that and she actually growls. “Don’t you dare feel guilty for that, baby girl. They got off a lot lighter than they would have if they’d still been alive when I got there.” Kara hasn’t actually killed anyone before, but those people… she remembers the pain and fear the woman had been projecting, the scars littering her body, the state of filth they’d kept her in, and the snippets of conversation she’d heard on her way towards them. “I would have ended them,” Kara whispers. “Slowly.”

A hand reaches back, fumbles but manages to find the back of Kara’s calf. A light squeeze brings her back to see worried green eyes trying to catch her own.

Kara blinks rapidly and refocuses, and for the first time in awhile she finds comfort not in her memories but in her present, staring into Earth-forest-green eyes and listening to the reassuring thud of a human(-sounding) heartbeat. “Sorry. Uh, thank you.” Kara looks away and clears her throat. “Anyway, most of the traps in the tunnel leading to the lair weren’t all that impressive, but there were a few that shot weapons that I’m pretty sure had kryptonite.” Kara remembers a particularly sneaky one that she’d barely dodged, the glowing green spike grazing her suit and making her skin prickle painfully. That was the one trap she’d kicked into oblivion. “The evil lair was lead-lined so my x-ray vision couldn’t pierce it, it was almost sound-proof even to my hearing, they had kryptonite weapons… and… they had you. Someone able to read a Kryptonian’s mind. And, well, when you screamed I dropped so hard I broke the floor. It… took me awhile to make it over to you after that.”

She can’t help but remember the pain that had washed over her at the scream, the hatred filling her as her whole body cried out in agony. Agony that matched the scars littering the woman below her.

The woman’s heartbeat is suddenly thundering and Kara unceremoniously strips the towel and blanket off of her and bundles her into arms. She cradles the woman in her lap, one arm wrapped around her waist, her hand slipping under her shirt to rub large, slow circles against the cool skin of her back and the other hand cradling her head to Kara’s neck. She isn’t sure what exactly the cause is— the realization that she’s meant to be a weapon or the reminder of all the pain she’d gone through, but for now Kara clears her mind of it and focuses instead on the present.

The cozy darkness of her room, the familiar dip of her mattress below her. The food she scarfed down earlier settling pleasantly in her stomach. And more than anything else, the woman trembling in her arms but still breathing, still alive, already growing stronger and more herself. Kara lets her own contentment wash through her, drowning out all the other emotions the day has stirred within her. “All is well, baby girl, just focus on me,” Kara says quietly.

As the woman’s heartbeat slows Kara begins singing her a Kryptonian lullaby and rocking her ever so slightly. When her breathing eventually evens out and she tries to move Kara lets her, pulling back as well to meet green eyes shining with unshed tears.

Kara can’t help the first thought that pops into her head, and since the woman doubtless already heard it she may as well say it anyway. “Baby you are far too dehydrated to be crying anytime soon.”

A light pinch to her side has Kara pretending to be indignant even as she delights in the small upturn of the woman’s lips. She continues holding her a bit longer, only deigning to settle the woman back on the bed when she pulls Kara’s cape from somewhere and drapes it around her shoulders, slipping it under her hair and leveling Kara with an expectant look.

“As you wish, your majesty,” Kara drawls, laying her down on her stomach and tucking her in once more before fanning her hair across the towel again. The woman nuzzles into the bit of Kara’s cape that she can see sticking out from under the blanket, and when Kara resumes working on her hair she starts drifting to sleep. “I am braiding this when I’m done, though,” Kara says quietly. “That or I’ll be forced to name you Rapunzel.”

The woman is far too sleepy to give a reply, though Kara thinks she feels a tickle of amusement at the sentiment.

When she’s sure the woman is sound asleep Kara uses her super speed and several dabs of coconut oil to finish detangling her hair, and it still takes upwards of an hour. She brushes it awhile longer then, relishing in how easily the brush passes through it all, before putting it in a loose braid lest she have to do this all again come morning.

Kara rushes through her own nighttime routine after raiding the fridge once more, then settles into bed next to the woman and puts her laptop on her lap, wincing when she sees the time. She has five minutes before her articles need to arrive in Snapper’s inbox. “Sorry in advance if you get a headache,” Kara mutters. She doesn’t have time to write one article at a time as she’d been planning, oh no. She puts her laptop in split screen and prays to Rao that Winn’s old programs will work as she frantically types one article on the physical keyboard and the other on the touch keyboard at the base of one side of her screen. She has her interview notes pulled up on her phone to skim as she works, and she types up the last article as she sends off emails with the first two, sending it with only a few seconds to spare.

Breathing a quiet sigh of relief, Kara tucks her laptop away and slides down into the bed, doing her best to get comfortable with as little movement as possible. As soon as her eyes close a cold body rolls up against her, seeking her for comfort or simply warmth Kara doesn’t know. So she turns and pulls the woman close, enveloping her as much as she dares before drifting off to sleep, leaving a small sentinel of awareness in the back of her mind to govern her body position and strength so she won’t hurt her baby girl.

Chapter Text

Kara wakes up slowly, her mind sleepily assessing her surroundings to find what woke her. It’s still nighttime, probably only a few hours since she fell asleep. The room is dark and cozy, and her hearing isn’t picking up anything out of the ordinary. A warm body is sprawled across her, one leg tossed across her own, both arms encircling her waist and two chilly hands tucked under her back. Kara’s own arm is wrapped around the woman in a secure embrace, and having detected nothing amiss her hearing has zeroed back in on her companion, her heart beating steadily and soft breaths puffing warm air against Kara’s neck. Just as Kara is about to drift off again she hears a quiet sound that almost startles her into laughter.

The jolt of amusement Kara feels must have woken the woman because a chilly hand slips out from under her to pinch her side in admonishment.

“Hey, you woke me up first. Well, your stomach did.” Kara bites back a smile and the woman tucks her head more securely into the side of Kara’s neck. Kara slips her free hand under the woman’s sweatshirt and rubs small circles against her back, doing her best not to dwell on how well she can feel the knots of her spine. “Look, it’s a good thing you’re hungry. Means you’re recovering. Quicker than a human would, definitely.”

When Kara starts to shift under her the woman’s arms tighten around her.

“Sorry baby, but we have to listen to your body, and right now it wants food.” Kara presses a conciliatory kiss to the side of the woman’s head before finally slipping away from her. She laughs when the only move the woman makes is to wiggle into the warm divot Kara left behind. “Fine, fine, midnight breakfast in bed it is.”

Kara goes to the kitchen at a normal speed to get a mug of stew ready, wanting to give the woman a few more minutes to adjust. She still uses her heat vision to heat it up though, and is surprised to find the woman awake when she returns, reclined against the pillows and fiddling with the end of her braid. Sleepy green eyes meet Kara’s and she’s granted a slight smile before the woman’s eyes fall to the mug and she grimaces.

“You can have real food some day,” Kara says with a matching grimace. Before she can ask how they should position themselves for this the woman sighs and leans forward, tugging the corner of the pillow behind her. “That’ll work.” Once she’s stolen the pillow’s spot and settled the woman against her, Kara grabs the mug again and begins the slow process of feeding her. She’d chosen a bigger mug this time and filled it nearly to the top, and she feels a swell of pride when the woman almost finishes it. Kara once again blasts it and drinks what’s left as quickly as possible, and sets the mug on the table to be dealt with later.

Kara carefully floats them both down the bed a bit, arranging the pillows and blankets with the hand not wrapped around the woman’s waist before settling in. She lays on her side, still holding the woman flush against her front, and buries her face in the dark hair above the top of the braid. The woman grabs Kara’s hand and slips it under her sweatshirt and Kara obediently begins rubbing her stomach, smiling to herself when the woman gives a content sigh and melts against her.

“Goodnight, baby girl. Sweet dreams.”

Kara wakes to another soft, disgruntled noise from the woman’s stomach a few hours later, and this time as she fetches the stew the woman takes a bathroom break. She feeds her the stew in bed again before resettling them both and falling asleep once more as she rubs soothing patterns against the woman’s stomach.

When Kara’s internal alarm wakes her, weak sunlight filtering through her curtains and lighting up the room, Kara finds that the woman is again sprawled on top of her, head above her heart and arms curled around Kara’s waist as if afraid she’ll vanish into the night. Which… is a fair worry considering all the woman has been through. Kara is grateful, then, that there were no Super emergencies that night, and that one of Sam’s earliest changes to the DEO was an emergency classification chart and rotating schedule so they wouldn’t overwork their superheroes.

Kara finds herself idly running her hands over the woman’s sides beneath her shirt, skirting over her prominent ribs before moving to stroke along her back. It hasn’t even been a day so there’s not really any change yet, but she can hear how much stronger the woman’s heart is beating and that, along with the woman’s blossoming personality, gives Kara the reassurance she needs— she was right to bring the woman home, to keep her close, though she now wonders if the urge was the woman’s or her own.

She wonders, then, if perhaps she should get the egg from Eliza, but decides against it, as she already knows neither she nor her companion would want her to go so far even briefly, and even as the one who created the egg she isn’t sure if it will be able to do anything for the woman, given that Kara doesn’t know what species she is at this point. Her egg can run plenty of tests and heal plenty of things for most species, but there’s no telling if it will work on this person, and borrowing it from Eliza may tip Alex off that something is going on.

The woman begins to wake as Kara continues her ministrations, but snuggles closer rather than getting up. It isn’t until her stomach grumbles that she sighs and pulls away, allowing Kara to scoop her up and carry her into the bathroom. Kara again holds the woman as she brushes her teeth, letting her stand but handling most of her weight herself so she won’t tire as quickly. She’s sent off with a gentle pinch when the woman is done, and Kara speeds into the kitchen and manages to scarf down a small mountain of food before she hears the toilet flush and the faucet run.

Kara sets two steaming mugs of stew on the coffee table and makes it to the bathroom door just as the woman opens it. She sweeps her into her arms and gently deposits her on the couch before speeding through her own morning routine as the stew cools to a more palatable temperature.

When Kara reappears in the woman’s line of view the woman frowns. Kara is no longer wearing her pajamas, a crisp button up and dress pants in their place, her glasses on and her hair up in a bun. Kara winces at the woman’s now-worried expression.

“I do have to go to work today. Uh, day-job work, that is.” Kara fiddles with her glasses. “And superhero work too probably. But I’ll come back to check on you every few hours and feed you when you’re ready, and I’ll be listening to your heartbeat so if you get scared or anything I’ll be here.”

The woman looks only slightly mollified by this, her eyebrows drawing together in a fair impression of Kara’s own eyebrow crinkle and her hand raising to clench at her shirt.

Kara sits next to her on the couch, scooping the woman into her lap and grabbing the first mug. “You’ll be sleeping a lot so you probably won’t even notice I’m gone.” She feels a spike of irritation from the woman and winces. “Okay, you will notice, but I really will come by often to check on you.”

As the woman eats the stew, her irritation continues to prickle against Kara’s mind.

“I can’t take any time off from my day job or my superhero duties cuz that would make the DEO… or at least Alex, I guess, suspicious. She doesn’t drop by my apartment like she used to now that she’s busy with,” Kara waves her hand vaguely, “married life and all, but if she thinks I’m acting weird she will come by and that is something that cannot happen right now.”

The irritation eases slightly as Kara swaps the empty first mug for the second.

“Though… I may be able to work from here a lot of the time. Winn is off in the future now, and James moved back home… Nia still works with me but she’s kinda used to me being secretive at this point so if I tell her not to mention it around the DEO she won’t. Considering the stuff she dropped off yesterday she definitely knows I’m ‘harboring a fugitive’ as she likes to put it.” Kara grins and makes sure the trust she feels for Nia shines through, quickly recalling the last few aliens Nia had helped her hide without ever knowing the specifics herself. “I still need to go out to do interviews and work in the office at least sometimes though or Cat or Snapper will get annoyed.”

Curiosity curls around Kara’s mind when she mentions interviews.

“Oh, right, my day job, I’m a reporter—“

The wave of annoyance and anger that comes from the woman at that shocks them both and Kara nearly drops the now half-empty mug of stew.

“Wow, uh, okay. I guess you don’t like reporters, then.” Kara tries to keep the hurt from her voice but the woman doesn’t need to hear it to feel it.

She sets the mug of stew down when the woman starts squirming in her lap, and once Kara releases her hold on her waist she’s turning, straddling Kara’s thighs and cupping her face, worried green eyes meeting Kara’s. Guilt and confusion pour into Kara’s mind, and the woman’s mouth opens but no sound comes out. Frustration is added to the mix, and worry, so much worry, fear—

Kara’s hands settle on the woman’s hips and she presses featherlight kisses to her cheeks, her forehead, the tip of her nose. She lets her care for her drown out the bit of hurt from before, and as the woman’s emotions calm she presses one last kiss to her temple before pulling away. “It’s all okay, baby girl, I promise. You can dislike whatever you want to, it doesn’t change anything.”

The woman’s eyes flash open and narrow, and one hand falls from Kara’s face to land over her heart, pressing as hard as it can.

“You didn’t hurt me,” Kara soothes, but the woman shakes her head. “No, you didn’t. I was surprised, yes, but it isn’t an uncommon sentiment, and you…” Kara takes a breath, closes her eyes a moment and recalls all the moments in the mere day she’s known her that the woman has placed her trust in her. “You trust me to take care of you, and that’s all that matters. It really doesn’t matter to me that you don’t like reporters— that’s just a job title, and not even the only one I have. What matters to me is that you… you’ve seen what I can do, and you still trust me to not hurt you.”

Kara’s hands flex on the woman’s hips, and she thinks of the sheer destruction she caused shortly after finding her. Even miles away she would have been able to hear the booms, see the smoke, feel the earth shaking beneath her. But she still waited for Kara to return, even wrapped herself in her cloak like she already thought of it as something safe and protective. When Kara opens her eyes the woman has visibly relaxed, and this time she’s the one who presses a light kiss to Kara’s cheek before turning and resettling against her. Kara feels gratitude and trust flood her, and she hugs the woman against her for a long moment before grabbing the mug again.

The woman manages to finish both mugs of stew and doesn’t even bother to pinch Kara when she decides to try for three next time.

Kara adds the mugs from the night meals and breakfast to the dishwasher along with the tupperwares from her own dinner and breakfast and starts it up, tidying the apartment quickly before getting her bag ready and setting it on the kitchen table. When she’s satisfied with everything she returns to the couch and scoops the woman into her arms, frowning when the woman wraps her arms around her so tight she’s shaking. Kara walks to the bed slowly, wishing she could call in to work even for just one day without arousing suspicion. If only Cat hadn’t figured out she was Supergirl so quickly…

At the thought Kara remembers all of her boss’s looks and quips, the times she had Kara reassure her that no, Supergirl didn’t stand a chance against the Queen of All Media, and the feline smile on Cat's face every time she had Snapper send Kara to interview someone Supergirl had helped with some inane activity. Kara doesn’t care if it means her name will be broadcast to the entire planet, there’s no way she is ever telling her sister just how many random citizens of National City definitely know her secret identity thanks to her showing up the next day to sheepishly interview them.

The woman in her arms actually laughs at that, though a moment later Kara feels a curl of concern from her.

“I think she does it on purpose, actually,” Kara admits aloud. “I’ve been in a few situations where I definitely could have been… compromised, and each time I was helped by someone who already knows who I am thanks to me interviewing them or by someone they knew and told to help me… not that they told them who I was, just… I guess it humanizes me or something? Like when I was laying bloody and half conscious in a crater after a fight and the farmer who owned that field found me, he didn’t see the infallible Girl of Steel laying there a failure, he saw the person who helped his grandson practice asking his now-boyfriend to prom after she heard him on the verge of an anxiety attack a year ago. Even if they don’t know the person directly they’ve read my articles or seen things online and it, I dunno, makes them wanna protect me if they get the chance.”

The anger that had spiked against Kara at the mention of her previous injury is replaced by a mix of appreciation and affection when she talks about everyday people helping her just because they can, and when Kara sets the woman on the bed she seems… not quite happy to be put down but more at ease.

Kara gives the woman as reassuring a smile as she can. “I’ll be back to check on you soon, so try to get some rest.”

A red cape is dug out from the covers and held up to her, and with a small smile Kara takes it, only to fwoosh it out with a snap of her wrists and settle it over the woman’s head and around her shoulders.

“Thanks, but this one’s all yours, baby girl, I have a spare.” Kara leans down and presses a kiss to her forehead before grabbing her things and leaving, giving the woman a small wave before she heads out the door.

Kara has had more people than her landlord would probably appreciate hidden away in her apartment before, but never has she been so anxious to check on them throughout the day. Her hearing is trained on the woman’s heartbeat all the time, to the point that Alex has to text her to head to an alien brawl downtown.

She flies by her apartment multiple times an hour whenever possible just so she can use her x-ray vision to check that the woman is still there, laying in bed asleep as her heartbeat has already told her.

Kara enters her apartment at least once every few hours to check on her in person, smoothing her hair back and reapplying lip balm when the woman is asleep and helping her to and from the bathroom and feeding her when she’s awake. She even spends most of her lunch break at home, just holding the woman and talking softly to her about everything and nothing and barely leaving in time to grab food from Noonan’s before her staff meeting at CatCo. Nia looks worried when she arrives out of breath and only Kara’s head shake keeps her from asking the questions she so dearly wants to.

She does notice that she’s a bit more exhausted than usual that day and spends a fair amount of her time patrolling the city flying as high as she can to get as much sun as possible. Kara figures it’s due to the sheer amount of energy she expelled yesterday and doesn’t give it much thought past that. No one at the DEO notices her flight altitude is higher than usual, and for that she is grateful.

Her first day away from her new companion slogs on and when it’s finally over Kara is overjoyed. Then she’s called into the DEO on her way home, because of course she is. She nearly ignores the summons, but realizes that that would prompt a visit from Alex that absolutely cannot happen. So Kara changes course to the DEO, doing her best to take calming breaths as she goes.

There’s no emergency, at least, nothing to keep her away long. When Kara lands at the DEO a very tired looking Alex walks with her to the meeting room where Sam, Brainy, and Nia await. They all look up at their arrival and when Kara sees Sam she feels a shock go through her, followed by a wave of grief and longing and relief that are not her own. Then the emotions are gone, replaced by confusion, before fading away entirely.

Kara has been getting small bits of her companion's emotions all day— a flash of respect towards Cat, a spike of annoyance at how Snapper treated Kara when he found three typos in one of her articles from yesterday, a wave of gratitude when Kara said hello to Nia, a jolt of anger when one of the aliens had accidentally punched Kara when she interrupted their brawl. None had been as potent as the shock of seeing Sam, so strong Kara is rooted to the floor for several long seconds until the emotion fades.

But she doesn’t have time to dwell on it because Sam is already talking, Alex pulling Kara along and half-shoving her into her chair and Brainy and Nia are already nodding along to whatever Sam is saying. And still Kara is trying to think about it, about how the woman knows she doesn’t like reporters, is already strong enough to mentally follow Kara through the city, how just seeing Sam sparked something and maybe just maybe her memories will follow as she gains strength—

“Supergirl!” Sam snaps, clearly not for the first time.

Kara is pulled from her musings so abruptly she gapes for a moment, feeling like she’s been yanked here all the way from her apartment instead of just from her mental wanderings. She wonders then just how linked she and the woman’s minds are… a ghost of a pinch to her side has her refocusing on the fierce brown eyes glaring at her. “Uh, yeah, sorry?”

Sam sighs and Kara just then notices how absolutely exhausted she looks. The dark circles under her eyes are worse than the ones under Alex’s and Kara is pretty sure she can see grains of sand in her hair, which is messy from how often she’s run her hand through it.

“Sam, are you okay?” Kara blurts. Addressing her as ‘Sam’ and not ‘Director’ means it’s Kara asking her sister-in-law, not Supergirl asking her kind-of-but-not-really-boss, but Sam just shakes her head.

“I was asking if you knew how many people were in the evil lair before it collapsed,” Sam repeats.

“Uhhh… Five at least,” Kara decides.

Everyone looks at her with varying amounts of doubt, which Kara feels echoed from a city away.

“It was partially sound-proofed,” Kara says defensively. “I couldn’t make out the usual bio signs, but I heard three people talking and maybe a few more scuffling around.” There was no way to tell how many people you pancaked, and I’m definitely not gonna count you in the mix, Kara thinks, hoping the woman’s telepathy can pick up on her exact words. She feels a flash of understanding and, once again, a spike of guilt. “Don’t,” Kara says, warning clear in her voice.

“Excuse me?” Alex asks, already raring for a fight. Kara decides to blame how tired both Sam and Alex are for how short her sister’s fuse is at the moment. “Don’t what, Kara?”

Kara blinks at her. “Don’t… give me those looks, is all.” She shrugs uncomfortably. “I did try to get there in time but the whole thing collapsed and it was… very loud.” Kara doesn’t have to hide her wince at that, though she’s thinking more of the woman’s ear-ringing scream than anything else. She pushes the thought aside as quickly as it comes and meets her sister’s eyes. “I did my best,” Kara says, and pushes aside the guilt she feels when the fight drains from Alex. Kara had done her best… at deceiving everyone in this room, at least.

“We know, Supergirl,” Sam assures, though her voice is flatter than usual. “This was just… an important mission and I don’t…” Her voice breaks and she has to take several breaths before she can continue. “I don’t know where to go from here, so I was hoping you may have some idea, something else you overheard?”

Kara frowns and pushes aside the guilt once again. “Not really? Have you been able to find anything from, uh, what was left?”

“Negative,” Brainy says. “We cannot even discern what exactly they did to destroy the evil lair, much less what it used to contain. It is both melted and buried under a mile of sand, which collapses on itself anytime we try to excavate anything. Even if we employ your powers it would take months to uncover fully and from the sample I was brought I do not believe anything of use would be recoverable.” Brainy frowns. “They brought me a cubic foot of solid metal that contained the melted and fused remains of at least three different pieces of lab equipment. There is no way any hard drives or other records survived.”

Kara’s guilt is overshadowed by her pride at that and she can practically feel the woman apparently camped out in her mind roll her eyes. Which… hm, she can actually feel the woman in her mind at this point, and it feels… her mental shield slips up instinctively when her head starts pounding dully, and she’s glad for it even as she has the idle thought that this mental companion, at least, she does not mind… which also makes no sense.

“There really wasn’t anything else?” Sam asks quietly, and Kara refocuses on the room around her, her odd musings falling away along with the throbbing in her head.

Alex, in an unprofessional move that Sam normally wouldn’t allow, wraps her arm around her shoulders and pulls her close to her side. Kara watches in confusion but tries to think of anything she can give her sister-in-law that isn’t related to the woman tucked away in her apartment.

“Uhm, of the people I heard two were women and one was a man,” Kara starts, replaying the muffled conversation in her mind. “One was an older woman, and the man called her ‘Mother’.” She sees Sam stiffen in her peripheral and feels a shiver of terror and revulsion from the woman in her apartment but continues. “And the one who called her that also said he… should have programmed the ‘stupid watch’ himself.”

“I knew it,” Sam whispers, and lets Alex squeeze her closer before she stands, giving Kara a nod of thanks before sweeping from the room, Alex close behind.

“Knew what?” Kara asks no one in particular.

Brainy’s brow is furrowed in confusion and Nia just shrugs.

Kara sighs and takes her leave, ruminating on what could have Sam and her sister so cagey on her flight back home, and along the way she realizes she forgot to make physical contact with everyone, which… she always does because… Kara squints and shields her companion from the pounding in her head, but the thoughts fall away along with the pain in her mind as soon as she spies the woman curled up in her bed under her cape, sound asleep. She immediately changes into her pajamas, hair back in a loose ponytail, and curls up behind her, hugging her close and deciding a nap really is just the thing after the oddly annoying day she’s had.

When Kara wakes from her nap the sun is low in the sky and the woman has turned to tuck her head under Kara’s, her cold nose tickling Kara’s collar bone with each breath.

Kara’s mind blearily goes over her day from start to finish, cataloging every time she’d wanted to drop what she was doing and come home to check on the woman in her arms despite her super hearing assuring her she was perfectly fine. From what Kara could tell the woman had spent nearly all the day asleep, except for when Kara had come and she’d needed to eat or use the restroom. She’d had a bit of a harder time falling asleep in the afternoon, if her elevated heart rate was any indication, and Kara decides to start scheduling her interviews for the morning whenever possible so she can be home with the woman in the afternoon.

A new worry tugs at Kara’s mind then, and she holds as still as she can while grabbing her phone off the side table, switching it to silent and looking some things up. When the woman stirs about twenty minutes later she gives Kara a sleepy glare before pointing to the bathroom and then Kara’s phone, clearly already aware of what lies ahead.

One bathroom break and a few warm-up stretches later, Kara starts guiding the woman through the most relevant physical therapy exercises she could find, gathered from a mix of charts and online videos. She keeps all her senses attuned to the woman’s body and doesn’t call a halt to their activities until she’s deemed they’ve done enough but not too much, the woman’s heart beating quickly and her breath coming fast but otherwise no worse for wear. Kara helps her stretch again after, and at no point comments on the fact that the woman chose to remain in a sweatshirt and long pants for the exercises, knowing already that she won’t be wearing anything that reveals more than her hands and (surprisingly scar-free) face anytime soon.

When they’re done Kara gets a flash of memory that is not her own, her body submerged in hot water and suds tickling her nose as strong hands massage sweet-smelling shampoo into her scalp. She looks at the woman, who proceeds to wipe her brow with an exaggerated movement and hold the sweatshirt away from her torso before glancing at Kara almost meekly.

Kara’s brow crinkles and she scoops the woman into her arms. “Baby you don’t need to justify wanting a bath.”

A curl of… shame, she thinks, comes to her then.

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of?” Kara can’t help the question in her voice. “What’s wrong?”

The woman’s face pinches in concentration and memories and emotions flash through Kara’s mind: the pleasant heat of the water soaking into her skin and muscles, the warmth in her chest at feeling safe and protected as hands gently clean skin that had before known only cruelty and pain, the fear and shame when she sees her scars and the prickly feeling of frustration that she can’t take care of herself— too physically weak to even bathe herself and too mentally weak to risk seeing the evidence of her imprisonment. The thoughts subside and when Kara refocuses on the woman’s face it’s flushed with embarrassment, at what she had shared with Kara or simply at being vulnerable Kara doesn’t know.

Kara presses a kiss to the woman’s slightly salty forehead and grins when the woman winces at the observation. “Thank you for telling me what you want and explaining why asking makes you uncomfortable, baby girl.” Kara starts to float them to the bathroom, her grip on the woman as tight as she dares. “I know it’s not the norm, exactly, but I like taking care of people, in whatever way I’m able. For some people it’s saving them from a burning building, for others it’s making sure they get home safe after a night out, and for you, right now, it’s ensuring you feel as safe and comfortable as possible.” She sets the woman on the rug in front of the tub and can’t help the twinge of sadness when she immediately closes her eyes as Kara helps her undress.

Once she has the woman settled in the tub and the water temperature has been decided, Kara dumps a generous amount of soap in and soaks the woman’s hair with the shower head before putting it away and allowing the tub to fill from the faucet. Once the tub is full and the woman has sunk into it, nose again barely visible over the bubbles, Kara begins to lather the shampoo in her hands.

“I like giving you a bath,” Kara says quietly as the woman leans forward to let Kara begin massaging the shampoo into her scalp. “I like being able to touch you and feel the blood humming under your skin, the slight vibration of your heartbeat moving through you and into my fingertips.”

The woman quirks an eyebrow and Kara rolls her eyes, lips tugging up in a smile.

“Yes my powers make my sense of touch that sensitive. Why do you think my clothes are so soft?”

A single green eye opens and regards Kara lazily before slipping closed again, lulled by Kara working the shampoo into her scalp and hair.

“Anyway,” Kara continues, determined to not let the woman brush off what she’s saying. “I enjoy taking care of you in whatever ways you’ll let me, even more so if you actually enjoy it too.” She finishes with the woman’s hair and leans her back against the tub, grabbing the wash cloth and beginning to carefully clean her face. “Since we’ll be doing the physical therapy everyday I think it’s only right that I give you a bath after, don’t you?”

The woman bites her lip and Kara pauses in cleaning her face, settling the cloth just below her lip and applying gentle pressure until she’s freed it.

“Please let me take care of you, baby girl,” Kara whispers. Her free hand comes up to cup the woman’s cheek. “You deserve to be safe, and happy, and comfortable. You deserve to be clean, and eat good food—” the woman raises an eyebrow, but Kara plows on with a quick mental acknowledgment that she’ll cook her delicious food when she can handle it— “and sleep in a comfy bed.” Kara hesitates then.

Even if the woman doesn’t have her memories back yet Kara can tell from her reaction to asking for something as simple as a bath that even before the evil lair much of her life was spent wanting, being told she wasn’t enough and wasn’t deserving of even the slightest care. So Kara releases the emotion that’s been growing within her and that she’s been resolutely pushing down ever since the woman flicked her with water for daring to think of shaving her head, letting it fill her mind and soul to the point that even if the woman wasn’t a telepath she’d have to feel it.

“You are precious, baby girl, and you deserve to be cared for and loved.”

Startled green eyes meet Kara’s earnest gaze, and she gives the woman a wobbly smile before looking away, moving on from her face to swipe the cloth gently down the column of her neck and along her shoulders as the woman continues to stare at her.

“I’d like us to be…” Kara chooses her next words carefully, already anticipating a wave of negative emotions based on what she’s gleaned of the woman’s past, “family,” Kara continues, and pauses, surprised, when no such wave comes. “For as long as you’ll have me, at least.” Kara ducks her head and reaches for the woman’s wrist, raises her arm out of the water and is surprised when she slips her hand into Kara’s and squeezes.

Kara looks up, meeting determined green eyes. The woman smiles and Kara gasps quietly when she feels an overwhelming happiness settle over her. The woman raises their clasped hands and presses a soft kiss to Kara’s before settling back into the tub and closing her eyes, Kara’s relief at her acceptance flooding them both as Kara continues to bathe her with a gentle reverence.

Once Kara has finished bathing and drying the woman, combed and braided her hair, and generously lathered her with ointment she finds her softest long-sleeved shirt and an almost as soft pair of pajama pants for her, along with a new pair of boxers and even thicker fuzzy socks.

Two and a half mugs of stew later the woman is brushing her teeth, leaning heavy and half-asleep against Kara. When Kara leaves her to finish up she heads straight to the kitchen, eating with one hand and a touch of super speed as she puts away the clean items from the dishwasher and refills it with freshly dirtied ones.

It’s as Kara is heading back to the corner of her loft with the bed that she thinks to check her phone. She has a deluge of memes from Ruby that she responds to with her own slew of memes and a single missed text from Alex.

Alex Danvers: sorry, but i can’t do sisters’ night for awhile. or game nights. sam really needs me right now. i’ll let you know when they’re back on. love you, sis

The text was clearly written in a hurry, and neither Alex nor Kara have ever indefinitely suspended sisters’ or game nights, especially since game nights dwindled to just Sam, Ruby, Alex, and Kara. The new DEO schedule to rotate on-duty heroes meant Brainy and Nia were rarely available when Kara was, and what time they did have off tended to be date nights. Yet, it isn’t the content of the message that shocks Kara the most, or even that Alex had sent it only an hour before Kara should have been at Sam’s house for a sisters’ night in their den. What shocks Kara is that the text was sent three hours ago and she had completely forgotten sisters’ night. Had Alex not canceled she definitely would have been calling to see where Kara was.

She had never forgotten a sisters’ night. Ever.

It amazes Kara just how quickly her priorities have shifted. The job she’s always loved felt like a hassle all day because it meant she couldn’t be home with her new companion. The time she always set aside to spend with Alex was forgotten not even two days after bringing the woman home.

Surprisingly, though, Kara doesn’t feel guilty. All of her friends’ priorities have shifted since she’s known them, after all. Winn used to be the most avid member of the Super Friends (as he had dubbed them), but when the future came calling for him he answered, and Kara hasn’t heard from him since. James used to think it was his duty to help Kara as her cousin’s best friend, but even as their own friendship blossomed he began to think more about his own life and ended up leaving Kara and his well-paying job behind to return home and help the people there. Nia and Brainy definitely still took their superhero jobs seriously, but their free time was now mostly reserved for one another rather than hanging out as friends with the ever-dwindling Super Friends group.

And Alex’s priority had… not shifted, entirely. She was still Kara’s big sister, still as overprotective of her as ever. But the circle of people she cared for had grown with Sam and Ruby, and Kara was definitely outside of their bubble. Even before Alex’s text Kara had been able to tell something was going on with Sam, but she clearly didn’t want Kara to know about it and Alex supported that. Sam needed Alex right now, and Alex was prioritizing that, which was fair. It was… fair, yup.

And it was good timing! It meant Kara could spend more time at home, without arousing suspicion, which was great, honestly. And no sisters’ nights meant that Alex wouldn’t be asking about how Kara had been, all her focus on her and able to pick up on things Kara wasn’t ready for her to know yet. No game nights meant Kara wouldn’t see Ruby for awhile either, unless they needed an emergency babysitter which was rarer now that Ruby had finally convinced her moms she was old enough to be home alone. Ruby was almost as good as Alex at reading Kara so that was good too. Yup. It was all for the best.

Really.

Kara is pulled from her thoughts by a loud clatter in the bathroom and she nearly runs into the woman leaning in the doorway in her haste to check on her. The woman is watching Kara with worried eyes, and Kara can now see that she has long finished her business and had tossed a hairbrush into the tub to get Kara’s attention. Her legs are starting to tremble from standing and Kara scoops her up and holds her close.

“I’m sorry, baby, I wasn’t paying attention, I was… I was just…”

Two warm hands cup Kara’s cheeks and as the woman’s thumbs swipe gently across them Kara realizes she’s crying.

“Oh.”

Kara carries the woman to the bed and wants to sink down with her but knows she won’t get up for awhile if she does, and she’s glad when the hands cupping her face let her go, granting permission for her to speed through her nightly routine before burrowing into the blankets like she wants to.

When Kara returns minutes later the woman is still sitting up, waiting, and with barely a thought Kara literally flies into her arms, burying her face in the woman’s shoulder once they’ve settled under the covers.

Kara has to bite back a hysterical laugh when the cool fabric of her cape covers her head, and she meets soft green eyes when she chances a glance up, the woman giving her an encouraging smile. Kara settles against her again, and instead of speaking she lets her memories talk for her.

First Kara shows her Winn. Shows her the geeky technology-lover becoming normal, dorky Kara Danver’s friend and then quickly adapting to something of a Super sidekick when she became Supergirl. She shows her how she helped Winn deal with the trauma surrounding his father, and how he helped her stay excited for the new Super role she had always anticipated with something like dread. How they had stuck together through it all and Winn had left his job at CatCo to better help her at the DEO. How he had been one of her best friends and then… how he had left.

And how she barely heard from him since and wonders if he’ll ever bother communicating with them again.

Then Kara shows her James. How he came into her life at her cousin’s behest with knowledge of her she hadn’t consented to share. How he won her over with easy smiles and a passion for his work that stoked her own. How he fit seamlessly into the Super Friends and did his best to help with anything she needed. How he wanted to be a superhero himself, or at least a hero himself, and refused to listen when his friends worried for him. How he eventually left National City and everyone else behind to return home and be the kind of hero he’d needed as a kid.

And how Kara hasn’t heard from him in months now, and when she’d offered to come visit him he’d declined, despite her cousin telling her he’d visited him only a few days later.

Next Kara shows her Brainy and Nia, who had come into her life around the same time and who had required more than a little push to accept that the other liked them too. How Brainy used to ask Kara for advice about interacting with Nia and gave her advice in turn, everything from the physics of fighting with her cape to riddles that would stump any modern genius. How he took a long time to seem comfortable around Kara and even now gives her looks she can’t read sometimes, but he’s a good friend regardless of whatever he’s keeping from her. How Nia used to be living on caffeine and fumes but with Kara and Brainy’s help (and her future self’s) she’d blossomed into a hero in her own right. How Nia helped her adapt to Alex’s new married life and how Brainy assured her those who love her will always make time for her.

And how the most recent time Kara saw them outside of the DEO or CatCo was three weeks ago when she bumped into them during their date night when an unknown alien had been wreaking havoc a block over.

Finally, she shows the woman her worst and best memories with Alex, from the teenager who never asked for a weird alien sister to that same teenager fighting off her new sister’s bullies. She shows her how they mourned Jeremiah, and later Kenny, together, how Alex helped her adjust to life on Earth and how even when she went to college they talked every day. She shows her how she became Supergirl to save Alex, how Alex wanted her to quit and she refused. How Alex stood over her at the DEO after shooting her down with kryptonite and how Kara couldn’t even feel mad, just a hollow resignation. Then, how Alex helped her, how Alex fought for her and saved her and was saved in turn. How they spent sisters’ nights eating junk food and watching bad movies and talking about their weeks and laughing at stupid things and telling each other silly and not-so-silly secrets.

How even though their time together has lessened since Alex and Sam got together, she always makes time for Kara too, and tries to include her in her new family’s activities when she can.

How Kara stills feels jealous when she sees how comfortable Alex is with Sam and Ruby even as she feels so, so happy for her sister finally having the family she deserves.

How anytime she feels like Alex takes Sam’s side over hers, keeps secrets that seem to be dragging them both down, Kara feels betrayed, even as she does the same, constantly saving and hiding aliens the DEO would rather lock away.

How Kara would never give up being Supergirl and all the good she does but how she hates how it has affected her relationship with her sister.

Kara shows this woman whose name she does not know some of the brightest and darkest moments of her life, but though part of her doesn’t want to she still keeps some of her worst memories hidden, not wanting the woman to see the darkest parts of Kara herself.

So she shows her Sam and Ruby and Alex, laughing and happy, and Sam telling her she doesn’t want Ruby to know she’s Supergirl. Sam’s anger when Ruby casually mentions it later, only abating when Ruby starts listing off evidence that includes slip ups Sam had made as well. She shows her what her old calm places used to be, the woods near the Danvers’ house, her favorite spot to hide away at school, the observatory on her college campus. And what her calm places are now, memories of her childhood bedroom on Krypton or her aunt’s spaceship… a steady heartbeat and a pair of vibrant green eyes.

Surprised, then, Kara finally stops, pulling out of her memories and snuggling as close to the woman as she dares, her cape still settled over their heads and blocking out the room around them. Kara pretends they’re on Krypton, her cape… no, her baby blanket, that’s what it used to be, tucked over them, the red around her not from the blanket but from Krypton’s sun, the bed beneath her not the most comfortable she could find in a big box store but the bed she’d had as a child that none had lived up to since, the woman in her arms… still the same, really.

Kara closes her eyes and burrows deeper into the blankets and falls asleep as a gentle hand cards through her hair, a soft humming in her mind that reminds her of the lullaby her mom or aunt would sing to her as a child when her brain wouldn’t stay quiet long enough for her to sleep.

As she finally drifts off Kara feels something settle in the other woman’s mind, a sort of resolve, something firmly decided, and she wants to ask her about it but can’t, too exhausted to remain awake any longer.

When she wakes up later to bring the woman more stew Kara has already forgotten about it, and she has nothing to say about all she shared with the woman before she fell asleep, simply telling her ‘thank you’ and holding her close long after the last of the stew is gone.

Chapter Text

Ruby calls Kara later that week at the time Kara would usually be at her house for game night. Kara is sitting in bed typing an article, her companion curled up asleep beside her, and when Kara answers and the woman stirs she absently begins to pet her hair.

“You aren’t here,” Ruby says petulantly, and Kara glances at her companion, surprised to see green eyes staring at her, suddenly wide awake.

“Alex canceled game night,” Kara replies, helping the woman sit up beside her. She points to the phone in question and Kara answers aloud, “It’s Ruby, she’s my niece.”

The woman’s eyes narrow and her hand strays to her stomach but doesn’t clench at the fabric, and after a moment she burrows closer to Kara and just stares intently at the phone. Kara can tell she’s feeling… well, relief seems to be the strongest, followed by confusion at said relief.

“Who’s with you?” Ruby asks, whispering now. “Did you pick up a new fugitive?”

A chilly hand pinches Kara beneath her shirt and she squeaks, looking down to see narrowed green eyes and a dangerously arched eyebrow. “What? I’ve never let her meet any of them! She just… has a habit of calling when I’m, uh, housing someone. Temporarily.”

“I can keep a secret,” Ruby says, sounding proud. “My mom didn’t… wait, how much does your new fugitive know?”

“First of all,” Kara starts, settling back in bed and wrapping her arm around her companion, “she is not a fugitive. She’s a… friend.” It isn’t exactly accurate but if Kara tells Ruby the woman is her family now her niece will definitely demand to meet her and Kara doesn’t think she’s up for visitors quite yet. The woman’s spike of panic at the thought confirms that. “And second, she knows both of my identities, so brag away.”

“Hmmm,” Ruby doesn’t sound convinced, but she skips to the bragging regardless. “My moms didn’t know I knew my new aunt was Supergirl for almost two years,” Ruby says grandly, and Kara is surprised to feel that her companion is somehow amused, proud, and concerned at this. “I finally admitted it cuz watching them try to excuse Auntie Kara having to run off to handle something was getting painful.”

“I still can’t believe Sam told you I took a part-time job at a zoo,” Kara mutters.

“A very poorly managed zoo,” Ruby corrects, mimicking her mom’s voice so accurately that Kara and her companion both snort. “So, what’s your friend’s name?”

“Uh…” Kara can’t think of anything except ‘Rapunzel’ and the pinch she gets for that has her biting her tongue to keep from blurting it out regardless.

Ruby sighs. “Fine, keep your secrets. I didn’t call to interrogate you anyway.”

“Everything okay?” Kara asks, her brow crinkling.

“I guess, just… Ma canceled game night and didn’t even tell me til I asked why you weren’t here yet,” Ruby says, and Kara can hear her scowl. “I know she and Mom are, I dunno, they’re freaking out over something but they won’t tell me, and now game night is canceled indefinitely, which has never happened before. I don’t like it.” Ruby stifles a yawn, then, which Kara thinks is a bit odd for this time of day, but considering how often she’s been napping with her companion she really isn’t one to talk.

“Me either,” Kara admits. “But I do need to stay home with my friend for awhile, so don’t get onto Alex too much. Things will calm down and you can get back to blackmailing me soon enough.”

Kara’s companion taps her side in question and Kara flushes a bit.

“I, uh, may use my super speed to cheat at… certain games,” Kara mumbles.

“You mean all the games,” Ruby corrects. “Which my hyper-competitive parents have somehow not figured out yet despite the fact that one of them grew up with you. Then again,” Ruby muses, “if you’ve been cheating the whole time I can kinda see why Ma never clocked it. You’d make a killing in Las Vegas.”

“I already got banned from every casino there,” Kara says absently, and frowns when she gets pinched for that. “What? I donated most of it. And I only cheated at luck-based games, using a bit of speed to move things where I needed them, and way too fast for a camera to track. They started calling me ‘Lucky Ducky’,” Kara scowls at that, and once again wonders who the heck started it, and why, because to this day she still runs into the odd person who whispers it to themself when they come across her. She’d had to explain it to Cat once, even.

Ruby is laughing too hard at this new information to comment, but when she finally catches her breath she says, a teasing lilt to her voice, “Since you seem to be free at the moment how about helping me with my trigonometry homework, Lucky Ducky?”

Kara chokes. “Oh no there’s an emergency gotta go, love you, bye.” She hangs up to her niece’s even louder laughter and looks down to see her companion’s very judgmental expression. “What? She knows I hate having to learn certain Earth subjects. Mathematics, sciences, technology… this planet has very little actually figured out and what it does know is either backwards or highly skewed or both.”

Her companion’s mouth drops open, and she sends Kara… shock, rage, and a burning curiosity. Before she can demand Kara tell her everything, as Kara can already tell she wants to do, her stomach growls and she sighs in defeat as Kara heads to the kitchen to get some stew.

Kara and the woman settle into something of a routine. Each day they wake up with the sun, the woman grudgingly and Kara far more blearily than she used to. They lay in bed for several minutes as they adjust and eventually Kara helps the woman through her morning routine before speeding through her own and feeding her, sticking to stew for the first week and branching out into more solid meals after that. Kara heads to work and is gone most of the morning, but aside from staff meetings and hero duty spends the afternoon at home, feeding the woman upon arrival and sitting up in bed and working on her laptop after, her companion curled against her side snoozing softly.

When evening comes she helps the woman with increasingly difficult physical therapy exercises before giving her a bath, during which the woman inevitably naps, a soft smile on her face all the while. Kara can’t help but look forward to her baths as well, as it gives her ample time to examine the woman’s health, from physically feeling her increasing weight and muscle mass to scrutinizing her with x-ray vision in slow sweeps as she cleans her. Once the woman is dry, hair combed and braided and skin moisturized, she tucks her into her softest long-sleeved shirt and pants and speeds through her own shower while the woman rests. After a dinner that they both deem only marginally better than just stew Kara helps the woman through her nightly routine, speed-eating her own dinner while she finishes up and getting the woman settled in bed before breezing through her own nightly tasks.

They fall asleep tangled up with each other, and as time passes the woman no longer needs to wake at night to eat, the only thing that disturbs their slumber Kara’s Supergirl duties. Every time Kara is called away she tries not to wake her companion, but every time she returns she finds her sitting up in bed, wrapped in Kara’s cape and peering at her sleepily.

As the weeks pass the woman grows stronger, as do her powers, and for some reason Kara’s mental connection to her grows as well. It’s nowhere near as strong as the woman’s is to Kara, but Kara constantly has a general sense of what the woman is feeling, and if she focuses can usually can glean a sense of what she’s thinking as well.

Around the second week Kara notices that the woman recovers quicker when Kara is near her, especially when they’re both asleep. Neither know whether to attribute that to the mental connection or simply the woman feeling safer when Kara is nearby, and potentially devoting more energy to recovery than being on the lookout for potential threats. Kara also realizes that when she is with the woman she finds it far easier and more tempting to sleep, as if her body knows it helps her companion and wants to do its share as well, so Kara finds herself napping with the woman more often than not.

Despite all the extra sleeping, Kara finds herself waking more and more exhausted each morning until one morning around the third week, after a weekend of mostly napping with the woman, she actually sleeps through sunrise and is woken by her alarm.

Kara is never woken by her alarm. She turns it off each morning and resets it each night only because she’s still traumatized from Cat’s teasing the one time she overslept due to using too much energy in a fight the night before. Kara is so shocked to actually hear the alarm clock go off that she zaps it without a second thought, then turns to find worried green eyes watching her. At the woman’s behest, Kara leaves early and heads to the DEO, and after taking one look at her Alex drags her to the sun bed and shoves her onto it.

“Well?” Alex asks as Kara lays there drowsily.

“Well wha’?” Kara slurs.

“What drained your powers this time? You didn’t report anything happening this weekend.” Alex has her hands on her hips, her patented Eliza Danvers glare scanning Kara for injuries and falsehoods.

“Nothing happened,” Kara mumbles, eyes closing involuntarily.

“Something must have happened,” Sam cuts in, appearing beside her wife. Kara jumps, startled, and now both women have matching looks of concern. “Did I just… surprise you?”

“No,” Kara lies, not bothering to be convincing.

“BRAINY!” Alex yells.

They do some scans, then. And analyze her fights from the past few weeks. And ask her a lot of questions about how she feels throughout the day and why the logs they’re now checking clock her as flying a lot higher than usual.

The whole time Kara complies instinctively, yawning regularly and wishing she was back home in bed. The only thing that keeps her from flying off even as her friends fret over her is that she can feel her companion in the back of her mind, worried and intently listening to whatever it is everyone around her is saying.

At some point they lay her back on the sun bed and have a whispered conversation in another room that Kara doesn’t bother listening in on, much to her companion’s annoyance. When Alex comes in she tells Kara to get some rest and that Nia will cover for her at work. Kara falls asleep mid-nod.

When Kara wakes up she feels… better. Kind of. She definitely feels more energized, but it feels wrong to wake up alone, no one sprawled across her or curled up beside her. She’s so disgruntled by this that she sits up with a burst of super speed, determined to head home, and doesn’t notice she is not, in fact, alone until Alex’s hands land heavy on her shoulders.

Kara mutters a Kryptonian curse that she’s glad Brainy isn’t present to hear, as despite his own proclivity towards them he still blushes at some of the ones she considers mild.

Alex raises both eyebrows and her hands clamp down harder. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Home,” Kara says shortly.

Alex’s eyes narrow and Kara feels the ghost of a pinch to her side.

It’s apparently a memory of her actually being pinched that the woman can project to her, but it has the intended effect and Kara slouches down and resolves herself to stay until she’s released. She feels a curl of gratitude tickle her mind, and can tell the woman is relieved and once again paying attention, determined to know what’s happening to Kara’s powers. To Kara.

More determined than Kara is, actually, which Kara thinks absently and is surprised at the annoyance the thought receives, especially when she’s hit with the ghost of a very cold pinch to her side that has her wincing even as Alex further narrows her eyes.

Brainy, Nia, and Sam come in then, and now Kara has four sets of worried eyes on her as well as a worried buzz in the back of her head from her companion.

“What have you been up to, Kara?” Sam asks. The fact that she calls her by her name and not her super moniker has Kara sitting up straighter, and finally shaking off the nagging feeling that she needs to go back home. Sam has never called her by her name at the DEO. Ever. And the look she’s giving her… well it’s one Kara has only ever seen her give Ruby, particularly when the girl was being bullied at school and trying to hide it from her mother. Kara feels a flash of anger from her companion at that memory and idly assures her that it’s all been sorted out now, with a tiny bit of help from Supergirl.

“What do you mean?” Kara asks.

Sam’s eyes narrow and now Alex has her Eliza Danvers glare back.

“Something has been draining your powers,” Alex explains. “And the only pattern we can find is that it’s happening when you aren’t accounted for.”

Kara arches a single eyebrow at that and Sam gets a funny look on her face.

“Meaning,” Brainy cuts in, “when you are not at CatCo, or doing interviews, or being Supergirl, you are going somewhere or meeting with someone who is draining your powers.”

Kara lets her mind speed ahead then, not too fast lest it hurt her mental companion, but fast enough that her friends are breathing in slow motion.

She still doesn’t know all of her companion’s powers, but she does know they’re geared towards Kryptonians and that she’s recovering far faster than a human… especially when Kara is nearby. Any free time Kara has, or ‘unaccounted for’ time as Alex put it, is spent with the woman in her apartment. And lately Kara has been going out of her way to sleep next to her so she’ll recover faster. Something is indeed draining her energy and it is not something she can share with her friends. At all.

Also, the woman has been listening to Kara think all of this and now the worry buzzing through her has morphed into guilt, and Kara can tell she wants to fix it, doesn’t know how, wonders if she should leave but that feels wrong too, and… oh, she is doing a Alex-level spiral of worry right now.

At that observation the woman’s spiral halts and Kara has the feeling she’d be glaring at her if she were present. Kara lets her mind slow again and refocuses on the room around her.

“Kara, please just tell us,” Nia says quietly, and when Kara meets her eyes, wide and pleading, she knows Nia is close to telling everyone about three weeks ago when she’d dropped things off at Kara’s apartment. Kara wants to be mad at her but her companion is agreeing with her, apparently having decided it would be best for the DEO to haul her away than for her to continue to hurt Kara.

Have you considered the fact that maybe you aren’t taking my energy, but that I’m giving it to you? Kara thinks, and feels the woman’s thoughts still, especially when Kara recalls her near-constant urge to remain with her companion, coming not from either of their minds but from Kara’s own body, which Kara is pretty sure is also the origin of her thought when she’d found the woman, to keep her with her at all costs.

One catastrophe averted, or at least paused, Kara turns her attention to her friends. They’re all looking at her with varying levels of concern and suspicion, which… is fair, honestly. Even now there’s no way Kara is going to tell them the whole truth.

“I… may… be helping someone,” Kara says slowly, valiantly not rolling her eyes when Alex steps forward like she’s ready to fight the person who isn’t even present. “They aren’t dangerous,” Kara hurries to say, “it’s… they landed here recently and I’ve been trying to help them get settled.” The last part is true, at least, and is a very Kara thing to do. “They weren’t in the best shape when I found them,” here Kara glances at Nia, “so we’ve been trying to… find things here they can eat. They’ve been handling the food fine but I guess they were also uh… eating my energy, or something.”

“And did they tell you they were doing this?” Sam asks, once again leveling Kara with a look she’s only ever seen Ruby receive. For some reason this time Kara feels the urge to reveal everything, but it’s coming from the woman back home, not from Kara herself. Sam’s look is apparently her weakness, which is… odd.

“I don’t think they knew,” Kara says.

Alex scoffs. “Like hell they didn’t. Bring them here and we’ll see if that holds up.” She cracks her knuckles and this time Kara does roll her eyes.

“They aren’t a criminal, Alex.” Kara hops off the sun bed and does some stretches, relishing the energy flowing through her. She can’t believe she didn’t notice how sapped she was before. “Look, even if we had known they were feeding off my energy I would have let them.” Brainy opens his mouth and Kara rushes to continue. “Not to the point that I got so drained I could barely fly, obviously. But now that I do know we can… adjust.”

“You’re going to keep letting them use you like this?” Alex sounds enraged.

Kara gives her sister a cool look and cocks one eyebrow, crossing her arms. Once again Sam gets a funny look on her face, and Alex actually takes small step back. “Would you let Sam do it you?”

“That’s different.”

“How so? It’s not like they’re actually hurting me, anyway. Now that we know what’s happening I can work on tempering how much energy I give them and make sure I come use the sun bed here or get some extra time in the sun. It won’t hurt me long-term, will it?” Kara turns to Brainy and Nia, and both shake their heads. “Good, then that’s settled.”

As Kara starts to leave Sam blocks her path. “What species is this person?”

“None of your business,” Kara says coolly, and raises her chin when Sam continues to stare her down. Eventually Sam looks away and her shoulders slump, and Kara is startled to feel a wave of guilt that is not her own.

“Look, just… be careful,” Sam says. She rubs her eyes tiredly and Kara once again notices how exhausted Sam is, has been for awhile now. “Ruby would never forgive me if I let anything happen to you.”

At the mention of her niece Kara deflates, and off in her apartment her companion is feeling an odd sense of déja vu. “I trust them, Sam. I promise, they would rather let the DEO whisk them off to a black site than hurt me.” The annoyance Kara herself feels at this is in no way helped by the conviction she feels coming from the woman back home. “Even if it’s dumb,” Kara adds, ignoring Sam’s raised eyebrows and the flash of annoyance from the woman in her apartment. “Extremely, excruciatingly dumb.”

“And exactly how long are you going to be helping this extremely, excruciatingly dumb person?” Alex drawls.

Kara almost laughs at the indignant ire that floods the woman in her mind and turns to grin at her sister as she slips past Sam. “For as long as they’ll have me.” Kara can hear Alex’s sigh without trying to even as she takes off from the DEO landing pad and heads home.

Sam and Alex definitely tell Ruby to check in on Kara because her niece, who had mostly been texting her the last few weeks, calls that evening while Kara is curled up on the couch beside her companion, who has decided to start watching the news instead of napping as she usually does at this time. Granted, the woman doesn’t actually seem awake until Kara picks up the phone with a quiet, “Hey, Ruby, what’s up?”

“Mom said I needed to call you,” Ruby says, not bothering with pleasantries. “What did you do this time?”

Kara scoffs. “Who said I did anything?” She ignores the pinch she gets for that.

Ruby just sighs. “Last time Mom said to call you it was because you were acting weird and she assumed you needed someone who wasn’t her or Ma to talk to… though turns out you were fine aside from, oh, you know, being poisoned with red kryptonite.” Her tone is light but Kara’s companion sends her what she’s pretty sure are Ruby’s emotions: worry, yes, but also fear.

“It’s nothing like that, Rubes,” Kara says softly, deflating. “Your moms are just worried about me because I was, uh, well, you remember my friend?”

“Yes…”

“I’ve apparently been giving her my energy,” Kara says, tugging her companion closer when she feels the guilt radiating from her. “Giving, mind you. I just… didn’t realize it and gave her a little too much.” Kara winces and the woman gives her a half-hearted pinch, this time sending Kara her own fear. “I really didn’t mean to,” Kara murmurs, pressing a kiss to her temple. “I’m sorry for scaring you.” She remembers she’s on the phone then and turns back to it. “And for scaring you and Alex and Sam and, well, everyone. I showed up at the DEO to use the sun bed cuz I knew I was tired but didn’t know why and they all freaked out when they realized my energy was being depleted.”

“So you’re okay now?” Ruby sounds a lot younger than thirteen going on fourteen and Kara pushes away the guilt and memories of the red kryptonite arc of her life before her companion can grasp them, and Kara is grateful when the woman doesn’t ask.

“I’m okay,” Kara says. “I promise. I’m going to use the sun bed from now on and learn to regulate how much energy I’m giving her so I don’t get so worn out.”

“Why does she need your energy?” Ruby asks, and Kara is grateful that her niece is curious and not accusatory as Alex was. Still, Kara can feel her companion’s guilt and worry at the question, and she starts running her hand along her side soothingly.

“Some… people hurt her,” Kara says carefully. “We’ve been doing what we can so she’ll get better, and we noticed that she heals faster when I’m nearby, so I’ve been spending as much time with her as possible. We didn’t know it was because I was sending her my energy, but now that we do I’ll make sure I refuel.”

“You get your energy from the sun,” Ruby muses. “Maybe she needs to get more sunlight? I mean, I don’t think it will be as effective as your energy but it may help as well. Even humans need sunlight, Vitamin D and all that.”

Kara freezes because yes, humans do need sunlight, and her somewhat-human companion is definitely not getting enough when she spends all of her time in her apartment. Not that Kara can take her to a park or something, though, cuz that… definitely would not go well. Her companion is apparently paying close attention to her thoughts because when Kara thinks of how easily the woman’s pants would fall down if they were out walking around she gets hit with a memory of an icy cold pinch that makes her yelp.

“…are you okay?” Ruby asks.

“That’s cheating,” Kara mutters. Then, to Ruby, “I was thinking about how going to parks and stuff isn’t really plausible at the moment and she hit me with a memory of an icy cold pinch even though her hands are much warmer nowadays.” Kara doesn’t realize her slip up until her companion raises both eyebrows at her and points to the phone. “What? Oh...”

“Aunt Kara,” Ruby says evenly, “is your friend psychic?”

“Um.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Ruby says happily and Kara’s companion shakes her head at Kara’s helpless shrug. “Anyway, psychic alien or not, she still needs sunlight. Probably. Your apartment building has a roof no one ever goes to, right?”

“Yeah…” Kara frowns.

“Make her a rooftop garden,” Ruby advises. “Well, have Supergirl do it. That way you don’t get kicked out if the landlord doesn’t like it.”

Kara refrains from telling her niece that her landlord definitely knows she’s Supergirl, either from the myriad of impossibly broken things they’ve had to replace once her gadgets could no longer fix them or from seeing her constantly coming and going from her window. Her companion sighs at the thought and Kara ignores it. “That’s a great idea, Rubes. I think I have a weekend project now.”

“Damn straight,” Ruby says, and Kara knows her niece is smirking on the other end of the phone, knowing Kara has long given up on getting her to drop that phrase, though why even Sam allows it Kara doesn’t know. “And don’t worry, I won’t tell my moms about your friend. Oh, and if she felt the need to pinch you I’m sure you deserved it.”

Kara gasps at the betrayal and her companion sends her a tickle of amusement. “Traitor,” Kara tells her niece.

“What? I still pinch Ma when she has it coming. Mom may have promised to stop doing it but I never did.” Ruby sounds very proud of this.

“Yeah, Alex still complains about it sometimes,” Kara says, smiling. She frowns when she hears Ruby yawn. “Are you getting enough rest?”

“Huh? Uh, yeah,” Ruby mumbles, stifling another yawn. “Just… the road by my house is loud, lately.” After getting Kara to once again promise to use the sun bed when she needs it, Ruby hangs up, muttering something about needing to pester her moms into going to bed. Kara frowns at… all of that but the call has already ended, so she starts ruminating on a rooftop garden instead, making a mental note to send pictures to Ruby once it’s done.

In an odd reversal of Kara waking her companion up to eat, her companion now wakes her up before the sun has risen, poking her side until she rolls out of bed with a groan and heads to the DEO to sunbathe. Every time she comes whichever of her friends is on duty gives her an inscrutable look but thankfully says nothing, aside from some snide remarks Alex says not-so-quietly as she passes by.

At one point Alex, Sam, and Brainy join her in the sun bed room, Sam holding up two photos: one a headshot of a woman with a too-wide grin who had shown up at a burning building a week before Kara brought her companion home and fired a kryptonite bazooka at her that had her laid up in the sun bed for two days, and another a blurry but clearer image of a person in a black bodysuit racing off frame, a wisp of brown hair barely visible.

“The ‘kryptonite killer’ struck again,” Alex says, grin feral. “And they’re getting sloppy.”

Kara feels her companion’s confusion and gives her a quick mental rundown— a man who stabbed her with a kryptonite blade, a woman who used a kryptonite gas bomb on her, and now a woman who had launched a kryptonite bazooka at her, all put in high security prisons and then killed by whom her sister had dubbed the ‘kryptonite killer’.

“More like I had the cameras near her cell… upgraded,” Sam says, smirking when both Kara and her wife look at her with wide eyes.

“By me,” Brainy says tersely, frowning at Sam. “And you neglected to disclose the specific case for which you needed my help.”

Sam and Alex both turn to him, eyebrows raised. “Do you not want to catch this person?” Sam drawls. When Brainy glances from Kara to Sam and back, Alex steps towards him.

“You know who it is, don’t you?” Alex growls, but even when she’s inches from him Brainy does not back down.

Instead, he looks up, meeting Alex’s gaze head on. “I cannot do anything to risk the future, Assistant Director Arias-Danvers, as I am sure you well know.” He turns to go, but stops at the door. “And I will not knowingly help with this case, so please do not expect me to.”

Kara just shrugs when Alex and even Sam look a little murderous at that. “He has to preserve the space-time continuum, chill.” She feels her companion’s annoyance as well, but… Kara isn’t nearly as invested in this person as her sister and even Sam are. If they haven’t come for her yet, well… She gets a mental pinch for that and resists the urge to shrug again.

“Brainy,” Sam says, voice steely, and he turns fully, facing her with a neutral expression. “If Supergirl gets hurt because you refused to divulge information, I will kick your ass back to your precious future myself.”

Alex and Kara are both surprised by Sam, well… acting as overprotective as Alex, in Kara’s opinion, but Brainy gives her a pleased smile and bows his head slightly. “Understood, Director Arias-Danvers. And I assure you, this person is… no threat to Supergirl. Quite the opposite.” He leaves then, though Kara can tell neither Sam nor Alex are convinced.

“Did you give this woman a death sentence?” Kara asks idly, deciding to get them back on topic. “Sending her to prison and knowing she’d be targeted and all.”

Sam shrugs. “Look, I had her put into the highest security prison I could and told them someone may come for her. The camera was just… insurance.”

Alex is scheming and Sam is frowning at the photos, and Kara still doesn’t really care about any of this and would rather be at home. Since she isn’t worried about the culprit or… even the victims, really, not since one person who had poisoned her with a lethal amount of kryptonite had escaped prison and nearly killed her again shortly after she became Supergirl. It’s why she and her friends are extra wary of anyone actually able to get their hands on that much kryptonite now.

Which… “Sam,” Kara says, brow crinkling. “Is that… uh, the guy who pretended to be in trouble and booby trapped his house with kryptonite, and then escaped prison and took someone hostage and had them wear a kryptonite vest while he shot me…” She winces at her companion’s fear at all that. “Is he still alive?”

Sam and Alex freeze and leave the room, and when they come back they’re both scowling. “Dead,” Alex confirms. “He finagled his way into a lower security prison again,” she mutters a Kryptonian curse that makes Kara and Sam both snort despite Sam not actually knowing Kryptonian, “and they found him dead a few days later. They assumed another inmate did it.”

“You may want to check on the others,” Kara muses, and Alex does an about face and leaves the room, Sam sighing and following her. They come back not long after, both of their faces dark.

“Anyone who nearly killed you with kryptonite is dead,” Sam mutters. “Hell, anyone who nearly killed you is dead. All a variety of causes, spread through a handful of prisons… We’re going to have to keep track of people you arrest from now on, especially any who injured you.”

“Fucking incompetent prisons,” Alex growls. “How are we only finding out about this now? This person has been fixated on you for… years, at this point.”

“Fast, strong, good at recon, and good at hiding their work,” Kara says easily, standing with a stretch and electing not to mention that Brainy may well have been covering it up since he arrived. Her companion feels a very large spike of annoyance at that. “And if it’s been that long, I don’t see why they’d bother coming after me at this point. Maybe they just… I dunno, like Supergirl and show it via revenge killings?” She gives her scowling sister a quick hug before she heads home. She wants to hug Sam too, but her sister-in-law tends to flinch away from things like that coming from anyone other than Ruby or Alex so she elects not to.

Kara rouses the woman and they start their day, though now the woman seems far more determined to learn about her powers than she was before, and occasionally Kara gets the sense she’s also worrying about the ‘kryptonite killer’. Instead of sleeping through the afternoon when Kara returns home, she sits beside her in bed or on the couch, a new laptop with an external hard drive reader on her lap as she scours the hard drives Kara recovered from the evil lair.

Anytime Kara looks over she winces at the pages and pages of notes the woman is combing through, and the one time she wonders just how much of it the woman understands a chilly hand slips under her shirt and pinches with more fervor than usual.

“Hey!” Kara yelps. “You don’t need to be that offended, baby, geez. Not many people would understand all that. I don’t even understand it all.” Though I would if it were in Kryptonian, Kara adds silently. Earth science is dumb.

The woman rolls her eyes and continues reading, occasionally typing up her own notes in another document.

Kara decides she must be some kind of scientist. She does kind of have nerd vibes. Kara dodges the incoming pinch by hopping up and grabbing the small thermos sitting beside the woman, heading to the fridge to refill it from the tupperware with yesterday’s batch of stew. The woman grimaces at her and Kara’s only response is a brilliant grin.

That was the other big change since Kara’s intervention at the DEO. The woman is determined to feed herself now so Kara can take her time to eat her fill as well. She had been planning to start soon anyway, though Kara thinks she should have held off a bit longer considering how often she spills stew on herself or drops bites of her meals on her lap.

Kara reaches back and catches the pen the woman throws at her for that without having to look, able to track it from the woman’s perspective as their connection has once again grown in the last week.

When Kara hands her the thermos and sets the pen back on the table the woman scowls at her but takes a small drink and Kara drops a kiss to her head before plopping down beside her again.

It’s a few days later and the woman is again glued to her laptop and scrolling through the documents on the hard drive. Kara doesn’t want her baby girl to spend all of her time reading through the notes on the so-called experiments done on her, and after some ruminating she remembers the woman’s curiosity anytime Kara recalls memories of Krypton. So one day after lunch, her articles already written thanks to a touch of super speed, Kara waylays her companion on her way to her laptop and scoops her up, taking her to the bed instead and arranging them both so they’re laying close together, foreheads touching.

Her companion’s eyes sparkle with excitement, already knowing what Kara has planned, and Kara gives her a brief smile before closing her own eyes and recalling some of her favorite memories of Krypton, mentally narrating and translating for the woman where needed. They spend most of the afternoon this way, and much to Kara’s delight, her companion makes it clear that it will in no way be a one-time thing.

Kara spends a few hours that weekend making a rooftop garden, clad in her suit but with her hair back in a quick bun. She'd already done the shopping and after pressing the button on her glasses her supplies are heaped neatly in the center of the roof, and she blatantly uses her super speed to get it all set up. She laughs when her companion takes breaks from reading through notes to mentally check in, the woman sending her a wave of annoyance each time at seeing how much progress Kara has made. “Would you rather I take weeks to get it done?” Kara asks at one point and continues almost immediately, “And you should be glad I have super speed, or I definitely would have shaved your head.” She snickers and gets back to work when she gets a ghost of an icy pinch for that.

By afternoon the garden is done, and Kara hovers in the center, proudly surveying her work as her companion watches through her eyes.

The roof’s perimeter has been filled with long planters, all secured and filled with potting soil bursting with edible plants, from herbs to native flowers to a few human-safe, alien plants that grow well on Earth. A large square planter takes up the center, and Kara has filled it with clover, creating a small pseudo-field that she’s planning to use for picnics later.

She’d modified the raised roof entryway so that it supports a sort of gazebo, albeit one designed to not be blown off in high winds. It mostly serves as a shady spot on the roof, one which Kara has filled with outdoor furniture— a short wicker sofa, a chest that doubles as a footstool, a small table, and a few lounge chairs as well. The sides of the gazebo are trellises, and Kara has planted a particularly fast-growing alien plant there that covers the sides and top of the gazebo within an hour, providing both more shade and a wind shield.

Her last touch was solar-powered lights, a few tall ones near the gazebo and smaller ones scattered throughout the garden beds. She’d filled the chest with picnic blankets and ponchos and gardening supplies, and at her companion’s tickle of curiosity she shrugs, “I mean I am making this garden for you, but I figure everyone’s gonna start using it eventually.”

Satisfied with her work, Kara takes an aerial picture and sends it to Ruby with a sun emoji. She heads back into her apartment, where the woman is already waiting, watching her with narrowed eyes. “What’s up, baby girl?” Kara asks easily, plopping down beside her with a soft ‘oomph’.

The woman sighs and closes her laptop, placing it on the coffee table before turning to give Kara her full attention. She mimes drinking from a mug and then points up. Kara just blinks at her until the woman sends her two quick memories: her eating yesterday’s lunch and Kara setting up the gazebo furniture.

Kara starts bouncing in excitement. “You mean you actually wanna use it? Like right now? For lunch even?”

Her companion arches an eyebrow and crosses her arms, and Kara gets the sense she’s wondering why Kara went to all the effort of making a garden without expecting it to be used.

Kara looks away. “Well I just… you never really weighed in on it, is all. I wasn’t sure if you’d use it or not, I just set it up in case you wanted to. And I’m not trying to replace the energy I give you with sunlight, it’s just that you are, uh, were human so you probably do need sunlight and I think going outside is good for mental health and stuff…” Kara trails off uncertainly, forgetting where she was going with this ramble.

A hand reaches out and grabs her own and Kara looks up to see bright green eyes watching her. Her companion gives her a fond smile and sends Kara a burst of… happiness and gratitude.

Kara gives her a brilliant smile back and presses a quick kiss to the hand holding hers before releasing it and hopping up, skip-flying to the kitchen and filling a large thermos with stew. She grabs some fruit and sandwiches as well, and tucks it all into a bag that she slings over her arm— no need to use her glasses for something like this. When she turns she finds her companion is standing now but hasn’t moved, and is looking from the window to the door and back, frowning.

“Oh no, baby girl, I’m not gonna make you go through the window,” Kara says, shaking her head. “No one’s in the hall or about to be, and I’m the only one who uses the stairs instead of the elevator.” Kara’s companion raises an eyebrow at her mental flinch at this and Kara sighs, “I’m kinda claustrophobic. Stuck in a tiny pod for a few decades in space and all.” She almost thinks of something else, then, but it falls away when a dull throb of pain pulses through her mind, mild enough that she shields her companion from it instinctively.

The woman’s eyes widen and Kara feels her shock and concern at the new information. She walks over to Kara but stops short, her hands twitching and her brow crinkled.

Kara tilts her head at the woman a moment and then grins. “Baby, you can hug me if you want. I touch you all the time without checking in first.” Then Kara frowns. “Oh shi— uh, that was weird, Rao.” She shakes her head. “Sorry, um, do you want me to check in first? I kinda just pick you up… a lot…” Kara’s brow crinkles now as she realizes just how tactile she’s been with her companion from the very beginning, how even though the woman asked her about listening to her thoughts and definitely was not used to being cared for like this Kara just kind of… freely manhandles her. Constantly.

Her companion hugging her interrupts her spiral and she’s sent a few of the woman’s memories in quick succession: her already knowing what Kara was about to do that first day when she ripped the hospital gown off without warning, her surprise and then her agreement with Kara’s realization at the DEO that her urge to keep the woman with her was coming from Kara’s own body, her contentment every time Kara pulled her closer and how safe she felt in Kara’s arms.

Kara blinks as the memories clear and she takes a few breaths as she processes it. Her companion knows when Kara is going to do something even without her giving any warning, she’s fairly certain Kara’s near-constant need to be touching her has to do with sharing her energy with her, and she enjoys Kara being so tactile with her. The woman pulls away enough to give Kara a small smile and Kara’s sigh of relief is so big her shoulders sag.

“Okay, that’s… good. I am sorry I didn’t realize sooner though,” Kara adds, her arms still loosely encircling her companion. “I know I tend to be more tactile than most people but you are right that with you it’s… a lot even for me. Not that I don’t, uh, like it too.” Kara blushes and scoops the woman into her arms. “Anyway, lunch.” She walks into the hall and doesn’t bother locking her door behind her, despite her companion’s pinch. “Look if someone wants to steal from Supergirl they clearly really need it,” Kara mutters, trying not to think of just how many of her neighbors know exactly who she is, regardless of whether they’re aliens or humans. Plus, well, all of her actual goodies are well-protected.

Her companion sighs at that, likely wondering how the whole world doesn’t know Supergirl’s name by now, and Kara ducks into the stairwell.

“Also, um, thank you for… I dunno, enjoying my company?” Kara’s brow crinkles at her own phrasing and she resists the urge to shrug, not wanting to jostle her companion. “I kind of expect people to be scared of me, or at least scared of me touching them, once they know what I can do. So it’s… nice that you aren’t, I guess.” Kara flushes and is glad when they come out on the rooftop, not wanting to talk any more about her super strength. She sets her companion down on the sofa and busies herself arranging the food on the table. “We should definitely use the clover field for a picnic at some point but not during midday cuz with how pale you are, well, from what I’ve seen sunburns aren’t fun. Then again you may not get them now? I dunno. And once you can eat more foods I have plans for most of these plants—“

A tug on her shirt gets Kara to turn and see serious green eyes watching her, a slight frown on the woman’s face. Her companion’s annoyance prickles at her and Kara sits beside her, biting her lip to keep from continuing to ramble. Her companion ignores this and takes both of Kara’s hands, presses a kiss to each of her palms, and then holds them in her lap, meeting Kara’s eyes once more with a fierce expression. She sends Kara a wave of trust, and comfort, and that same overwhelming happiness from when Kara had asked her to be her family. Kara’s eyes widen and she maybe doesn’t breathe for a moment, but then she gently disentangles their hands and scoops the woman up and onto her lap, wrapping one arm securely around her waist and using the other to grab the first part of their lunch.

It isn’t until the food and stew are all gone, the sun much lower in the sky, that Kara, her companion still content on her lap as Kara’s hand rubs slow patterns against her stomach, finally says, with a kind of reverence, “Thank you for trusting me, baby girl.”

Her companion turns her head just enough to press a kiss to Kara’s cheek, and Kara finally understands the characters in stories who wish a moment would last forever. The woman in her arms sends her a curl of amusement and contentment at that, and Kara turns to hide her grin in soft dark hair as she lets her favorite heartbeat drown out the rest of the city.

Chapter Text

Ruby calls Kara the next day in the early evening while Kara and her companion are relaxing on the roof, Kara explaining the recipes she’s planning to use the plants in later while the woman stares incredulously at the flower Kara had handed her and told her would make a fine snack.

“Ruby,” Kara starts without preamble, “how often have I led you astray with what Earth flowers are edible?”

A hum is her only response at first and Kara narrows her eyes when her companion looks startled. Sure enough, her niece has once again chosen the path of a traitor. “Ma still reminds me at least once a week that you have a habit of eating poisonous plants to see what they taste like, and every time she has a new story about you making nightshade spaghetti or something and forever ruining the pan for anyone else to use.”

Kara scowls when her companion pinches her and hands her the flower. “Rubes, that was not what I asked.”

“Fine, fine,” Ruby drawls. “If you say it’s safe for humans to eat, then it is.” A pause, and Kara is already glaring at the phone. “You apparently did a ton of research after you made Grams a birthday cake so toxic that she and Ma passed out just from you trying to bake it.”

Kara’s companion shakes her head at her and Kara flushes, eating the flower herself.

“I was thirteen,” Kara mumbles around the petals in her mouth, and her companion’s eyes widen when Kara accidentally remembers the time she blew up a toaster when she was fourteen. “We all make mistakes,” Kara adds.

Ruby has the audacity to giggle. “Did you remember the time you blew up a toaster or the time you accidentally made an F4 tornado?”

Kara’s companion just looks at her, face inscrutable, and when Kara focuses she can feel the woman’s mix of horror and amusement.

“Rubyyyyyyyy,” Kara groans. “I fixed that before it did any damage. Mostly.”

“Tell that to Ma’s first car.”

Kara scoffs. “Please, Alex was never gonna get that thing running.”

Her companion raises her eyebrows at Kara and sends her a memory of a memory— a six-year-old Kara on Krypton tinkering in her home lab and easily fixing something that her father had given up on.

“Look, I tried to fix it for her, but she didn’t appreciate that the only way I could get that junker running was to use parts from my pod to make it fly.”

Ruby makes a choking sound. “Holy— if you were my sister instead of Ma’s we would have had a very different childhood,” Ruby muses. “I definitely would have tried to get you to help me cheat in P.E., though… I am doing a lot better with that lately…” She trails off a moment, but then barks out a laugh. “I know I’m not even fourteen yet but can they even arrest me for driving without a license if the car isn’t on the street but above it?”

Kara snorts but her companion’s fear and annoyance stop her from laughing outright. “Hey, it’s okay, baby, I’m not giving my niece a flying car. Ruby is fine.”

“Hold up,” Ruby says, and Kara and her companion both pale. “Is this psychic lady your friend or your girlfriend?”

“My friend,” Kara says. Her companion sends her Ruby’s disbelief at that and Kara sighs. “She doesn’t remember her name right now,” Kara mutters. “And when I told you she was hurt I wasn’t exaggerating. I just kinda started calling her that and it stuck.”

Ruby is quiet for awhile, and finally she sighs. “I was looking forward to teasing you either way, but that kinda ruins it. Does she remember… anything?”

Kara glances at her companion, who raises one shoulder in a shrug and waves toward the phone in a ‘go ahead’ gesture. “She still has all her practical knowledge,” Kara starts, thinking. “Like, she can do what most people can but she also understands all of those dumb Earth sciences.” She gets a pinch for that.

“All of them?” Ruby’s voice raises at the end. “What do you mean, all of them?”

Kara shrugs. “Well, most, at least. We haven’t tested her knowledge of all of them.” Kara grins when her companion scowls, a challenge in her eyes. “She’s been going over some, uh, let’s just say some notes on different experiments that we… ended up with.” Kara ignores Ruby’s sigh and plows on. “She understands them all, and it’s a mix of…” Kara frowns and her companion rolls her eyes and sends her flashes of memory. “Biology, physics, chemistry, geology, and… applying those to alien substances, I guess. I also tried to watch one of those cheesy sci-fi movies you like with her and she was so annoyed she cracked my television with her powers by accident.” Kara smiles fondly at the memory even as her companion flushes. “Once I turned it off she grabbed my interview notebook and scribbled about five blueprints for actual working versions of the fake tech in the movie she was so offended by.”

Ruby is silent for a concerning amount of time, and at Kara’s frown her companion sends her her niece’s emotions: shock, hope, and an underlying… resignation that that hope will be in vain. Before Kara can figure out what any of that means, Ruby speaks, and her voice is so quiet the phone can barely pick it up. “Does she remember anything about herself?”

Kara considers that even as her companion shakes her head. “She’s saying no, but I know two things for sure: she does not want her head shaved and she hates reporters with a passion.”

Her companion is still sharing Ruby’s emotions with Kara, and despite what little Kara gives her the girl’s hope briefly surges even as Kara hears her… snickering?

“Makes sense,” Ruby finally says, then, “uh, no offense. Has… um, have you introduced her to either of my moms?”

Kara frowns. “No? I don’t… want her near the DEO… at all.” She shifts uncomfortably and her companion frowns as they both feel Ruby’s… worry and a new fear, then, that quickly shifts to… acceptance and determination.

“Okay,” Ruby says. “I won’t tell them anything. Just… take care of her, okay, Auntie Kara?”

Kara can’t help but be a bit offended at this. “Rubes, have you met me?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ruby drawls, but then is serious again. “Not just as Supergirl, though. You gotta take care of her as Kara.”

Kara truly does not understand that but her companion seems to, and when she holds her hand out Kara hands her the phone. In a move that Kara is pretty sure surprises them both, her companion clicks her tongue in what Kara decides must be morse code.

“Good,” Ruby says, and they feel her hope solidifying.

“Wait,” Kara blurts, “what did she say?” Then she turns to her companion, who is already sporting Kara’s eyebrow crinkle. “Baby girl, why do you know morse code? Why does Ruby know morse code? Do I need to learn morse code now? I mean I do enjoy learning languages but that one seems kinda… tedious.”

Her companion shakes her head with an amused smile and Ruby scoffs.

“She said you are,” Ruby says. “Taking care of her as Kara, I mean. And no, you don’t need to learn morse code. That’s how Mom and I cheat at game nights.”

Ruby hangs up as Kara sputters, finally understanding why Sam’s house has so many odd tapping sounds during game nights, and her companion’s laughter fills her mind.

It’s a few days later, and Kara’s companion has been scrolling through seemingly endless notes on a fresh hard drive from when Kara first left to sunbathe at the DEO to now, when Kara has returned after a slew of afternoon interviews she hadn’t been able to schedule for the morning.

“You’re a workaholic, aren’t you?” Kara asks, narrowing her eyes at her companion and tying her hair back as her suit vanishes (flying is the fastest form of transportation, thank you).

The woman pauses long enough to roll her eyes before continuing to read.

“You are,” Kara insists. “I barely managed to get you to break for lunch. You were willing to forgo eating and drink nothing but stew if it meant you could keep working.”

The woman purses her lips and a light blush dusts her cheeks. She’s been with Kara for over a month now, and while Kara is glad she no longer has to sleep all the time she thinks that spending all her waking hours reading through notes that depict all of the ‘experiments’ she was subjected to might be worse.

“We’re having a movie night,” Kara declares. They hadn’t had a movie night since the woman had cracked the television screen, which Kara may have cheated and used alien tech to fix… and then had to explain said tech to her suddenly very excited companion. She narrows her eyes when the woman doesn’t move. You have one minute to wrap it up or I’ll hide the hard drives for a week.

The woman makes some hurried clicks and slams the laptop closed, green eyes glaring at Kara as she dumps her technology on the coffee table.

“Good girl,” Kara singsongs, flicking the television on and using a burst of speed to put Lilo & Stitch in her movie player. She drops a buffet of movie snacks on the table and plops down beside the woman as the movie starts up.

Once the movie begins the woman’s annoyance fades and she curls into Kara’s side, Kara happily munching one-handed so she can wrap her arm around her shoulders. She can’t help but revel in the feeling of the woman’s body against her own, far warmer and softer now than it was even just last week. At her observation the woman blushes and burrows closer, and a hand hesitantly reaches out and grabs a single chip from the bowl in Kara’s lap.

Kara makes sure to offer her snacks periodically throughout the movie and the woman obligingly eats a bit of them all, though she keeps taking swigs of the stew in her thermos to help settle her stomach as she tries the new foods. When Kara is finally out of snacks she tosses the last bowl on the table and plops her companion in her lap instead, slipping her clean hand under her shirt to rub soothing patterns against her stomach and wrapping her other arm around her waist in a loose embrace.

Throughout the movie the woman splits her attention between the screen and Kara’s mind, as usual seeming to enjoy the movie far more through her eyes and with her emotions and expectations along for the ride. It’s the first time Kara has watched her favorite movie with someone and not been tempted to try to explain why it’s the best, because she can feel the woman experiencing it through Kara’s point of view and appreciating it both for its own merit and for how Kara feels about it.

When the movie is done they just sit there for awhile, the woman relaxing against Kara and Kara now focused solely on her heartbeat as she tends to do at least once a day, letting it ground her. Eventually they part, Kara tidying away all her snack bowls and the woman plugging in her laptop, before they begin the physical therapy exercises.

Only now, once they’re done and the woman has cooled off a bit, she sits in the center of Kara’s apartment, Kara sitting facing her, and experiments with her powers.

She hasn’t been able to lift anything near as heavy as the chunk of equipment in the evil lair, breaking a sweat just trying to move Kara’s couch an inch to the left. She has, however, made significant progress with her precision, able to make Kara’s collection of gel pens do impressive aerial acrobatics and even managing to build a tower from a deck of cards that stayed up until Kara’s loud ‘ooh’ of amazement sent it flying. At one point she had levitated the cartoon spaceship rock on the coffee table around the apartment, though Kara had refused to explain why she found that so funny.

Today, however, they’re doing something new that the woman has been careful to keep from Kara. She’d come across something in her research earlier in the day that had sent such a shock through her Kara had broken her coffee mug at work, prompting a concerned look from Nia who had already warned her about it that morning. Kara is honestly very used to breaking things, and even leaves a stack of her post-it note devices in her desk drawer, but the frequency of her breaking things has greatly declined since she began sharing her energy with her companion, a thought she for some reason elects not to dwell on.

Now the woman is sitting across from Kara, an arm’s length away, and staring at her with worried green eyes. Kara can feel the nervous energy radiating from her, and her increased heart rate is not what Kara would call a good sign. Then the woman’s hand raises to clench at the cloth over her stomach and Kara immediately reaches out and grabs it hand, bringing her hand down and enveloping it with both of her own.

“Hey, whatever it is, it’s okay, baby girl,” Kara soothes. “I know your powers were designed with Kryptonians in mind, and based on how you’re acting this is definitely something that affects me.”

The woman nods and drops her gaze. Kara feels a twinge of guilt that is not her own.

Kara tightens her grip on the woman’s hand but raises her other hand, cupping her chin gently and raising her head until she meets Kara’s gaze. “It’s okay, baby. I trust you not to hurt me, and I know that whatever you’re going to try right now is so you can understand yourself better.” She grins at the woman. “It may even help us later, who knows.”

The rueful look the woman gives Kara tells her she in no way agrees with the last part of that, but she takes a deep breath and nods, and when Kara feels her steel her resolve she releases her and scoots back into position.

After one last hesitant glance at her the woman closes her eyes and her brow furrows with concentration, a slight frown on her face. Kara feels the woman’s presence in her mind expand, slowly at first and then all-encompassing, and then Kara starts to wiggle her fingers. Only it isn’t Kara doing it.

As Kara watches with a sort of morbid fascination, somehow having taken the backseat in her own mind, her body moves as the woman wills it. She flexes her hands, shimmies her shoulders, and slowly stands, moving one leg and then the other hesitantly. Kara feels when the woman tries to hover, and when she isn’t able to Kara’s fist clenches at the fabric of her shirt in frustration, the sudden tearing sound wrenching the woman back into her own body. Kara gasps and shivers at the sudden loss and the woman sprawls on the floor, panting and looking a little queasy.

Kara flops down next to her, has the passing thought that when the woman had been piloting her body she hadn’t had to try nearly so hard to regulate Kara’s strength, and she absently decides there must be some kind of cap on which and how much of Kara’s powers she can access. Kara doesn’t think her companion hears any of these thoughts, still reeling from her recent power use, and so she grabs one of her hands and tries an experiment of her own.

She had meant it when she told the woman a few weeks ago that it was Kara giving energy to her rather than her siphoning it away, and each night since as she’d slept Kara had left just a bit more awareness than usual in her mind, the usual sentinel to keep her strength from hurting her companion but a new one as well, to monitor her energy level and her bed mate’s bio signs.

Kara was pretty sure she’d finally figured it out a few days ago and had spent the last few nights in a sort of lucid dream, changing the flow of her energy and training her consciousness to work with it as easily as her subconscious did. She had, as usual, felt her companion’s presence in her dream, though she doesn’t know if the woman realized how much progress Kara has made.

Now, with the woman beside her panting and paler than usual, her heartbeat a little too fast for Kara’s liking, she holds her hand and focuses her mind on releasing the energy she keeps stored in her cells, just a bit at first and then increasing it past the rate she’s settled on for when they sleep, and when wide green eyes meet hers Kara grins.

“Told you it was my fault,” Kara whispers. “I’m just too generous for my own good.”

The woman rolls her eyes and Kara laughs, wiggling closer and pressing her forehead into her companion’s dark hair.

“I don’t know if this was an intended effect of your powers,” Kara admits, “and I really don’t think you could siphon my energy if I was unwilling, but I think my body wanted to help yours and… I dunno, sensed that it could.” Kara tucks herself more firmly against the woman’s body. “I’m glad I can give you my energy,” Kara whispers. “So quit feeling guilty about it, please, baby girl. This helps me take care of you, and you take care of me by making sure I go refuel in the morning. We protect each other, el mayarah, stronger together.”

Kara lets her love and care for the woman wash over them both, and when she feels a settled sort of acceptance from her companion she finally pulls away long enough to scoop her into her arms and slowly hover to a standing position.

“Now, I believe it’s time for your bath, unless you have any objections?”

The woman gives a pleased little hum and Kara carries her into the bathroom with a small smile on her face.

As they start to drift asleep that night a warm hand taps Kara’s side and Kara pulls away enough to meet wary green eyes.

“What’s up, baby?”

Her reply is a flash of memory from earlier, the woman piloting Kara’s body, and then a wave of… shame, guilt, concern.

Kara doesn’t understand until she notices her cape peeking out from under the woman, a sure sign she’s feeling anxious. “Oh, you’re worried that you freaked me out earlier?”

A nod, and the woman bites her lip.

Kara uses a hand to free her lip and grins when an indignant huff caresses her face. “I’m fine with it. I trust you not to do anything bad, and you’ve been trusting me with your body since we met so I’d kinda be a hypocrite if I was upset.”

The woman blushes and when Kara senses her thinking of the innuendo of her words Kara blushes as well.

“Anyway, I don’t think you can start aiming for world domination until you can at least get me to hover, so—“ Kara breaks off into laughter when a warm hand pinches her side, a spike of indignation from the woman in her arms only fueling her giggles.

Once the woman’s own amusement fades she rolls over and tugs Kara’s arm across herself, settling against her with a content sigh when Kara pulls her closer and presses her face into her hair.

“Sweet dreams, baby girl,” Kara whispers.

It’s maybe a week later when Kara finally decides her baby girl is ready for a picnic, albeit after she has generously slathered her exposed skin with sun tan lotion. The woman doesn’t even pinch her for the ridiculous amount Kara uses, just sighs and starts helping her pack their early dinner into the usual picnic bag.

Kara’s companion manages to make it up two flights of stairs this time before Kara decides to pick her up, closely attuned as always to her body. She carries her the rest of the way to the roof, and is glad that the other residents in her building were fine with their new garden being off-limits at certain times, though whether it’s because they know Kara must have made it for someone or because they don’t want to anger Supergirl Kara doesn’t know.

She sets the woman on a lounge chair and pulls a blanket from the chest, arranging the picnic at an almost-human speed before beckoning the woman over to the clover field. Once they’re both settled they eat in companionable silence, Kara thinking over the last few days at work and feeling quite proud of herself for the interview series she’d gotten Cat and even Snapper to approve, focused on aliens in National City who had valuable skills but couldn’t get jobs due solely to their physical appearance.

Kara again feels her companion’s prickle of annoyance at this, and when she glances over she sees… an odd look on her face. Like she’s trying to remember something but can’t. Her fingers are tapping restlessly on her knee, but before Kara can ask, her phone rings.

“Ruby,” Kara says absently, finishing her sandwich in a few speedy bites and idly wondering why her niece has developed the new habit of checking not only on Kara but also her companion every few days. “Hey, Rubes, what’s up?” Kara asks.

“You haven’t come over in a long time,” Ruby starts. “And that’s fine cuz you need to focus on your friend right now, but it still sucks.”

Kara’s brow crinkles and her companion is frowning at the phone now. This isn’t Ruby’s usual check-in call, then. “Everything okay?”

Ruby is silent for awhile. “I’m worried about my moms,” the girl finally says. “They’re barely ever home and I know they aren’t sleeping at work. They keep wanting me to stay at my friends’ houses— and the blankets are scratchy and there’s always something dripping somewhere…” She heaves an annoyed sigh. “They’re having me carpool to and from school almost every day. They won’t tell me what’s going on and… I know I’m still a kid but I’ll be fourteen in two months and I just… I’m old enough to know what’s going on. Especially if it’s about…” Ruby sighs. “Nevermind, sorry. How are you and your friend?”

Kara really, really wants to talk to her niece more about whatever is going on at home but her companion shakes her head, sending Kara Ruby’s current mix of anxious emotions, and Kara agrees. Ruby isn’t the one who needs talked to about this— her parents are. So Kara treats the phone call as a normal check-in from her niece, and once Ruby hangs up and Kara and her companion finish eating Kara flies to the DEO.

Kara (gently) stomps up to her sister and sister-in-law and gives them both a fierce frown, hands on her hips. Alex looks at her tiredly and Sam barely seems able to focus on her at all. “Sam’s office, now,” Kara says, and leads the way there, the Danvers-Arias couple shuffling behind her.

Once the door is closed, Sam sighs. “Supergirl, we don’t have time for this.”

Kara turns and she can feel her companion’s presence stronger in her mind now. She raises a single eyebrow, lifts her chin, and crosses her arms, leveling Sam and Alex with a cool stare the likes of which Kara at least has never mastered.

Sam actually looks a bit more awake, if startled, and Alex narrows her eyes and crosses her own arms. “What’s this about?” Alex asks.

“I don’t know what you two are trying to accomplish right now,” Kara says, voice cold, “but whatever it is should not be your priority.” Sam looks enraged but quells at Kara’s icy glare. “Your priority is and always will be Ruby, or have you forgotten that, Samantha?” Kara turns to her sister. “Alexandra?”

Sam’s mouth drops open and Alex looks like she’s contemplating punching her near-indestructible sister.

Kara continues, eyes narrowing. “Ruby is a child. It is your job to worry about her, not the other way around. Under no circumstance should she be calling me, scared for you both because you’re never home and she knows you aren’t sleeping.” Kara lifts her chin further, wondering now how much of what she’s doing is her and how much is her companion. Either way, it seems to be effective, so she goes with it. “You both are going to go home now and start working more reasonable hours. You will have dinner with Ruby every night and one or both of you will drop her off at school every morning.”

Sam is giving Kara an odd look, and she steps forward. “And if we don’t?” Alex, already radiating guilt, looks at Sam in surprise, but Sam is more focused on Kara than anything else.

“If you don’t,” Kara says, already turning to leave, “then as Ruby’s godmother, I will be stepping in.” She shoots Sam a hard look over her shoulder and leaves.

On the way home Kara eavesdrops on her sister and sister-in-law’s conversation— Alex is more furious at Sam for asking that question than she is at how Kara brought the issue to their attention, and Sam… is already packing to head home, which helps calm Alex down at least.

“Has Kara always been that good at acting?” Sam asks.

Kara can’t see what face her sister is making, but it’s probably not a flattering one. “Kara can’t act for shit, you know that.”

Sam makes a small, neutral noise and they both head home.

The next time Ruby calls Kara, it’s a normal check-in call, and her companion seems pleased with Kara’s niece’s current emotional state.

It’s been two months since Kara brought her baby girl home to her apartment, and over a month since the intervention at the DEO due to her ‘alien friend’ draining her powers. Now even Alex doesn’t bother trying to dissuade her from continuing to meet with them, though Kara suspects that’s more to do with her guilt over Kara having to bring Ruby’s worry for her and Sam to their attention, and with Alex’s determination to devote her focus to whatever she and Sam are working on so they can both leave in time for dinner. Sam, oddly, seems less focused than before, and closely observes Kara anytime she’s around. Kara is pretty sure she even tries to send her a message in morse code at one point, and though Kara doesn’t understand it her companion does, the woman’s amusement eliciting a small smile from Kara that Sam narrows her eyes at.

Kara’s companion is continuing to improve. She can feed herself easily now, wanders the apartment with ease, and has taken to helping Kara cook meals that they can both eat happily, even if she insists on adding in kale of all things. She is still what Kara considers scary-thin and her legs start to shake if she stands more than a few hours each day, but her physical and mental strength are both increasing daily, especially after a full night of sleeping next to Kara. Her powers have continued to grow and she can move Kara’s couch with ease, though she has yet to get Kara to fly (aside from cheating and using telekinesis while piloting Kara’s body, which had made her snap back into her own and immediately throw up). She also refuses to manipulate Kara’s body more than a few times a week, and really only does that because Kara insists, unable to shake the odd sense of calm she feels every time as she watches her body move of the woman’s accord. It’s both familiar and not, and it’s the discrepancy of that that makes Kara feel… cared for, in a way.

So for Kara and her companion, at least, everything is going well, and that of course means they’re both getting jumpy and waiting for the proverbial ‘other shoe’ to drop. Still, Kara’s patrol today is going smoothly so far, so much so that her companion is more interested in the news on the television at the moment, already knowing Kara will be back soon.

Kara looks down at a nearby rooftop and sees a blue-skinned teenager waving at her, and her mental shield goes up even as she lands, the pounding in her skull as soon as the teen sniffles thankfully not reaching the woman in her apartment.

“Supergirl,” the teen breathes, eyes wide and shiny, and they immediately reach out and latch onto Kara’s cape. “I know you want to go, but…” They pause, shaking with muffled coughs. “They’re going to interfere again, and it’s going to be bad, but your wife will save you.” They hug her and pull away a moment later, rubbing absently at the rash spreading along their blue skin. “Uh, she may not be your wife yet though, I don’t…” The teenager’s voice peters off as Kara begins to fly away. “Good luck, Supergirl,” they whisper, and Kara can’t look at them, can’t think of them, her mental shield is barely enough to keep the pounding in her head from reaching her baby girl—

Kara zooms into her apartment window and lands, blinking rapidly and focusing on the woman curled up on the couch and scowling at the television. “Nothing good on, baby?” She stores her suit and floats over, plopping down beside her companion and placing her on her lap, nuzzling into her hair a moment and wondering why she feels worried for some reason.

Then she gets a text from Nia, and maybe that worry is well-founded, because a gibberish text from someone who can dream the future is never a good sign.

Nia Nal: since when are you learning martial arts???

Kara, of course, has not been learning martial arts, though when she reads the text she feels a flicker of nostalgia from her companion. The nostalgia and almost-remembering have been happening more and more lately, but no actual memories have come through, much to their shared frustration.

Before Kara can ask Nia what the text means, Alex is calling her. Kara answers and doesn’t even get a chance to say hello.

“Supergirl, downtown, now,” Alex is out of breath, and Kara can tell she’s already running, probably getting ready to head there herself. “Sam did something dumb to flush them out and it worked, hurry.” Then she hangs up.

Kara, wondering now who exactly Sam has flushed out, presses a hurried kiss to her companion’s temple and speeds off, guilt curling within her as she heads downtown and can feel the woman settling Kara’s cape around herself, worried for Kara or still feeling the effects of Alex’s anxiety, she doesn’t know which.

That’s a new development, as well. Despite focusing on Kara’s mind the woman is growing more susceptible to others’ emotions, whether it’s their neighbors or people Kara herself is near, and even brief phone calls can flood her with emotions that aren’t her own. It’s apparently worse anytime Kara makes physical contact with someone, and the CatCo rumor mill has dubbed Kara a germophobe for her sudden disdain for handshakes. Even her sister has noticed her new reticence to touch, but thankfully has yet to question her about it. It’s been… more difficult than Kara wants to admit to not touch the people near her, and anytime she tries to figure out why she has to shield her companion from a headache so lets the thoughts fall away instead.

Kara is pulled from her thoughts when she reaches downtown, and suddenly wishes she’d spent her flight over listening ahead because it’s far, far worse than she thought it would be. Her horror is mirrored by her companion, and Kara can feel the cool cloth of her cape as she pulls it even tighter around herself and huddles deeper into the couch.

There are at least a dozen fires and several car alarms are blaring from vehicles both on the road and upended elsewhere. People are running and screaming, some dripping blood and others being helped along by strangers, a whole line of buildings has collapsed and Kara sees several people under the rubble. Somewhere farther off a man is screaming with rage and Kara can hear explosions in his wake. Kara takes another few seconds to survey the catastrophe, quickly cataloging everything and planning her best course of action.

She can’t hear anyone near the fires so ignores those for now, and instead swoops down and yanks the rubble off of people in less than a minute, flinging it all onto the rubble pile of what used to be a boutique that was the only building that was vacant at the time. Once everyone is uncovered she directs the least injured of those fleeing to help them and makes a beeline for the man still wreaking havoc a block away, sighing with relief when she hears first responders arriving at the worst of the fires.

Then she can finally see the man unobstructed and the relief vanishes, because while she’s never seen him before she can already feel the angry, needle-like prickle of kryptonite under her skin, and the man’s chest is glowing a sickly green. The fear that seizes her then isn’t even hers, but her companion’s, and Kara can tell that it isn’t just based on Kara’s assessment of the man. Her companion recognizes him and she is terrified.

Before Kara can delve deeper into that the man turns to her with a grotesque grin and it’s only her companion sending her an image of her swerving that lets her dodge the green beam of energy the man shoots from his chest, but it passes by close enough that Kara’s powers immediately weaken.

This isn’t a fight she can win, and Alex and Sam have drilled a sense of self-preservation into her enough by now that Kara decides her best course of action is to stay away and draw his fire while she waits for backup. Her companion helpfully suggests hurling rubble at him, and Kara thinks that’s a wonderful idea as well.

It’s almost like a mix of dodgeball and hide-and-seek, Kara can’t help but think as she dodges another green blast and casually tosses a crumpled SUV at the man. His kryptonite beam tears through it and Kara has already followed up by sending a metal pipe spinning towards his head, which he rudely dodges. Even as she zips around to draw his fire and sends items hurdling his way, Kara’s powers are weakening, the pain in her body increasing the longer she stays near this man with a poison heart.

The man’s attacks leave kryptonite wherever they hit, and Kara is keeping a mental map of all the areas to avoid, but sometimes she spots burning green in places it shouldn’t be, surrounded by wisps of white smoke that her mind immediately dismisses, so she simply adds them to the map without questioning it.

She can hear Alex, Dreamer, and even Brainy en route, but the midday traffic and now the wreckage of the surrounding area are slowing them down, and the only reason Kara hasn’t been blasted yet is the woman in her head, somehow anticipating the man’s aim and prompting Kara to dodge in time despite her ever-decreasing speed.

Then Kara flies too close to a building with a still-smoldering hole ringed with kryptonite. It’s not on her mental map, and it’s wreathed in already-fading fog, a visual her mind refuses to hold onto, and her speed plummets that much more just in time for another blast. Even with the woman’s warning she isn’t fast enough to dodge it.

An instant before the blast hits her, and for the first time since their meeting, Kara shoves the woman from her mind, forces her out and mentally screams at her to stay away, because Kara swore to protect her and she’s not about to willingly subject her to—

The beam hits her square in the chest and Kara is instantly flooded with so much kryptonite she’s pretty sure she’s dying. There are needles in her veins, her skin is white-hot and already splitting apart, her organs feel like they’re melting within her and her heart is being torn and crushed and burned all at once. Every part of her is on fire and cold as ice and she drops to the ground several stories below and feels her bones break and splinter and shatter on impact and she can’t even feel the pain from that because everything hurts— so much— her eyes want to close but they can’t, and as she struggles to breathe the man with the glowing chest approaches, a snarl on his face.

He says something, yells it at her as he gets closer.

Kara can’t even make sense of his words but then she feels a familiar presence slipping into her mind and whimpers, unable to even beg her to leave because everything is pain and it’s all she can do to stay conscious. She’s felt worse before, she knows, but kryptonite is a special kind of hell and she… didn’t have to stay conscious then…

That thought adds a pulse of pain in her mind that barely registers to her and her companion, both of them too flooded with Kara’s physical pain to notice.

“Where are they?” The man growls. “I know you have them so tell your people to bring them here right now!” He looks down at her with disdain when she doesn’t move. “Pathetic, useless cockroach. I’ll find them myself.” His chest lights up and burns bright as he readies another blast.

Behind him Alex is running towards them and shooting, Dreamer has sent forth a beast of light and has a lasso ready, and Brainy is using his Legion ring to fly as fast as he can, but Kara, no, her companion knows they’ll all be too late. No one can reach him in time.

Except for her.

Kara is in too much pain to resist as the woman’s mind overtakes her own, and it’s only when she’s shoved to the back of her own mind that the pain lessens enough for her to comprehend what’s happening.

Kara watches in horror as her baby girl takes over her body and the pain within it, as she forces Kara’s body to tense despite the shattered bones and fire in her veins. Kara feels her reach out and slip into the man’s mind as well, readjust his aim just enough that he misses Kara’s prone form and then tighten and hold him in place as she drags Kara’s body up and launches it at the man. In a move that feels like she’s done it a thousand times she grabs him and flips him so that he lands hard on the fractured road, and she jerks Kara’s body back as he releases another beam of kryptonite straight into the sky.

The blast is so close it weakens her even more, the pain increasing, and Kara’s mind slips farther away from her body. She feels what her companion does: a rage so strong Kara’s body shakes more with it than the pain of the poison tearing her apart, a certainty that she will never see Kara again but to save her it’s worth it, and a… blip, a nearby mind, familiar but not, feeling fear and relief in equal measure.

Kara is pulled in more, feels her companion back in her apartment, body writhing in pain and already burning with fever, but the presence in her mind remains strong, fueled by her rage and determination to keep Kara alive. A sickening snap is the last thing Kara hears before she falls, broken and bloody, to the cracked earth beside the man whose heart is steadily losing its glow, his neck snapped with one last, forced wrench of Kara’s hands. Then the presence in her mind is gone and so is Kara and everything is just pain.

Chapter Text

When Kara wakes she’s pretty sure she’s in the sun bed at the DEO. Her whole body is aching. She can feel the bones in her legs stitching themselves back together, and one of her arms is tingling unpleasantly. And her chest… Rao, it’s burning, and every breath she takes sends a wave of pain through her entire body.

She doesn’t know if anyone is around, she can’t… she hasn’t felt this alone since she was lost in space… or… no, there was a time before, worse, when she was… both more and less alone, and couldn’t move at all… a lightning bolt of pain through her mind stops that thought and Kara… thinks she can feel artificial sunlight on her tender, bruised skin but she also feels so, so cold.

Maybe she is back in space, after all. Maybe she never left the Phantom Zone. Never landed on Earth, never met Alex or Sam or Ruby or…

Kara’s eyes flash open and she sits up and is immediately wracked with pain. She bends over, a sob catching in her throat. Arms surround her and someone is hugging her and Kara turns her head and is crying into their shoulder but it feels wrong, it isn’t… it isn’t…

She remembers then. The wreckage, the furious man with poison in his chest. The pain, the fear that she wouldn’t listen… that she…

“Rao, no,” Kara whimpers. Her companion didn’t listen. She came back, she saved her life, and now she… Kara can’t feel her. At all. Her baby girl is gone.

The panic and fear that seize Kara then almost make her pass out. She feels the same as she did when she left Krypton, when she almost lost Alex. The only thing that lets her hold on is knowing that she may still be alive. Please, Rao, let her be alive.

Kara pulls away from the person hugging her, Alex, it’s Alex, of course it is, and tries to get off the bed. Alex pushes her back down and Kara is so weak she can’t resist. Ruby is there, then, and wrapping her arms so tightly around Kara it actually hurts. Her niece is shaking, maybe crying, but Kara’s pain-hazy mind can only think of one thing.

“Alex I have to go,” Kara pleads, instinctively wrapping an arm around Ruby.

“Kara Zor-El Danvers,” her sister growls, “you are not leaving this bed any time soon. Do you understand?” Alex’s eyes are red from crying, her hair’s a mess, and all Kara can think about is how much time must have passed for her to look so bad, how much time has the woman in her apartment been alone with no one looking after her?

“You don’t understand, Alex, I have to, she saved me, she’s gone, I can’t feel her, what if she—“ Kara’s breath comes too quick for her to speak. Ruby pulls back and Kara looks down to see her niece panicked as well, her tears starting anew.

Now Alex’s eyebrows draw together. “What are you talking about? Is your head okay?”

“Her brain scans were normal,” Brainy says, and Kara finally notices him in the corner of the room, eyes glued to the tablet in his hands. Nia is there too, sitting by the door, her eyes just as red as Alex’s, and Sam is nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Sam?” Kara asks, and Ruby stiffens.

Alex’s eyes harden. “She’s not coming anywhere near you. If she hadn’t done something so fucking stupid you wouldn’t have…” Alex’s voice cuts out and she has to draw in a shuddering breath before she can continue. “You almost died, Kara.”

Kara’s eyes snap back to Alex’s. “Yes and I didn’t because of…” Rao she doesn’t even know her name and now she might be dead and— “Alex you have to let me go.”

“Ma, please,” Ruby whispers, and Alex glances at her with a frown before turning back to her sister.

“Why?” Alex demands. “What the hell is so important that you need to leave right now when you aren’t even strong enough to get past me?” At Kara’s silence Alex scoffs. “Let me guess, that friend of yours who’s so reliant on your energy? Kara you won’t even be able to give them any energy right now, you need to stay here in the sun bed to recuperate.”

Kara can feel herself hyperventilating again but something Alex said clicks in her brain and suddenly her breathing calms. Her sister is right. Kara needs to stay in the sun bed… and Kara is also the one giving the woman her energy. Kara pulls away from Ruby and flops back into the bed, closing her eyes.

She can’t feel even a trace of the woman in her mind so she instead does what she felt the woman do during the fight, she reaches out with her mind, out and out and out, and at first there’s nothing but then… then she feels her. She’s still on the couch, tangled in Kara’s cape and barely breathing, burning with fever and her body aching worse than Kara’s is, but she’s there. Kara tries to send her her energy and can’t help the pained gasp that escapes her.

Alex is suddenly by her side and trying to talk to her but Kara ignores her. She thinks she hears Ruby running from the room.

She continues funneling her energy to the woman, sending her as much as she can while still remaining conscious, and nearby she can hear her friends’ confusion.

“Supergirl is no longer healing,” Brainy says and there’s a note of panic in his voice.

“What?” Alex demands.

“I believe she is… sending the energy elsewhere,” Brainy continues.

“How is that possible?” Alex hisses, furious.

“It shouldn’t be,” is all Brainy can say.

So Alex rounds on Nia. “What do you know?”

“Nothing,” Nia says, but even Kara, only semi-conscious, isn’t convinced.

“Nia Nal.”

“All I know is that I had to send her a text before you called her,” Nia blurts. “’Since when are you learning martial arts’, that’s what it had to say.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” That’s Sam’s voice, Kara knows, and she’s pretty sure Ruby brought her in.

“Samantha Arias-Danvers, leave, now.” Alex has never sounded so enraged, and Kara isn’t sure whether she imagines Sam’s pained flinch or if it’s so strong she can feel it even now.

“I am the Director of the DEO,” Sam is trying to sound strong but Kara can hear the waver in her voice. “Supergirl is compromised, so I need to be here.”

“Sam—“ Alex starts, just as Ruby says, “Mom!”

“My sister-in-law is hurt and the usual treatment isn’t working,” Sam corrects quietly. “Please, Alex.” Kara’s fairly certain Sam is about to cry, and Alex must cave because Sam addresses Nia next. “Now, Nia, what does that text have to do with this situation?”

“All I saw was that if I sent her the text she would flip the guy and win and if I didn’t… she would have died,” Nia says quietly. “I… couldn’t see the fight, even, just the end…”

The room is silent and Kara remembers when she read the text, felt the tickle of nostalgia in her companion. Seems she should add martial arts to her list of what she knows about her past… assuming they both survive long enough, of course.

“Kara’s never learned martial arts,” Alex finally says.

“Maybe it’s something new?” Sam asks. “She hasn’t come over in awhile, she may have… found new hobbies.”

“She came over…” Alex trails off and Kara has a sinking feeling. “When did… when did she last come by to just… hang out?”

“Two months ago,” Ruby says, and Kara knows her niece is glaring at Alex right now.

“That can’t be right,” Alex says immediately.

“You canceled sisters’ nights and game nights two months ago,” Sam confirms, and if Kara could she would wince at the small, pained noise her sister makes. “It’s not your fault, Alex, you did it to help me—“

“She’s my sister,” Alex interrupts. “I… I didn’t even realize…” A hand strokes Kara’s hair back from her face. “Kara, why didn’t you say anything?”

“I do not think Supergirl can currently answer you, Assistant Director,” Brainy says and Kara hears Nia and Ruby sigh. “Though, she may be able to hear us right now. She seems to be allowing just enough energy stay with her to maintain her consciousness, likely as that is the only way for her to send it to her friend.”

It’s silent for long enough that Kara wonders if they’ve left. She lets herself focus more on her companion, and is dismayed to find that though her breathing is steadier the fever has not gone down, and her pain hasn’t lessened. The amount of energy Kara can send her right now is truly pitiful.

Then Alex speaks again and Kara goes cold. “So if we force her to lose consciousness…”

“Alex, her friend—“ Sam starts.

“She’s my sister,” Alex hisses, cutting her off. “And it’s not her, Sam, it can’t be.”

Now Ruby speaks up, and Kara can tell her niece has moved to stand between her and Alex. “I won’t let you,” Ruby says. “If you wanna stop Auntie Kara from helping her you’ll have to get past me first, Ma.”

“Ruby?” Alex sounds very, very lost.

“Ruby,” Sam says, and her voice is hard. “What do you know?”

“How to keep a secret,” Ruby replies without missing a beat. “If you force Aunt Kara to stop helping her—“

Kara isn’t sure how she does it but she projects her thought so loudly and clearly that everyone in the room hears it.

I will never forgive you.

Alex and Sam curse, Brainy drops his tablet, and Nia had already braced herself against a chair. Ruby barely flinches.

“Yeah I almost forgot about that,” Nia says weakly. “So, since when are Kryptonians telepathic?”

“They aren’t,” Brainy says, voice barely audible. “The opposite, actually. That… should not have been possible.”

“You’ve been saying that a lot,” Alex says dully. Then she sighs. “Fine, Kara I won’t knock you out. But! You need to let yourself heal. There’s no way you’re able to send much energy to your… friend, right now.” Kara hears Alex grind her teeth. “We got most of the kryptonite out of you but you still need several hours of healing, so find a way to… divvy up the energy better.”

Kara hates that she agrees with that. Her current method really isn’t working, for her or her baby girl. So she sets a mental timer to twenty minutes and slows the energy leaving her to a trickle, just barely enough to maintain contact, worried she’ll lose her if she stops entirely.

“Supergirl is healing again,” Brainy says.

The room collectively sighs in relief. And twenty minutes later when Kara stops healing for twenty minutes her sister sighs but at least doesn’t threaten to knock her out, and Ruby whispers that she’s doing a good job. For the next twenty-four hours Kara continues to alternate in twenty-minute increments as Brainy tracks her healing.

Sam ushers Ruby into the break room with beds awhile later, but Alex only leaves when Sam drags her there as well and forces her to sleep, and Kara’s slightly recovered super hearing picks up when her sister pulls her wife onto the small bed with her, holding her and crying before she falls asleep. Kara hopes that means their fight is over, or at least that Alex won’t get divorced on her account— she’s never heard her sister so mad, and especially not at Sam.

When Kara fully wakes up again Alex and Sam are there and Nia trudges in long enough to drag Brainy, who had refused to sleep, to the break room this time. Ruby is peeking in from the doorway.

“I can fly now, I need to go,” Kara says and meets Alex’s hard gaze with determination.

“Who is she to you?” Alex asks, clearly remembering Kara’s earlier stammering.

“She’s… I…” Kara’s mind goes blank for a moment, and she recalls the terror she felt when she realized what the woman was doing to save her, the devastation when she woke up and couldn’t feel her presence in her mind. “I love her,” Kara admits, and this time it’s not the familial love she offered the woman months ago. “:Zhao,” Kara whispers, and Alex’s eyes soften despite the firm downturn of her lips.

“Come back in three hours to refuel,” Alex says shortly and Kara pauses long enough to hug her before zooming home, blearily noting the small smile on Ruby’s face and the surprised look on Sam’s.

Kara speeds into her apartment and falls to her knees beside the couch. The woman is laying just as Kara knew she was, still tangled in the red cape and burning hot to even a Kryptonian’s touch. Kara gently untangles her, brushes sweaty hair from her forehead and places a kiss there. “I’m back, baby girl,” Kara whispers, her voice breaking. “You did so good, thank you for saving me.”

She wants to tell her to never do it again, wants to cry and apologize and demand to know why she risked herself like that, but she knows that now is not the time, and that she would have done the same.

So instead Kara picks her up, already sending more energy into her now that they’re in physical contact, and carries her to the bathroom. She hones in on her companion’s mind, which is… disturbingly empty at the moment, but Kara can at least get a sense of her body. Using that, she quickly disrobes her and places her in the tub, finds a cool temperature for the water that feels nice against the woman’s skin and gives her a bath. Kara maintains contact with her the entire time, continuing to funnel her energy into her at the rate she calculated would leave her just enough to fly back to the DEO in a few hours while maintaining a trickle of contact.

Kara didn’t bother putting her own hair back and when blonde locks fall over her shoulder and into view she hisses a curse in Kryptonian and jerks her head so her hair moves behind her, no longer visible, and she refocuses on bathing her baby girl.

When she’s done bathing her the woman’s fever has gone down, from the cold water or the influx of energy Kara isn’t sure. She rubs the ointment into her skin, taking her time for once as she massages it into each and every scar, no matter how small. Then, though she hesitates, Kara dresses her in a long-sleeved shirt and pants, this time the thinnest she owns, before tucking the woman into bed, fetching her cape and laying it over her in case she wakes up and wants it while Kara’s gone.

Kara lays beside her then, cradling her baby girl’s head to her chest and listening to her heartbeat as she continues to let her energy flow into her, and when her three hours are up she kisses her forehead and stands, brushing her hair back from her face and mustering up a small smile at how her skin is only a bit warmer than Kara’s own now.

“I have to go back to the DEO to use the sun bed, I’ll be back soon,” Kara says quietly. “I… I’ll still be sending you energy, just not as much for awhile. I can’t… if I try to feed you, you won’t be able to keep it down, I have enough of a sense of your body to tell… I… I’m sorry I can only feed you my energy.” She hesitates, but still can’t feel the woman’s presence in her mind, and knowing she may not be able to sense Kara either but may be able to hear her Kara leans down and whispers, “I love you, baby girl, please be okay.”

Then Kara is gone, back to the DEO and the hard, cold metal of the sun bed. Alex is there and looks like she wants to talk but Kara is so, so tired and her sister must be able to tell because once Kara is laying down Alex just sits beside her and holds her hand while Kara lets the synthetic sunlight wash over her.

Kara spends the whole time there with her mind back in her apartment, closely monitoring her companion, who hasn’t moved an inch from where Kara laid her. When Kara feels her energy is replenished enough she opens her eyes to find Sam and Alex both watching her closely. They probably made Ruby go home, otherwise Kara is sure her niece would be nearby as well.

She sees her own hair, then, laying over the sun bed, the yellow strands gleaming under the lamps, and maybe it’s because she’s so on edge already but she grabs it and tugs it violently, a habit she’d long broken, and then her sister’s hands grab hers and gently untangle it. Kara turns her head as Alex begins weaving her hair into a simple braid. It doesn’t take long, her sister having done this quite often after Kara first landed, even before they started getting along, and then Alex ties it with a scrunchy Kara knows she keeps on hand for this reason before sitting back down. Kara turns her head enough to look at her then, mumbling her thanks, and Alex nods. Though Sam is definitely confused she thankfully doesn’t ask, and the pounding in Kara’s head at the mere thought of having to explain subsides.

“Is she… okay?” Alex asks then. Her hands are clenched at her sides and Kara wonders what Sam had to say to get her to be civil about this.

“I don’t know yet,” Kara says quietly. “I need to go back, it’s… easier and more efficient, I guess, if I’m touching her.”

Alex grits her teeth and Sam just nods.

“I’ll be back in three hours,” Kara mutters and leaves.

She returns to her apartment, which feels a lot less like home now that the other occupant is laying unresponsive in bed. Kara curls around her and begins directing more energy into her, but after awhile she shifts them so the woman is laying across her, doing her best to mimic the position she’s so used to them waking up in. Kara holds her, one arm around her waist and one hand cradling her head, and spends the whole three hours with all of her senses attuned to the woman’s body, her heartbeat, her blood flow, the smallest twitch of her muscles or hitch to her breath.

When her time is up and Kara’s energy is waning she tucks the woman in once again, noting through her exhaustion-hazy mind that her skin is no longer hot to the touch, but is now too cool. Kara kisses both her cheeks this time, sings her a Kryptonian lullaby, and whispers again, “Please be okay, please wake up soon. I love you so, so much baby girl.”

Kara returns to the DEO and collapses on the sun bed, again focusing her mind back on the woman in her apartment.

This time Kara notices when Alex and Sam enter the room and sit carefully in the chairs near her bed. Her energy isn’t replenished enough yet so she has no easy escape and they know it.

“Corben is dead,” Sam offers.

“Who?” Kara asks, eyes still closed, refusing to come back to the DEO fully even for this conversation. Her companion’s heartbeats are stronger than they were last time, though Kara is worried about the paleness of her skin, disturbingly similar to the shade it was when Kara first brought her home.

“The guy with the kryptonite heart,” Alex drawls. “Who almost killed you.”

“Good,” is all Kara is willing to say to that. She already knew, of course. Knew when she felt her companion snap his neck, knew even a moment before when she felt her fury.

“You’ve never killed anyone before, S— Kara,” Sam says quietly.

“Maybe I should have,” Kara mutters and winces when Alex sucks in a breath.

“You said she saved you,” Alex tries. “Did she—“

“No,” Kara’s voice is hard. “I killed him. You saw me do it.” For some reason this is giving her déja vu, but trying to think of why causes a bright bolt of pain through Kara’s mind so she drops it.

“Kara,” Sam says quietly, and Kara suddenly misses her sister-in-law refusing to use her name at work. “If your friend can… manipulate your body, use you to kill—“

“I needed to kill him so I did,” Kara says. “He was trying to kill me, and you wouldn’t have gotten there in time. It was the only option.”

“You could have held him off until we were closer,” Alex says evenly.

Kara’s hand unconsciously goes to her stomach and clutches at the fabric of her suit, so hard it nearly tears. She hears Sam suck in a breath and doesn’t know why. It doesn’t matter, really, because Kara needs to lie her ass off right now, and she knows she isn’t in a good enough place mentally to pull it off. But she has to try.

“I couldn’t have,” Kara says, and that, at least, is the truth. “When I said she saved me, I meant she… gave me time. Used her powers to lessen the pain long enough for me to act.” She remembers the way her body had expertly thrown him and has to keep from wincing. “And I think she… shared her experience with me, somehow.”

“I thought she just landed?” Sam asks.

“Physically, she’s weaker than a human,” Kara admits, which, again, is the truth. “It scares her, so she’s been taking martial arts classes. I think she’s been using her powers to, uh, learn the moves faster than most people can. Mentally following along with her teachers and passing their muscle memory to her own body or something.”

“That’s plausible, I suppose.” Sam doesn’t sound convinced but also doesn’t push.

Alex, of course, pushes. “Bullshit. Is she teaching you to lie now or something?”

At that Kara can’t help but crack one eye open and look at her sister. “I’ve always been able to lie, Alex. You of all people should know that. Or would you rather have a DUI on your record?” Alex’s eyes widen and Kara watches as the memory falls into place.

Alex had been back from college one summer, drunk as hell and driving home like an idiot and gotten pulled over. Kara had heard her heartbeat increase drastically and woken up, used her super hearing to pick up Alex’s slurred muttering about stupid cops and the creak of a car door opening behind her sister’s car. After a bit of super speed and a hurled rock for a head-turning distraction, the officer had strolled up to the driver’s window to find a young blonde girl sheepishly handing him her driver’s license, her drunk sister glaring from the passenger seat.

The officer had been confused, asked if they switched seats or something. Kara had batted her big blue eyes and oh-so-innocently asked why he’d think that, then blushed and admitted she wasn’t quite used to driving at night yet and fiddled nervously with her glasses. After a ramble about country roads and her sister calling her to drive her home despite Kara still waiting on the glasses with her new prescription, he’d let them off with a warning.

They’d never talked about it again, though Alex also never drove under the influence again and had started calling Kara instead.

“A what now?” Sam asks icily.

“I— I was a kid! Okay, not a kid, but it was awhile ago,” Alex says defensively. “It was dumb and I haven’t done it since and I have… drastically reduced my alcohol consumption.”

Sam softens at that and turns back to the sun bed. “So, dear sister-in-law, just how much of what you’ve told us about this friend of yours is a lie?”

Kara opens both eyes then, but still keeps most of her mind in her apartment, fearing that if she stops watching her the woman will disappear. “You want the truth?”

“Obviously,” Alex drawls.

“Fine. Someone hurt her, bad, and she had just escaped when I found her. She has powers she doesn’t fully understand, and we’re working on figuring them out together. I love her and trust her with everything that I am, and if you take her from me you will regret it.” Kara’s gaze doesn’t waver and Alex and Sam stare at her for a long time.

Finally, Sam speaks. “The world thinks you killed Corben. Are you okay with that?”

“Yes, because I did.”

“And she’s back to lying,” Alex throws her hands up. “Fine, have your murderous girlfriend, what do we care.” She stands and looks down at Kara, hands on her hips. “If she hurts you—“

“She won’t.”

“If she hurts you,” Alex starts again, “I will end her.”

Kara’s hand clenches over her stomach again and this time she sees Sam watch it with a frown.

“Are you sure she’s an alien?” Sam asks, and Kara doesn’t like the calculating look on her face.

“She was experimented on,” Kara says shortly. Then she looks away, a memory of the woman from the first time she saw her flashing in her mind. “No human could have survived what she did.”

“How long have you known her?” Sam asks then. “What’s her name?”

Kara’s energy is mostly replenished now so she stands and starts to leave.

“Kara!” Sam’s voice is sharp.

“Long enough,” Kara says. “And that’s none of your business.” Then Kara leaves, racing back home, to the woman laying under her cape whose shivers only cease when Kara wraps herself around her, burying her face in her hair and letting her heartbeats wash over her as Kara pours her energy into her worryingly chilly body.

Days pass and the woman does not wake up, and eventually Kara has to start sleeping during the brief periods she’s at home, setting alarms to ensure she wakes before her energy is too depleted. Sam and Alex don’t question her again, though Kara suspects it has more to do with her increasingly haggard appearance than any real end to their suspicions.

They also don’t let Ruby come to the DEO again, though if that’s because they don’t want her to see Kara like this or because she won’t tell them about Kara’s friend, Kara doesn’t know.

Alex doesn’t realize just how little Kara is taking care of herself until the third day, when she stands from the sun bed and sways unsteadily, her stomach giving such a massive growl that Alex storms over and shoves her back down.

“I am ordering a dozen pizzas and you are staying here until you’ve eaten them,” Alex says, voice shaking despite the fierce look on her face, and Kara complies, if only because her vision is swimming too much for her to fly at the moment.

After that when she comes to the DEO to use the sun bed whoever is on duty plies her with a monstrous amount of takeout, and the next time Kara sees Alex she mumbles her thanks before heading back to her apartment.

She worries, at one point, that she may need to move her companion, because while she is still an ‘untouchable’ in her security system, well, Kara could get past that if she wanted to so someone else could as well… she’d had Brainy try to hack her system once and he’d almost done it before getting teleported back home, and he was a little too close to succeeding for her liking... But for now at least no one seems to be tracking exactly where she goes, and Nia hasn’t revealed anything to anyone that she knows of. So Kara decides her apartment is the safest place, as she doesn’t trust anyone else with her baby girl, especially when she’s unconscious and may not…

Kara buries the thought and increases the energy she’s suffusing into the chilly body she’s cradling against her, unable to sleep now and rambling to her companion in a mix of alien and Earth tongues instead, too tired to stick to one language.

A week since the world saw a severely injured Supergirl kill Corben, a week since Supergirl has been seen, supposedly recovering despite never having taken that long before, a week since Nia Nal walked into Cat Grant’s office with the flimsiest excuse for someone’s indefinite absence ever and was tiredly waved off, Kara’s companion finally wakes up, and Kara isn’t even home at the time.

She’s been at the DEO for nearly an hour, laying on the sun bed and staring blearily upwards. She can hear Alex and Sam having a hushed conversation in the next room, something about an ‘intervention’, but most of her focus is back in her apartment, her mind now the one camped out in her companion’s, waiting anxiously for anything to change as she monitors the woman’s physical body. Just as Alex and Sam enter her room, clearly having come to some kind of decision that has to do with Kara, the woman in her apartment opens her eyes.

Kara sits up with a jolt. The woman’s presence slips into her mind once more, sort of poking around experimentally before finding its old spot and settling in, albeit feeling smaller than usual for some reason, and for the first time in a week Kara feels alive again.

“She’s awake,” Alex says, sounding more relieved than Kara would have expected.

Kara nods, not trusting herself to speak, her body literally vibrating at super speed, which… is apparently too much for her scrunchy, on top of a week of flying to and fro, because it finally snaps and falls to the floor. She’s pretty sure her sister notices, then, and also realizes that no, Kara had not done anything with her hair since that first day, much less done anything else.

“Off you go, then,” Sam says, rolling her eyes despite the relief clear in her voice, and she and Alex step aside, letting Kara zoom out the door. “I’ll let Ruby know,” Sam says, and Kara barely hears her, already long gone.

The flight to her apartment passes in a blur, Kara only half-paying attention as she feels the woman cautiously stretch before grabbing the nearby cape and pulling it around herself. When Kara finally flies into her window she snaps back into her own mind, sees the woman sitting up in the bed, her cape around her and green eyes watching Kara.

From the moment the woman woke up Kara had sensed her, but it isn’t until their eyes meet that Kara can feel what she’s feeling. And, Kara knows now, it’s because she was hiding it from her. She’s afraid… of Kara.

Kara slams to a halt and knows the woman can feel the devastation so clearly written on her face and she quickly sends her more emotions, far more easily and completely than any she has before.

The only place the woman had felt safe in the last few years was with Kara, physically, of course, but especially in her mind, which was warm and trusting and welcoming from the moment she held her fragile, tortured body in the lair two months ago. And Kara had kicked her out, expelled her from her safe place. To protect her, yes, but the woman hadn’t known it was even possible. Nor had she anticipated how awful it would feel, an emptiness that Kara now knows as well. Then the woman had forced herself back in, against Kara’s wishes, and used Kara’s body to kill a man. She had felt the worsening pain the movements had caused, and she knew that Kara had never killed anyone before.

So the woman fears Kara, who is her safe place, and who has the ability and the right to not allow her back, not when she violated her by forcing herself back into her mind and using her as a tool to kill someone. She fears Kara rejecting her and she’s trembling with it, clutching Kara’s cape around her like she’s worried even that will be ripped away.

“No, no, no, baby girl, I would never,” Kara whispers, heart aching, and she moves then, albeit at a human speed. She makes it to the bed with two large strides and scoops the woman into her arms, settling onto the mattress and placing her in her lap in one smooth movement, an arm wrapped securely around her and the other coming up, her hand gently guiding the woman’s head to rest against her own.

Kara calls up her own memories, shows her companion that her only desire was to protect her, the guilt she felt when she saw her take on her pain, the satisfaction Kara felt when she snapped Corben’s neck, because how dare he make her hurt her baby girl.

Then Kara shows her what happened when Kara woke up, the loneliness, the shock and devastation she felt when she realized her companion was gone. She shows her her conversations with Alex and Sam, the determination she felt to help her, to get her back, how helpless she felt every time she had to lay in the sun bed to refuel when all she wanted was to hold her baby girl and have those beautiful green eyes open again.

“I love you,” Kara says. “I love you so much, I can’t…” She remembers again how much she wants to tell her to never do that again, how she knows she would because Kara would too. “I can’t lose you, please, baby girl. I’ll never force you out again, I promise.” She recalls what she told her before, and vows to uphold it. “We protect each other,” Kara starts.

El mayarah, the woman finishes.

Her voice is soft but clear in Kara’s mind and she gasps, pulling back to look at her with wide eyes. “You can talk now?”

Telepathically, so… sort of. The woman gives her a wobbly grin. Nice to meet you, Kara Zor-El Danvers.

Kara laughs and presses into the woman’s hair, trying to hide the tears streaming down her face.

And thank you for not shaving my head. The woman begins carding her fingers through Kara’s own hair, and Kara feels her frown at the tangles therein. Though you may need to shave yours.

“I do not,” Kara says pulling away and sniffling. “I haven’t exactly… been uh, taking care of myself.”

Mhm, too generous for your own good. Vibrant green eyes narrow. I’ll keep that in mind.

Kara can’t help her indignant squeak. “I ate! When… my sister made me. I… okay, y’know what, that’s fair. You can make sure I take better care of myself and I’ll make sure you don’t work yourself to death.”

The woman arches a single eyebrow imperiously. I am not a workaholic.

“Oh you definitely are. It’s already on the list.” Kara waves her hand vaguely. “Along with martial arts master, user of morse code, scientist, nerd, and reporter-hater.”

All but one reporter, the woman corrects, blushing.

Kara grins. “Okay, all-but-one-reporter-hater. Nerd can stay then?”

The woman sighs. You’re incorrigible.

“That I am, ba— uhhh.” Kara’s brow crinkles. “Any clue what you want me to call you?”

The woman smirks and Kara realizes immediately that she’s doomed. I’m fine with what you currently call me… :zhao included.

Kara is very, very doomed, and her blush can probably be seen from space. “Uh, I showed you that? Yeah no I definitely did. That’s not… the best way to reveal that, I don’t think. Wait did you say you were okay with it?”

Her :zhao presses a chaste kiss to her lips and pulls away with a slight blush, but grins when she feels the warmth blooming in Kara’s chest. I am very much okay with it, darling.

Kara’s eyes widen and she once again buries her face in the woman’s hair. “You know what, I’m also glad I didn’t shave this all off,” Kara mumbles, feeling the woman laugh against her. She holds her closer then, and can’t help but ask, “I’m not dreaming, am I? You’re really… awake? And okay?”

Fingers scratch gently at Kara’s scalp. I can assure you that you are not dreaming— I’ve been spying on your dreams for awhile now and this has neither the copious amounts of junk food nor the Kryptonian architecture that your subconscious is so fond of.

“And you’re okay?”

Kara feels a warm, content feeling flood her. Yes, I’m okay. I still don’t remember everything, but I am… closer to doing so, I believe.

The woman bites her lip and rolls her eyes when Kara easily frees it with her thumb. “What’s wrong, baby?” Kara smiles when the woman blushes, but doesn’t let her gaze stray from worried green eyes.

I mostly remember what happened in… what your friends have dubbed the ‘evil lair’, the woman admits. I still can’t remember names or faces, really, but I was there for… years. The last few are hazy, between the malnutrition and the drugs they regularly injected me with— the woman pauses, turning to press a soft kiss to Kara’s cheek, easily quelling the anger that has risen within her at the new information. I’m fine now, darling, all is well.

Kara can’t help questioning that. Not only have the woman’s memories still not fully returned, but she can’t talk out loud for some reason. And she’s still quite weak physically.

Okay, I will be fine, the woman amends, one hand settling on the back of Kara’s neck and playing with the baby hairs there. My memories will return, of that I am certain. And with your help I should fully recover, including my vocal chords. The woman remembers a flash of something then, something she definitely did not mean to share with Kara.

She can’t see, blindfolded or her eyes squeezed shut from pain she doesn’t remember, her throat raw and burning from sobs, but a voice she knows far too well comes from above her, a man’s voice, bored and apathetic despite his words. “All this screaming and crying from just a few acid burns? Tch, sometimes I wonder if we’re actually related.” She thinks he turns away then, his voice muffled as he makes to leave. “Cut her vocal chords by the time I return, she’s giving me a headache.”

The memory ends and Kara is… numb. She’s too shocked to even feel the anger she knows she wants to.

The woman, however, feels guilt and a touch of panic. She scrambles so that she’s straddling Kara’s thighs, warm hands coming up to cup her cheeks. I didn’t mean for you to see that, darling, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?

“Am I…” Kara’s breath is coming a bit too fast now and they both know it. “What the fuck?” Kara says, and green eyes widen in shock. “What the actual fuck? Who… please tell me you pancaked him.”

If I hadn’t he would have found me by now, the woman says. I don’t… exactly recall the, ah, ‘pancaking incident’ clearly.

Kara remembers her side of it then, and the woman slumps against her in relief.

Yes, yes I pancaked him. As well as… She trails off and her thumbs swipe idly along Kara’s cheeks. Don’t freak out.

“I really cannot promise that but I’m still kinda in shock so I doubt I can anyway.”

I think he was my brother. Half-brother, the woman amends, frowning, and Kara wraps her arms around her waist and maneuvers them so that they’re lying down, the woman on top of her and giving her an amused smile when Kara buries her face in her hair again.

“He called a woman there ‘Mother’,” Kara says dully, already seeing where this is going.

Also pancaked. My stepmother, I believe, the woman thinks, and another memory rises to the surface before she can quell it.

“Don’t worry, dear, I won’t let them harm your face. It always has been your best feature.” Again, she cannot see, but a cool hand caresses her cheek and she instinctively tries to pull away, only for nails to dig into her skin to hold her in place. “You look just like your mother,” the woman coos. “And when my darling boy finally tires of playing with you, I’ll have the pleasure of destroying you myself.” The woman starts to leave then, but not before saying one last thing that cuts into her more than she wants to admit. “Perhaps if you didn’t look so much like your whore of a mother I could have loved you, pathetic thing that you are.”

The memory fades and the only thing keeping Kara from combusting is the woman in her arms, hands flitting nervously around Kara’s head and mind racing as she struggles to comfort her despite it being her memories that Kara just saw.

“Anything else?” Kara asks, voice tight and now she’s struggling to hold onto the numbness. She feels the woman’s hesitancy and holds her a bit tighter, relegating a tremendous amount of her brain power to managing her strength now. “Please. You’ll think of it at some point and I don’t think we’re going to be able to hide much from each other anymore.”

The woman has a flash of nervousness at that but sighs. One more… ah, a few more… unpleasant things I have a feeling you may be… displeased with.

“That’s putting it lightly,” Kara mutters.

You assumed before that I was meant to be a weapon against Kryptonians, the woman continues, and her hand cups the back of Kara’s neck, drawing her closer as she feels a protective surge come from the woman. You weren’t exactly… incorrect. Initially they planned to do to me what they did to… Corben.

Kara’s hand immediately slips between their bodies to press against the scar she knows lies over the woman’s heart. Fear runs through her even as the heart below her hand beats strongly.

I managed to convince my brother that my… that our minds could be more effective. He fancied himself a genius as well, the woman rolls her eyes. Mother wasn’t convinced and tried to put a kryptonite heart in me while he was away, but he returned before the operation was done and threw such a fit she capitulated. So instead I spent the first year there… well, giving myself powers. But he never intended for me to be the weapon, merely the… prototype. It’s why they didn’t bother doing much to keep me alive. I don’t think I was given any actual food the last two years or so…

Kara has to bite her lip to keep from interrupting and cursing again and if she was human she definitely would have drawn blood. Instead, a hand comes down and frees her lip and the woman presses a kiss to the corner of her mouth.

You’ve picked up enough of my bad habits, I think, the woman comments idly. I gave myself these powers from a mix of several alien DNA and mineral samples, including yours, a Green and White Martian’s, and a Kryptonian element called… Harun-El, I believe. Samples from some unidentified aliens helped it all come together about six months in, and there were more, but I digress, the woman waves her hand. Kryptonite weakens me as well so they kept me securely contained, but I was able to be a bit… sneaky with my powers before they knew exactly what I could do. The woman gives her a wicked smirk that makes Kara’s heart skip. I managed to pull out enough screws and loosen enough panels in hidden areas that a certain someone was able to find us.

Kara’s mouth actually drops open. “You un-soundproofed the evil lair.”

Indeed I did, the woman thinks, tilting her chin up, and when Kara’s chest swells with pride she blushes. It, it wasn’t all that much. I also made the watch, ah, portal device my brother was trying to use to escape. I added a few lines of code in its program to cause it to malfunction should the lair’s intruder alarm have triggered.

The woman is silent then, flushed and not meeting Kara’s eyes, and Kara is pretty sure she’s done telling her ‘unpleasant’ things. The woman nods at the thought and Kara takes a deep breath to center herself, then raises both of her hands to cup the woman’s face, thumbs stroking her cheeks until nervous green eyes finally meet her own. She lets the numbness and rage and horror be swept away by her love for this fierce, brilliant woman laying sprawled on top of her, red cape still draped over her shoulders.

“First of all,” Kara begins, and she presses a soft kiss to the woman’s lips. “I love you. So, so much, baby girl.” She takes another breath then, recalls the increasingly untethered feeling the woman had had as she spoke, a feeling Kara had long ago when she’d arrived on Earth only to be rejected by the only family she had left. “And you’re mine now, for as long as you’ll have me, at least.” Kara blushes but plows on. “I will never let you go hungry, or try to suppress your powers, or not bathe you whenever you want. I will never hurt you intentionally, or make you feel small, or let you think that you have to suffer alone.”
The woman is crying now and Kara kisses the tears running down her cheeks.

“You will always be my family, my :zhao, and I will always recognize how amazing and wonderful and good you are. I will always protect your heart,” Kara kisses the woman’s shirt over where her heart is beating a bit faster now, “I will always be with you,” Kara presses her forehead to the woman’s and lets her love for her fill them both, “I will always find you, and I will always, always be proud of you, baby.”

Kara slips her hand under the woman’s shirt and begins rubbing her back, holding the woman close to her as she cries.

“Thank you for fighting,” Kara whispers. “Thank you for surviving and for helping me find you. Thank you for trusting me, and for saving me. Thank you for feeling safe with me and for sharing your past with me. Thank you for being you, my beautiful, brilliant, badass baby girl.”

The woman laughs then and burrows even further into Kara, and when she finally pulls away her eyes are shining, though she’s managed to stop crying.

I hate to say it but I think I need some of that awful stew, she thinks, and Kara barks out a laugh. I haven’t eaten for a week, well, except for you. The woman smirks and Kara flushes.

“Okay, yep, stew time,” Kara says, voice painfully chipper. She cradles the woman in her arms and heads to the kitchen, frowning when she opens the fridge. “I definitely need to make a fresh batch.”

Kara doesn’t bother trying to put the woman on the couch as she had the first day, instead tucking her into a comfortable one-armed carry as she starts floating around the kitchen, getting everything ready.

The woman holds tight to her, Kara’s cape still wrapped around her like a cloak, and her bright green eyes never leave Kara’s face. Once the stew is boiling away a warm hand comes up, fingers tapping lightly against Kara’s cheek until she turns to face her. “What’s up, baby?”

Khap :zhao rrip, the woman thinks carefully, managing to perfectly pronounce words she’s only ever heard in Kara’s memories, whispered softly between her jeju and ukr.

Kara’s eyes go wide and she freezes, her shock ebbing into a deep gratitude that is swiftly overtaken by a fierce surge of love and fondness and appreciation. “Khap :zhao rrip,” Kara whispers, and kisses her :zhao with a gentle reverence that leaves them both flushed and slightly out of breath.

Chapter Text

When the cooking is done and everything is stored properly Kara takes a large bowl filled with stew and a spoon and goes to the living room area, settling the woman in front of her on the couch, her own back against the arm rest as she cradles her between her legs. She sees a bit of her own hair draped over her shoulder and quickly looks away from the mocking yellow strands, focusing instead on the woman in her arms, though she can feel her confusion rippling at her now. Kara feeds her the stew spoonful by spoonful and is glad she doesn’t object, both of them knowing that Kara is doing it for herself as well. She manages to eat most of the bowl and rolls her eyes when Kara zaps her portion before chugging it as she usually does.

Kara sets the bowl on the coffee table and wraps both of her arms around her companion, resting her forehead on her shoulder and just listening to her heartbeat for awhile. Each strong thud helps calm Kara, and she actually starts to doze lightly, still heavily sleep deprived from the past week.

Darling, the thought is whisper soft, you need sleep.

“I know,” Kara mumbles. “I also need to shower, and start working again… day job and Super job… and we need to get you back to doing physical therapy, and figure out how to keep Alex and Sam from scheming things, and I probably need to call Ruby, and…” She trails off, her mind hazily trying to work through all that needs done.

The woman turns and presses a barely-there kiss to Kara’s head. Yes, and you will. We will. One thing at a time, my love. A hand begins combing through Kara’s still-tangled hair.

“And I need to brush my hair,” Kara adds grudgingly.

I’m definitely not doing any exercising or experimenting tonight, so I’m going to get ready for bed. You can tidy up and call your sister while I do so… I can feel her anxiety from here… and then after I’m done you can shower, super speed or not, up to you, and I’ll brush your hair, alright? Amusement curls around Kara as the woman in her arms smiles. Or I can shave it off if you want.

Kara raises her head and presses a sleepy kiss to the woman’s cheek. “Okay. To all but that last thing.” Kara stands and carries the woman to the bathroom, depositing her in front of the sink and pouting when she insists she can brush her teeth on her own.

Seriously, please go call your sister. She’s going to give me a migraine.

“Is it normally that bad?” Kara is worried now and the woman almost bites her lip but stops when Kara’s eyes narrow. “Baby, what’s up?”

Using so much of my power has… strengthened it, I suppose. The woman looks away from Kara but flinches when she sees herself in the mirror. Kara moves behind her and wraps her arms around her waist, happy when her baby girl leans against her, eyes closed as she focuses on Kara to help settle her thoughts. Before, my ability to feel others’ emotions was based on their proximity to one of us. Physical proximity, that is. Now… well, I can feel how worried your sister is for you, how Sam is also worried but is starting to find her pacing a hole in the floor annoying, how Ruby is spying on them and wondering how long she should wait to call you. Nia isn’t as worried as the others but is frustrated her dreams aren’t revealing anything, and Brainy is still asleep and lucid dreaming so he can try to work out the impossibility of a Kryptonian with telepathy. I can even vaguely feel that Cat Grant is worried about you and is doing her best not to let her son realize it.

“Yikes,” Kara says softly, though she can’t help the warm feeling she gets when she hears that even Cat cares. “Can you… sense Eliza? She is kinda far away.”

Not currently but next time you call her or see her that will probably change. The woman’s annoyance is palpable, but Kara can feel that it has more to do with her still getting used to it all than anything else. She’s confident in her ability to handle it, and considering she was fine with Kara typing two articles simultaneously at super speed, can make sense of the notes on the hard drives, and gave herself these illogical powers, Kara figures she’s correct.

“My little super genius,” Kara singsongs, swaying the woman side to side.

An indignant sound escapes her. I am not little.

“You’re shorter than me,” Kara says, not bothering to dodge the pinch she gets for that. She laughs. “What? It’s true, baby girl.”

I’m going to start wearing high heels, the woman thinks, narrowed green eyes meeting Kara’s in the mirror. Then we’ll see who’s shorter.

Kara bites her lip and makes sure the woman is balanced before slipping away, trying desperately not to let her get an inkling of her reply until she’s out of pinching distance. Her companion can tell she’s up to something, and watches her suspiciously as she sidles out the door. “I’ll add height inferiority complex to the list, right after martial arts master,” Kara says, and flees back to her living room area with a burst of super speed when she sees the way the woman immediately squares up for a fight.

Kara Zor-El Danvers—

“Gotta call Alex, sorry baby,” Kara chirps happily, phone already in her hand. She presses her sister’s name under ‘favorites’ and has to bite her lip to keep from laughing when the woman in the bathroom sighs.

You were half-asleep earlier and now you’re awake enough to tease me. The woman’s annoyance is far outweighed by her relief at Kara’s liveliness, which fills Kara with a happy kind of warmth.

Alex predictably picks up on the first ring. “Kara, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Kara says. “I mean, I’m tired but that’s nothing new.”

Tell her what kind of tired and that you’re about to sleep, for fuck’s sake, the woman’s voice says in Kara’s head. Then, Sorry darling, that last part was directed at her immediately spiraling. Never let her tell you she doesn’t ramble.

“Tired from not sleeping properly,” Kara quickly explains. “Which I am going to do shortly. Once I’ve showered and dealt with my hair.”

Does that mean I can shave it?

Kara yelps and forgets to reply mentally. “Rao, no, you cannot shave it! How would you even do that, do you have a kryptonite-bladed clipper lying around or something?”

…how do you get haircuts?

“Kara,” Alex interrupts, sounding strangled. “Are you still with your… friend, right now?”

“I think we’re kind of codependent at this point,” Kara muses, “and I’m definitely going to be clingy for awhile considering the past week.” She may as well warn both of them. Her companion, luckily, echoes her sentiment, though she bristles at being deemed ‘codependent’. Then Kara reminds her of their immediate misery and devastation when they were alone in their own heads and she feels her grudging acceptance of it. “You are very much stuck with me, :zhao.”

It’s not that, I just… am not used to… needing… anybody. I can’t say for certain, but I was probably not one to accept help from even those I considered friends. The woman frowns around her toothbrush, Kara catching a glimpse through her eyes suddenly and seeing her do a fair impression of Kara’s crinkle in the mirror. I do feel like I must have had friends, though. I was clearly expecting someone to find me.

“Kara,” Alex interrupts again, and she sounds… so tired.

I think technically I’m the one interrupting, darling, you called her.

“Oh, uh, sorry Alex.” Kara bites her lip, then frowns at her own action. She really is picking up her companion’s habits. Huh. “Look, I’m fine, okay? I am safe, I am being bribed into taking care of myself—“

“Bribed how exactly?” Alex immediately asks. Whatever she thinks then causes the woman in the bathroom to flush crimson. “Nevermind, I don’t wanna know.”

“Alex!” Kara yelps. “Rao, how fast do you think I move?”

You do have super speed, the woman notes, amusement tickling Kara’s mind.

“Metaphorically speaking,” Kara adds, rolling her eyes.

“How come she can hear me but I can’t hear her?” Alex asks.

It would be best not to mention that I’m currently being bombarded with her thoughts, the woman thinks, and Kara agrees.

“She’s talking to me telepathically,” Kara offers. “And even if we weren’t nearby one another she’d still be able to… hear you. Uh, through me.”

She did not like that, the woman tells Kara, though neither of them find it surprising.

This time Kara manages to reply mentally. Yeah but she kinda deserves to know? I mean she may use it against us but considering you can hear her and Sam I don’t think that matters now.

“And can you… not let her do that, if you choose?” Alex is picking her words carefully.

“I can, yes, but I won’t,” Kara says. Never again, baby girl. The relief that fills Kara at that isn’t hers alone, and though she can feel that the woman is quite fine and has moved on to flossing her teeth now Kara wants nothing more than to go and hold her.

Wait til we go to bed, my love, a soft voice says. Else you’re likely to hold me all night wherever we are and get no real rest.

“True,” Kara sighs.

“Now what?” Alex snaps.

“Uh, just me being extra clingy,” Kara mutters, blushing.

There’s silence on the other end of the phone and Kara has a feeling Alex is preparing some kind of big sister spiel.

She is, the woman says. And… she does have some fair points. At least hear her out.

Kara bites her lip to keep from stopping Alex before she starts, because whatever she’s thinking has her baby girl nervous enough that she’s wanting Kara’s cape around her. Still, Kara can’t help but growl, “Alex.”

“I’m not,” Alex sighs. “I’m not trying to get… between you two, or… anything. Just… Kara, I know you’re… I know you’ve experienced a lot of different cultures and met a lot of different people, but I just want to remind you that you’re on Earth now. I know you still uphold a lot of Krypton’s values but at the very least you have a right to your own mind.” Alex’s voice wavers. “Please, just… don’t feel like you have to share your head with someone because it helps them. I can understand you sharing your energy, though I can’t say I like it, but… your mind? Kara, are you sure it’s really you who’s okay with this?”

The more Alex speaks the more the woman in the bathroom is caving in on herself, leaning against the wall now, shoulders hunched and eyes squeezed shut as her mind trips over itself trying to analyze her past interactions with Kara, what little she knows of her own powers, wondering if she’s brainwashed her somehow or if Kara is acting out of obligation or—

Kara, phone in one hand and cape in the other, speeds into the bathroom. She drapes the cape over the woman like a cloak and then scoops her up with one arm, hovering midair with her legs crossed and plopping the woman onto her lap. She holds her to her chest, and when a warm forehead comes to rest in the crook of her neck and two arms wrap around her, Kara feels calm enough to talk.

“Alex, I know you’re just worried about me,” Kara begins, “so I’m going to actually address your concerns even though I’m kind of pissed right now.” She ignores the surprised sound on the other end of the phone, as well as the echo of it her baby girl feels before she instinctively delves deeper into Kara’s mind and sees that yes, Kara is pissed, because Alex’s concerns upset her :zhao.

Oh, the woman thinks, and it’s so soft Kara isn’t sure she meant to project it to her.

“First of all, yes, I went to a lot of planets as a kid, and I’ve met a lot of aliens here on Earth as well. I’ve seen cultures where merely asking for help is punished and I’ve met people who will go out of their way to help if you so much as imply you need it. I don’t help others out of some kind of… cultural obligation, or even a need to justify my being here like Kal-El does. I help people because I enjoy it, and you should honestly both know that by now.” Her brow crinkles then. “Though I do… think my enjoying it is thanks to my… aunt and parents?” She shakes her head when she feels a headache coming on, and lets her curiosity about that fall away.

The woman bites her lip and Kara presses a kiss to her forehead, her cape tickling her nose as she does so.

“Second, what Brainy said about Kryptonians being the opposite of telepathic is true. As a people we collectively value our intelligence above all else, and that means we protect our minds. Aside from the fact that it was unheard of until now, no self-respecting Kryptonian would allow someone they didn’t trust into their mind. It’s,” Kara’s face scrunches up and she and the woman in her lap blush as she has the thought. “It’s comparable to sex here on Earth, I guess. You don’t, ugh, you don’t let just anyone into your pants.”

Didn’t you technically, ah, ‘let me in’ as soon as you met me?

Kara blinks down at the nervous face peering up at her. “Well I didn’t exactly know your powers at first, but I knew I wanted to help you. And when it became clear you were hanging out in my head I decided I was okay with that, especially given how much of yourself you were trusting me with. You even asked if it was okay once you were feeling a little better,” Kara remembers, smiling. “Most people would have just taken it for granted since I’d been letting it happen, but you still checked in.”

“Kara—“ Alex tries, but Kara isn’t done.

“Finally,” Kara interrupts, “if there was any brainwashing involved I’m pretty sure it goes both ways.” Alex’s surprise at this is so potent Kara can feel it through her connection to the woman in her lap, who mirrors it. “I’m not saying either of us tried to brainwash the other, and I can in fact say I know we haven’t intentionally done so. But,” Kara pauses, nibbles her lip and writes it off as a point in her favor even as her :zhao reaches up to free it as Kara so often does for her. “She needed help when I found her, and I wouldn’t be surprised if her powers instinctively latched onto me out of desperation, especially if they were able to sense my… inclination towards helping people. If they did do anything it wasn’t drastic— the most I can tell is that I bonded with her more quickly than I may have normally, but even that could be because her powers… I dunno, started working both ways and letting me understand her faster.”

You being able to access my mind as I do yours wasn’t something I was intending when I created these powers, the woman acknowledges. But if it was born of survival instinct, that may account for it. Same with my being able to heal using your energy… from what I’ve seen on the hard drives that could have arisen from a mix of the mental link between us and the changes I had to make to my cells using Kryptonian DNA. So both are unintended side effects.

“And why exactly do you think you brainwashed her?” Alex finally asks.

“Well I’m hoping it didn’t affect anything… I dunno, personality-wise,” Kara says with a grimace. “But I realized early on that how I was thinking was affecting her so I made sure to govern my thoughts and emotions to try to keep her calm and make sure she felt safe. I still do, kinda… I don’t… think that’s a bad thing, though? I’ve gotten a lot better at like, letting go of anger and all that. No more beating up old cars or rearranging mountains to deal with rage I can’t do anything about.” She has the passing thought then that both controlling her emotions and letting them run rampant are things she’s quite familiar with, but she doesn’t… know why that is…

As long as you know you are allowed to feel your emotions, the woman thinks, recalling how Kara had reacted to the memories she had shared. You told me not to suffer alone, and that goes both ways, my love.

“I know,” Kara whispers, nuzzling into her hair. “I try to only do it with… things I’d rather not dwell on. Yes, some of the things that happened to you make me want to… to scream and cry and destroy things, but… I’d rather spend that energy and time with you, ensuring you feel safe and loved.”

“Oh, you’re so whipped,” Alex says softly. “And you said Sam and I were bad.”

“One last thing,” Kara adds, a bit nervous.

Warm hands slip under her shirt and rub soothingly along her back, and Kara kisses the top of her baby girl’s head in thanks.

“You wanted to know if… I’m sure I’m the one who’s okay with this,” Kara says. “Honestly, most Kryptonians, at least those who grew up on Krypton… definitely wouldn’t be. Most humans wouldn’t be either, but…” Kara closes her eyes, remembers waking up after the fight with Corben, unable to move and her mind hers alone, wondering if she was still… “I was alone in space, in a tiny pod, for twenty-four years, Alex.” Kara’s voice breaks and her companion’s arms wrap tightly around her as she trembles. “The absolute last thing I ever want is to be alone. The only reason I haven’t… the only reason I’ve been okay the last few months is because I have her. I haven’t seen you or Sam or Nia or Brainy outside of work in ages, I hadn’t even seen Ruby in-person until last week, I… everyone leaves me, and I get it, but…”

Kara is crying now, and the woman turns in her lap, cradles her face. I’m yours, my love. I’m yours, I’m not going anywhere. She presses kisses to Kara’s cheeks, letting her desire to stay with her flood them both.

“I’m yours too,” Kara whispers, pressing their foreheads together. “For as long as you’ll have me.”

Forever, the woman swears. Khap :zhao rrip.

“Khap :zhao rrip,” Kara repeats thickly, and before she can stop herself she thinks of golden bracelets, of her parents telling her marriage is forever, a partner for life.

Let’s do it, her companion thinks, immediate and strong. At Kara’s shock she continues. We’re already linked, darling, and permanently so from what I can tell. She sends a tickle of contentment with that along their connection. May as well make it official.

“Are you sure?” Kara’s voice is so soft she’s pretty sure the woman only knows what she said because she feels her thinking it.

Certain. I want to be with you, I want to be yours and for you to be mine, for now and for always. The woman answers Kara’s next thought before she has to ask it. There’s no one else for me. I know I have yet to remember everything, but I do remember waiting, and missing people, but it wasn’t… I think they were more… chosen family. I don’t think I’ve ever felt… like this. I’ve never loved someone, or trusted them so completely, I… I want you, Kara. Please.

“Okay,” Kara says, though they both can feel her apprehension still. “Even if you—“

I will not leave you.

“We don’t know the future,” Kara says, looking away.

We make the future, the woman’s voice says wryly. Look at me, Kara. When Kara doesn’t turn the woman makes a small, sad sound. My love, please.

Kara looks at her, eyes watery and her bottom lip trapped between her teeth. “It’s okay, either way,” Kara says. “I know I’m not—“

This time the woman doesn’t bother with words, and instead sends everything she needs Kara to know straight into her mind. She shows her how safe Kara has made her feel from the moment they met, how cared for and loved she feels everyday. How her trust has never been easily given but how Kara had it right away and has easily honored it since. She floods Kara’s mind with her love for her, her trust in her, shows her firsthand the panic and fear and devastation she’d felt when she feared Corben had killed her before she managed to get back, the loneliness and longing she’d held that next week, trapped in the recesses of her own mind and remembering things she’d rather not. The fear that Kara would reject her and the overwhelming relief when she let her stay.

The happiness when Kara first offered her her love, and the joy when she’d revealed that love had changed over the course of the last two months. And, for the first time, she shows her what she’d felt when Kara had shown her her memories of her friends and family, how Kara loves them and how so many have moved on, and now she lets Kara know the decision she’d made that same night: to never let Kara be alone again.

Marry me, the woman thinks softly as Kara blinks her way back into the bathroom, her :zhao cradled on her lap, cape now settled around her shoulders and her forehead pressed to Kara’s. The phone had fallen at some point, the call still going but the other end quiet. Marry me, Kara Zor-El Danvers.

“Yes,” Kara breathes. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” She pulls away enough to lean forward again, kissing her :zhao as the woman turns to straddle her, legs wrapped around Kara’s waist. Kara curls one hand around her hip, burying another in thick, silky hair as she deepens the kiss.

When they finally part Kara stares into brilliant green eyes now shining with their own tears. I may have brainwashed you more than we thought, the woman thinks, and Kara can feel her nervousness now, the happiness that Kara said yes tempered by worry, a quiet buzz in her mind of I’m not good enough, I’m not worthy, there’s no way this woman would say yes, I must have tricked her.

Kara leans forward and presses a chaste kiss to her lips. “And I apparently brainwashed you into being mine on day two, so that makes two of us.” She sends her own thoughts to her then, You are good, you are worthy, I love you, I trust you. Kara smiles at her when she feels the worried buzz fade away. “Let’s just say we brainwashed each other, and since we’re both happy with it we may as well be selfish for once and enjoy it.”

The woman’s fingers tap a restless beat against Kara’s side and she can feel her considering, weighing her options and, finally, deciding that Kara is right. Let’s be selfish, she agrees. Fuck it. I went through hell, I may as well get an amazing wife out of it.

Kara laughs and kisses her cheek. “And I spend all my time saving people, I may as well get to keep the loveliest of them all.” My baby girl, my :zhao, my wife.

Pale skin flushes a beautiful red. I believe fiancée is more accurate at the moment.

Kara hums. “Did you know that Krypton had special laws surrounding marriage on other planets? We had a lot of travelers, after all, eager to learn as much as they could about anything and everything.”

…and what were these special laws?

“As soon as a Kryptonian exchanges a bracelet with their partner on a foreign planet, allowing that both parties’ intentions are clear, they are considered wed from that moment forward.”

The woman arches a single eyebrow imperiously. And when exactly are you suggesting we exchange bracelets?

“Well at the moment you need to pee and I need to shower so you can deal with my hair, so how about tomorrow?” Kara can’t help the fear she feels that this happiness will be ripped away from her, that something will happen that sends her careening off course. But Kryptonian marriage is forever, so even if she’s taken from her :zhao kicking and screaming at least she’ll always be her wife, at least she’ll have that much. “Um, and once you… know your name,” Kara winces, “we can do an Earth marriage too, if you want. I can probably make it so the bracelets can shrink to be rings and have like, a camouflage mode just in case—“

Even though Kara can tell it’s coming she’s still surprised when her backtracking ramble is cut off with a fervent kiss. Tomorrow it is, the woman thinks to her. When they part Kara looks a bit dazed.

“Alex was right, I do move fast,” Kara mumbles. Then, “Wait, wasn’t I on the phone?”

They both look down to see the phone on the tile floor, the call having ended awhile ago and several text alerts on the screen. The woman easily floats the phone up and into Kara’s hand, preening just a bit when she feels the swell of pride Kara has at her casual use of her powers.

Alex Danvers: i have no clue what just happened but i hung up when you started making out

Alex Danvers: anyway, i know you said you’re gonna be clingy for awhile— ew btw— so we can keep evening meet ups suspended but you, me, sam, and ruby are meeting at least once a week from now on. non-negotiable

Alex Danvers: if i try to cancel remind me how i bailed on you for two months ffs

Alex Danvers: sam says weekends work best and i doubt you’ll be going out this weekend so we’ll start next weekend, and sam will see what she can do about the hero schedule so brainy and nia can come to game nights later

Alex Danvers: oh and your gf can come to our hang outs i guess

Alex Danvers: i mean according to you she’ll be there regardless but like if she wants to be there physically that’s… fine

Kara’s brow crinkles as she stares at the phone, and she doesn’t look away until a warm thumb smooths her crinkle away. “Alex never sends more than one text, ever,” Kara says slowly, knowing her fiancée already knows this but needing to say it out loud. “She gives them paragraph breaks and everything just so she only has to send one. I’ve gotten texts so long from her they trailed off into ellipses and I had to click on them to expand them and those were drunk texts.” Kara looks from her phone to her fiancée and back. “Is… is she okay?”

She was… alarmed, her fiancée starts, thinking back and realizing belatedly that she has already figured out how to compartmentalize others’ emotions, at least when it came to prioritizing her’s and her love’s. Kara has a rush of pride at that and her fiancée blushes. Anyway, she continues, she hadn’t realized just how alone you were and she… spiraled enough that I don’t believe she even heard what we were doing until the sound of your phone dropping startled her, and then, well, she hung up. A blush heats her cheeks and Kara smirks. The blush darkens. Once her anxiety spiral was done she went to Sam and had a… minor freak out, but Sam calmed her down and the slew of texts you received was the result.

“So she’s okay now?” Kara asks hesitantly.

She will be once she sees you and feels she has fulfilled her ‘big sister duties’.

“Good,” Kara says, quickly typing an affirmative reply to Alex, and a quick text to Ruby that she’ll call her tomorrow and her friend is doing well. Then her brow crinkles again and her fiancée stubbornly smooths it away. “When should I tell them you’re my wife?”

Fiancée, her fiancée corrects, because of course she does.

Kara gets a pinch for that but just grins. “We’re getting married tomorrow, baby girl, by the time I see her you will in fact be my wife. Assuming she and Sam aren’t waiting for me in the morning, that is…”

You don’t want her at the wedding?

Kara feels her jolt of surprise but shrugs. “At the Earth wedding, yes, of course. Her and Sam and Ruby and Eliza and Nia and Brainy, and I’ll even invite Cat and Carter. Uh, and Cal and Lois I guess. But a Kryptonian traveler’s wedding is… traditionally just the people exchanging bracelets. And Alex can’t exactly be upset considering her ‘wedding’ was a week after she and Sam eloped and I didn’t know until two days later.”

Was Ruby at their… elopement?

Kara pouts. “Of course she was. She’s the one who told me about it.”

The amusement radiating from her fiancée only deepens Kara’s pout. Sorry, darling, but it is amusing. You have super hearing.

“I don’t use it to spy on people!” Kara pauses. “Okay, I do use it to spy on people, but not… non-nefarious people. Usually.” Kara grimaces. “And I really try not to listen in on Alex these days unless I know she and Sam are in public or the same room as Ruby.”

Fair, her fiancée thinks, then rolls her eyes. For being so quick to call me your wife you certainly enjoy thinking of me as your fiancée.

“It’s a title you’ll have for less than a day,” Kara points out. “I gotta use it as much as possible.” She returns to her earlier question then. “But when should we tell Alex?”

It’s probably something that should be revealed in person, her fiancée thinks, and Kara’s hold on her tightens when she feels her trepidation. But I… am not sure when it will be… safe for me. To be around other people, I mean. Her hand starts to clench at the fabric over her stomach but Kara catches it with her own and intertwines their fingers.

“You don’t have to do anything until you’re ready,” Kara promises.

It’s not just my powers, her fiancée thinks. She glances at herself in the mirror and winces. You’ve done an excellent job of healing me and… nurturing me, she flushes and huddles closer to Kara, but I still look… well, like I’ve been held captive underground and starved for far too long. And all the scars… She closes her eyes and her next thought comes before she can stop it. Are you sure you want to marry someone who looks like this?

“I don’t give a shit about how you look, baby girl, I just want you to be as healthy and comfortable as you can be.” Kara’s hands slip under her fiancée’s shirt, running along her ribs and noting how much less prominent they are now. “And your recovery isn’t all on me, either. You’re the one eating the bland food, doing your physical therapy exercises, and working on understanding your powers. You’re the one who survived this long and who is continuing to fight every day.” Kara kisses her forehead, letting her pride and gratitude for the woman in her arms fill her. “You’re amazing, and if anyone dares to tell you otherwise they’ll have to answer to me.”

Teary green eyes widen at the flash of, well, murderous rage Kara feels for a moment, though they both know it stems from the memories the woman had shown her earlier. Still, her fiancée gives her a wobbly smile. Darling, if you kill everyone who insults me your sister will definitely go back to calling me your ‘murderous girlfriend’.

Kara laughs at that and tugs her forward into a heated kiss. When she pulls away, she smirks at the dazed look on her baby girl’s face. “All that said, I of course think you’re gorgeous. And as for you scars, well, once you’re up for it…” Kara easily pulls up her mental map of the woman’s body, imagines kissing every little dot littering her inner elbows, caressing the soft skin between the burn marks on her thighs, laving her tongue across—

Okay, okay, I get it! Her fiancée interrupts, her ears tipped pink and the flush in her face extending down her chest. You have made it abundantly clear that that will not be happening anytime soon, so… fuck, Kara.

“Do you still think I don’t want to marry you?”

No, but if you keep that up I won’t make it to the wedding, and that’s literally tomorrow. The woman turns and hides her face against Kara’s shoulder. I’m not going to be ready for any of that for at least another month and you known it. You’re a goddamn tease.

Kara can’t help but smirk. “Don’t worry, baby girl, we’ll get there someday. For now,” Kara sighs and slowly sets the woman on her feet. “You finish getting ready for bed and I’m gonna go tidy up. Then I’ll take a quick shower and you can pamper me.” Kara winks as she saunters out the door and her fiancée stands there for a long minute after, calming herself down by focusing on Kara as she tucks dirty dishes into the dishwasher, humming happily all the while.

A goddamn tease, she sends her again, and can’t stop her pout when Kara merely shakes with laughter.

Chapter Text

Kara’s fiancée wakes her before the sun rises and sends her off to the DEO to use the sun bed, and Kara is glad that her sister and sister-in-law are still in bed at home as they should be at this ungodly hour. She refuels without incident, sleepily waving at the few night shift agents milling around, and as soon as she returns home she wraps herself around her sleeping fiancée and nuzzles into her hair, drifting off as she listens to the woman’s heartbeats.

The next time Kara wakes she does so slowly, knows instinctively that it’s definitely past noon but then remembers it’s Sunday so that’s okay. And she never replaced the alarm clock she’d zapped so that’s even better.

Warm air puffs against her neck when someone laughs at that… no, not someone, her fiancée, who is sprawled half on top of her, leg thrown over hers and an arm wrapped securely around her waist. Kara’s own arm is curled around her and tightens then, holding her close as Kara turns and nuzzles against the top of her head.

“Good morning, :zhao,” Kara mumbles.

Good morning, my love, her fiancée echoes, smiling when she feels Kara press a kiss to her head.

“We’re gonna make bracelets today,” Kara says, stifling a yawn. “But I gotta go get some things— I’d bring you with me but it’ll be cold and I don’t want you to get sick.”

Her fiancée can’t hide her frustration at that, and after an internal debate she finally thinks, pout already in place, I understand, but I want to see the Fortress at some point. She recalls glimpses of things she’s seen in Kara’s head then, and Kara can feel her hunger for knowledge of alien technology. Please, she adds almost sheepishly.

Kara laughs and pulls them both into a sitting position. “I’ll take you there as soon as I can, baby girl. You can take as much time as you want perusing the archives and storage once we go.” The wave of pleasure her fiancée feels at that makes Kara shake her head. “Nerd is definitely staying on the list.”

Warm fingers pinch her side lightly. If that’s what it takes, so be it.

Kara floats off the bed, her fiancée still curled up sleepily in her arms. “Yeah, yeah. Just… be careful what you choose to share with the world, when the time comes.”

A flicker of confusion from the woman in her arms has Kara holding her closer.

“I know you’re brilliant, and I trust you, and I… I can tell that you’re good, that you want to help people. So I know that if you think something is useful, that it can do good on this planet, you’ll find a way to bring it to those who need it. Krypton’s science is… far beyond this planet’s, and most others’.” Kara’s brow crinkles. “But our science is also what killed us. That’s part of why I never tried to, I dunno, mass-produce anything of ours here on Earth. I don’t trust myself to be impartial enough to know what could have unintended consequences. I still only see the good in most of my memories, even though I know… I know that there were a lot of bad things I still haven’t let myself realize.” Or even remember, Kara thinks for some reason, mental shield up and keeping the twin bolts of pain flashing through her mind from her fiancée.

Kara can tell her fiancée wants to stand so sets her down, and isn’t surprised when she’s wrapped in a fierce hug.

I won’t take anything you don’t want me to, she thinks, squeezing Kara as tightly as she can. I’ll learn everything I can about anything I think will be useful, and I’ll do my best to understand how it affected Krypton and how it would change Earth. I won’t… I won’t do anything to disrespect you or your home, at least not intentionally. I can’t help wanting to learn all I can, but if I fuck up, just tell me.

Kara returns the hug for a long while before pulling back, cradling the woman’s face between her hands and pressing a quick kiss to her lips. “Thank you, baby girl. Like I said, though, I trust you, with all that I am and all that I have.” She smiles at her. “Though you should know— Krypton isn’t my home anymore. I know I tend to… escape there a lot, mentally. But Earth is my home now. My family and friends are here. You,” Kara kisses her again, “are here. So this is my home. Wherever you are is where I belong.”

Her fiancée smiles and Kara can feel the effect of her words, joy and love and affection flowing into her. Thank you, my love. I… Thank you, she thinks again, leaning forward and tucking her face against Kara’s neck. I love you, Kara, so, so much.

“I know,” Kara can’t help but say, smiling. “I love you, too.” She wraps her arms around her in another hug and sways side to side for a bit before pulling back, and the glint of amusement in the woman’s eyes tells her she already knows what Kara is about to say. “And the other reason I haven’t mass-produced any Kryptonian technology is, of course, that Earth science is dumb. So, good luck with that, baby girl.”

Yes, yes, I already know that the ‘lullaby’ you sing me so often is a periodic table far different from Earth’s. Krypton was very fond of making new elements, the woman says, rolling her eyes. Now, do you care which of us starts making breakfast?

A more recent change, from before the week neither of them wants to remember, is that whoever uses the bathroom first in the morning then goes to start breakfast while the other person gets ready, and they finish making it together before eating.

“Dibs,” Kara blurts, and a bit of super speed later she’s already heading to the kitchen, her teeth brushed and hair back in a neat ponytail.

Show-off, the woman thinks to her, more amused than anything else. She rolls her eyes when Kara turns to stick her tongue out at her, though Kara notices her squint at her ponytail for a moment before slipping into the bathroom.

Since her :zhao has been stuck inside for a week straight, and Kara can tell the roof is unoccupied, she carries her fiancée and their breakfast up the stairs into the shaded part of the garden, settling their breakfast on the table and sitting on the sofa with her fiancée in her lap. After they’ve finished their heart-shaped blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, far too much fruit for Kara’s liking, and some stew at her fiancée’s insistence, Kara pulls out her phone and calls her niece.

Ruby picks up on the second ring, a new record for the teenager. “Is she really okay?” Ruby demands, and then pauses. “And are you really okay?”

Kara’s fiancée makes a small, concerned sound. Oh, she’s very worried. More than I thought. She was hiding it well even from herself.

“We’re both fine, Rubes,” Kara says. “I was already fine physically and finally got some actual sleep— hey don’t pinch me, I was taking care of you— and she’s…” Kara regards her fiancée with a thoughtful frown. “Her recovery has backtracked a bit but she’s awake and eating and has some of her memories back.”

And can talk. Sort of. Her fiancée adds, narrowing her eyes.

“And she can talk now. Telepathically,” Kara adds, pressing a kiss to her fiancée’s furrowed brow.

“Um,” Ruby starts, but doesn’t continue.

She wants to ask why I can’t talk normally, her fiancée says, but she doesn’t want to pry. Or make either of us feel bad, which is why she never asked before.

Kara’s brow crinkles, but knowing Ruby she’ll figure it out eventually, so… “Remember when I said she was hurt?”

There’s a small, pained sound over the phone, and Kara’s fiancée grimaces and nods.

“She’s recovering,” Kara says. “My energy is healing her like the sun’s energy heals me, so—” Baby girl, will your vocal chords…?

They should, her fiancée says, biting her lip. Kara frees it and she rolls her eyes. I mean, they are. I can make small sounds now. Just not… words.

“Auntie Kara?” Ruby’s voice is quiet.

“Sorry, she will be able to talk physically at some point, but for now it’s easier for her to use her telepathy, is all.”

“What about whoever hurt her?” Ruby is careful to keep her voice neutral but Kara’s fiancée sends her the girl’s anger, and a burning hatred that makes them both flinch.

“They can’t hurt her anymore,” Kara says. “She made sure of that.” She knows she shouldn’t add that, but she can’t help her pride for her fiancée, and she doesn’t want her niece to assume that Kara did all the saving.

Kara gets pinched for her little addendum but her fiancée is still sending her Ruby’s emotions and they both feel the girl’s surge of… joy, relief, pride. “Good,” Ruby says. Then, “Is… that why you don’t want her anywhere near the DEO?”

“How are your moms doing?” Kara asks, already regretting saying too much, and her fiancée sends her Ruby’s irritation and acceptance as her niece sighs.

“Better,” Ruby says. “Ma was freaking out last night and told me this morning that we’ll all be spending time together on the weekends at least. But not this one…?”

She’s both confused and wondering if that will include me, Kara’s fiancée tells her, frowning. I am definitely not ready for that but for some reason I now feel guilty.

Kara laughs. “Yeah, saying no to Ruby is always hard. It’s why I let her blackmail me so much. And why Alex always caves so quickly when it comes to her.”

“Aunt Kara,” Ruby interrupts, and Kara can hear her niece’s frown. “Is your friend reading my mind right now?”

She’s already convinced I am, her fiancée muses, smiling. She’s a smart girl.

“Yeah,” Kara admits, pulling her fiancée closer against her. “Her powers got stronger, and even over the phone she kinda can’t help hearing someone’s thoughts. And, uh, we aren’t hanging out this weekend cuz I told Alex I was gonna be clingy for awhile…” Kara blushes and her fiancée kisses her cheek. “And she can’t come next weekend, sorry Rubes. She needs more time to heal and regain her strength. And get used to her powers. Being around a lot of people…”

Ruby sighs. “Alright, I get it. Um, you said she remembered some things. Did she… remember anything about herself?”

Her fiancée frowns. She’s trying not to think about something, she tells Kara. And she’s annoyingly good at it.

Kara arches a single eyebrow but decides to let it slide for now. “Mostly just the… process of how she got her powers, we think. Nothing personal.”

You can tell her I had a shitty family, her fiancée thinks. I don’t know why, but I… want to let her know what we can.

“She wants me to let you know that her family was garbage,” Kara drawls, and Ruby’s surge of hope is so strong that Kara feels it through her connection with her fiancée.

Ruby takes a moment to respond, but when she does she sounds… proud? “Well, I heard what you told my moms about her being your :zhao, and Ma keeps calling her your girlfriend, so since she’s your family now she’s mine too. So from now on we’re her family and she can forget about her old one.”

Damn straight, her fiancée drawls.

“She’s already picking up your bad habits,” Kara says idly. “At this rate I’ll probably start saying ‘damn straight’ too.” She sighs and feels her fiancée and Ruby’s amusement at that. “Anything else, Rubes?”

“Um, just… one thing,” Ruby says. “You said next weekend is too soon, but… my birthday isn’t for another seven weeks, so… could I meet her then?”

It’s very important for her that I be there, her fiancée says, brow crinkled. If you say no she’s going to skip her own party and come here. Kara quirks an eyebrow at her fiancée, who sighs. I will… try to be ready by then. Though I can’t guarantee anything.

“She says she’ll do her best,” Kara paraphrases. Then she gets pinched and sighs. “Though she doesn’t guarantee anything, and I’m not going to let you skip your own party.”

Ruby squeaks and Kara is pretty sure she hears something break wherever Ruby is before she quickly tells Kara and her fiancée to stay safe and hangs up.

When they return to the apartment, Kara loads up the dishwasher and regards her :zhao with a critical eye.

Shouldn’t you be going to get the bracelet… materials? Or… equipment? The woman’s brow crinkles, and Kara feels her wondering how exactly they’re going to ‘make’ the golden bracelets she’s so often seen in Kara’s memories.

“Oh I will,” Kara says easily, walking closer. “But, before we officially wed, I need to uphold my vows, don’t you think?”

Vows? Her fiancée won’t meet her eyes.

“Yes, baby girl, my vows.” Kara leans down and cups the woman’s face, turning her head until their eyes meet. “Me making them before we got engaged doesn’t make them any less important.” Kara presses a chaste kiss to her lips. “So, is there anything you want right now?”

It… it would make more sense to wait, the woman thinks weakly. You were right when you said I need to resume physical therapy—

“Tomorrow,” Kara says firmly. “Just because you were unconscious for a week doesn’t mean you’re actually well-rested. Your body needs a little more time before it’s ready for exercise… physical or powers-related.”

Yes, darling, her fiancée thinks, and Kara knows she’s resisting the urge to roll her eyes only because she can feel Kara’s care and concern for her. Kara’s thumb starts stroking her cheek and she finally caves. I would… appreciate having a bath. I can tell it’s been a few days and I knew you were too exhausted last night…

“I was,” Kara agrees, scooping her fiancée into her arms. “I barely got through my own shower, there was no way I had enough energy left to give you the attention you deserve.”

Her fiancée blushes. I am strong enough to bathe myself now, if I need to. I mean, I can, I just… Her hand clenches at her shirt. I don’t want to see… the scars. Or even… brush against them, accidentally. I’m sorry.

“Nothing to apologize for,” Kara says. She sets her down in the bathroom, and kisses both of her cheeks when she immediately closes her eyes before Kara undresses her. “I like taking care of people, remember? I especially like taking care of you,” she adds absently, setting the woman in the tub and adjusting the water temperature without needing to check in, her mind focusing on her fiancée’s body as it is now used to doing from the past week. “And I’m sorry that it’s been a few days… I was getting kind of, uh, mentally hazy from lack of sleep and I didn’t wanna risk hurting you if I didn’t regulate my strength well enough.” Kara pours a generous amount of soap into the tub before grabbing the shower head and soaking the woman’s hair. Once Kara turns the faucet off, the tub now full of hot, sudsy water, the woman settles in, bubbles tickling her nose as Kara begins massaging shampoo into her scalp. “Thanks for waiting so long, baby girl.”

I know you enjoy, uh, doing this, her fiancée thinks, a blush dusting her cheeks. I can feel it, how… happy you are when you take care of me, especially in ways that you know I enjoy. If you didn’t like it I… would probably have started trying to bathe myself by now… eyes closed the whole time, admittedly.

Kara doesn’t say anything, just continues to let herself feel their shared contentment as she begins to wash the woman’s face with gentle swipes of the cloth, giving her fiancée the time she needs to continue.

It’s probably not a surprise, considering who exactly had me in the ‘evil lair’, she says awhile later, once Kara has finished carefully cleaning the scar over her heart. But I’m definitely not someone who is… used to being treated… like this. At the confusion Kara can’t help but feel she explains. Cared for, pampered, loved, cherished, et cetera. Her blush deepens as Kara kisses her forehead. I know… I know had people in my life who loved me— not romantically, darling— I can remember missing them, but I… I don’t think I ever let them ‘take care of me’, if that makes sense. I obviously wouldn’t have needed quite the… level of care I currently do… but I don’t think I even let them do little things that they wanted to.

Green eyes open and meet Kara’s, and she can see and feel the weariness in them.

If… when, I remember, and my… real family, friends, whatever are still waiting for me… still wanting me… I think they’re going to be pissed.

Kara finally can’t stay quiet at that. “Baby girl, they are going to be ecstatic and relieved and so, so happy to see you again.”

All that too, the woman thinks, eyes closing. But I can remember how guilty I felt before, and I know that the reason I was expecting to be found had more to do with… whoever it is that I knew would be looking, not… I never let them in, Kara. I made plans for if I was caught, but all the things I did after were spontaneous, because I knew someone was going to come looking for me and… I was already so ashamed at failing to stay with them that I couldn’t bear to think I’d fail again by letting them find me too late.

Kara kisses the tears slipping down the woman’s face. “You’re still alive, you’re still here. You’ll remember them and we’ll find them, I promise.”

What if I’m… not who they want anymore?

Kara’s brow crinkles and she frowns even as she goes back to cleaning the woman. “What do you mean, baby?”

I don’t even know how long I was gone… at least three years, maybe longer. The only reason I don’t have night terrors from that is that I always slip into your mind when I’m sleeping. The… trauma is still there. And I’ve killed people now, I… I don’t think I’d done that before. I… hope I hadn’t, at least. I have… ridiculous powers that I can barely control, I don’t even know if I’ll be able to handle anyone but you touching me anytime soon, I… I’ve changed. The woman’s breath catches on a sob and Kara can feel her fear and doubt battering against her mind. Even when I remember everything I’ll still be broken.

Kara can’t stop the spike of anger she feels at that and she drops her cloth, moving to hover over the tub and cupping her hands gently but firmly around the forlorn face of her fiancée. “Look at me, baby girl. Now.” Heartbroken green eyes meet hers and Kara’s anger grows. “You are not broken. No, listen to me. You aren’t. You were hurt, and fucking tortured, and they tried to break you every chance they got and they failed. Because you survived, and you’re still you, memories or no. They couldn’t break you, if they had you wouldn’t have sabotaged their lair, or the portal watch thing, or saved yourself as soon as you had a chance. You’ve been fighting since they took you and winning every goddamn time. You kept your heart, you gave yourself impossible powers to stay alive, you helped me find you and even then you saved yourself. You are not broken, you are brave and strong and brilliant.”

Her fiancée still does not believe her, can think only of all she cannot do now, I’m broken playing like a mantra in her head.

Kara clenches her jaw and struggles to push down her anger, able to clearly hear all the negative thoughts her precious :zhao is having about herself. She can barely stand to listen to them… and then she pauses, replays that thought, and her anger briefly turns toward herself before it vanishes, because whether or not she agrees, her :zhao thinks she’s broken and that’s what matters right now.

So Kara quits denying it, lets her litany of refusals and arguments fade, and instead she listens, delving deeper and deeper into her :zhao’s mind until she’s seen it all— all the worries and fears and memories and the gaping holes where memories should be, all the ingrained beliefs of ‘I’m not good enough, I’m not enough’, all the new fears about her powers and how she’s changed. Kara sees it all and embraces it and when she opens her eyes her :zhao is no longer crying, her mind is calm, her eyes still sad and full of weariness that belies her years.

“Okay,” Kara whispers. “I love you. You’re broken and I love you. And they will too.” Her fiancée tries to shake her head but Kara doesn’t release her face, doesn’t let her look away. “Do you love me?”

Yes.

“Then you know that it’s possible to love someone who’s broken.”

You aren’t broken, Kara. I—

“No, I listened to you, so now it’s your turn.” Kara presses her forehead to her baby girl’s and lets herself remember the things she hasn’t let herself think of in the past few months.

A year before Krypton’s death, her mother has her call her aunt who’s supposedly off on a mission for the Military Guild. Kara knows something is wrong but calls her anyway, and Astra shows up immediately. Her mother, then, looking at her aunt so coldly, and Astra seeming afraid, and neither of them willing to tell Kara what’s going on. So she runs to her room already crying and never sees her aunt again, her only news of her found from hacking Fort Rozz’s prisoner files, and she spends her last year with her parents hating them for taking Astra away, and hating herself for helping them do it.

Krypton shaking around her as her parents usher her into a hidden room and tell her she’s being sent to Earth, that she’ll survive and carry their legacy and care for her baby cousin there. Kara’s rage at all of that, how she screams and cries and begs to stay with them until the end, how when they begin forcing her into the pod her rage turns to them and she blames them for Krypton’s demise and swears she won’t look after the baby, that she hates them and will never forgive them for sending Astra and now her away.

Days, years, decades later, laying in her pod, lucid and freezing as the phantoms below force her to relive Krypton’s death over and over again and Kara switches between hating her parents and hating herself all the while.

Landing on Earth to find the baby she’d sworn she wouldn’t raise (but knew she still would have) already grown and not wanting anything to do with her, and looking so much like her father’s brother that just seeing him makes her shake with fear and rage. Hating him so much her eyes burn blue with her new powers because he got to Earth safely, got to spend his whole life with a loving family on a living planet, and now flies around wearing her family crest despite having no memories of Krypton or inclination to hear hers.

Hating the Danvers because Eliza is trying so hard to be understanding but how can she possibly understand, and Jeremiah is doing his best to be a father to her but she already had a father and he’s gone. Hating Alex but being secretly relieved because at least this person hates her back, and fighting with her is the only time Kara feels almost normal.

All of the hatred towards anyone and everyone eventually fading with the Danvers’ help, with Eliza’s care and Alex’s new determination to protect her little sister. But that just leaves anger, directed mostly at herself, and beneath that an endless sadness for all she’s lost and will never regain. How for years after that she’s almost okay, almost feels like herself again.

Then she gets infected with red kryptonite.

The hatred comes back but now it’s directed at literally everyone. She hates herself still and yet hates humans more, even her family and friends. Hates them for things she has long forgiven, hates them for their frailty and their ignorance, for the fact that their lives are so short they’ll inevitably leave her. She’s stronger than humans, smarter than humans, and will live far, far longer. She is above them, she is a goddess among them, and they should fall to their knees, worship this goddess who deigns to save their pitiful lives with her fearsome powers.

And then the Red K is gone but the memories remain, and Kara knows she’ll never be herself again, never feel normal or at ease. Because the hatred is still there, all the anger and darkness she’s struggled for years to unravel, and she hadn’t even realized she literally has a god complex, so now she has to deal with that too.

Kara stops then, returns to herself and her present, hovering above the cooling water and cradling her :zhao’s face to her own. She’s breathing heavily, and now it’s her who wants to look away, but she doesn’t. She looks into the eyes she loves, wide and shocked and locked onto her own, and manages a tremulous smile. “We’re both broken,” Kara says, voice wobbly. “And that’s okay.” I hope, she can’t help but think.

That’s… okay, the woman echoes. Her eyes search Kara’s face for a moment and then her tension drains away and she slumps against the tub. Kara releases her hold as she does and is surprised when a warm hand catches one of hers, brings it to the woman’s lips. Khap :zhao rrip, she thinks, kissing the back of Kara’s hand. She sends all of her love for her into Kara and now Kara slumps with relief, her head falling forward to hide her tears.

Kara’s fiancée doesn’t say anymore, instead ensuring Kara feels all that she does— her love, understanding, acceptance.

Once she can tell Kara is calmer she releases her hand, her eyes slipping closed. Now that we’re both done dancing with the skeletons in our closets, let’s get this bath over with before the water gets any chillier. You have some bracelet-making supplies to fetch, after all. She infuses her mental voice with a haughtiness she doesn’t actually feel and Kara laughs, resettling by the tub and continuing to bathe her.

Neither of them speak again until Kara has her fiancée dried off, moisturized, and bundled up in her old NCU sweatshirt, and all Kara can think to say is, “Thank you, baby girl,” as she slips her fuzziest socks on the woman’s feet, using her kneeling position to hide her blush even though she knows her :zhao can feel it.

Thank you for sharing it with me, her fiancée replies, reaching down and tugging at Kara until she stands and kisses her. I know how hard it was for you. Thank you for trusting me with… all of you.

“Always,” Kara whispers, inches from her fiancée’s lips. She pulls away then, but drapes her cape around her :zhao just in case. “I’m going to head to the Fortress. I’ll be back soon.”

Fly safely, the woman thinks to her, and Kara promises to do so before heading out. She almost breaks that promise, however, when she leaves city limits and her fiancée sends her one last farewell thought: And darling? Once I’m able I’ll fall to my knees and worship you anytime you want.

“Fucking hell,” Kara swears, pulling out of her abrupt nosedive and feeling her fiancée’s laughter a city away. “Now who’s the tease?”

Still you, my love. Though we should add ‘swearing’ to the list of my bad habits you’ve picked up.

As she flies to the Fortress of Solitude, Kara feels a vague unease… she lets her mental shield fall into place and pokes at this odd feeling within her, and… it’s because her :zhao thanked her for sharing ‘all’ of herself with her, and… something tells Kara she hasn’t. Her brow crinkles and she flies a bit faster, trying and failing to remember what it is she must be forgetting, a dull ache starting at the base of her skull already—

Kara? Her fiancée’s voice is hesitant, though still clear despite the distance between them, Kara already flying over frozen tundra. Her headache vanishes, and her musings along with it, her mental shield falling away a moment later.

“What’s up?” Kara asks, her words immediately stolen by the wind, not that it matters when her fiancée is a badass telepath.

Yes, yes, my love, her fiancée thinks, and Kara can feel her grinning. Her amusement fades, and Kara can feel her apprehension. Can you hear anyone around you?

“No? Why?” The only signs of life Kara hears are the few animals that somehow call this place home. “Can you sense someone around?”

Maybe? I’m not sure… if someone is nearby, they’re keeping up with you somehow. I… could be wrong though.

They both know the odds of that aren’t high, and Kara starts flying even faster. Do you sense any… malice or anything?

No, her fiancée decides. And I… may have sensed them before. When I killed Corben.

Excuse you, that’s a ‘we’ baby girl, Kara corrects. We both killed him.

Kara feels her fiancée rolling her eyes. Fine, when ‘we’ killed Corben. I sensed… someone who seemed both familiar and not. They were feeling… relieved and afraid, for some reason.

Neither of them are sure what to make of this, especially given that whoever is tailing Kara can both keep up with her physically and mentally evade her fiancée.

Well there’s nothing we can do right now, Kara decides, and as long as they aren’t about to attack or anything it may be fine? Can you… share what you felt?

Her fiancée sends her what she’d sensed, then, and Kara… relaxes. She isn’t able to feel more than her fiancée did, just a blip of awareness somewhere nearby, but it makes her feel… safe, for some reason.

This may not make sense, Kara thinks, but I think whoever it is wants to protect me? They’ve probably been following me since we killed Corben, it’s just that you weren’t, uh, able to sense it til now.

I still don’t like it, her fiancée thinks, but she also doesn’t have a plan yet, not when neither of them can sense exactly where the person following Kara is. Be safe, my love.

I will, Kara says, and smiles. I’ll be back soon, :zhao.

She pauses when she gets to the Fortress, hovering in place and head tilting as she lets her mind speed ahead, running through what she wants the bracelets to do and how she should go about having them do it, considering the ingredients she’ll have and if she’ll need any more. When she blinks back into herself, happy to realize that everything she needs should be in the same lab as the key bracelet-making ingredients, her :zhao is feeling mildly annoyed.

Why the fuck can you think so fast? She grumbles. And even though I saw it all too I couldn’t make sense of most of it since you didn’t give me an explanation. Her fiancée is pouting now, and Kara does her best not to laugh as she heads towards the pretentious key they use to open the Fortress… which is one of the many reasons she does not consider it a secure facility, given that she and her cousin are not the only beings on Earth with so-called super strength. My love, if the Fortress of Solitude isn’t secure then where is? Her fiancée drawls.

“My closet, at this point,” Kara mutters, lifting the enormous golden key easily. She hears her :zhao’s thought, then, that all Kara has in her closet aside from clothes are a bunch of purses she never seems to use, and Kara winces even as she turns the key in the Fortress’ lock. “Yeah maybe don’t touch any of those,” she says, frowning when she feels her companion’s immediate curiosity and urge to do just that. “I can tell you later, but some of them, uh, should not be opened. Ever.”

Kara very nearly tosses the key back to where it goes… okay, actually she does and then zips over to catch it just before she accidentally sets off an earthquake or something, and her :zhao drops the purse subject. When Kara opens the massive door to the Fortress, however, her fiancée is suddenly very keen on something.

“The key weighs a lot more than the door, you know,” Kara drawls, zipping inside only long enough to grab what she needs before zipping back out, more wary of running into her cousin than facing her stalker, much to her fiancée’s amusement.

I’m sure it does, my love, but it’s merely the size of a car. Seeing you easily move something larger than some of the shorter buildings in this city, well… Her fiancée licks her lips and Kara’s whole body flushes at what her baby girl is currently feeling.

By the time Kara returns to her apartment she has cooled off, though whether it was the long flight or the few minutes she buried herself in a snowbank near the Fortress she doesn’t know.

That was ridiculous, her fiancée comments, looking up from where she’s perched on the couch, laptop out as she scrolls through more notes on a new hard drive.

“But necessary,” Kara counters.

A single eyebrow arches at that and Kara leans down, kissing her a bit less chastely than she’d planned. When they part her fiancée’s face is flushed. Unless you brought some snow for me to dramatically dive into, I suggest we get on with it.

“It wasn’t that dramatic.”

Darling, you did at least a solid minute of aerial acrobatics just to make sure I was paying attention.

“Between what you said on my way there and what you were feeling, it was justified,” Kara mumbles, flushing.

Now both eyebrows near her hairline. At least I didn’t send you mental images of anything.

Kara winces. “Okay, fair enough. I’ll only tease you verbally from now on.”

Or we could just… not tease each other.

“But your reactions are so adorable,” Kara says, and yelps when she’s hit with the memory of icy fingers pinching her side. “Rao, your fingers haven’t been that cold for like a month, baby girl, that is so cheating.”

Are we going to get married today or not, Miss Danvers?

“I figured we’d do that after lunch,” Kara says, wincing. She feels her fiancée’s disbelief and crosses her arms defensively. “I did a lot of flying!”

So long as you aren’t getting cold feet, I suppose. The woman purses her lips and Kara feels her presence in her mind flicker, unable to decide if it wants to look deeper or stay in the areas Kara typically allows for it.

Kara raises a single eyebrow. “Lunch, baby girl. We’re both hungry, and that was part of my vows as well, if you recall.” She can still feel uncertainty coming from her fiancée so once she’s closed her laptop and placed it on the coffee table Kara scoops her up, cradling her in her arms as she floats them over to the kitchen. Instead of setting her down as she obviously expects, Kara sits her on the counter and slots herself between her thighs. She wraps one arm around her waist and uses her other hand to tilt her fiancée’s head down, just enough that she can press their foreheads together.

You’ve been keeping yourself tucked away to give me privacy, Kara thinks to her. You don’t have to. All of me is yours, :zhao. Kara opens her mind, then, and lets her fiancée’s presence flood into her in a way her companion has never allowed herself before. I love you, I want to marry you, I am going to marry you, today. First, though, we are going to eat, because I am never going to let you go hungry again. Kara winces. Ideally that means actual food and not just my energy, sorry about that. Kara pulls away but continues to let her fiancée have free reign in her mind, smiling to herself as she begins to make lunch. Plus, making bracelets is not a process we should rush, especially with what I’m planning, and I will definitely be tempted to if I don’t eat first.

While Kara prepares lunch her fiancée stays on the counter, seeing the world entirely through Kara’s eyes, and every time Kara looks over at her she feels Kara’s rush of affection. For the first time since Kara brought her home, her companion sees herself and doesn’t flinch, doesn’t feel a rush of negative emotions. She can’t, not when Kara is looking at her with nothing but warmth… that surges even stronger when she feels what her fiancée is feeling.

Kara, a large bowl of stew of in one hand, walks over and scoops her fiancée up with her free arm before heading to the couch, settling the last part of their lunch on the coffee table and sitting down, tucking her :zhao under one arm. When she notices the woman doesn’t seem inclined to come back to herself enough to eat she presses a kiss to her cheek and alternates between feeding her and herself, starting first with the more flavorful things she’s made for them and then sharing the stew with the woman. Once all the food is gone and Kara has set the bowl on the table she moves them so her back is against the arm of the couch and her fiancée is cradled between her legs. She slips a hand under her shirt and rubs soothing patterns into the soft skin of her stomach, beginning to send her energy into her as she does. Kara lets all of her senses focus on her :zhao, quickly assessing her health before narrowing her focus to just her heartbeat and letting it drown out the rest of the world…

It’s early evening when they both finally resurface, Kara blinking dazedly back into herself and the woman in her arms doing the same.

It is… still Sunday, correct? Her fiancée asks, uncertain.

Kara has to think a moment to respond. “Neither of us are hungry so it must be.” She holds her hand up and her fiancée easily pulls her phone from her bag by the door and floats it into Kara’s hand. Kara drops a kiss to her head in thanks and checks the time. “I think we just checked out of reality for at least two hours.”

If we do that again, her fiancée starts, then smirks when she feels Kara’s feelings mirror her own. When we do that again, she corrects, we need to set an alarm.

“Definitely,” Kara agrees, then realizes something. “Your presence in my mind is a lot more… comfortable now. Settled in, kinda.” She nuzzles the dark hair in front of her. “Good job, baby girl.”

I didn’t exactly do anything. I just… was along for the ride. Her fiancée frowns, thoughtful. I think I’m beginning to understand why you kept having me ‘pilot’ your body. Though in this case it was more akin to you… guiding my mind, in a way.

“It’s both fascinating and peaceful,” Kara says with a nod. “As long as it’s you, that is.”

A comfortable quiet descends on them, both lost in each other’s thoughts, before her fiancée remembers something. I sort of understand the process now, my love, and if you want to exchange bracelets at sunset we should get started sooner rather than later.

“Rao, you’re right,” Kara says, straightening. She slips off the couch and tidies their dinnerware with a bit of super speed, then picks up the coffee table with one hand and moves it to the side, mindful of the cartoon spaceship rock adorning its center. “So if you saw enough to know the process did I accidentally ruin the surprise?”

A single eyebrow arches in question. What surprise, darling?

Kara does a fair impression of her fiancée’s wicked smirk. “This one,” she purrs, pulling what looks like a red-gold marble from her pocket. She drops it where the coffee table used to be and stares unabashedly at her fiancée’s face as the marble stops midair, glows, and then expands, unfurling itself into a small bank of lab equipment and devices. The only thing Kara can call what her fiancée feels then is hunger. She wants to know how the marble works, what the machines are, how they work, all of it.

“You’re such a nerd,” Kara says happily, unable to stop her proud smile. “My parents... and, uh, aunt... would have loved you.” Her brow crinkles even as she feels her fiancée preen at that before a rush of impatience makes Kara roll her eyes fondly, her momentary confusion falling away. “Yes, yes, :zhao, we’ll get on with it.” Kara begins to gather all the things they’ll need from the cabinets below the workstation.

First, she pulls out a lumpy golden rock a bit larger than her fist, holding it up to her fiancée with a proud smile. “This is the main material for the bracelets, partly due to its adaptability and partly due to its only being found Krypton. And this,” Kara fishes out a small red stone that fits perfectly in the palm of her hand, and for some reason just seeing it makes her instinctively raise a mental shield long enough to hide the lightning bolt of pain in her mind, “is a stone that has been imbued with Rao’s light and power, which we’ll use to forge the bracelets.” She grabs a small bottle filled with a glowing blue liquid. “This is the catalyst needed for the stone to release Rao’s flame, and these,” she pulls out a tray of several vials filled with everything from clear liquids to dark bubbling sludge, “are the ingredients for our bracelets’… modifications.”

Details, darling, her fiancée thinks, and Kara can feel her excitement.

“Okay, okay, baby girl,” Kara says with a laugh before launching into an explanation of the items’ names, makeups, histories, and uses. Her fiancée listens with rapt attention, and Kara can feel her :zhao watching her memories in her mind even as she talks. “Now, as for the equipment we’ll need—“ Kara floats over the top of the work station and begins moving items around. “We’ll be using this for the main forging process,” she places a fishbowl-like object with a large opening in the top and a small opening at the bottom in the center of the table and places the red stone in the cradle beneath the lower opening. “And this,” Kara says, grabbing something that looks like a spherical toolbox from a shelf, “is how we’ll mix the modification ingredients.” She places it by the first tool and then darts back around and rustles through a drawer. “And… aha, here it is!” A pen-like tool made of the same gold material from earlier but with a glowing red tip is pulled out and placed on the other side of the fishbowl, “is for writing our vows on the outer band of the bracelets.”

My love, her fiancée pleads.

Kara presses a quick kiss to her fiancée’s pouting lips before pulling away and bringing up all her memories of the equipment in the workstation, and not just the pieces they’ll be using today. When she’s done her fiancée is staring at her with wide eyes.

You almost turned Argo City into a crater, her fiancée thinks, and Kara can feel the amusement and concern warring within her. And you were six years old.

Kara pouts. “Look, if they didn’t want a child having access to volatile materials they shouldn’t have brought me to that lab, much less left me alone.”

Your father left for maybe ten minutes, her fiancée starts, shaking her head. And those ‘volatile materials’ were locked up in a storage bay clearly marked as hazardous.

“Does it really count as being locked up when the password is on a sign nearby?”

When that password is a theorem that only the upper echelon of the Science Guild should have been able to solve, then yes, darling, it does. Her fiancée purses her lips to keep from smiling. And you were calling me a smartypants.

“We can both wear the smartypants in this relationship,” Kara quips.

Her companion hums and stands, walking over to Kara and wrapping her arms around her. She draws her into a kiss and deepens it immediately, pressing her body against Kara’s and only pulling away when Kara does, knowing her fiancée needs a moment to breathe.

“Are my science skills turning you on?” Kara asks, unable to keep the amusement from her voice.

Shut up and marry me already, her fiancée thinks, pressing a soft kiss to the corner of Kara’s mouth to gentle her words. You insufferable tease.

“Takes one to know one,” Kara says, tilting her face down to press a kiss to her fiancée’s temple. “Now, shall we make some magic?”

Is… magic real? She’s stolen Kara’s crinkle again, and Kara can feel her sudden trepidation.

“Uh, it depends on your definition?” Kara shifts foot to foot. “But we’re kinda on a time crunch right now so...”

Her fiancée glares at her. Fine, she finally thinks, now stealing Kara’s pout. On with the non-magic bracelet-making.

“I mean some of it may count, honestly,” Kara mutters, and is startled to feel warm fingers pinch her side. Her fiancée is pouting harder now. “Uh, sorry, I’ll explain later?”

Damn straight.

“I don’t know if those are the best words for what we’re currently doing,” Kara muses, floating herself and her fiancée around to the front of the table before the woman can pinch her again. “Now, shall we begin?”

Her fiancée’s presence in her mind expands then, not nearly to the point it had when they’d lost a few hours earlier that day but enough that she can easily anticipate and understand what Kara is doing and do what Kara needs her to do to help.

They start with mixing the modification ingredients, using small droppers and spoons and at one point some of her fiancée’s telekinesis to drop the materials into the side compartments of the toolbox, and both watch with bated breath as the machine rumbles and whirs before the main compartment opens and gives them their new ingredients: an opaque red orb of liquid that Kara quickly scoops into a beaker, a clump of silver paste that her fiancée levitates onto a small cloth, and what Kara assures her is another clump of paste that her fiancée can only see to move when she looks through Kara’s eyes.

What is all of this for? Her fiancée asks, her annoyance at not even being able to see one of the ingredients with her own eyes prickling at Kara’s mind.

Kara hums innocently. “You’ll see soon enough.” She graciously accepts the pinch she gets for that and grabs the glowing blue liquid, handing it to her fiancée. “Normally I would have to do this part but I think you can do it without blowing us up.”

Her fiancée’s eyes widen as Kara sends her some very specific memories but after blinking at the catalyst for a moment her mouth sets in a determined line and she pops the small bottle open. She forgoes the droppers and other tools and instead levitates the exact amount they need out of the bottle, sending it through the top and then bottom of the fishbowl in a thin stream and dousing the red rock with it. As soon as it makes contact the rock ignites, and once all of the catalyst is gone the flame has grown and filled the bowl. Kara takes the bottle back and seals it tightly, grinning proudly at how precisely her baby girl measured out and applied the catalyst with her telekinesis.

Kara does the next part since it’s a little… closer to the flames than she wants her companion to be this early on. She picks up the golden rock and places it to her forehead for a moment, sending a prayer of gratitude to Rao, then holds it to her fiancée’s forehead as she does the same. Next she drops the large rock into the flames still filling the fishbowl and they both gasp as the rock melts to a liquid gold in a matter of seconds, swirling in lazy circles within the red flames.

It’s beautiful, her fiancée thinks and Kara can only nod mutely in agreement, though for some reason seeing… circles within Rao’s flames makes her head start to hurt, thankfully though it’s just a dull throb, easy enough to shield from her companion.

Kara is pulled from her stupor by a soft kiss to her cheek and she murmurs a quick, “Oops, thanks baby,” before reaching into a drawer and pulling out a chunky box. When Kara pulls the glowing green blade from it her fiancée flinches, but sensing what Kara needs she holds her hand over the flames as Kara does the same. With a quick flick of the kryptonite knife both of their palms well with blood, and as one they turn their hands so the blood drips into the flames. Kara uses her free hand to put the knife back in its protective box and shove the drawer closed, focusing on the steady drip of her blood into the flames as her palm burns.

Kara knows the only reason her fiancée doesn’t yank her hand away when the flames reach for them is that she had already felt Kara anticipating it, and when the red fire curls around their hands from fingertips to wrists they both can’t help but relax. The pain in their palms fades, even the burn of the kryptonite is gone, and when the flame recedes and they pull their hands back the wounds have closed without a trace.

I’m sorry it can’t do anything for old scars, Kara thinks then, not wanting to let her fiancée ponder it too long. It can only heal that which is wounded while it burns.

I know, her fiancée thinks back, wistful. I could… tell, somehow.

The golden liquid swirls faster within the flames now, and two somber sets of eyes watch as the blood seeps into the gold, giving it a red tinge only enhanced by the fire. After a moment, Kara picks up the beaker of opaque red liquid and slowly tips it over the flames. It gathers in the center of the swirling red-gold in a perfect orb once more, and when the last drop joins it the burning liquid changes course, flying through the orb now, round and round as the orb grows ever smaller until none is left. Then the red-gold splinters and scatters, turns into smaller and smaller bubbles of red-gold until they’re only visible through Kara’s eyes, vibrating in place a moment before rejoining and once again swirling lazily in a large ring.

“That should allow the bracelets to change size,” Kara murmurs. “Now, for the magic.”

All of that wasn’t the magic? The thought is incredulous.

Though her fiancée was able to understand the process through Kara’s mind, Kara supposes it would seem like magic since she has yet to teach her the science behind the science… behind the science behind the—

Okay I get it I’m thousands of years behind, her fiancée drawls. She narrows her eyes when she hears Kara’s next thought. Tens of thousands then, for fuck’s sake.

Kara smirks and grabs her fiancée’s hand, holding their clasped hands over the fire and gold in the fishbowl. The tips of the flames lick at their hands, and Kara feels as the fire heeds their wills, splitting the golden-red liquid evenly into two swirling circles, separate but both still wreathed in Rao’s red flame.

They keep their hands clasped above it all as Kara drops in first the silver and then the clear paste, and both of them watch as the flames carefully cradle each of the pastes before taking them to their respective bracelets, and as her fiancée watches through Kara’s eyes the flames coat both of the still molten circlets with the final ingredients, which shimmer and sink into the liquid gold.

Kara whispers another quiet prayer in Kryptonian which her fiancée echoes mentally, and the flames brighten, tickling their hands in farewell as the molten red-gold circlets solidify into two identical bracelets, the flat bands thick and sturdy and shining even in the dim lighting of Kara’s apartment. The flames trickle to nothing, but right before they sink into the rock two small wisps escape and fade into the bracelets, which begin to fall to the bottom of the bowl.

Kara catches them both in her free hand, holds them awhile until they’re cool, her other hand still firmly grasping her fiancée’s. When she’s deemed them cool enough she hands one of the bracelets to her, finally releasing her hand and picking up the stylus tool instead.

The shared vow they had already agreed on, though Kara’s fiancée watches from the recesses of her mind as she writes, determined to understand the Kryptonian words she knows will adorn her bracelet. Kara presses the tip of the pen against the outer band of the bracelet and writes in her mother tongue, My love to protect, to care for and to cherish, to trust forever and always.

She hands her fiancée the pen then, and after a moment of hesitation the woman writes the same vow on the bracelet she holds… also in Kryptonian, the foreign script written in neat if slightly wavy symbols.

“:Zhao,” Kara gasps, blue eyes wide and shiny. She kisses her fiancée then, slow and reverent, and only breaks away because she knows the sun will be setting soon.

They pack up the lab swiftly, Kara leaving the marble on the resettled coffee table before scooping her fiancée into her arms and heading up to the garden. She sets her down in the center of the clover field, and as the sun sets, hue turning a red that makes Kara and now even her fiancée ache with nostalgia for a planet long dead, they slip their bracelets onto the other’s wrists, the still-warm metal snug and heavy against their skin.

Khap :zhao rrip, they both think to each other, and Kara draws her wife close against her, tilting her head up and kissing her until long past the red and pink and gold of the sunset fades.

Chapter Text

Monday morning comes and when her wife wakes her as usual Kara just burrows closer. “What happened to Earth honeymoons?” Kara mumbles into silky black hair.

I believe that would require people knowing we’re married, her wife thinks, amused. She begins carding a hand through Kara’s hair, and Kara can somehow feel her eyes narrow when she notices Kara turn away to avoid seeing the golden strands. And regardless, you’d still need to go use the sun bed at the DEO. So, up you get, my love.

Kara pulls away, pout firmly in place. “I don’t wanna, I just wanna stay here with you.”

Her wife softens and places a chaste kiss to Kara’s lips. I know, but the world needs Kara Danvers. And Supergirl, I suppose.

“I think you have that backwards,” Kara mutters.

I don’t think I do. Her wife kisses her cheeks, her forehead, the tip of her nose. Now go show your sister you’re still among the living while I get more beauty sleep.

“Is she already worried this early?”

She’s been up for a few hours now, her wife thinks with a frown. We mandated that one of them take Ruby to school, not be there when she wakes, so Alex and Sam apparently decided that’s a loophole and they’re both waiting for you at the DEO already.

Kara groans and finally rolls out of bed, tucking her cape around her wife in a move that’s more habit than anything else. “Fine, :zhao, I shall brave the cold, cruel world so that I may return to you full of sunlight once more.” She heaves an exaggerated sigh as her wife rolls her eyes, then bends to kiss her one more time. “Khap :zhao rrip, try to get some more rest.”

I will, now go. I think you gave me more energy than usual last night. Her wife goes to push her gently but pauses when she sees her bracelet peeking out from under her sleeve. Uh, actually don’t go just yet.

“Oof, that would have been… an awkward way to reveal that,” Kara mumbles. She raises her wrist and clinks her bracelet against her wife’s, and the gold circlets shiver a moment before changing, Kara’s vanishing and her wife’s turning silver.

Now her wife is pouting. I don’t see why mine also needs a disguise. Nor why they have to be disguised simultaneously.

“Equal in all things,” Kara says absently. “Luckily there’s some wiggle room on the exact nature of that.” She traces her fingertips along her bracelet then, glad she can at least still feel its heft. “Invisibility since… everyone in my life knows I’d only wear a bracelet for one reason,” Kara blushes, “and silver for you so should you be in the public eye any aliens or, uh, Krypton-savvy humans won’t know you’re married to a Super.”

Her wife’s nose wrinkles then. I know he’s your cousin but please keep in mind that I maintain my hatred of all but one reporter.

Kara snorts. “Fair.”

Now go, darling. Fly safe. Her wife grabs the back of her hand and presses a kiss to it. Khap :zhao rrip.

Kara returns the surge of love she’s sent before heading out, flying her usual covert route to the DEO to avoid being spotted by anyone since Supergirl is still officially MIA. Her wife informs her that she is once again being followed, but at such a distance that neither of them are able to pinpoint her stalker, especially in a crowded city.

She slips into the DEO unencumbered and is surprised that her sister and sister-in-law give her a whole half hour before pouncing, though her wife points out they likely don’t know if she’ll be coherent until she’s had time to sunbathe, which… is fair, after last week.

“So,” Alex begins, pacing along the side of the sun bed Kara is still laying in. “You agreed to us hanging out on Sunday.”

“Yes,” Kara says tiredly. Her wife has decided the best way to let her know just how anxious her sister is is to share that anxiety with her. Kara is amazed Alex has the energy to pace with how fast her brain is racing right now.

“Is your… girlfriend coming?” Alex’s pacing is halted by Sam, who appears beside her and grabs her hand. “It’s… fine, if she is,” Alex says. “Just, I mean, I— we should meet her. Soon. Y’know. Since you’re dating.”

Now would not be a good time to tell her you’re my wife, Kara muses.

Kara feels her wife’s anxiety then. Maybe wait until I can actually meet her in person, her wife agrees.

“She can’t,” Kara says with a sigh. “She’ll be, uh, tagging along mentally but… she can’t really handle being around a lot of people right now.”

“Why not?” Sam asks, and she’s giving Kara that calculating look again.

Kara bites her lip and immediately releases it when Sam hones in on the action. “Uh, her powers are getting… stronger. It’s kinda like my super hearing but,” Kara’s brow crinkles, “worse, honestly. At least I can only hear what people are saying, she has to hear… everything they’re thinking. And she can feel their emotions. Plus, uh, certain things… make it worse.”

Alex tilts her head at her. “Like physical contact,” she guesses. “That’s why you aren’t as tactile as you used to be.”

Nia walks in then, a sparkle in her eyes. “Aha, so the CatCo rumor mill is more correct than usual— you are a germophobe, but like, mentally. That’s gotta suck.”

Please tell her it very much does, her wife thinks.

“She says to tell you it ‘very much does’,” Kara parrots, moving to a sitting position since this seems to have become a group conversation.

Brainy, trailing in behind Nia, frowns at Kara. “So we have just accepted that an unknown person now has access to the DEO through Supergirl? And has access to Supergirl’s mind?”

Kara squares her shoulders but a ghost of a pinch to her side has her slumping. “What? He started it.”

He is used to following protocol, her wife thinks. And he is protective of those he cares for. Please keep in mind how little he and Nia even know of our… situation.

Kara frowns. “Shit, you’re right.”

Everyone looks at her with wide eyes and she can feel her wife’s amusement.

“What now?” Kara whines.

“Since when do you cuss?” Nia asks, when even Alex is too busy gaping to form words.

“Uh… recently,” Kara shifts side to side. “Anyway, she pointed out that you all aren’t exactly, uh, up to speed.” Kara frowns at herself then, wondering when she started understanding and even using Earth idioms.

Also my fault, probably, her wife chimes in.

“Mm well that’s more useful than the profanity,” Kara says, then looks back at her friends. “Uh, right so…” Kara’s brow crinkles as she considers how much to tell them. Her wife just sends her a wave of trust and… permission. Your safety is and always will be my priority, Kara thinks to her before refocusing on the people arrayed around her. “I’ve known her for a few months now,” Kara starts, careful not to say exactly how many. Sam’s eyes narrow anyway. “She was in, uh, bad shape when I found her so I’ve been taking care of her, helping her regain her strength and all that. We also just, hang out a lot, and we cook meals together, and have movie nights…” Baby we’re doing a movie night tonight, Kara adds mentally, and smiles at the spark of happiness that receives. “She mostly slept at first, and neither of us realized I was sending her my energy until you guys figured it out.”

They still kind of doubt that it’s a conscious decision on your part, her wife says.

Kara frowns at her friends. “I am the one sending it, to be clear. It was admittedly something I was doing unconsciously, but once we knew what was up I started paying more attention while I slept and now I can control it. That’s how I was able to send it to her while I was in the sun bed last week. She was… even if she had been taking it she wouldn’t have been able to then…” Kara closes her eyes and lets her mind go to her apartment for a moment, feel her wife curled up in bed under her cape, her heart beating strong and her breaths coming evenly… “Wait are you asleep right now?”

I did tell you I send my mind to yours when I sleep, her wife says, a curl of embarrassment tickling Kara’s mind. It’s that or nightmares and I had enough of those last week.

“Fair,” Kara mumbles. She opens her eyes again and sees her friends watching her with odd expressions on their faces. “Uh, right, our mental connection has been growing stronger since we met, and at this point I generally know what she’s feeling, can hear her thoughts if I focus, and can kind of… send my mind to her body to check in on it. And she can send her mind to mine and follow me around the city, but she’s been able to do that for awhile, actually.”

“What exactly is she?” Brainy asks, and Kara has never seen such a fierce look on his face. “Mentally connecting to a Kryptonian should not be possible. And on the off chance your friend does not know, I am from the future. If I say it should not be possible, it should certainly not be possible this far in the past.”

Kara’s hand strays to her stomach and clenches at the fabric of her suit. Sam’s eyes follow it and her frown intensifies.

If you tell him I’m human he will not believe you, her wife cautions. Honestly I don’t think I count as human at this point anyway, at least not… biologically.

“She… was experimented on. A lot.” Kara forces her hand to unclench. “With a mix of alien minerals and DNA, from what we know.” No way in hell I’m telling them you started the experimenting, Kara adds wryly when she feels her wife’s annoyance. That can wait til they’ve learned to trust you. “She saved my life when I fought Corben,” Kara adds, “and Nia can vouch for that.”

Nia nods, a thoughtful frown on her face. “She knows martial arts. Why I had to remind you of that, however…”

“Uh, she…” Kara pauses, not wanting to lie to her friends at this point but not sure she should reveal just how bad her wife’s condition is at the moment. “Her…” She starts nibbling her lip.

“Tell us the truth or just say ‘no comment’,” Sam interrupts.

“No comment,” Kara blurts, and gives Nia an apologetic look when she sighs in defeat. “There are certain things I’d rather not get into right now, is all. Sorry.”

“Which one of you killed Corben?” Alex asks, eyes narrowed.

Your sister is a stubborn one, her wife thinks.

Kara arches a single eyebrow at that. Takes one to know one, she thinks back, grinning when her wife can’t help but agree.

“Earth to Kara,” Alex drawls.

“Uh, right… no comment,” Kara mumbles, and rolls her eyes when Alex smirks. “Like you wouldn’t have done the same.”

“Oh I would have,” Alex growls. “But not with your body.”

Kara bristles and glares at her sister. “I would have died if she hadn’t helped me, and helping me nearly fucking killed her, so drop it already.”

“How so?” Brainy asks.

Everyone remembers the week Kara was stumbling in and out of the sun bed, but that’s all they know. And Kara doesn’t want to remember, so slumps, eyes dropping to her knees. “I can’t say ‘no comment’ to this can I?” Kara mumbles, knowing this will probably the biggest point in her wife’s favor as far as her friends are concerned.

It’s probably the opposite of what they want right now but I could answer if you’d prefer, her wife thinks. Either by speaking into their minds or, ah, using you to speak. You trust them, so… I do too.

Kara almost wants to say no, but a larger part of her wants her wife to actually get to interact with her friends, even like this. Alright. Just don’t mention the evil lair or pancaking, or that you gave yourself the powers, or that they were geared towards Kryptonians. She feels her wife’s mild frustration. We may be able to tell them everything you want to someday, but not yet, Kara thinks, unable to help her worry. Her wife sends a wave of understanding and acceptance her way. And talk through me, Kara adds, knowing somehow that that will exhaust her wife less than projecting her voice into so many people’s minds so far from her own.

Kara wets her lips, glances up at her friends. “I’m saying no comment but if you want I can let her answer.”

Alex looks enraged at the mere suggestion but Sam steps forwards, eyes intense. “Go ahead,” Sam says, and now everyone is watching Kara.

All yours, baby girl, Kara thinks and slips back into her own mind as her wife takes the forefront.

Kara watches as her body straightens, and her legs, absently swinging, now cross daintily. She wants to laugh at that but has to settle for doing so mentally. Kara’s body rolls its eyes. “Oh shut up, this is how I sit.” Then her eyes widen. “I did not mean to say that aloud.”

Aw, our first words, Kara thinks, laughing again, her amusement only growing at the wide-eyed looks on her friends’ faces.

Her body blushes, and clears its throat. “My apologies, I am… not used to speaking this way. I have, as Kara puts it, ‘piloted’ her body a few times, but aside from the incident with Corben it was only for a few minutes and at her insistence,” Kara’s body glances at Alex. “I only tried to begin with because I have… data from the experiments done on me that suggested it was possible, and I was… curious.” Kara’s body blushes again and bites its bottom lip.

Sam is watching with rapt attention and her arms are crossed, her fingers digging into her biceps in a way that looks painful. Her focus makes Kara nervous.

Answer the question, baby girl, no need to ramble like me, Kara thinks to her wife.

“Right, that.” Kara’s back somehow straightens farther and now she stares at Brainy. “As for your question,” Kara’s body takes a deep breath. “When Kara realized the kryptonite beam was going to hit her she forced me out of her mind to protect me. She knew it would be painful and didn’t want me to have to experience it as well.” Her eyes narrow. “Which was foolish,” she adds.

It made sense at the time, Kara thinks softly. Now I know that you can help, and el mayarah, but then… all I could think was that I was going to hurt you despite promising to protect you.

Kara’s body juts its jaw out and her head raises. “I know, you did it for good reason, and I…” She looks to Alex then, a challenge in her gaze. “I forced my way back into Kara’s mind and got there in time to see Corben about to kill her.” Kara’s face sneers. “That pathetic little lapdog,” she mutters, and Kara feels a flash of memory that’s gone before either of them can grasp it. Kara’s head shakes. “None of you would have gotten there in time— I was present while Kara was holding him off before she was hit and the timing between blasts was growing shorter.” Kara’s brow crinkles. “He… may have blown up if things went on much longer. I don’t think the kryptonite in his chest was stable.” Kara’s body rolls its eyes. “Genius, my ass,” she mutters, thinking of her half-brother whose name they still don’t know, and Kara is pretty sure only Sam, having come closer now so that she’s a few feet from Kara, hears it, her eyes widening and looking oddly misty.

What’s Sam thinking right now? Kara thinks to her wife, concerned.

I don’t know, her wife thankfully manages to think back, I can’t read anyone else’s mind when I’m controlling your body. Aside from the super hearing it’s really quite peaceful.

My younger self would disagree, but fair enough. Keep going, baby. Kara tries to be quiet then, wanting to give her wife room to say whatever she wants her friends to know.

Kara’s body looks down, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “Kara was… severely injured, both from the kryptonite and the fall. I’m not capable of making her fly or even using her heat vision,” she frowns, “and from what little testing we’ve done I can only use telekinesis on things near my own body, except… if I’m manipulating Kara’s body I can use telekinesis on it as well. I was experiencing both her pain and my own at that point… backlash, I suppose, from overextending my powers, and that was just to get her body ready to move. I had to…” She trails off, swallows past the lump in her throat. “Hold her together and support her with telekinesis to actually maneuver her over to Corben. All while influencing his mind to make what should have been his killing blow miss and then hold him still. I could already tell my own body was feverish and in… a lot of pain before we even reached him, and maintaining control of Kara’s body even longer only caused my own to worsen. I’m… honestly surprised I woke up after only a week. I wasn’t expecting to wake up at all.”

Kara had known this, had felt it as it was happening, but still can’t stop the flash of hurt and rage she feels at the admission. But she pushes it away, and focuses on the new information instead. She hadn’t realized her wife had had to resort to using telekinesis. The one time she’d tried it on Kara’s body while piloting it she’d immediately snapped back into her own and gotten sick, so to do so for even longer, while influencing Corben’s mind and experiencing Kara’s reaction to kryptonite, and over a much farther distance…

Fuck, Kara thinks.

“Indeed,” Kara’s body mutters, and raises its head to look again at Nia. “I must have learned martial arts at some point before I was taken, but I don’t remember much from back then, and your text… brought me a feeling of nostalgia. That was likely something that needed to have already been triggered in order for me to use it in time in such a dire situation.” She turns to Alex, then, and raises her chin. “I killed Corben with Kara’s body because it was the only way to keep her safe. I was already being pulled back into my own and you all still weren’t close enough to stop him. That said,” Kara’s body purses its lips. “If I had been physically present I would have killed him regardless since he was trying to kill the woman I love.” She sniffs and turns away. “He also said some very rude things.”

Sam takes a deep, shuddering breath. “What did he say?”

Kara’s body stiffens. “It isn’t worth repeating.”

Sam opens her mouth, almost says something but closes it again. Then, “It would be helpful for me to know why exactly he felt the need to go on a rampage.”

Baby, it’s fine, Kara tries.

You weren’t aware enough to hear it and I don’t think you should have to, her wife thinks, annoyance spiking. He was a petty little man, and what he said doesn’t mean shit.

I’ve probably heard worse, Kara muses. Children are mean. And I don’t just mean those annoying ‘Children of Liberty’ terrorists from last year.

Kara’s body actually growls. “Regardless of the imbeciles you have had to deal with, I of all people should not subject you to that.” Her hand almost goes to her wrist, where they can both feel the weight of Kara’s invisible bracelet, but she places it on her stomach instead, clenching at the fabric of the super suit. When she hears it start to tear, she frowns. I’m making you a new suit once I have a lab, she thinks.

Pants! Kara yells mentally. Please baby I am so tired of this fucking skirt. Never let someone with a crush on you design your suit.

Kara’s body relaxes then, and a brow arches dangerously as she smirks. We’re literally married, my love, I think that ship has sailed.

Ugh, you know what I mean.

“Do I?” Kara’s body asks out loud, and blushes. “You’re blushing.”

You’re piloting my body, so you’re blushing, Kara thinks back petulantly, knowing full well the blush was caused by her own thoughts.

“Semantics, darling,” Kara’s body drawls.

Sam looks both amused and annoyed by their obvious distraction, but Alex steps up beside her and clears her throat. “Could you love birds please focus for one conversation?”

The blush staining Kara’s cheeks darkens at that and her eyes drop down. “My apologies, I wasn’t… able to actually speak with Kara until after I awoke from the incident with Corben.”

Kara has some choice words for her sister at daring to make her :zhao feel bad for talking to her, but her wife somehow manages to pinch her mentally and remind her that Alex couldn’t have known, and being left out of the conversation would be annoying. Kara is still planning to lecture Alex once she has her body back, and her body rolls its eyes at that.

“Wasn’t that like, not even three days ago?” Nia asks quietly.

“Yes,” Kara’s body says, and bites its bottom lip. “I… had to use a lot of my power to escape, more than I… more than was sustainable. Kara’s energy has greatly aided my recovery but it wasn’t until I once again used too much power that I made a… breakthrough, I suppose. Initially I had to communicate using hand signals, but I was able to send her my emotions and flashes of memory after a bit.” Her nose wrinkles. “Speaking mentally gets my intentions across much faster.”

Mm, you’re lucky I didn’t shave your head, Kara thinks, and her wife mentally pinches her again. Hey you threatened to shave mine too! She feels a bit of pride when her body, still being piloted by her wife, can’t help a small smile at that, and her wife sends her a quick tickle of gratitude.

Everyone is silent during their mental exchange but Sam eventually speaks, and her voice is oddly thick. “Why couldn’t you just talk to her… physically?”

Kara remembers the flash of memory her wife had accidentally shared with her and her hand flies down to the edge of the sun bed and clenches it so hard it crumples in her grasp. Her body looks down at the damage and tuts. “Really, darling, they’re going to think I can’t handle your powers.” She looks up and narrows her eyes at Alex. “That was Kara, not me. I’ve been with her long enough to understand how to regulate her strength.” Her jaw clenches then and she looks away. “As for my inability to speak… my captors did not… appreciate the sounds some of their so-called experiments elicited.”

Sam’s fists clench and she whirls around but Kara’s body reaches out and grabs her shoulder.

“Samantha,” Kara’s body says sternly, eyes narrowed, “the walls here are reinforced, if you punch one you will definitely break your hand.” The shoulder in her grasp moves up and down raggedly as Sam struggles to calm down, and she only releases it when Sam turns to her, eyes wet with unshed tears and her brow furrowed.

“You said your powers work differently when you’re controlling Kara’s body, and I doubt you’re risking trying to read our minds right now. So how did you know I was going to punch a wall?” Sam asks.

Kara’s body stills, and her brow crinkles. “I’m… not sure. It just seemed like something you would do.”

“What’s your name?” Sam asks then, and she’s closer now, her eyes searching her sister-in-law’s familiar blue ones. “How long did they have you?”

Kara’s body stiffens and she struggles not to look away. “I don’t remember,” she finally admits. “At least three years, maybe… probably more. The last few are… hazy.”

Alex makes a noise of disbelief. “Kara did you seriously start dating someone who doesn’t remember her own name?”

Kara has a flash of guilt at that which is immediately drowned out by her wife’s indignation.

Kara’s body faces Alex, a single brow arched imperiously. “I initiated our relationship, if you must know. Granted, I only did so after Kara showed me the conversation she had with you where she told you I was her :zhao, but I’d been wanting to for awhile. I just… didn’t think my feelings would be reciprocated.” She looks away then, her ire turning to shame. “I’m still not… fully healed, and all. I believe Kara’s energy will restore my vocal chords soon, but…”

Kara decides to be a bit mean, then, and before her wife can grasp what she’s about to do she recalls their kiss the night before, bracelets heavy on their wrists and the red of the sunset washing over them. Recalls the warm, soft body pressed against her own, her hand buried in silky hair as their tongues danced languidly together.

Heat pools fast and low in Kara’s stomach and her face flushes bright red. Her crossed legs tighten and her hands go to clench at the sun bed, barely restrained enough to not cause more damage.

“For fuck’s sake, Kara,” Kara’s body hisses. “Seriously?”

What? You already know how much I love you, Kara thinks oh-so-innocently. So clearly it’s my physical attraction to you which you doubt—

Kara’s wife bows out then and Kara is pulled back to the forefront in her own terribly aroused body. She can’t help but burst into laughter as her wife grumbles in her mind about ruined first impressions, and when she finally catches her breath she looks up to see Brainy watching her in obvious confusion, Nia trying desperately not to laugh, Alex making a face of sheer disgust, and Sam looking oddly… happy.

What is Sam thinking now? Kara asks her wife.

She’s being careful, her wife replies, pout still clear in her voice. I can tell she’s pissed and… grieving, but she also seems relieved. She’s doing well at keeping anything specific to herself.

Rude, Kara comments.

She’s always been quick to adapt, her wife muses, and Kara feels her confusion at her own observation. Anyway, she seems to be aware of the dangers of a nearby telepath now.

I don’t think she’ll try anything, Kara decides, watching her sister-in-law carefully. She likes you, I can tell.

“Kara,” Sam says, interrupting. “Can you please ask your girlfriend if she can tell me anything Corben may have said that was useful and not, uh, rude?”

He asked where ‘they’ were, her wife thinks. Said he knew ‘your people’ had them and to bring them to him. When he realized you weren’t capable of responding he switched to… insults.

Her flash of rage makes Kara feel… a little happy, honestly. It’s nice to have someone you love get angry on your behalf sometimes. Kara wonders if she should feel guilty at that thought but the ghost of a kiss to her cheek assures her it’s fine and… reciprocated.

Kara blinks back into the present to find Sam watching her and trying not to smile and Alex physically biting her lip to keep from saying something snarky.

“Uh, she says Corben wanted to know where ‘they’ were and said he knew ‘my people’ had them and to bring them to him. Then he realized I wasn’t exactly… listening, much less able to respond, and he switched to being rude after that.”

Sam frowns at the information but Kara barely notices, already turning her full attention to Alex, who immediately takes a step back.

“Alexandra Arias-Danvers,” Kara starts, her eyes narrowing, and Alex takes another step back. “You have made my :zhao feel poorly about herself too many times now.”

“I didn’t know about the ‘not being able to speak’ thing,” Alex says, hands raised in surrender. “And the brainwashing was a legitimate concern.”

Nia and Brainy are watching with rapt attention now as Kara hops down from the sun bed, hands on her hips as she faces her sister. “Yes, she was kind enough to point that out to me,” Kara begins, “And she probably would have considered the brainwashing at some point, so it was good we got to discuss it and decide it was mutual and minimal at best and that we both don’t actually give a fuck.” Nia is clearly vibrating with questions and Brainy doesn’t seem much better off but Kara ignores them, focusing on her sister. “But! She has already dealt with far too much cruelty in her life, and whether you like it or not she is my family now, meaning she is yours as well.”

Did you just tell her we’re married? Her wife thinks, and Kara feels her flash of panic.

Nah, I ‘adopt’ a lot of people, Kara replies. Or as Alex puts it, I ‘pick up a lot of strays’. Nia and Brainy among them.

“So,” Kara continues, bearing down on her wide-eyed sister. “While I understand you need more time to trust her as I do, you will at the very least treat her with kindness and respect. She is my :zhao, she is under my protection, and you will treat her civilly. Do you understand?”

Alex looks like she wants to fight back but then she notices Sam, who has moved to stand by Kara. “I agree with Kara,” Sam says simply, and Alex slumps in defeat.

“Fine,” Alex grumbles. “But!” She straightens and steps right into Kara’s space, pointing a finger very close to her face. “Listen up, lady,” Alex begins, “Kara is my little sister and if you do anything to hurt her— and that includes breaking her heart— I will use everything at my disposal to destroy you, and I’m not talking DEO weapons. Kara has made me quite a few fun toys over the years and I’m not afraid of prison.”

“Alex!” Sam admonishes. “You can’t use those against— uh, Kara’s girlfriend. And like hell are you going to prison and leaving me to raise our daughter on my own. You’ve given Ruby way too many weird hobbies that I want no part of.”

Alex turns to her wife with a scowl. “Kara threatened to throw you into the sun when we got together, I get to threaten her girlfriend too.”

What toys and what hobbies? Her wife asks, curiosity tickling Kara’s mind.

Alien weaponry, Kara replies, and mostly violent ones— sparring, shooting, blowing things up. All in a safe and supervised environment, of course, she hurries, feeling her wife’s flash of rage. Sam agreed to it, there’s no danger to Ruby.

Fine, the sparring is useful at least, her wife thinks, but Kara can tell she’s still angry for a reason neither can pinpoint. And I want to know about the alien tech later, but I’m not going to make it, just… I want to know how it works. I’m not a fan of making weapons.

“Okay, fair enough,” Kara says with a grin, to both her sister and her wife. “But from now on you have to be nice to my b— :zhao.” Kara looks away from Alex’s knowing gaze.

“Kara, what exactly have you been calling your nameless girlfriend since you picked her up?” Alex asks, an evil gleam in her eyes.

“Babe, please,” Sam tries, but Alex being Alex, she only steps closer to her sister, mouth already open to start guessing.

So Kara uses information she swore she never would. “I’ve gotten a lot better at knowing when not to check in on you,” she starts, “but when you first started dating Sam I definitely overheard her calling you—“

Alex’s hand slaps over her mouth so hard it would have been painful if she were human. As it is her sister pulls her hand away a moment later and tries to shake the feeling back into it. “Agree to never mention it again,” Alex mutters.

“Deal,” Kara says. Then, “And if I call her any… nicknames in front of you, you aren’t allowed to tease us.”

“Fine,” her sister says with a groan. “I’d really rather you didn’t though.”

Kara waves her hand. “We aren’t sure when she’ll remember everything and I do want you to like, meet in person eventually. We just need some time for her to… get used to the powers.” She rubs absently at her invisible bracelet then but her wife points it out before Alex or Sam notice.

Brainy noticed, her wife thinks to her. And he immediately realized.

Rao, is he gonna tell them? Kara glances at Brainy but he looks… peaceful, actually. For the first time in awhile. What the heck?

Her wife seems equally confused. He’s guarding his thoughts now, she says after a moment. But he definitely… thought something like ‘if it’s your wife then it makes sense’.

Kara’s brow crinkles. It?

My being able to read your mind, I believe. Her wife is slightly annoyed. He clearly knows something. He’s… replaying what all I told them and now…

Kara watches as Brainy straightens, an odd look in his eyes and his face completely expressionless. His hands twitch and for a moment his emotions are so strong Kara feels them through her connection to her wife: grief, guilt... and an overwhelming rage.

I don’t know what he felt as I was saying it, her wife thinks slowly, but now that he knows I’m your wife, he’s… I can guarantee you I’ve never met him, so I don’t…

“Brainy,” Kara starts, and he visibly flinches before quickly shaking his head, mouth a flat line, and practically running from the room. Kara hears him in the gym moments later, and… they’re going to need to replace the punching bags by the time he’s done.

Nia stares after him in confusion, and Alex and Sam watch with matching frowns.

“What was that about?” Sam finally asks.

Kara just sighs. “Future stuff he can’t tell us, I’m sure.” She looks to Nia.

Nia shakes her head. “I don’t know, okay? My dreams have been very… unhelpful when it comes to this,” she waves a hand towards Kara. “Or, I guess since one saved your life they’re helpful enough, but… I’d like more information.” She scowls.

Speaking of, her wife thinks suddenly, please thank her for the text and the supplies and tell her the recipes have been very, ah, useful.

Kara snorts at that. “She says to thank you for the text and for bringing us supplies and that the recipes were ‘very useful’.”

Nia grimaces. “You’re welcome and my condolences, they did not… look appetizing.”

Sam turns to Kara, eyebrows raised. “You still have Nia helping you with your little fugitives? Uh, not that your girlfriend is, but…”

Oh dear, her wife thinks, slightly amused. Those thoughts weren’t so closely guarded. She has a secret server with all of them— past crimes and how they’re doing currently. She’s been keeping track.

Kara stares at her with wide eyes. “You knew?”

Sam rolls her eyes. “Kara, please. I may never have found evidence it was you, but who else would be able to find them in a DEO black site, free them with no casualties, and actually make them contributing members of society?”

Fair points, her wife thinks, and Kara feels her pride for Kara wash over her.

Still, Kara frowns. “You aren’t gonna…”

Now Alex rolls her eyes. “Relax, we’ve left them alone this long. And they’re not in the DEO database or anything. Officially they’re still missing.”

Kara’s sigh of relief is so big her whole body deflates. “Thank Rao.”

“On that note,” Nia says, clearly not wanting her own role in Kara’s technically criminal activities to be further examined, “we need to go to work. Like, now.”

“Oh shit,” Kara mutters. She looks at the three pairs of wide eyes around her as her wife literally wakes herself up laughing. “Okay get used to it, geez, I can’t help it.” This conversation took way too long, Kara thinks to her wife. Are you good on your own this morning? I can be late to work, it’s fine.

I’ll be okay, her wife thinks back, though Kara can feel that she’s already missing her. Go let Cat know you’re safe.

Kara stiffens and stops, forcing Nia, who had already started dragging her to the door, by her cape of all things, to halt abruptly. “Cat’s gonna call me into her office, isn’t she?”

Nia looks back at her. “Oh definitely. She didn’t even let me get more than a few sentences into my lie about why you wouldn’t be back for awhile.”

If you don’t leave now Alex is going to give you an NDA for Cat to sign, which we all know will not go over well, her wife thinks wryly.

“Okay gotta go, bye Alex, bye Sam, love you!” Now Kara is the one dragging Nia out the door, and she can hear Alex muttering expletives as she goes.

Her wife stretches languidly in bed back in her apartment, and Kara feels her surprised laugh. She’d give you an NDA for me to sign but isn’t sure how it works when the person doesn’t know their own name.

“For fuck’s sake,” Kara mutters, half annoyed and half amused, and has to use a bit of super speed to stop Nia from falling flat on her face at hearing her curse again. “Seriously, is it that weird?”

“YES!”

Chapter Text

Nia and Kara arrive at CatCo, both out of breath, and Nia scampers off as soon as Snapper starts marching toward Kara. He’s… surprisingly nice, honestly. She was expecting to be chewed out or to have to go over his head to Cat to beg to keep her job but instead he gruffly tells her that he’ll have some assignments for her soon and to take the morning to get resettled before stomping off.

Does he know? Kara asks her wife.

I’m… not sure, her wife thinks back. He was definitely concerned for you, but he isn’t thinking of any specific reason for his concern at the moment. Kara feels a tickle of amusement from her. If you want to go give him a hug I should be able to tell then.

Kara mutters a Kryptonian curse that would make Alex blush.

So you enjoy profanity, just not in English, her wife observes. I want to learn them all, by the way. Along with the rest of the language, of course.

Kara perks up then. Really?

Yes, really. You’re my wife, I want to speak your language, her wife thinks, and makes sure to project her earnestness to Kara. I do my best with what little I know, but I want to learn more about you and where you’re from… and not just the technology.

Kara can’t help but preen at that. You’ve got it, baby girl. Have I mentioned I love you?

Yes, darling, many times, her wife thinks wryly. Also, Snapper is beginning to worry about you since you’ve been sitting here staring into space for awhile.

“Oof,” Kara mutters, then realizes. “I… did not bring my laptop. I wasn’t planning on coming straight here.” She contemplates taking a quick ‘bathroom break’ and zooming home to get her bag. Then she realizes that usually by now her wife has eaten and is already combing through a hard drive, but Kara can still feel her laying in bed, and is pretty sure she’s fallen asleep again. Are you okay? Kara is halfway out of her chair already.

I’m fine, her wife responds immediately, and sends Kara a light pinch to get her to sit back down. Speaking through you was a bit tiring, is all. I may sleep until lunch time.

Kara makes a small noise in the back of her throat and glares at nothing. You need to eat, baby girl. Then she focuses a bit more on her wife’s body and her own tenses. You can’t get up right now, can you?

I’ll be fine once I’ve slept awhile longer, you should be able to tell that as well, her wife thinks, and Kara feels her… frustration at her own weakness. I can’t believe talking for a few minutes wore me out this much. I’m fucking useless.

You are not, Kara thinks back. Then she grins. And you weren’t just talking, you were sitting with your— uh, my— back ramrod straight and legs crossed oh so daintily.

If her wife could groan right now, she would. As it is she manages a fair mental approximation. My first words to my sisters-in-law were ‘Oh shut up’. And then I had to flee at the end because you made me— yourself, horny. For me. While I was in control. Fuck you, she adds weakly, and Kara feels her immediate regret for her choice of words.

Kara’s grin turns to a smirk. By all means, she thinks back happily.

Uh, darling, you may want to look up.

The wave of amusement and trepidation Kara gets tells her that no, she really doesn’t want to look up. But of course she does, and her stomach immediately sinks, because Cat Grant herself is standing in front of her in the now-silent bullpen, arms crossed as she watches Kara sitting at her desk, doing nothing and grinning salaciously.

“Uh, Miss Grant,” Kara says, trying and failing not to show she was startled. She’s honestly shocked she doesn’t break her desk. “How… how long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough,” Cat says calmly, and turns on her heel. “Kiera, come,” she calls, already heading to her office, and Kara scrambles to follow her, very nearly breaking her chair in her haste.

Kara’s mind is whirring now because Cat has never, in the many years Kara has known her, ever deigned to go fetch someone herself. She always sent Kara, and once Kara became a reporter she always sent her newest assistant, or, during the lulls in which she could find no one brave or foolish enough to take the position, sent whoever was closest to her office at the time. So Kara is practically tripping over herself with worry, and her wife’s telepathy is no help.

She’s keeping her mind blank, somehow, her wife thinks, sounding amazed. She doesn’t seem mad, at least? I don’t… think she’ll fire you. I mean if she does I’ll just… wait why the fuck did I just think I could ‘buy’ CatCo Worldwide Media? Her wife’s confusion is so palpable it actually calms Kara’s nerves.

At least until she enters Cat’s office and closes the door behind herself and Cat presses the button that changes the clear glass of her office wall to a dark privacy screen.

“Am I fired?” Kara blurts then, because she may as well rip the bandaid off. Which… she does understand now, but definitely not on a personal level. She has never needed a bandaid.

Just a sun bed, her wife thinks dryly. Show off.

Kara can’t contain her eye roll at that and it unfortunately happens just as Cat turns around, but her boss’s gaze remains inscrutable. Cat perches on the edge of her desk and gestures to the chair that is so close to her Kara has to carefully contort herself to not make physical contact as she sits down. Cat’s eyes narrow.

“Kara,” Cat begins, and Kara straightens. Cat only uses her real name when she’s like, serious-serious. “You are Kara, correct?”

“Uh, yes?” Kara’s brow crinkles. “What… do you mean?”

Cat doesn’t say anything but Kara’s wife gasps in her mind. Fucking hell, she’s sharp, her wife thinks, and Kara parrots her earlier question to her now. She knows.

“Knows what?” Kara whines, realizing too late it was out loud. She freezes as Cat’s eyes narrow, the smallest of smiles playing on her lips. “Fuck.”

At that Cat’s eyebrows raise. “Alright, dear, that I can admit I was not expecting.”

Her wife’s amusement curls around her. She figured out ‘telepath who can control your body’ but was surprised by your cursing.

“Oh come on,” Kara whines, slouching back in the chair. “There’s no way.”

Cat raises one hand and starts ticking items off on her fingers. “Martial arts, murder, disappearing for a week, what happened at your desk just now, and, most damning of all,” Cat leans forward and Kara leans away, “touch avoidance.”

Kara glares at Cat. “How do any of those mean anything?”

Cat sits back and lets the heel of her shoe slip off, idling bopping it up and down. “Kara, Kara, Kara.” She meets her eyes, a challenging quirk to her lips. “First, the sheer volume of broken mugs, chairs, desks, laptops, and phones I have seen you hurriedly repair or eventually throw away these past years tells me you do not have the self-control necessary to learn any martial arts, as you’d never be able to spar with anyone and leave them alive. Second, dear, no matter how angry you get, I don’t believe you’re capable of murder.”

Kara is more offended by that than by the realization that Cat saw her frantically trying to deal with all those things and never said anything. “I could totally kill someone!”

Cat sniffs disdainfully. “Now, perhaps, considering your… mental companion. But if you were normally capable of murder I would certainly be dead.” At Kara’s confused crinkle Cat gives her wide smile. “I know I’m a terror to work for, Kara. Any other assistant would have happily tossed me from my balcony and been done with it, and that’s without being under the influence of some ridiculous red rock.”

Kara flushes and tries to apologize, again, but Cat waves her off.

“You’ve also never vanished for an entire week, even after what we could all tell was a brush with death.” Cat’s eyes narrow and Kara’s wife sends her a flash of annoyance at the new piece of information. “For you to take that much time off from not only this job but your other one as well means you were caring for someone, and since Miss Nal assured me your family members are all in perfect health that means it was someone new, who was likely also affected by John Corben’s little tantrum. Since you were the only non-civilian casualty, well…” Cat lifts one shoulder in a delicate shrug. “It doesn’t take a genius to surmise you may not have been acting alone.”

Kara frowns but says nothing, and her wife not knowing whether she should be concerned or impressed isn’t helping matters.

Sorry, my love, but she figured it out easier than Sam, I think.

“Then of course, there’s this morning. You came into work unprepared,” Cat drawls, narrowing her eyes when Kara flushes, “Then sat at your desk for at least fifteen minutes doing nothing but making a variety of expressions, as if you were conversing with someone.” She smirks. “That last one was especially interesting.”

Kara flushes crimson and her wife, still asleep at home, can’t help but flush as well.

You two never…

No! Kara thinks. I mean, we were maybe… a little, uh, flirty, that first year… but then she said she knew Carter would choose me as his favorite parent and that she couldn’t let that happen so nothing ever actually… happened… Kara sinks lower in her seat as the jealousy she can feel from her wife is washed away with amusement.

Cat watches Kara with an odd gleam in her eye but thankfully refrains from commenting as her blush continues to deepen.

“And the last one?” Kara finally manages to ask.

Cat crosses her arms, leveling her former assistant with a cool stare. “The entire office is abuzz with your sudden disdain for handshakes, and while I wouldn’t normally take notice of such drivel,” Cat looks to the ceiling as if to ask the universe why anyone bothered bringing such trivial gossip to her attention, then looks back at Kara. “You have attempted to hug me— me, of all people, Kara— at least a dozen times since we’ve met, and Carter still asks me on a daily basis when you’ll be babysitting him again so he can at least get to be ‘hovered around’ the apartment. Not to mention your odd habit of ‘brushing against’ people, which even I have yet to figure out.”

I like her, her wife thinks and Kara finally groans.

“This isn’t fair,” Kara mumbles. “Why do you always learn my secrets so damn fast?”

“Kara, who am I?” Cat asks primly.

Kara sighs. “The Queen of All Media.”

“Exactly. If I couldn’t figure out something as simple as this I’d have to retire, and then who would be left to keep you Supers on your toes?”

Kara squints at her. “Is that what you call shamelessly flirting with my baby cousin in front of me?”

Cat just smirks. “Well he’s married at least, so there’s no risk of me losing Carter’s favoritism. You, however…” Cat gets an odd look on her face and, shocking Kara, blushes lightly.

She’s figured out you’re probably at least engaged to me, her wife supplies. And was going to remind you to invite her to the wedding but then wasn’t sure if you were that close. Then remembered you have a telepath now.

Cat is already glaring as she can apparently tell when Kara is tuned in elsewhere.

“Oh for— you’re already on the invite list,” Kara says, exasperated. Then she frowns. “For the Earth wedding, we kinda already… uh, shit.”

Cat smiles then, looking very pleased with herself. “Once your Earth wedding is complete, dear, expect to receive the same treatment as your cousin.”

Kara blushes, and yelps when she’s hit with the memory of a cold pinch. Tell her that you are mine, her wife hisses, and I will be keeping track of how often she flirts with you and paying her back tenfold.

…how though?

Oh, you’ll see, darling, her wife replies, and Kara can already feel how smug she is as she considers whatever it is she has planned. Also, your stalker does not like any of this, from what I can tell.

“Uh,” Kara starts, and Cat raises her eyebrows. “She said to tell you I’m hers and that she’ll be keeping track of how often you flirt with me… and that she’ll pay you back tenfold. I don’t know how but she seems pretty smug already.” It’s going to be at my expense isn’t it? Kara thinks, already pouting.

Don’t worry, my love. You’ll enjoy every moment of it.

Kara’s blush at that is enough to make Cat laugh.

“My, my, Kiera, you’ve gotten yourself an interesting wife. I look forward to it.” Cat pushes herself off the desk and strolls around it, taking her seat and leaning back in it like it’s a throne. “Now, you clearly don’t want to be here, so I’ll see you next Monday.”

Kara is pretty sure she knows what whiplash feels like now. “Huh?”

Cat isn’t even looking at her anymore, already scanning one of the many papers piled on her desk. “The only way you would take a week off from both of your jobs is if your wife was in critical condition. You clearly are not ready to get back to work yet, so go and be with her this week and return Monday ready to work.” Cat glances up at her. “You have plenty of vacation days saved up, and I already told Mister Carr on my way to fetch you. Quit being a workaholic and go back to your wife, Kara.”

“I am not a workaholic,” Kara can’t help but blurt, her wife’s mental laughter ringing in her ears already.

Cat actually puts the paper down at that and gives Kara her full attention. “You work a full-time job here and your other job has you on-call 24/7— yes I know things have improved the past few years, but that doesn’t change the fact that you are their strongest asset, and could be called at any time if the situation is dire enough.” Cat’s brow creases, just a bit. “The fact that you didn’t even realize is a bit concerning, dear. I know I’m not in a position to judge, but you don’t strike me as someone who can thrive working their life away. Your wife is going to have to keep an eye on you.”

Kara groans as her wife’s mental laughter grows even louder.

“Ah, I am only releasing you from this job, keep in mind,” Cat says, frowning. “You should return to your other job and show everyone that you’re alright. Still,” she waves a hand up and down to encompass Kara, “a shiny beacon of hope and all that. And… if you have time this evening, ah, I would appreciate if you could fly near enough my apartment that Carter sees you, he’s been a bit… worried. Now, off you go.”

Cat presses the button to dispel the privacy tint and Kara stands, watching her mentor as she tries to decide which of her many emotions right now is most dominant. It isn’t until she gets to the door that she realizes, turning and giving her boss her most radiant smile. “Thank you very much, Miss Grant.”

Cat merely waves her off but Kara can see the light blush on her cheeks, and her wife is suddenly very pleased.

My revenge for her flirting will be effective indeed, she thinks happily, and Kara decides it’s best if she doesn’t ask right now. Hm, though not… for the reason I expected. You change relationship statuses with people very quickly, my love.

Deciding she’s better off not asking once again, her wife now laughing, Kara finds Nia and tells her Cat gave her the week off, and at Nia’s shocked expression Kara quirks a single eyebrow. “You didn’t dream it happening?”

“No! She’s Cat Grant, when does she give anyone time off?” Nia hisses.

Kara pouts. “She said I’m a workaholic— okay fine, she was right, chill,” Kara rolls her eyes at her wife’s reminder of her lack of time off after near-death experiences. “So she told me to focus on my, uh, whoever I was taking care of last week and on rehabilitating my image and whatnot.”

Nia blinks at Kara for a solid minute. “Alex is gonna kill you,” she finally says.

Kara just shrugs. “Cat’s known for awhile, this was just the first time we… openly discussed it. She’s cool.”

“Did you just say Cat Grant is— y’know what, never mind,” Nia steps back, hands up in surrender. “I’m just gonna assume your worked your Kara magic on her at some point and leave it at that. Now, I need to go interview some people, so have fun with the girlfriend, and don’t fly through any billboards.”

Kara pales. “Wait a minute—“

Nia zips away and Kara stares after her forlornly. “Why am I gonna fly through a billboard?” Kara whispers. “Oh Rao will it be multiple billboards? Niaaaa.”

I’ll try to warn you but it may very well be my fault, her wife muses, remembering when she’d sent Kara into a nosedive outside of city limits. Anyway, I can sense some heightened emotions coming from downtown, so you’d best head out on patrol.

Fine, fine, Kara thinks, bidding a sheepish farewell to Snapper as she leaves. But afterwards I’m coming home and making you lunch.

Mm maybe I’ll be capable of waking up by then, her wife thinks, and Kara winces as she takes to the skies, her backup cape flapping in the wind. Also, your current cape is far inferior to the one I’m currently using as a blanket.

“I mean yours— what, it is yours at this point, I even told you to keep it— was literally my baby blanket. It’s made of Kryptonian fabric, and of the highest quality. This one is just… the same material as my suit, which we’ve already established you don’t love.”

Mm, I’ll make sure you have a better cape too then. I’m keeping this one.

Kara veers towards the commotion she can hear downtown, but can’t help a grin at the flash of possessiveness her wife feels for her cape. All yours, baby girl.

She tunes in to the fight when she’s a block away and both she and her wife can’t help but be amused at what’s happening.

“I’m telling you, she’s alive!” A young man is yelling.

A young woman stomps her foot. “If she’s alive then where is she?”

“That green stuff was hurting her,” a little boy says, sounding like he’s about to cry. ”What if she did die?”

“Honey, I’m sure Supergirl is fine,” the woman holding him says.

“She killed a guy,” a girl a bit older than the boy says. “Maybe she went to prison.”

“It was self-defense!” The young woman from earlier says. “He almost killed her!”

“SO YOU ADMIT SHE’S ALIVE!” The young man yells triumphantly.

“Oh for—“ The young woman slaps his arm.

“Ow! Supergirl, save me, my wife is getting violent!” The man calls out, swooning dramatically.

Kara veers around a building and hovers over them all for a moment, head tilted and a small smile on her face. It’s not an actual fight as she’d assumed before she got closer, but rather a very loud and dramatic family leaving a breakfast café.

“IT’S SUPERGIRL!” The little girl screams, spotting her first. She starts jumping up and down and she races to Kara when she lands nearby, wrapping her arms around her legs in a fierce hug. “I’m glad you didn’t go to prison,” she whispers.

Kara can feel her wife’s mental shock at the sudden contact but after taking a moment to work through the child’s emotions— mostly an intense joy from what Kara can tell— she assures Kara she’s fine and that this is as good a way as any to start working on getting used to her powers. So Kara tunes back in to the present, where only a few seconds have passed.

“Me too,” Kara says easily, placing a hand on the girl’s back. She raises her head and winks at the young man, now frozen in shock. “Did you need any help, sir? I thought I heard something about your wife getting violent?”

The woman in question makes a choked sound and her husband unfreezes and starts waving his hands dramatically. “No, no, no problems here, sorry to interrupt your patrol, Supergirl!”

The little girl pulls away and grins up at Kara. “That’s my uncle. Mommy says not to pay him any attention cuz he’s a drama queen.”

The man gasps, well, dramatically, and turns to the woman who must be his sister. “Your daughter just told Supergirl I’m a drama queen!”

His sister just grins. “Mhm, I heard.”

“Mommy,” the little boy whispers, “can I hug Supergirl too?”

The woman looks to Kara, who nods (after her wife agrees as well), and they both walk forward, the small boy already reaching for Kara, who takes him easily into her arms.

“Hey, kiddo,” Kara says quietly.

The boy, still too young for school from what Kara can tell, raises his tiny hands and places them on Kara’s cheeks. “You’re okay?” He asks solemnly.

“I’m okay,” Kara says. “That green stuff did hurt me, but I have a special bed in my secret hideout that helps me heal.”

The boy’s lower lip starts to jut out. “I thought the sun helped you heal?”

“It does,” Kara says, nodding seriously. “But the sun has to go away at night, so when I’m hurt I use a bed that can make sunlight all the time.”

The boy accepts this with a nod. “Okay.” His eyes narrow. “And where’s your secret hideout?”

“Tommy!” His sister yells. “You can’t ask her about that! That’s why it’s secret.”

The boy looks over his shoulder with a pout. “I can keep secrets.”

“Nuh uh,” his sister says, grinning. “I know where you hide your candy.”

Tommy’s mouth drops open in rage. “Mommy! Angelica’s gonna steal my candy!”

Angelica tuts. “Not if you quit hogging Supergirl. She can’t keep holding you when she has a whole city that needs babysitting.”

Kara laughs at that and presses a quick kiss to the little boy’s forehead before handing him back to his mother.

Angelica also wants one, her wife says. But she thinks she’s too old to be one of the ‘babies’ you kiss.

Kara holds her hand out to the girl, who frowns in confusion but places her own hand in Kara’s, and when Kara sweeps into a gallant bow and presses a kiss to the back of her hand the little girl squeals in delight.

As Kara takes off, Tommy and Angelica start bickering about which one of them Supergirl likes more, their uncle taking Angelica’s side and their aunt taking Tommy’s, their mother wisely remaining neutral.

Towards the end of her patrol, already on her way to report in at the DEO, Kara spots a toddler on a rooftop, and her mental shield immediately raises when a dull pounding starts in her head.

The little girl raises her arms much as Kara had when she’d wanted picked up as a child, and she also looks identical to Kara at that age, brown hair and all. Kara scoops the toddler into her arms long enough to slowly float them down and into a small park, the little girl shaking with coughs and wiping tears from her eyes all the while, and when she settles her in the grass she looks away even as blisters rise from the skin where she’d directly touched the child.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Supergirl,” the child whispers, and Kara zooms off without acknowledging her, the entire encounter already vanishing from her mind.

The pounding in her head stops moments later when she lands at the DEO, and Kara lets her mental shield slip away, blinking back into focus just as her sister strolls up to her.

“I can’t believe you’re already back to kissing babies,” Alex drawls, long having been caught up on her patrol via comm.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kara asks with a pout.

Alex just shrugs. “I kinda figured the city would take awhile to warm up to you again considering what happened when you broke that one dude’s hand.”

A tickle of concern from her wife has Kara recalling the incident— two grown men deciding to drag race on a public road and nearly running over a whole line of children on a crosswalk, Kara’s rage at their idiocy and her inability to keep herself from squeezing just a little too tight when she caught the punch one of the men threw at her for daring to dent his car when she stopped them.

You should have broken more than his hand, her wife thinks, her anger thrumming through them both.

Alex’s eyes narrow at Kara’s grin. “If your murderous girlfriend is fine with that maybe take it with a grain of salt. Uh, that means—“

Kara waves her off. “I understand your weird idioms now. Also, be nice to my :zhao.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Alex drawls, then goes to throw her arm around Kara’s shoulders but freezes. “Uh, am I… allowed to touch you right now?”

Kara blinks. She doesn’t want her sister of all people to even have to worry about that but it is a valid concern, especially given how many people she’s come into contact with today— first Tommy and Angelica, then a mugger who was very displeased at her reappearance, and even a certain Dracokardosian once again stuck in a tree.

Her wife sends a ghost of a kiss to her cheek. I can handle myself well enough now that you needn’t hold back around your family, my love.

“All good,” Kara chirps, tugging Alex’s arm around her shoulders. “My :zhao’s a badass.”

Alex snorts. “I’m telling Mom that you’re cussing now.”

Kara elbows her. “Then I’ll tell her all the Kryptonian curse words you know.”

“That you taught me,” Alex reminds her, strolling with her into the main command room of the DEO. “Which will just get you into more trouble.”

“Not as much trouble as when she finds out you’ve named a villain again,” Kara says happily, and her sister scowls.

“The ‘kryptonite killer’ hasn’t exactly had anyone to target lately,” Alex mutters. “Which is a good thing of course, but next time I’m going to be the one setting a trap for them… on their way out, that is.”

Kara rolls her eyes and resists the urge to pinch her sister, not wanting to cause her to start complaining yet again about how often Ruby pinches her. “Yeah, yeah, they still don’t seem like much of a problem to me. Anyway, any leads on what I want?”

Your stalker is both amused and concerned right now, her wife thinks idly, and Kara’s brow crinkles.

Alex sighs. “No, because the alien tech you want is all overpowered ship parts that are extremely hard to come by on our little backwater planet,” she drawls, and Kara’s wife tells her Alex is close to seeing if pinching a Kryptonian will hurt her fingers. Kara pouts and her sister rolls her eyes.

“Supergirl,” Sam says, eyes bright despite her obvious fatigue. “How’s the first day back on the job?”

“Far easier than Alex thinks it should be,” Kara says happily. “Probably thanks to Cat, honestly.” At her sister and sister-in-law’s matching confused looks Kara grins. “Remember all those puff pieces she had me write on the, uh, non-emergency things Supergirl helps people with?”

“Those did not get much traction from what I recall,” Brainy cuts in, frowning.

“Not on CatCo’s website, no,” Kara agrees. “But on social media, well…” She shrugs and can’t contain her grin. “At this point people are determined to post about all of my ‘everyday saves’, as they put it. The argument from this morning is probably already up.”

Brainy’s frown deepens as he begins tapping at his tablet, and a moment later a video is pulled up on one of the large screens at the front of the room. Someone managed to film the whole encounter, and while they covered the family’s faces with emojis it has gone viral nonetheless.

Alex whistles. “Damn, maybe I should rethink trying to intimidate your boss.”

Kara scoffs. “I threw her off a balcony, sis, I don’t think you can top that.” Despite her blasé tone she still can’t help the guilt the memory brings.

I probably shouldn’t tell you this, her wife muses, but it may help you to know that her main emotion then was not fear.

Kara’s brow crinkles. What do you mean?

Her wife’s amusement only confuses her further. She couldn’t help but remember it when she brought it up, her wife begins. She didn’t at any point believe you’d actually hurt her, despite your attempt to prove otherwise. So on her end, you swooped into her office, manhandled her, and then easily caught her and cradled her to your chest.

Kara’s confusion is even stronger now. And how is most of that not terrifying?

Now her wife is feeling… embarrassed? Darling, I know your strength is normal to you, but certain people, myself included, can find it… ah… A spike of arousal filters through their connection and Kara can feel her wife’s hope that she won’t have to continue.

It takes Kara a second, and when it clicks she pulls away from Alex, both of her hands flying to cover her face. Rao, baby, you really should not have told me that, holy fuck. Kara ignores her sister’s confusion, a new thought occurring to her. Is that why she likes Kryptonians so much? Cuz we’re strong?

Yes, her wife admits, but I also got the sense she appreciates your… lack of fear towards her. And she seemed to have a soft spot for your cousin’s annoying self-righteousness. A bit of disgust comes from her wife at the thought, but it’s swiftly replaced by her pride in Kara. And your honesty and loyalty.

Kara can breathe a little easier at that and lowers her hands to find Alex staring at her in confusion and Sam watching her with a smirk. “Uh, sorry, I was… discovering some things about… some things…” Kara trails off and looks away.

“I don’t think I wanna know,” Alex says, making a small sound of disgust. Then, “Wait, why did any of that come up when you were talking about Cat Grant?” Whatever Alex thinks after that has Kara’s wife feeling a mix of amusement and jealousy, and Alex shakes her head. “Scratch that, now I really don’t wanna know.”

“Supergirl,” Sam cuts in, “how is your girlfriend doing right now? She already told us that… certain things can overexert her powers, and considering our, uh, discussion this morning…” Sam looks around at the random agents surrounding them as if to remind Kara that they are not in private, which makes Kara roll her eyes before giving her a small nod.

“She’s fine,” Kara says, then winces when Sam looks at her with hard eyes. “Okay, she’s kinda… sleeping. And she had to skip breakfast, which isn’t great, but from what we can tell she should wake up in time for lunch, so barring any emergencies I’m gonna head home then and make us some food.” And extra stew, sorry, baby girl.

I figured, her wife thinks, a kind of… grumpy acceptance passing on to Kara.

Even without her wife’s powers Kara can tell that Sam wants to ask more questions, but Alex beats her to it, bumping her shoulder against Kara’s and giving her a hesitant smile. “So, what’s your girlfriend like? Uh, not that I’m fishing for, er, information you don’t wanna share, just—”

Kara’s wife sends her a flash of amusement. She wants to know what you know about me aside from ‘murderous amnesiac’. Personality-wise, and all.

Kara grins so wide at that that Alex cuts off her own rambling. “I’ve been making a list,” Kara says happily, ignoring her wife’s groan. “The first thing I learned, was, of course, that she does not want her head shaved.”

Sam makes a strangled sound. “Kara, please tell me your girlfriend isn’t bald.”

She’s both highly amused and horrified right now, Kara’s wife says. Not at someone being bald, more… she knew someone bald whom she hates? She’s being very careful to not think of faces or names.

“She made it quite clear that I was not allowed to do that,” Kara says, waving her hand. “Even though it took me a solid hour to get her hair straightened out.”

Alex crosses her arms. “You have super speed.”

“And I was using it,” Kara says. Before Alex can question her further Kara continues with her list. “Next we learned that she absolutely loathes reporters, but that has since been changed to ‘hates all but one reporter’,” Kara leans forward to whisper so only her sister and sister-in-law can hear, “and yes, she knows about Kal-El.” Kara preens and Sam looks like she wants to laugh but manages not to.

Alex just shakes her head. “Yeah, yeah, you’re the best. Anything else?”

“Hmmm,” Kara hums, floating in lazy circles around her family now. “Well you already know she’s a martial arts master, and for some reason she knows morse code,” Kara almost reveals that she knows about Sam and Ruby using it to cheat at game nights but then her wife reminds her of her own proclivity for cheating. “And she’s also some kind of scientist, not sure what, uh, classification,” Kara glances at Sam and notes how closely she’s watching her now, “she seems to have a solid grasp on most of your dumb Earth sciences.”

Rude, her wife thinks, but there’s no venom to it. Kara has shared enough of Krypton’s scientific knowledge with her that she’s starting to understand where Kara is coming from.

Kara lights up at that realization and settles in front of Alex. She places both hands on her sister’s shoulders and gazes into startled brown eyes. “And my favorite thing on the list, and I cannot stress this enough,” Kara says, leaning forward, “is that she is the biggest nerd I have ever met.”

Alex doesn’t seem impressed by this but Sam guffaws so loudly all the agents milling around turn to look, and even Alex shoots her a look of surprise. Sam covers her mouth with her hand but everyone can tell she’s still laughing.

I don’t know why, her wife thinks, and Kara feels her irritation, but I’m very tempted to borrow your body long enough to pinch your sister-in-law.

Kara ignores all of this and continues staring at her sister. “Alex, you don’t understand,” Kara says earnestly. “I was born and initially raised on Krypton, the nerdiest of all planets. I was destined for the Science Guild, the nerdiest of all guilds, and am of the House of El, the nerdiest of all the houses. And my :zhao is still the biggest nerd I have ever met on any planet.”

Sam is doubled over now, trying and failing to contain her laughter.

Pinch her, her wife thinks. Pinch her until she stops laughing, for fuck’s sake.

But still Alex doesn’t seem to grasp the enormity of the situation, and Kara is too busy trying to impress upon her sister how amazing this is to heed her wife’s advice. “Alex, you still don’t understand,” Kara says, eyes wide and pleading. “She lights up every time I so much as think of alien technology, when she actually sees some the only thing I can call what she feels is hunger, she’s contemplating demanding ‘bedtime stories’ that are just Kryptonian science lessons.”

You know about that? Her wife’s embarrassment is almost enough to make Kara blush as well, but Kara smiles.

“Yes and I think we should do it,” Kara says easily, before going back to talking to her sister, Sam still shaking with laughter beside them. “When you mentioned the ‘toys’ I made you she immediately wanted to know how they work,” Kara tilts her head, “Oh not to make them though, she apparently doesn’t like making weapons…” Kara notices Sam look up from laughing then and her wife tells her a surge of fondness has temporarily triumphed over the amusement Sam is feeling. “Speaking of, I don’t think your shovel talk is nearly as scary now cuz with what I showed her of the weapons and her powers she could definitely disable them before you could use them.”

Alex’s eyes widen and she gasps, already priming to go on some new tirade, but Kara doesn’t give her the chance.

“And when I say nerd, I mean a nerd with working knowledge,” Kara continues, wistful now. “I’m pretty sure she’s already got some mental blueprints of how to Earthify certain things I’ve taught her, and now she’s also planning on making me a new suit based on Kryptonian fabrics and Alex,” Kara’s nose is so close to Alex’s they almost touch, “it’s going to have pants!”

I also have some ideas for having it lessen your kryptonite exposure, her wife thinks idly. Though I won’t be able to neutralize it entirely without a helmet, which I don’t think you’d appreciate. I can make you a separate recovery suit to help purge any kryptonite from your body though.

Kara tunes back in to find she’s still nose-to-nose with her sister, so she pulls back, but only slightly. “And apparently she also has plans to make it resistant to kryptonite and make a separate recovery suit, but, Alex, Sam,” she turns to her sister-in-law then, who is watching her with a look that her wife confirms is pure fondness, “pants!”

Alex finally pulls away, shaking her head. “Okay, so did you fall in love with her because she promised you pants?”

Sam snorts, seemingly over her fit of laughter now as she regards Kara with her arms crossed and a smile on her face.

Kara pouts. “I fell in love with her cuz she’s, she’s…” Kara trails off, but still can feel two pairs of eyes watching her and her wife in the back of her mind, metaphorically holding her breath. Kara sighs in a way they can all only describe as ‘dreamy’, which her wife helpfully points out. “She’s everything,” Kara says. “She’s shown me so much kindness and consideration even when she’s suffering, and she’s so cute even when she’s being bossy,” Kara ignores the soft ghost of a pinch she gets for that, “and she’s so happy and excited to learn about anything to do with Krypton, not just the tech she practically drools over,” another pinch, “and she gets so smug when she figures out the plot twist in movies, and she’s just so, so good, I mean yeah she saved me but like, I know she’s gonna change the world, and I’m not exaggerating.”

“True,” Sam murmurs, ducking her head when Kara and Alex look at her.

Kara makes note of it but can’t stop her ramble now. “And she’s just so strong and brave and wonderful, I can’t even… Alex, she’s more stubborn than you and I didn’t know that was possible,” a harder pinch this time, “she gets so happy when she masters some new aspect of her powers, and, Rao, her smile, and the way her nose crinkles sometimes, and you should see her proud little smirks…” Kara trails off then cuz her brain is starting to go to less… family friendly places.

Alex clears her throat. “Okay, got it, you are sickeningly in love with your girlfriend. Any other items on that list or are you gonna go make her some ridiculous heart-shaped lunch now?”

Kara frowns, thoughtful. “I mean we already did heart-shaped pancakes but I could probably make some rice balls into heart shapes?” She starts walking past Sam, heading towards the landing deck, before she feels a wave of relief from her wife that makes her stop, remembering two other items on her list. Kara stops next to Sam and gives her and Alex an evil grin.

My love, please, her wife thinks, but Kara can already feel her resignation.

“Just two more,” Kara says, singsongy, as her wife’s groan echoes in her head. “She’s a workaholic and has a height inferiority complex.”

Sam’s bark of laughter at that is so loud Alex and Kara both jump. Kara’s wife slips into her body then, and Kara instinctively cedes control, watching in fascination as her body reaches out and pinches Sam’s side with the perfect amount of strength to make the the woman yelp but not actually do any damage. Sam turns to her with a glare just as her wife slips away, and Kara holds her hands up in surrender.

“Wasn’t me,” Kara says, curiosity piqued when her wife conveys that Sam’s anger has melted into fondness. “Also that definitely set you back twenty minutes,” she adds, rolling her eyes when her wife’s only response to that is ‘worth it’. “So I guess I have time to go help the lady I can hear looking for her cat.” Kara turns to her sister with a frown as she begins to hover. “Its name is Sir Fluffbottom IX, or Fluffykins for short. And you thought Streaky was bad.”

The rest of the day passes quickly, Kara rescuing and returning the admittedly very fluffy-bottomed cat to his owner before heading home and making a large lunch with heart-shaped rice balls and an ungodly amount of stew for her and her wife, who finally wakes up just as Kara is done moving all the food to the coffee table.

Her wife doesn’t stop pouting over the conversation at the DEO until Kara asks if she has a preference for that day’s ‘bedtime story’, upon which all of Kara’s prior transgressions are forgiven as her eyes light up with the possibilities.

She’s still ruminating on it as Kara does her afternoon patrol, barely sparing time to comment on her not-so-subtly hiding a petty criminal from the DEO and hooking the blue-skinned man up with a job at an alien bar instead. Her wife has no choice but to take a break when Kara goes to help a college kid studying in the park with their physics homework, which Kara could do… but not in a way any professor would understand. Her wife walks them both through it and the kid seems a bit confused as to why Supergirl seems to be learning as well as teaching, but ‘anything is better than Chegg’.

Kara’s stalker is apparently close enough during the impromptu lesson that her wife picks up a few things, mostly confusion at Kara’s knowledge of Earth physics and then worry about… well, they may have also clocked that Kara has a telepath, which does make Kara a bit worried, to the annoyance of her wife who insists she should be more worried about having a stalker in the first place.

She drops by Cat’s penthouse apartment on her last patrol of the day, touching down on the balcony and catching Carter in a hug, the young boy rambling excitedly about her being okay and alive and how cool it was that she beat the bad guy. Kara smiles and listens closely to his play-by-play of the fight, and when Cat shakes her head at her and waves her in she carefully floats Carter around the apartment as he switches to telling her about everything he’s deemed important enough to discuss since she last babysat him, at which point Cat sighs and plies them both with donuts and hot chocolate. Kara stays for at least an hour, her wife in mild shock all the while at how different Cat is at home with her son and Kara happily entertaining Carter as both her wife and Cat watch them chat with what Kara can only call fondness, her wife occasionally murmuring that her stalker is also watching and feeling similarly.

Once Kara is home and her stalker farther away, her wife goes back to contemplating her ‘bedtime story’ options during her physical therapy exercises, and even her own power experimentation, though they do learn that while she’s piloting Kara’s body Kara can control small parts without kicking her out, including triggering her x-ray or heat vision (an experiment born of Kara crumpling the edge of the sun bed that morning).

She continues thinking about what memories to ask for throughout her bath, and dinner on the rooftop, and even the movie they watch, though Kara can tell she’s still managing to pay attention through both their eyes.

When they finally settle into bed, her wife rolls on top of Kara immediately and regards her with a somber expression. I can’t decide, she says, carding her hand through Kara’s hair and her eyes narrowing slightly when Kara stiffens at the movement, her attention drawn to the yellow strands now splayed out over the blankets. For now, at least, she chooses not comment, though she continues her ministrations. There are too many options I know of, and far too many I don’t. It’ll have to be up to you.

Kara laughs at that, and darts a kiss to her wife’s lips. “Okay, baby girl, how about we start where I started as a kid?”

Her wife pouts. I am not a child.

“I know, and between my memories of it all and your intelligence you will get through it much quicker than I did,” Kara says, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “But instead of learning things backwards we need to, uh, rebuild your… entire scientific foundation. At least, if you want to be able to understand more than a few toys and tricks.”

Alright, my love, her wife thinks, pout still firmly in place. But if you end up telling me all of my science degrees should be relegated to fiction I will be upset.

“Degrees?” Kara asks, and she watches as her wife’s face pinches in concentration before feeling her annoyance when the memory eludes her. “Well, that may be for the best,” Kara muses. “Cuz otherwise you would definitely be upset.”

Her wife pinches her side and Kara just laughs before readjusting them so her wife’s head is tucked under her chin. She thinks back to her earliest memories of learning on Krypton, and feels her wife’s shock as she sees the first one.

I can understand what your father is saying now, her wife thinks to her.

Kara is shocked then, and instead of continuing that memory pulls up a veritable slideshow of her memories, snapshots of conversations in a multitude of Earth and alien languages she’s overheard or participated in.

I can understand any that you could, her wife says at the end. I’m not sure if it’s due to our connection deepening or my powers growing, though I think to actually remember and learn the language I would have to see a lot more and focus on immersing myself in it.

Teaching you Kryptonian is going to be much easier than I thought, Kara thinks to her, relieved that she won’t have to translate her old memories anymore. At her wife’s tickle of confusion, Kara explains. I understand Kryptonian science but I would have struggled to translate it to Earth terms, especially the parts that haven’t been discovered here yet. Kara’s brow crinkles. Also, I am much smarter in Kryptonian than in English.

Kara’s wife tilts her head up to kiss her jaw. Well I already think you’re very smart, so I look forward to hearing it.

Kara smiles at that and lets them both sink into her earliest memories of learning, and it isn’t until her wife physically pinches her several hours later that she realizes she had continued her memories into her dreams.

We’ve already surpassed an alarming amount of what I knew, her wife thinks, blinking at her blearily. And that was only a few weeks into your education, which started when you were about four years old. Fuck you.

Kara laughs and presses a kiss to her forehead. “I love you too, :zhao.”

Her wife sighs and kisses her cheek. Khap :zhao rrip, she thinks. Now go refuel at the DEO, your sister has decided to play reporter and has a whole list of questions for you. And I think Sam helped her write them, so they’re definitely scheming something.

Kara makes a small, indignant sound. “She and Sam need to get more sleep. They aren’t supposed to be there this early.”

They’re there to meet you, my love. If you want them to rest more you’ll have to go in later. Though that may pose a problem next week.

“Well for this week at least I’ll start going in a few hours later,” Kara says, and taps her wife’s forehead. “Beep bop boop, there, I reset my alarm clock.”

She’s sent off with a pinch for that and she’s still giggling at the annoyance she can feel from her wife when she touches down on the landing pad at the DEO.

Chapter Text

Once Kara has settled onto the already-fixed sun bed her sister and sister-in-law take the seats nearby, and she informs them she’ll be coming in a few hours later this week, at which they merely stare at her blankly until she points out their resemblance to raccoons. Sam snorts but Alex ignores the comment, and has the audacity to pull out an old interview notebook Kara had left at their house ages ago.

“Oh Rao you really are playing reporter,” Kara says, groaning.

“And your girlfriend really is spying on us,” Sam says smoothly, smirking when Kara’s eyes widen at her own slip up, “though I assume she can’t help it?”

Kara sighs. “Her powers have always been proximity-based, just… since Corben they’ve gone from ‘physical proximity’ to ‘physical and emotional proximity’, or something.” Kara is relieved when her wife confirms that. “Okay cool I got it right.”

Alex crosses her arms. “Why wouldn’t you have?”

“Uh, so we kind of learned that I can show her my memories in my sleep?” Kara shifts uncomfortably on the sun bed, wishing she could sit up but knowing Alex won’t allow it when she’s only just laid down. “So I basically spent the night reliving my first few weeks of schooling on Krypton and I haven’t… readjusted to the present, yet. I’m kinda still in my dad’s lab mentally…”

“Are you both actually getting rest?” Sam asks, frowning.

“Kind of?” Kara bites her lip while she considers. “I mean I don’t feel more physically exhausted than usual, just… mentally askew, and that should right itself soon enough. And, uh…”

You may as well tell them, her wife thinks. Even with what little they know of my past, well, I don’t think they’ll doubt you at least.

Kara winces but looks over at her sister and sister-in-law with a wan smile. “The only time she’s stayed in her own head when she was asleep was the week after Corben. Every other time she sleeps she slips more fully into my mind, whether I’m awake or also asleep. I don’t know if it’s as restful as actually sleeping would be, but… she wouldn’t exactly get good rest if she didn’t, so…”

Alex gets it first, likely because she had to deal with a recently-landed Kara still traumatized from Krypton exploding and the Phantom Zone. “She doesn’t want to deal with the nightmares.”

Sam’s fists clench and she has to take a deep breath before she can unclench them. “And what about your own nightmares?” She asks, knowing full well that Kara still gets them sometimes, though only because Kara had shown up at her house more than once needing Alex’s help to calm down.

Kara’s brow crinkles at that. “I… haven’t had any?”

You can, ah, add that to the ‘ways I have brainwashed you’ list, her wife thinks, and Kara can feel a curl of embarrassment from her. I started doing it before I could talk to you this easily and it’s just instinct at this point.

Kara’s mouth drops open and she can’t think of anything to say.

I can stop if you want, her wife rushes to add. I don’t want to force you to, well, I mean, I tend to just summon whatever pleasant things your subconscious can think of but I suppose it is a bit rude—

“Where have you been all my life?” Kara finally blurts, interrupting her wife’s ramble. “Also, my rambling is definitely rubbing off on you, so we can add that to the list of ways I’ve brainwashed you. Still even.” Kara smirks when she feels her wife mentally roll her eyes.

“I take it your girlfriend has been playing dream police?” Alex drawls.

Kara nods, and turns to her sister with a proud grin. “Once again, my :zhao is a badass.”

“As long as you’re both okay with… everything,” Sam says, waving her hand vaguely in Kara’s direction. “Now, Alex, on with the interrogation.”

“Interview,” Alex and Kara correct. At Sam’s questioning eyebrow raise they both point, in sync, to the notebook Alex holds.

“The notebook means it’s an interview,” Kara says, nodding wisely.

This time the ones in sync are Sam and Kara’s wife as both scoff at their partners' ridiculousness.

“Rude,” Alex and Kara say, and Alex turns to her sister with a frown.

“My :zhao also scoffed,” Kara says petulantly. “Even though I am the only reporter in this room, and thus the only authority on interviews.”

Kara can feel her wife’s amusement. Yes, of course, my love. Carry on with ‘the interview’.

Kara decides to ignore that her wife definitely said that sarcastically and raises her chin as best she can while laying down. “Thank you, we shall.”

Sam rolls her eyes and gestures for Alex to start.

“Okay so first up,” Alex says, “what species is your girlfriend?”

“No comment,” Kara says immediately. Alex and Sam look at her with narrowed eyes, and Kara sighs. “She’s been changed enough on a biological level that I’m pretty sure she’s her own species at this point.”

“And what was she before?” Sam asks.

“No comment,” Kara says primly, staring upwards.

Alex sighs and moves on. “How old is she?”

Kara blinks. “Good question.”

Within a few years of your age, I’d assume, her wife thinks. Well, your… physical age. I don’t think I’ve hit thirty yet but I’m probably not far off?

Kara nods. “Sounds about right.” She turns her head to face her sister. “I’m a cradle robber,” Kara informs her solemnly. “She probably isn’t even thirty yet and Nia has informed me in no uncertain terms that I am a ‘boomer’.”

Sam snorts. “I think it would be more concerning if you dated a boomer, Kara. Phantom Zone time doesn’t count and you know it.”

Alex, of course, is all too happy to call her sister a cradle robber, and makes note of the answer, as Kara’s wife informs her with no small amount of amusement.

“Next up,” Alex says, making a show of squinting at her notebook, “What kind of outfits does she wear?”

Kara’s brow crinkles. “Why the hell does that matter?”

Sam just shrugs. “Well we can’t meet her yet, and your phone is conspicuously free of photos of her, so we need something to work with here.”

“You hacked my phone?” Kara frowns. “That’s kind of rude.”

Alex did not guard her thoughts as well as Sam, her wife says, and Kara feels her prickle of irritation, they have a permanent back door into your phone. I’m making you a new phone along with the new suit.

Kara smirks at them. “She’s gonna make me a new phone as well as pants, uh, a suit with pants.” She sticks her tongue out and Sam reaches over and pinches Alex’s side.

“I’m so sorry for committing thought crimes,” Alex grumbles, rubbing at the spot. “You’re the one who mentioned her phone, hey!” The next pinch is harder. “And why are you back to doing this? Even Ruby is doing it more often now.”

“Outfits, Kara,” Sam says, ignoring her pouting wife.

Should I say no comment? Kara asks, able to feel her wife’s embarrassment already.

No, her wife decides. They’re fishing for something and this definitely won’t help them, so you may as well tell them.

Petty, Kara comments, and happily ignores the pinch she receives for that. Also I think you gave Sam a bad habit now, she stopped pinching Alex after they got married.

Too bad, her wife thinks.

“Earth to Kara,” Alex drawls.

“Yeah, yeah,” Kara says. “She wears my clothes. Pajama pants, sweatshirts, sweaters, long-sleeved tops, boxers, fuzzy socks… not my cardigans for some reason though?”

You can pull off pastels, her wife thinks. I am unwilling to try.

Kara snorts. “Please, you could pull off any color. I should get more green clothes though…” Kara trails off, remembering how her one green top makes her wife’s eyes all the brighter.

Sam was pleased with that little addendum, her wife thinks, annoyed. I love your rambles but maybe refrain during an interrogation, my love.

“Interview,” Kara corrects idly, watching Sam now.

“Do your clothes even fit her?” Alex asks, frowning.

Kara can’t help her flinch at that, remembering the first time she’d put her clothes on her wife… how they’d almost swallowed her whole and would have fallen off had she so much as stood (had she been able to stand)…

My love, her wife says, pulling her from her thoughts. I am doing much better now, all thanks to you. I’m okay.

“Thanks to both of us,” Kara says, glaring into the lights of the sun bed. “You’re the one putting in all the work, baby girl.”

Alex makes a choking sound and moves on to the next question, though Kara’s wife tells her that Sam wants to dissect what she said and Alex probably would too if she wasn’t so traumatized from hearing her little sister call someone ‘baby girl’.

“Where did you find her?” Alex asks, still sounding a bit strangled.

“No comment,” Kara says, refusing to flinch even as Sam’s eyes narrow.

“Okay, fine, what does she do all day?” Alex asks.

Kara purses her lips. “In the evening we usually watch movies or I show her my memories and share my knowledge with her. Sometimes I bring her some alien tech and tools and she takes it apart and puts it back together in an impossibly short amount of time.” Her jaw tenses. “She spends the mornings and afternoons reading through documents detailing the ‘experiments’ she was subjected to.” Kara scowls, recalling the glimpses she’d gotten of her wife’s screen, the Earth science jargon occasionally fading to a brief description of what could only be called torture. Kara stiffens when she feels her wife’s flash of guilt and shame at her thought— she hadn’t realized Kara had been looking, too focused on getting through the documents as quickly as possible.

Kara is done refueling and stands, brushing past her sister and sister-in-law on her way to the landing deck. “I need to go start breakfast now,” she mutters, and takes off before they can ask her anymore questions.

Kara doesn’t calm down again until she’s back in her apartment, holding her baby girl in her arms and pressing soft kisses to her face, her hands, her now-golden bracelet, anywhere she can reach.

I’m okay, my love, her wife thinks, though she continues to allow Kara to pepper her with kisses. And the documents aren’t that bad.

Kara doesn’t bother responding to what she can tell is a halfhearted attempt at consoling her, and starts kissing her wife instead, deepening the kiss when she senses her :zhao about to give her empty platitudes again. Kara doesn’t pull away until she knows her wife has been thoroughly dissuaded from doing that.

“Please,” Kara whispers, tucking her wife close against her. “Don’t… don’t lie to make me feel better. You’re the one having to read it all, you’re the one who… experienced it all.” Kara takes a ragged breath. “Don’t suffer alone, baby girl. You have me, you’ll always have me, so lean on me, please.”

Her wife’s arms wrap around her waist and hug her tightly. Okay, okay. I will, I’m sorry my love. I know it upsets you, and I don’t want to be the cause of that, but… when I need to, I’ll come to you. I promise.

“Don’t blame yourself,” Kara says, voice hard and her hold tightening as much as she dares. “My being upset is not on you, it’s on them, and I swear to Rao if you hadn’t killed them already I would have.” Kara growls, unable to stop the dark surge of emotions within her. “I am never letting anyone hurt you again.”

I know, her :zhao thinks, burrowing closer. I know, my love. It’s okay. We’re both okay.

Kara deflates and floats them both to the bed, laying with her wife on top of her and keeping only one arm around her waist so she can raise the other and cup her face. Worried green eyes meet Kara’s and Kara kisses her, soft and slow. “I’m sorry,” Kara whispers after. “I’m sorry I can’t help how I react to… anything to do with them. If I could control my emotions better you’d probably be able to come to me easier.” She thinks absently that there are certain emotions she does her best to let overwhelm her, especially those relating to protecting those she loves, but the reason why eludes her…

Perhaps, her wife allows, but then she smiles at Kara and presses a kiss to her cheek. But if you didn’t feel so strongly on my behalf, I wouldn’t believe you nearly as much as I do when you vow to protect me and tell me you love me. So, thank you, Kara. I… it means a lot that you care for me so much.

“You’re precious,” Kara whispers, brow crinkled. “You are so, so precious, I don’t know how anyone could feel otherwise.”

Her wife blushes and hides against her chest. We may want to chalk that up to the brainwashing as well.

Kara growls at that, and her wife looks at her in surprise. “No, baby girl, you are precious and I will love and cherish you until you can admit it too. And then I will continue to love and cherish you because that’s what you deserve.” She kisses her cheeks, her forehead, the tip of her nose. “You are my precious, beautiful, strong, brilliant wife and I will never let you forget it.”

Her wife hides against her chest again, but Kara can feel her presence in her mind expanding, just enough to fully feel Kara’s conviction and love for her, and she holds her a long time after that, only deigning to readjust them enough to head to the kitchen and start breakfast when her wife’s stomach makes a quiet noise of discontent.

It’s after breakfast when they’re cuddling on the couch, her wife idly scrolling through a document from one of the hard drives and burrowing farther into Kara’s side the more she reads, that she pauses, closing her laptop and turning to Kara with a determined expression.

“What’s up, baby girl?” Kara asks, giving her companion her full attention.

I have… seen many of your memories thus far, her wife thinks carefully, but there is something I do not understand, and I… would like to ask you about it. You… don’t have to answer, of course, you can always say ‘no comment’ as Sam and Alex allow us to…

Kara takes her wife’s hand and raises it to her lips, and when her wife’s ramble peters out she holds her hand loosely in her lap. “You can ask me anything, :zhao.”

Her wife narrows her eyes a moment and takes a deep breath. My love, why do you hate your hair? At Kara’s confusion she continues. You always ensure you cannot see it— if you aren’t flying you put it back in a ponytail or braid or bun even when you’re in your suit. When I touch your hair, you… stiffen, not from the touch, just… the reminder of your hair, possibly of… someone else who carded their hand through it as well…

Kara’s mental shield slams down when her head starts throbbing, more painful than usual, but her wife is still watching her and she does her best not to wince. “I don’t… it’s…” She lets her hair down and holds some up, frowning at how the yellow strands catch the light. “I didn’t… I wasn’t always blonde,” she finally manages, the pain in her head nearly enough to reach her wife now. “My hair used to… be the same shade as my mom and my aunt’s, they were identical twins and I thought it was… I liked my hair color,” Kara whispers, the hand holding her hair tightening. “Aunt Astra would always card her hand through my hair, I think… it was just what she did before, but… after she was trying to get me used to it…”

Why… how did your hair color change? Her wife asks, brow crinkled now. When Kara yanks at the hair she’s still holding, hard enough that were she not under a yellow sun she would have lost some of it, her wife reaches out and gently untangles her hand, holding it between her own and using her powers to swiftly braid Kara’s hair and tuck it behind her back. My love?

“I…” There’s something Kara is supposed to say now, but this isn’t the usual question and she doesn’t want to lie to her wife and the pounding in her skull is about to break free of the shield she’s wrapped around it. “…no comment,” Kara whispers, and then she lays so her head is in her wife’s lap, her face tucked against her stomach, and she squeezes her eyes shut and lets it all fall away even as her wife strokes her hair, her worry nettling at Kara’s mind.

Ruby calls that evening shortly after they finish dinner. They’re both still on the roof, laying in the clover field that’s barely large enough to fit them horizontally and staring at what few stars they can make out overhead.

“Kara, how’s your girlfriend?” Ruby asks. “And you too, of course.”

Kara frowns and her wife feels her discontent. She doesn’t like keeping things from her niece, even if the news should be shared in person. She… should probably feel the same about her sister, but she’s still annoyed at the whole ‘eloped and didn’t have Kara fly to meet them there’ thing.

We’re both petty then, her wife muses, rolling over and resting her head on Kara’s arm. And I also don’t enjoy keeping things from your niece.

Our niece, Kara corrects. You married me, you’re stuck with my whole family now, :zhao.

Her wife smiles at that and Kara turns and kisses her cheek.

“Karaaaaaa,” Ruby groans. “Quit flirting and answer my questions.”

“You only asked one question,” Kara says. “I was merely an afterthought.”

“Ugh, fine,” Ruby sighs. “How are you and your girlfriend?”

“Better,” Kara singsongs. “Do you wanna know a secret?”

“Always. And unlike you I can actually keep them,” Ruby adds.

She’s thinking of how many people know you’re Supergirl, her wife thinks, highly amused. She’s been keeping a list.

“What is with you and Sam and keeping lists?” Kara grouses. “And if I tell you this secret you cannot, under any circumstance, tell your moms. Like, we will tell them, but… we want to do so, uh, in person.”

Ruby is quiet awhile and when Kara feels her wife’s amusement she knows she’s doomed. “You two aren’t girlfriends still, are you?” Ruby finally asks. “How long have you known each other, exactly?”

“Long enough,” Kara blurts. “And when someone offers to tell you a secret you’re supposed to let them say it, FYI.”

“I haven’t said anything yet,” Ruby retorts. “Not that it matters since your not-girlfriend is a telepath now.”

She knows something, her wife thinks then, brow crinkled. And she’s even better than Sam at hiding it.

“Maybe I shouldn’t tell you,” Kara says, pouting.

Darling, she’s a child. And… I want her to know. Her wife frowns. Though I would prefer she not hide things from me. Not… that I’ve ever met her or even seen her through your eyes…

“Auntie Kara, c’mon,” Ruby says. “I basically already know anyway.”

Partly to interrupt her wife’s spiraling, Kara caves. “Fine, fine. She’s my wife.”

“Holy shit,” Ruby says, and it sounds like she almost drops her phone.

“Language,” Kara says idly. “And what happened to you already knowing?”

“I thought you were engaged!”

We were, for less than a day, her wife muses, and Kara says as much, prompting a sigh from their niece.

“How come I wasn’t invited to the wedding?” Ruby is clearly pouting.

“Kryptonian travelers’ ceremony,” Kara says happily. “Traditionally only those exchanging bracelets are present. You will of course be at the Earth wedding once we, uh… know her name and whatnot.” Kara flushes and her wife kisses her cheek.

“You’re both ridiculous,” Ruby says, and Kara’s wife sends her their niece’s emotions then, or rather her sole emotion: happiness. “So, aunties, how are you doing?”

Kara regales their niece with her wife’s latest reaction to a cheesy sci-fi movie, which resulted in Kara having to buy a new remote and once again fix the television screen.

Ruby tells them about the last few days at school: a few quizzes and a test that was easy enough, a fire drill that gave her a headache, a story her math teacher told them all about using his car to flatten the grass at his frat house back in the day since none of them had a mower, and though she doesn’t think anyone is doing anything purposefully her locker has a few dents in it all of a sudden. She ends the call by telling them how her moms are doing, that they’re both spending plenty of time with her and at least getting enough sleep to function now, before telling them both to take care of themselves and each other and saying a cheery, “Love you, aunties, talk to you soon!”

It’s once the call is done and they’re heading inside that Kara’s wife takes her hand and squeezes it as tightly as she can. Ruby may know who I am, she thinks.

Kara freezes. “She hasn’t even met you, though.”

I know, her wife thinks, and takes a shuddering breath. I think that’s why she doesn’t want to say anything. When we mentioned not having our ‘Earth wedding’ until we knew my name, she thought… something like ‘if she doesn’t remember by my birthday I can tell her when I see her’. She isn’t entirely sure herself, but… her confidence in who she thinks I may be is growing.

“Well,” Kara says slowly. “We have told her a lot, and her check-in calls… are a little odd, if I’m being honest.” Kara scoops her wife into her arms and heads back to their apartment. “If she does know who you are, that’s probably a good thing. Though… I don’t know how she would know you.”

Her wife doesn’t respond at first, just curls against her and clutches her cardigan tightly. Whoever I am, her wife thinks to her once they’re inside, I’ll always be your wife.

Kara can feel her worry, the fear prickling against her mind. She sets her on their bed and kneels before her, takes her wife’s hands in her own and holds them, their golden bracelets glinting in the light. “Forever and always, baby girl,” Kara says softly. She presses a kiss to her wife’s wrist below her bracelet before standing enough to kiss her properly, slow and deep. “You are mine, and I am yours,” Kara says when she finally pulls back, staring resolutely into misty green eyes. “Nothing can change that. We won’t let it.”

When they go to bed that night Kara’s wife lays completely on top of her, cape covering them both, and before they retire to dream lessons on Krypton her wife slips fully into her mind, and Kara focuses solely on her heartbeat, and they let the rest of the world fall away for awhile.

The next day’s interview doesn’t go much better. It does, in fact, go far worse.

Alex and Sam start with softball questions— favorite color (her wife lists off the exact hex code for Kara’s irises which Alex shakes her head at, radiating judgment, while Sam just snickers), favorite food (potstickers if she’s in Kara’s mind and mint chocolate ice cream for herself, which makes Sam smirk a little too smugly despite Alex muttering to her that it’s a common flavor), opinion on AI (Kara scoffs and her wife possesses her long enough to deliver a speech on its futility with Earth’s lack of technical prowess as compared to Krypton, since even the most advanced planet had yet to create anything truly intelligent… a thought that again makes Kara have to shield her wife from a mental flash of pain… Sam winces and Alex just rolls her eyes).

Then Alex grips the notebook a little tighter and Kara and her wife both brace themselves. “Does she remember how she was captured?”

Kara attunes herself more closely to her wife, feels her confusion, and then she sort of… reaches out for the memory. She can’t grasp it, not really, but the emotions are there, and they flood Kara in an instant. She whimpers, curling into a ball and using everything she has to govern her strength lest she break something or even herself, shaking with her wife’s past emotions as they flow through her, easily overwhelming her mind.

Her wife had been terrified, but not just for herself. There were others, people she was desperate to protect, and she wasn’t sure if she had put enough precautions in place. She’d known she was fucked as soon as… something, had happened, had known she’d never see those she cared for again and had felt so much shame and guilt at the realization that she almost collapsed. She hadn’t said a word to her captors, her stepmother and half-brother, that much she can remember, just followed them and someone else and felt like she was willingly leaving her chosen family behind, and the whole time she’d been shaking with fear for her real family and rage… not at her captors but at herself for getting caught.

“I’m sorry,” Kara whimpers, too deep in her wife’s emotions to even see Sam and Alex fretting over her. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, please be safe…” Her voice is weak and wavering, she can feel her and her wife’s cheeks wet with tears, her wife curled up in bed at home in the same position Kara is, shaking with the weight of emotions long past. “Don’t try to find me, please.” Kara’s voice breaks on the last word, and she hears a sob at that that isn’t coming from either of them but she doesn’t know who it could be, can’t think outside of the sorrow and terror filling her. “Be safe, please, I’m sorry.”

It takes several long minutes for the emotions to fade, at least on Kara’s end, and when she finally blinks back to consciousness she uses a burst of super speed to escape the DEO, barely noticing Alex and Sam nearby, her sister stone-faced and Sam crying. She races to her apartment and scoops her wife, still shaking, into her lap, rocking her and singing her a Kryptonian lullaby as she comes back to herself, using Kara as an anchor. She immediately grabs the red cape and wraps them both in it, and they stay that way until well past both of their stomachs grumbling for breakfast.

Kara doesn’t patrol that day, only willing to leave her wife’s side when she informs her of incredible fear or anger she can feel in the city, and while she tries to be the usual sunny superhero she usually is she knows she’s falling a little flat. She keeps her interactions with people short and speeds back to her wife as soon as possible

Her wife lets her pamper her that night because they both know it’s all Kara can do for her right now, feeding her every meal and giving her an especially long bath while sharing memories of Krypton, lest her wife fall back into the memory of that morning.

When they finally go to bed her wife curls up and Kara knows she just wants to be held, so she lays beside her and holds her close to her chest, blanketing them both with the red cape her wife has been wearing all day and falling asleep to memories of her Kryptonian education.

Kara wakes to her wife clinging tightly to her and she honestly doesn’t want to bother going to the DEO at all, but at that thought her wife pulls away, clinking their bracelets together as she scowls at her.

You need the sun bed, she says. You gave me far too much energy last night, and we both know it.

Kara still doesn’t want to go, but a knock on the door startles her into sitting upright, and she peers through the spinning room and the door to see… “Nia?”

What do you mean the room is spinning? Her wife peers through her eyes then and flinches. Fucking hell, Kara.

“Kara,” Nia echoes, speaking at a normal volume. “I know you’re too tired to get there yourself, so c’mon, let’s go.” She punctuates it with a yawn. “And no, you weren’t going to call me, your girlfriend was going to psychically call me when you pass out in an hour.”

At that Kara’s wife does her best to shove her from the bed and Kara stands, swaying a bit and frowning when she feels her wife’s concern. “I’m fine, baby girl,” Kara mumbles, wrapping her cape around the woman, wobbling all the while. “Be back soon-ish.” She doesn’t bother actually changing from her pajamas or even putting her glasses on, merely tucking them into the pocket on her shirt. “Off I go.” She presses a clumsy kiss to her head. “Khap :zhao rrip,” Kara mumbles, nearly clinking their bracelets together again.

Her wife pulls back quickly and double checks that her own bracelet is still silver before lightly pushing Kara towards the door. Khap :zhao rrip, be safe. Her worry thrums through Kara and it makes her want to turn back but a pinch to her side gets her to finish walking to the door.

“Nia,” Kara says, staring blearily at the doorknob. “How does one open a door?”

“Oh my god,” Nia groans. “Have your psychic girlfriend do it.”

The door magically opens— Oh, darling, no, her wife thinks, half concerned and half amused— and Kara stumbles through, not even noticing when it closes and locks behind her.

Nia doesn’t even try to peek into her apartment, too busy gawking at Kara, who must look more disheveled than she realizes. “Your sister is gonna freak. Can you even make it to the car?”

“It’s her fucking fault,” Kara grumbles, ignoring her friend’s snort of amusement. “Probably? I can try…” Her control over her strength and general awareness both seem to decrease the farther she gets from her apartment, no, from her wife. It’s then that Kara realizes there’s a warmth flowing into her that her body is rejecting as the distance increases, not wanting to take any more when she’s leaving her behind. “Are you seriously trying to return my energy?” Kara asks, struggling not to slur her words together. “It’s rude to return gifts, baby girl.”

Take it and get to the damn sun bed, you too-generous workaholic, her wife says, and Kara yelps when she’s hit with the memory of an icy pinch.

Nia elects to ignore the whole exchange, instead focusing on guiding Kara to her car, and then opening the door with a sigh when Kara stares at the handle, brow crinkled. Nia does, however, squeak in surprise when Kara turns to try to go back and is shoved (delicately) into the car by an invisible force that even buckles her seatbelt.

“Rude,” Kara says. “And thank you.”

You’re welcome, her wife thinks, and Kara gets the sense she’s rolling her eyes. Tell your friend to drive safely, I don’t think you’re nearly as durable as you usually are.

Kara nods and turns to Nia, who has somehow appeared beside her and is starting the car. “I have been told to… tell you I am… uh…”

Less durable, so drive safely. Her wife’s worry is mixed with exasperation now.

So Kara nods again. “Less dur’ble so drive safely.”

Good job, her wife thinks, trying not to laugh at Kara’s preening even as her worry thrums through them both.

Kara has a vague thought, then, that she is deliciously loopy and not feeling nearly as… confined by a small space as she usually would, that she can still move her body easily even though she knows she shouldn’t of course, that it’s very nice to not be curled up in a fetal position—

Nia sighs. “I kinda figured.” She glances at Kara when they reach an intersection. “You will be powered up enough to fly through a few billboards later today, so there’s that.”

Kara lets her head fall against the seat. “Why though?”

“That I don’t know,” Nia says evenly, turning onto some street or other. “Now, do you want to tell me why you’re so low on energy that you’re worse off than I was before I learned to control my dreams?”

“Alex asked… hm something mean,” Kara decides. “And it made her feel bad, and I wanted to help, and I was… maybe not paying as much, uh, atten… attention as I shoulda been.”

Nia shakes her head, eyes still on the road. “Her? You mean your girlfriend?”

Kara turns her head and narrows her eyes at Nia, and she ignores her wife’s pinch of warning to her side. “Why do you all call her that?”

Nia chances a glance to the passenger seat and frowns. “What do you mean? Isn’t she your girlfriend?”

“Nope,” Kara says. “I never said she was.”

“Then… what is she?”

Kara grins gleefully. “My ex-girlfriend!”

For fuck’s sake, Kara, really? That’s how you want to phrase it? Her wife sighs back in their apartment and Kara giggles.

Nia gives up on driving and pulls over into a parking spot near the DEO, turning to give Kara her full attention. “From everything you’ve said, she doesn’t sound like an ex-girlfriend.” She watches Kara carefully. “How long did you date?”

Kara hums, her face pinching in concentration as she tries to think.

Her wife has given up and decided to go with it. Less than a day, she drawls.

Kara nods. “Less than a day, we say.” She giggles again. She’s feeling very giggly. Her wife is sighing again.

“And… what are you now?” Nia asks, sounding so, so lost.

Kara gives Nia a brilliant smile. “Ex-fiancées!”

Nia freezes and then examines Kara’s wrists. “I…” She gulps. “Kara are you wearing any jewelry right now?”

Kara gasps and her hand flies to her wrist to cover her already-invisible bracelet. “How did you know?”

Nia groans and lets her head fall against her window, staring out the windshield forlornly.

Darling, you just told her, her wife says.

“Oh, I did!” Kara removes her hand and frowns at her wrist. “Aw, it’s invisible right now. How come?”

Because we were keeping it secret until I could meet your sister in person, her wife says calmly.

Kara gasps again and turns to Nia. “You can’t tell Alex! We’re s’posed to tell her in person! When my wife can be… in person.”

Nia looks at her and just seems so, so tired. “Kara, are sure you won’t tell Alex when we get to the DEO?”

Kara scowls. “Don’t wanna talk to her right now, she made my wife rem’ber bad things.”

Darling, you may want to quit referring to me as ‘your wife’ out loud. Her wife is once again both amused and worried.

Kara frowns at that. “But you are my wife!”

“But people aren’t supposed to know yet,” Nia tries.

Now Kara turns to frown at Nia. “But I know! And so does my wife, and Brainy, and Cat, and we told Ruby cuz we felt bad keeping it from our niece.”

Your stalker already knew as well but is currently highly amused, her wife thinks then. They’re far away enough I can barely glean their thoughts but not too far to hear you, apparently. Their powers are… disturbingly similar to yours, my love. They may also be Kryptonian. Kara wants to give that some thought but doesn’t have the time or the energy.

Nia chokes on nothing. “Why the hell did you tell my boyfriend and the fucking Queen of All Media?”

“Brainy figured it out, he knows… something. Won’t tell us,” Kara says, frowning. “Ruby too. And Cat figured we were together, uh, wanted a wedding invite?” Kara bops her head side to side to try to jog her memory. “Already has one, told her so, but to the Earth wedding. Kryptonian wedding is done, did it Sunday.”

Nia stares at Kara for a long, long moment before reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder to still her. Kara flinches from the contact when her wife gasps and Nia winces. “Oh sh— no wait you cuss now so you can’t get onto me for it, shit. Also, sorry. Let’s go.” Nia pulls out and heads for the DEO’s parking lot. “And congratulations on the nuptials,” Nia adds absently. When she parks she turns to Kara with a frown. “Your not-girlfriend may want to… keep you from talking for awhile, if she can.”

Kara’s hand raises in a thumbs up and Kara looks at it with a frown. “Cool,” she decides. “My hand is haunted.” Nia snorts at that and Kara’s wife sighs.

Darling, it isn’t a ghost, it’s me, her wife tries.

Kara’s eyes widen. “A very boo-tiful ghost then,” she says with a serene nod.

Nia, giving up on the conversation according to Kara’s wife, exits the car and pulls a boneless Kara from it a moment later, nearly dropping her. “Fuck, you’re heavy.”

“Kryptonians are dense,” Kara says sedately, sliding closer to the ground. She doesn’t trust her control enough to walk or even stand at the moment. “Lit’rally, not… the other one. I’m smart.”

Very smart, her wife reassures her, and Kara preens.

No one is around but Nia still asks, “A little help please?”

Kara’s wife slips into her body then, but not… a full possession. Just enough to take about half her weight and lean the rest against Nia.

“Sorry,” Kara says. “She’s still recov’ring from yes’day. Needs more stew.”

“My condolences once again,” Nia mutters.

Somehow, Nia and Kara’s wife get her to the sun bed. Just as Kara flops down, boneless and now ghostless— darling, I am not a ghost, her wife thinks, her amusement tickling Kara’s mind and making her giggle— Alex and Sam walk in.

Alex notices Kara’s appearance first. “What the hell happened to you?” Kara pouts and turns away, so Alex turns to Nia. “Well? You knew to bring her here somehow.”

Nia takes a small step back. “I’d really rather not get in the middle of this,” she tries.

Darling, Kara’s wife thinks, don’t let Nia get in trouble for helping you. And don’t call me your wife.

So Kara turns and glares at her sister. “My w—“ Nia slaps a hand over her mouth and Kara looks at her in confusion. When Nia removes her hand Kara tries again. “My w—“ A hand is over her mouth again, but this time it’s her own. “Ghost hand,” Kara mumbles when it falls away.

Nia sighs. “She’s not… super lucid, right now. And she’s prone to saying things she shouldn’t.” She glares at her unrepentant friend. “So just… don’t talk to her for…?”

Kara’s hand raises and holds up a single index finger.

“A whole hour?” Nia hisses. “Fuck, Kara, regulate your energy better.”

“It’s Alex’s fault,” Kara insists.

Alex definitely wants to deny that but Sam grabs her. “Fine, but when she’s more… lucid, I have a question I’d like answered.” Kara’s wife sends her Sam’s emotions then— fear, shame… sadness so vast Kara could drown in it.

“Alex,” Kara gasps, and frowns, “why are you letting your wife be so sad?”

Sam drags a sputtering Alex away as Nia plops down on a chair with a sleepy complaint of being a babysitter for an hour.

Nia is a good friend, her wife says, and Kara grins proudly.

“Nia is a very good friend,” Kara agrees aloud, and smiles at Nia when the young woman fails to hide her own smile.

Once an hour has passed and a very flushed Kara mumbles a ‘thank you’ to Nia, the young woman trudges off to the break room with the beds, desperate for a bit more sleep before work.

Sam graciously gives Kara a whole extra half hour before returning, leaving Kara to lay in the sun bed and be teased by her wife, though she is thankful she relaxed once she made it to the sun bed and didn’t break it.

I wasn’t that bad, Kara tries, knowing full well it’s a lie.

You didn’t understand how Nia knew about your bracelet, her wife replies, her amusement curling around Kara and doing nothing to help her flushed face. You couldn’t open doors, you thought it was magic when I did it, and you called me a ‘boo-tiful ghost’.

“A very boo-tiful ghost,” Kara corrects, blushing even worse now.

Of course, darling, her wife thinks, her amusement only increasing. You also almost told Alex and Sam we’re married by openly referring to me as your wife. Twice.

Kara bites her lip. Okay, fine, I was that bad.

Her wife sends her a wave of understanding and love, though Kara can feel the curls of amusement and concern underneath. While it was amusing, she says, please never do that again. You couldn’t even walk, my love.

“Ugh, I know, I fucked up, I’m sorry.” Kara covers her eyes with hands. “It was partially Alex’s fault though.”

“How so?” Her sister drawls, appearing from nowhere. Kara jumps and Alex narrows her eyes. “I’m getting déja vu, sis. What happened to you knowing how to regulate your energy?”

Kara scowls at her. “You made my :zhao remember something super fucking painful, that’s what. Why would you even ask a question like that?”

“It was my idea,” Sam says quietly, stepping out from behind Alex, who shoots her a worried look she waves off. “I have one more question, and then I’ll drop it, I promise.”

Kara wants to speed away but that is physically not possible for her at the moment, and when her wife once again sends her Sam’s emotions— shame and that same, drowning sadness, Kara slumps into the sun bed. “Fine, what is it?”

Sam comes closer, looks down at her sister-in-law and stares at her a long while with wide, teary eyes. “Why didn’t she want us to— why didn’t she want to be found?”

After a long moment, Kara’s wife slips into her body, but she can’t meet Sam’s eyes so closes her own. “It’s not… that I didn’t want to be found,” she says, voice soft and wavering. “I don’t remember specifics, but I remember… missing people. And knowing they were going to look for me, not… not because I even let them help with whatever I was doing, just… because they were the type to… never give up, I suppose,” Kara’s body takes a deep breath and her hand drifts up to clench at her pajama top, ripping it easily, but she doesn’t notice. “What I, well, Kara…” She sighs. “What you asked last time triggered a memory, but only the emotions. When I was taken, that is how I felt. I was terrified more for… whoever I was leaving behind than I was for myself, worried that whatever precautions I had taken wouldn’t be enough. I felt ashamed for leaving even though it was definitely against my will, and I was so, so desperate for… I don’t know, my… found family… to be safe, and to let me go so they wouldn’t be taken too.”

Kara’s body takes several ragged breaths and she can tell her wife wants to slip away but Sam makes a small, pained sound and she can’t stop her eyes from flashing open and meeting Sam’s, even wider and actually crying now.

“I was prepared to be… discovered, I think… I don’t remember… for what,” Kara’s body says, unable to look away from Sam. “But I assumed they would just… kill me, not… take me. I didn’t have any plans in place to escape or… to be rescued. I did what I could to stay alive, to stay… myself…” Her hand strays upward and presses over Kara’s heart, her body at home doing the same and feeling the upraised scar beneath her shirt. Kara’s body shudders and her hand goes back to her stomach. “I sabotaged what I could to make finding me easier,” she wants to give specifics but Kara begs her not to so she refrains. “And I managed to survive long enough that I was finally found.” By you and Kara, she thinks, but doesn’t say. She finally looks away and closes her eyes again. “I failed my… family, by being taken from them, I wasn’t about to fail them again by letting them find me too late.”

Sam strides from the room, Alex close behind, and through Kara’s ears they hear when she slams the door to her office and punches what Kara is pretty sure is a new punching bag she keeps there for that purpose. Then Sam is gulping for air and crying and Alex is holding her, and Kara’s wife slips away and she can feel her doing her best to tune out Sam’s pain and grief, and feel that she really, really, does not want to talk about it right now, so Kara lets her mind drift to one of her more dangerous adventures with her aunt Astra on a planet not unlike Earth, where they had been chased by an alligator-like creature the size of a skyscraper, and Kara, still tiny but already quite durable under a yellow sun, had accidentally gotten snapped up but was fine, and later had the chipped tooth of a monster proudly displayed in her room.

Your mom definitely knew, her wife thinks weakly, Sam’s emotions still coursing through her. I’m amazed she let Astra anywhere near you after that, even if she’s the one who spent the most time with you from what I’ve seen.

Kara just continues to recall her favorite moments with her aunt until she’s done refueling and can leave, returning home and making a stew-heavy breakfast one-handed with her exhausted wife tucked into her other arm, cape pulled tightly around her.

Kara doesn’t return to the DEO until that evening, when she drops off a particularly sneaky alien bank robber her wife helped her track down, and once she’s locked the woman in a containment cell she makes a beeline for the landing pad only to find Alex and Sam waiting for her.

“Uh, hi,” Kara says. “What’s up?” She valiantly does not mention whatever the fuck happened earlier, or that Sam’s eyes are still red and puffy and Alex looks exhausted.

Sam opens her mouth but can’t seem to talk, and Alex places a hand on her back and looks at Kara. “We just wanted to make sure your girlfriend is alright,” Alex says softly.

Kara’s brow crinkles. “…how so?”

Sam takes a shuddering breath. “Last time she talked to us you said she had to sleep for awhile, so I— we wanted to see if her… answering my question earlier, hurt her or… anything.” Sam looks down and Kara is pretty sure she wants to cry some more.

“She was able to wake up this time,” Kara says softly. “She took a nap after breakfast…”

A gross breakfast, her wife chips in, still sounding tired.

Kara rolls her eyes. “Your body wasn’t feeling up for anything but stew, baby girl. I’m surprised you could handle the small cup of fruit you had after.”

“Stew?” Sam asks, looking at Kara now, her brow furrowed.

“Uh, yeah,” Kara says, trying not to frown. Sam is far more interested in her wife that she’s comfortable with. “It’s a ‘highly nutritional and hydrating’ recipe Nia found.” Kara’s nose wrinkles. “The taste is… not great, but it’s all she could handle for awhile and it helps her, uh, keep solid foods down still.”

Sam looks a bit sick at this, though Kara’s wife refrains from commenting on whatever the woman is thinking. It’s Alex who ends up grabbing Kara and dragging her to a conference room, Sam trailing close behind.

Once the door is closed Alex turns to Kara with a strange look on her face. “Kara, just how bad off was— is, your girlfriend?” She holds up a hand when Kara looks uncertain. “I’m not scheming anything, just… I am a doctor, not as, uh, well-versed, as Mom, but… how is she currently doing physically? And how does that match up against a human, I guess.”

You can tell her, her wife thinks. I will not consent to being medically examined or going anywhere near needles for… awhile, but she may have some useful insight. And… she is genuinely concerned, both for my welfare and yours, since you have been my sole caretaker for so long now.

Kara bites her lip, but when her wife sends her Alex’s current emotions— mostly concern and determination— she sighs and leans against the conference room table. “She’s human,” Kara admits, ignoring Alex’s shock and Sam’s lack thereof. “Well, she was, anyway. Her biology was drastically altered, otherwise my energy wouldn’t do much for her.”

“Why did you tell us she was an alien?” Alex blurts, then shakes her head. “No, sorry, forget it. How is she doing?”

“She can eat most foods now,” Kara says. “Richer ones and ones she hasn’t had yet tend to upset her stomach, but having stew after she eats makes it a lot easier, and, uh, me rubbing her stomach also helps.” Kara blushes at her sister’s raised eyebrows but continues. “We restarted her physical therapy a few days ago, though we had to backtrack a bit since she couldn’t do it for the past week— I use my powers and my connection to her to monitor her body so she won’t get overexerted or anything.”

Alex asks some questions then that make everyone except her blush, but Kara’s wife dutifully sends her the answers and Alex seems satisfied with that. “How was she when you found her?” Alex asks, and Kara stiffens.

“Why is that important?” Kara mutters.

Alex crosses her arms. “Because it will tell me how much she’s improved. Now spill.”

Kara mimics her sister’s pose, if only to avoid crushing the table she’s leaning against as she thinks back to her wife’s condition when she first found her. “She eats at normal times throughout the day now,” Kara says quietly, “but initially I was feeding her every few hours, anytime we could tell she was able to eat more. She couldn’t even finish a mug of stew that first night, but her appetite increased quickly and I was able to start feeding her solid foods after a week… well, a little bit of solid foods but still mostly stew, honestly.”

Alex is watching Kara with narrowed eyes. “When you say you were ‘feeding her’?”

Sam is also staring at Kara, but through her wife she can feel that while Alex is very much in doctor mode Sam is feeling grief and rage in equal measure.

Kara looks away, staring at a blank space between the women’s heads. “She wasn’t strong enough to feed herself. Or… walk, really. She mostly slept, and I carried her around my apartment. I found some physical therapy exercises online and we started doing those but at first it was just me moving her body for her. Now she can do far more advanced ones on her own and she’s gained a lot of weight and muscle mass.”

Silence, for a solid few minutes, and Kara refuses to look at the women in the room.

Finally, “Kara Zor-El Danvers,” Alex growls. “This woman clearly needed medical attention, why the hell didn’t you bring her to me immediately?”

Kara meets Alex’s eyes then. “Because you would have locked her away,” she snarls. “Like you do all the other people I bring to you. Why the fuck would I trust the DEO with someone so vulnerable?”

Sam clenches her fists but takes a deep breath. “And a normal hospital?”

Kara looks away again. “Her powers were unstable. If I’d brought her to… a place full of people, and medical equipment… she wouldn’t have handled it well. Especially if they’d tried to strap her down.” She remembers the sound of shackles falling to the ground, and the mental scream that followed. The litany of scars on her wife’s body… “I don’t know how, but I knew I could help her, so… I did.”

Kara’s wife can’t help her wave of fear at the thought of what could have been. I wasn’t cognizant enough to have handled that, she thinks. If you’d taken me to a hospital, I… would have tried to escape or died trying. The fear is even greater then. Or killed…

Alex steps into Kara’s space, a furious scowl on her face. “You’re telling me you risked a woman’s life on a hunch?”

Before Kara can respond, her own guilt and self-doubt rising as her sister stares her down, her wife makes a decision, one Kara doesn’t agree with but, as her wife points out, is her wife’s right to share.

Kara sighs and reaches her hand out, pressing her index finger to her sister’s forehead. Alex opens her mouth to ask what the hell she thinks she’s doing but freezes when her wife uses the physical contact to send her a single image: Kara’s memory of her when she’d first found her, after she’d ripped her hospital gown off, her focus on her body from the shoulders down, about. A body that was filthy, scarred, and painfully, impossibly thin, kneeling in the shade of the desert and trembling from the effort of staying upright.

Kara withdraws her finger and Alex doesn’t move. Sam steps forward, brow furrowed, and places a hand on Alex’s shoulder. Still Alex doesn’t move, until Sam whispers her name softly.

Alex turns and exits the room, Sam following her with concern etched clearly on her face, and Kara hears Sam’s curse when Alex grabs the nearest trash bin and vomits into it.

“Was that from you using your powers on her?” Kara asks, confused.

No, that was simply her reaction to my appearance back then, her wife thinks softly. I still don’t understand how you looked at me and immediately wanted to protect me instead of fleeing and assuming I was a zombie or something. Her wife’s sadness turns to a dark kind of amusement. That’s probably an insult to zombies, actually.

Kara’s mouth drops open in rage, and all she can even think to say is, “How dare you insult my beautiful wife.”

Darling, I may be improving, but even so I am certainly not that.

So Kara starts recalling all the moments she thought her wife was beautiful. From that fist day: her cocky little arched brow when Kara had called her ‘bossy’, her peaceful face during her bath, her sitting on Kara’s bed and wiggling her toes in Kara’s fuzzy socks, her disbelief when Kara had dared to use her heat vision on her stew, her rolling her eyes when Kara had the audacity to warn her she may get a headache from Kara’s super speedy typing.

And later: her sprawled across Kara every time they woke up, her fierce gaze when she worried her dislike of reporters had hurt Kara and kissing her cheek once she was reassured, her smile when Kara asked to be her family, her soft eyes after covering them both with Kara’s cape as she gave Kara space to share her loneliness and sorrow.

Her annoyed frown when Kara called her a workaholic, her determined glares when mastering some new aspect of her powers, her laughter when Kara told her to aim for getting her to hover before trying for world domination.

And after a week of darkness, light: green eyes finally opening, her wife sitting up in bed, a red cape wrapped around her. The wobbly grin she gave Kara after her first words, and in Kryptonian no less. Her smirk when she told Kara she was fine with her nicknames… :zhao included.

Every memory Kara recalls just brings more to mind, and she’s remembering her wife’s quiet, mental humming as she cooks with Kara in the kitchen, eyes sparkling when they add ingredients she knows she’ll like to their meal. She remembers her soft gasps when she’s surprised during movie nights, her smirks when she guesses correctly what will happen next. Her wide eyes and excited grin when they made their bracelets, and her soft smile under a red sunset as they’d exchanged them.

You are so, so beautiful, baby girl, Kara thinks to her, and with a bit of concentration she feels her wife still curled up in their bed, tears slipping down her cheeks. I dunno if you’re hydrated enough for tears yet though. A ghost of a warm pinch to her side has Kara giggling, and her wife echoes her amusement.

Khap :zhao rrip, her wife thinks to her, sending her every ounce of her love she can. I love you, she repeats, I love you, I love you, I love you.

Kara is sniffling and still grinning when her sister and sister-in-law finally return, Sam with a fierce frown and Alex smelling of mouthwash.

Alex watches her warily. “Sorry about that. It was, uh, unprofessional.”

“And rude,” Sam snaps, and Kara has a feeling that she missed out on a conversation she should have been eavesdropping on.

Alex winces. “Trust me, I would have preferred not to do it.” Sam reaches out and pinches Alex’s side, hard. “Ow! Jesus, woman, why do you and Ruby always do that?”

Sam freezes, glances at Kara, then shrugs. “We share a bad influence. Now, Alex, I think you have some things to say to your sister and her girlfriend.”

With a very loud sigh, Alex turns to Kara, barely meeting her eyes. “First, I really am sorry for… reacting like that. And I didn’t tell Sam any specifics, uh, doctor-patient confidentiality and all. Also, Kara…” Alex takes a deep breath and blows it out. “I’m sorry for freaking out on you. If… if you had brought her to a hospital, or even to me… she’d definitely be dead.”

Sam makes a quiet sound at that and Kara’s wife, and thus Kara, feels Sam’s shock and grief so strongly that Kara has to tense her own body to keep from doubling over with it.

Alex doesn’t notice, still watching Kara, her eyes grim. “She shouldn’t be alive, period. I don’t know how she was even alive when you found her. If you had brought her to me or anyone else they wouldn’t have been able to do more for her than you did, and considering her powers she would have known they were expecting her to die and that definitely wouldn’t have helped. The only thing we would have done that you didn’t would have been an IV but based on what I saw, that would have only stressed her out, and either the stress or the resulting use of her powers would have killed her. The only reason she is currently alive is that you somehow knew to share your energy with her, and knowing you I doubt you wrote her off as dead even once, which helped in its own way.”

Sam grabs Alex’s hand, squeezing so hard her knuckles bleach white. “Alex, how bad was she?”

Alex doesn’t look at her wife. “I’m not telling you.”

“Alex—“

“No,” Alex says, voice hard. “All you need to know is that she’s alive and she’s okay.” Alex’s brow furrows. “She… is doing better from what Kara said, but…” She gives Kara wary look. “Any chance she can show me a more… recent memory?”

Feeling her immediate refusal, her wife sends a ghost of a pinch to her side. That didn’t take much from me, she says. I think it would be best to show her something from yesterday. Kara still wants to say no, not after how Alex reacted, and not with how weird Alex and Sam are both acting now. Please, my love. They’re both worried.

Kara works her jaw, looking from her sister’s pleading gaze to Sam’s trembling form. Finally Kara nods, and presses her fingertip to Alex’s forehead again. This time the snapshot of memory her wife chooses is far more recent, from the bath the prior evening, though once again she chooses one where Kara was more focused on her body than her face. She is clean, her ribs still visible but not painfully so, and her fat and muscle gain are obvious. The scars are still there, of course, and even in the brief moment it takes her to pass the memory on Kara can feel her wife’s body tensing back home. Kara senses, then, that Alex can also feel the woman’s negativity surrounding her scars, and she hopes her sister will have the grace to not question why Kara is still bathing her.

When Alex blinks back into awareness she slumps with relief. “Okay, that’s good. She’s definitely progressing at a ridiculous rate since it’s barely been nine weeks, probably thanks to you giving her your energy. Keep doing that,” Alex says absently, patting Kara’s shoulder. “And good job, Kara,” Alex adds, already pulling Sam, who’s now hiding her face, from the room. “Go make her some dinner already.”

How did they know it’s been nine weeks? Kara asks her wife, but there’s no response. She stares after her sister and sister-in-law with narrowed eyes, and when she reaches out to her wife she feels a flash of fear. What’s going on, baby girl?

It’s several long moments before her wife responds. They know who I am, I think. I don’t… they’re doing their best not to think of it though. Not my name, or anything. I can’t tell if they know me personally or if it’s… some kind of DEO case they don’t want us privy to. First Ruby, and now Sam and Alex. Her fear grows and Kara is already zooming through the halls at a pace barely under what she’s allowed in an emergency. My love, her wife thinks to her as Kara takes off from the balcony, hurrying home as fast as she can to the person now shaking with sobs under the covers, who am I that they don’t want me to know?

“It doesn’t matter,” Kara growls, pushing herself faster. “Whoever you are, whoever you were, you’re you.” She recalls her favorite memories of her wife at rapid fire, barely even noticing the three billboards she blows through on her way home.

Darling, her wife manages, billboards.

Kara blows out a breath so cold she ends up plowing through air frozen solid. “Doesn’t matter, they all fight over them anyway and Nia’s used to me ignoring her warnings by now.” She finally gets home, swoops into her window and is wrapped around the woman still trembling in bed before her suit is even done receding. “I love you,” Kara whispers fiercely. “I love you and nothing will change that.” She holds her wife close, letting her anger at the situation fall away so her love and affection and care for the woman in her arms is all she feels.

Eventually her wife quiets, still clinging to Kara, face tucked against her neck and golden hair tickling her cheek, Kara not having had a chance to tie it back yet. Kara watches her wife reposition slightly to nuzzle into her hair as Kara so often does hers, and… she can feel her wife’s contentment with this, and that she likes Kara’s hair regardless of its color, and Kara… decides to wear it down, every once in awhile at least, even as she continues rubbing her wife’s back, humming Kryptonian lullabies into her hair until her heartbeat slows. Kara pulls back just enough to press a kiss to her forehead.

“I don’t know why they’re all being so weird about it,” Kara says quietly, “but from what I can tell Ruby and Sam are invested in your wellbeing and Alex of all people told me to keep sending you energy, so it… may not be anything bad.” Her brow furrows, one of her own memories for once slipping away before she can grasp it. Something about a photo? “Sorry, I… uh, anyway, you could feel their emotions at least, right?”

They don’t… seem afraid of me, her wife thinks carefully. I’m not sure why I immediately assumed the worst, but… you’re right. Ruby… mostly wants to know for sure before she says anything. And Sam… anytime she hears how poorly I was treated she feels grief that’s… overwhelming. Alex’s feelings are less intense, her wife muses, fingers idly tapping at Kara’s skin, her mind now in problem-solving mode. She wants me to be okay, but it seems to be as much as for Sam and Ruby as for you. I’m a person to them, but to Alex I’m… her people’s person, kind of.

It’s the wording that does it, causing Kara to wonder who ‘Sam and Ruby’s person’ could be, and Kara stiffens, the memory that eluded her before back and clear as day: a grainy image taken at an airport nearly four years ago, a pale woman with dark hair looking right at the camera as she’s being herded onto a private jet.

“Lena Luthor,” Kara whispers, and her wife goes rigid in her arms. Then, “I’m a fucking idiot.”

Chapter Text

You aren’t an idiot, her wife thinks immediately. She gulps. The name does… sound familiar.

Kara pulls back and cradles her wife’s face in her hands, staring at the pale skin, worried green eyes, and jet black hair that she can’t believe she didn’t recognize. Yes, Lena Luthor was camera shy as hell, the only photo of her face Kara had ever seen was the one from the airport nearly four years ago, but Kara had been noticing Sam and Ruby’s reactions to her wife and her wife’s reactions to Sam and Ruby since she’d found her. Kara’s mind starts whirring with all the clues she should have picked up on, and she doesn’t resurface until her wife starts to bite her lip, her nervousness thrumming through them both. Kara easily uses her thumb to free it, pressing a kiss there instead.

“Your name is Lena, baby girl,” Kara whispers. “You’re Sam’s best friend, you raised Ruby together, you were gathering evidence on your half-brother and stepmother’s crimes, and you managed to get your friend Jess to safety even when your so-called family kidnapped you.”

Her wife trembles but doesn’t respond, and Kara presses her forehead to hers, and recalls her first meetings with Sam: the email, the pile of napkin shreds at Noonan’s, Sam’s desperation to find her family and belief that they were still alive, her insistence that Lena would never miss Ruby’s birthday. She shows her her own brief search, her memories of the photos Winn captured and the ladybug text, and bringing them to Sam the next day, what she told her about Lena’s ‘bug out’ plan and safety precautions, and her telling Kara not to look into it further. And the phone call Kara accidentally overheard the beginning of, presumably to the President.

She shows her Sam’s first days at the DEO, snippets of her interactions with Alex, Sam’s hope that Supergirl could help being born and dying before her eyes when she realized Kara already had. A bit of conversation overheard at Sam’s wedding, her maid of honor place conspicuously empty and a twelve-year-old Ruby whispering to her mom that she wished Auntie Lena and Aunt Jess and even Uncle Jack were there. And a later conversation with Ruby, about the lack of pictures of her other godmother and the rules she put in place to keep them safe, Ruby whispering that she wished Lena was okay too.

Kara’s wife pulls away at that and buries her face in Kara’s chest, breaths ragged and feeling an aching grief so strong it makes Kara feel like she can’t get enough air in her lungs.

You’re right, her wife thinks. This, these feelings, a hand presses to her stomach and clenches at the fabric of her pajama top until Kara reaches down and entwines their fingers. You’re right but I don’t remember them, Kara. Terrified green eyes meet Kara’s own as her wife pulls away enough to see her face. Ruby recognized me from a few things we told her, Sam recognized me from you picking up my mannerisms— which she hasn’t seen in years— and I don’t remember them.

“You recognized them,” Kara insists. “When you first saw Sam through my eyes, I felt your shock. And you know she adapts quickly, and that she was going to punch a wall, and,” Kara can’t help but smile now, “you were mad as hell when you found out what a bad influence Alex is on Ruby.”

Her wife, no, Lena, snorts at that. If I do remember everything your sister is getting a lecture and two shovel talks.

“When you remember,” Kara corrects, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “And she definitely deserves them.” Kara remembers an outing with just Alex and Ruby then, to a field miles from anyone where Alex had handed the then-twelve-year-old one of the less volatile ‘toys’ Kara had made her and they’d used Supergirl for target practice.

Lena actually growls. I don’t know if I’m more upset with Alex or you for that.

Kara rolls onto her back, pulling her grumpy wife onto her chest as she does so. “I got a ton of potstickers out of it, so I was happy, and Ruby beat Alex’s record so quickly that Alex pouted for a week.”

Of course she did, she’s excellent, Lena thinks instinctively. Then she lets her head fall to Kara’s chest. I don’t want to be a Luthor, she says. Nothing good comes of it.

“I mean, you thinking you could buy CatCo makes sense now,” Kara muses. “You’re filthy rich. I’m both a cradle robber and a sugar baby.”

Green eyes peek at her. Should I get my hands on their money I will of course spoil you rotten, but for now I am still a broke amnesiac, darling.

Kara tugs her up a bit and kisses her. “I love you, Lena Luthor.”

Think of me as… Lena, if you must, her wife thinks, pursing her lips. No last name for now. But as for what you call me, well, I did already tell you what I prefer, did I not? Her brow arches dangerously and she gives Kara a look that makes heat pool in her stomach. Her wife, of course, smirks at that. Well, my love?

Kara darts up to kiss her again before letting her head thump back against the mattress and giving her wife a lazy grin. “Fine, fine, you did. I love you, baby girl.”

Much better, her— Lena, thinks, resting her head over Kara’s heart now. She sends Kara a tickle of amusement at her correction.

“Well we both need to get used to it,” Kara murmurs, carding a hand through dark hair. “So while you will forever be my wife, my :zhao, my baby girl, I do need to start thinking of you as Lena too.” Cuz Lena is important to a lot of people, Kara adds.

Three people, Lena drawls. Sam, Ruby, and Jess. Well, and Jack, when he was… alive. Her brow crinkles, her fingers tapping lightly on Kara’s skin, but whatever she’s trying to remember evades her.

“Three is a lot,” Kara says easily, thinking of her parents and aunt now, and even… the thought falls away. “And the fact that Sam’s emotions were so strong they got passed onto me through our connection, well, I don’t think she’d appreciate me letting you quit being Lena.”

Fair enough, her wife thinks with a sigh. But now I understand even less why she and Alex are trying so hard to keep my own identity from me.

Kara frowns, continuing to play with silky dark hair as she thinks. “I think they may be trying to protect you,” Kara decides. “Let you stay hidden away and ignorant while they handle the ones who took you.” She pauses, still considering. “They don’t know exactly what happened at the evil lair. Corben, hm, based on the fact that Sam was searching for you and was trying to draw ‘them’ out, and what you remember him saying, he was probably looking for Lillian and Lex.” Her wife flinches at the names and Kara’s arm wraps around her more securely as her other hand goes back to combing through her hair. “No one knows they’re dead,” Kara says, only just realizing it herself. “I covered it up too well. Sam and Alex, Corben and whatever other evil minions they have… they’re still trying to find them.”

Lena raises her head and looks at Kara with wide eyes. That’s not good, she thinks. Cutting the head off the snake in this case just leaves space for more heads to grow.

Kara stares at her and considers delving into her mind to figure that one out.

Lena presses a kiss to her jaw. We removed the leaders of a very large network and left a vacuum for any sufficiently power-hungry maniac to fill. Since no one knows those leaders are dead, plenty of people could begin acting as them to accomplish their own ends. At the very least, a power struggle will ensue.

National City hasn’t had many problems that Kara suspects the Luthors in lately, but Metropolis, she knows, has been even more of a mess the past few months, especially recently, and several of the larger cities in the country as well.

Kara’s hand slips under Lena’s shirt and flits along her ribs as she considers their options. They should probably let Sam know that Lillian and Lex are dead, but with Lena still not remembering and no actual evidence she isn’t sure Sam will believe them. And despite everything, well… she still doesn’t want anyone at the DEO to know about the pancaking incident. Or that Lena made herself into an anti-Kryptonian weapon— albeit under duress— despite the fact that she used those powers to save Kara.

Darling, Lena drawls, based on your memories Sam only became the Director of the DEO to find me. I really don’t think she’s going to lock me away at this point.

Kara frowns, fingers still stroking along her wife’s side. “We need you to remember a bit more,” she finally says.

And how do you propose we accomplish that? Lena thinks, though Kara can already feel her trepidation. At Kara’s observation, she sighs. Based on what you know of the Luthors they aren’t going to be… pleasant memories. I know I’ll need to remember eventually, but… I can’t say I’m looking forward to it, my love.

“I know, but…” Kara bites her lip and Lena raises a hand and frees it, cocking a brow in question. “My aunt Astra,” Kara starts, “back on Krypton. She held a high position in the military guild, and when she came across evidence that our planet was dying, she… wanted to share it with everyone. But the council had already decreed that it was to be kept secret, so when she tried, she was betrayed and the secret was kept. You know my mother was the judicator…” Kara takes a deep breath and has to hold it, worried green eyes trained on her as her wife feels her anger and helplessness. “She declared my aunt a criminal. And when my aunt escaped…” Kara squeezes her eyes shut. “She gave me a way to contact her in case of emergency, but I didn’t know she was a fugitive, and when my mom told me to call her… I did.”

My love, Lena thinks, a hand reaching up to cup her face. You were a child who trusted her mother. There is nothing wrong with that.

“That’s not the point, baby,” Kara says, eyes opening. “My mother used her child to imprison her twin sister for trying to save our planet. I know I should trust my sister, and Sam, but… I can’t,” Kara whispers. “What if we tell them what happened and they take you away?” Her voice breaks.

They won’t, Lena assures her. At the very least because I truly don’t believe you’d let them.

“Damn straight,” Kara growls, her hold on her baby girl tightening as much as she dares. “You’re mine and no one is taking you ever again.”

Lena nuzzles into Kara’s hair a moment before pulling away to press kisses to her cheeks, her forehead, the tip of her nose. I’m yours, my love. Then she meets Kara’s eyes, her own determined. I don’t remember her yet, but I do trust Sam and… even Alex. But you need to as well. So, how do we jog my memory? She frowns then, tilting her head. Also, your stalker is listening in and is feeling… well, they’re shielding it as best they can but it certainly is not a good emotion. Lena’s fingers drum on Kara’s chest. And we need to do something about this whole stalker issue sooner rather than later, my love.

“First we’re having food,” Kara says, eliciting a frown from her wife. “I honor my vows, baby girl, and your hunger is outweighing my own, which is concerning considering I also skipped breakfast and have been flying around most of the morning.”

Lena blushes. Fair enough. I need to use the restroom, so you start on the food. She rolls off of Kara and stands, and Kara follows suit, already pouting at her wife no longer being in her arms. Brunch, my love, it was your idea, Lena thinks. She smirks and heads off, but not before patting Kara’s butt with a smug, Get to it, darling. Time to earn that sugar baby title.

Kara is left red-faced and gaping as Lena sashays into the bathroom.

Once their brunch is over, their brainstorming is interrupted before it can begin by an overly elaborate heist at a gala downtown, which Kara easily stops, Lena happily narrating all that is about to happen before it does.

The chandelier is going to fall in 3, 2, good job, darling, her wife thinks when Kara catches it easily and uses her heat vision to repair its hanging. That was the first distraction, the fountain is going to overflow next.

Dealing with the fountain is a bit more annoying, but after a second of consideration Kara uses a burst of speed to fly around it, one hand in the water, and causes a wave twice as tall as the fountain’s top that she then freezes, creating a much bigger basin for the overflowing water.

Clever. More so than the fools about to continue without their distractions, Lena observes. The man in the top hat is a third-rate magician at best, I don’t know how he got hired when he can’t even pick pockets discreetly.

Kara grabs the so-called magician and drops him into the fountain. Uh, he can swim, right?

Yes, but he’s very annoyed you ruined his cape, which was apparently dry-clean only, Lena sniffs. The woman in the peacock-inspired dress is looking to replace her gaudy fake jewelry with gaudy real jewelry.

Kara scoops her up just as she swipes an older woman’s diamond necklace, hands the necklace back to the woman and, after considering the heft of the peacock dress, she locks the woman in the magician’s prop cage, using her freeze breath on the not-so-hidden unlocking mechanism of course.

Look up, Lena thinks, amusement curling around her. One of them got stuck.

Kara looks up to see a person in a flying suit dangling above the center of the room, only having fallen a few feet before getting wrapped up in a banner. With a sigh, Kara goes and pulls the banner from its hooks, depositing the still-entangled person on the ballroom floor and shaking her head at them when they squeak indignantly.

Two left, Lena says. The waitress with the covered tray has already grabbed a ridiculous amount of rings from the people watching the show you’re putting on.

The show they’re putting on, you mean, Kara thinks petulantly, grabbing the woman and using her speed to pluck all the hidden rings from her many pockets. Where’s the last one? She asks once she’s dropped the woman in the fountain with the floundering magician.

Already in the alley out back, her wife says, smirking when Kara catches up to the fleeing woman in an instant. The mastermind, her wife tells her, the chef hat is full of pilfered brooches and such, though what she actually wanted was data scraped from the attendees’ phones, which she has… oh, ew, she has a flash drive tooth.

Kara grimaces. “Which tooth?” She asks the woman, who immediately pales. “Take it out or I’ll test them all, and I don’t actually know how much force to use for that, so…”

The woman pulls one of her molars out and sheepishly holds it out to Kara, who grimaces and grabs her jingling chef’s hat, having her drop it into that instead. Kara’s mental shield slams down when a scruffy orange cat runs over, rubbing against her leg before running off, already sneezing, but once it’s gone the pain pounding in her head goes with it and the shield drops, her wife none the wiser and Kara already having forgotten the encounter.

That was the correct tooth, Lena assures her. And the waitress is about break the ice prison.

Kara grabs the mastermind with one arm and heads back in, reinforcing the ice prison before the waitress can break it with another kick. She babysits the robbers until the police arrive, and has to suffer through small talk with National City’s richest citizens while she does so.

You may want to ah, not breathe, for this one, Lena comments as a stout older man approaches. His breath should be considered a chemical weapon.

Is… he thinking that? Kara asks, struggling to keep her face neutral.

No, the smell is just potent enough that merely seeing his face triggered my memory of it, Lena drawls, and Kara learns that she can hold her breath through a very long-winded man’s rambling, holding up her end of the conversation with a lot of head-nods and affirmative hums.

The police finally arrive and Kara makes her escape, swooping back into her apartment and plopping down on the couch beside her wife, still in her suit. “That was annoying,” Kara says. “I should have let Nia handle it.”

Lena laughs. Tell her you’ve paid her back for keeping mum on this, she thinks, reaching out and clinking their bracelets together, watching with shining eyes as the gold bands appear.

“Mm, true,” Kara mutters, grinning when her wife floats her glasses onto her face and triggers them to make her suit disappear. “Still not a fan of the suit, baby girl?”

I simply prefer the one I’m designing, Lena thinks, tilting her head and giving Kara a devilish smirk. Super suits need to be close-fitting, darling, and while I of course will always be sad to see you go, I will very much appreciate watching you leave.

Kara flushes as red as the cape Lena currently has pooled around her waist. “Rao,” Kara mutters. “I think you’ve gotten bolder since we found out your name.”

Lena’s smirk grows and she arches an eyebrow, beginning to card a hand through Kara’s windswept curls. Well I know for a fact you’re already trying to pick an Earth wedding date, which has greatly boosted my confidence. Brainy, Cat, Ruby, Nia, your stalker, and I know you’re mine, but soon I’ll be able to tell the whole world that Kara Danvers is my wife.

“We need to figure out name stuff,” Kara muses, leaning into her wife’s side and blushing when she feels her pleasure at how calmly Kara is now letting her touch her hair. “You already said you don’t like your last name, but I gotta say ‘Lena Danvers’ isn’t quite as striking.”

Lena snorts and leans against Kara as well. A fan of alliteration, are we?

“Not necessarily,” Kara says. “From what little I found on you the literal day I spent looking for you,” Kara winces, “you were adopted when you were four, so… I dunno, we can ask Sam what your last name was then?”

Kieran, Lena thinks immediately, and makes a small sound of surprise, turning to look at Kara, her mouth slightly agape. Lena Kieran, she says, blinking rapidly to clear the mist from her eyes. Then she glares at Kara. And don’t you dare feel guilty for not looking for me more. You’ve spent years constantly on the lookout for any information on the Luthors and anyone they took, and by the time you even knew I’d been taken I was already underground. Would you have ever searched that desert if not for Sam?

Kara frowns, considering, and shakes her head. “No, that place was too remote. I always expected them to be, uh, right under my nose, I guess.” Kara remembers all the times they escaped her and when she feels a flash of guilt from Lena she turns to her with a frown. “Baby girl, if I can’t feel guilty for not looking for you harder then you can’t feel guilty for doing everything you had to to stay alive, and that includes the portal watch thing.”

Fair enough, Lena thinks, sinking back against Kara with a pout. But please do remember that what you did find helped Sam decide her next move, which ultimately led to us being here. And she’s had you help search for me for years, you just didn’t always know it.

Kara lets her head fall to rest on top of her wife’s, reaching for her hand and entwining their fingers. “I know you want to tell Sam everything,” she says quietly. “I know we should, I know it makes sense and… based on everything I know she would never hurt you or lock you away, I just… I would have said the same about my mom and aunt.” Kara can’t help the small, pained sound that escapes her. “They were so close, I don’t… Aunt Astra lived with us, even after she married Non, I don’t…” Kara remembers his face and mutters a Kryptonian curse that makes Lena tap her side in question. “He wasn’t a good man,” Kara explains. “That’s why I never bothered showing you memories with him. I still don’t know why Aunt Astra was made to marry him— his house wasn’t even that prestigious.” Her mental shield raises long enough to keep her wife from feeling the dull bolt of pain that flashes through her head.

Lena peruses Kara’s mind awhile then, seeing her memories of the man, Non, and when she’s seen enough she mentally steps back and tells Kara she agrees with her assessment.

“If… if you want to, we can tell Sam,” Kara whispers, quelling the panic she feels at the thought. “I can, or you can through me, or she can come here—“

No, Lena thinks at that. I don’t… I don’t want her to see me like this.

Kara’s arm tightens around her. “Baby girl—“

My love, her wife interrupts, I know I’m… healing, and I know I… look better, but she remembers me from four years ago and I wasn’t… She holds her free hand out, stretching so her sleeve pulls back, and they both stare at the bony wrist, at the scars that start around her knuckles and continue up under the fabric. I… It’s been 9 weeks, and Alex said I’m improving rapidly, and… Lena sighs and drops her arm, burrowing into Kara and tugging the cape up and around her other side. Whether I remember or not, Ruby’s birthday is… in 7 weeks, and I’ll… I’ll be ready then.

Kara can feel her wife’s worry that she won’t actually be ready ever, so drops a kiss to her head and tugs the other end of the cape so it’s around both of them. “My offer still stands,” Kara says quietly.

The hand holding hers tightens, and their bracelets glint in the sunlight filtering through the window. No, I won’t force you to do something that frightens you. For now, they know you have me and I’m recovering, and while I don’t love how stressed they clearly are… it may not hurt to have them on the lookout for… Lillian and Lex, she sneers at the thought, since people may be impersonating them.

Kara is quiet for awhile, just holding Lena to her and contemplating things. “You know,” Kara says slowly, rubbing Lena’s shoulder as her wife has already stiffened at the thought she’s now voicing. “You’ve never seen Ruby through my eyes. The only time I actually saw her since I brought you home was after Corben, so you weren’t really… present. I saw Sam pretty soon after I found you, when all of your energy was having to go towards recovering, and you still… felt shock and grief and longing, so powerful I felt it through you. And today when I saw that dude who’s never heard of mouthwash, you remembered just from seeing his face.” Kara’s brow crinkles. “I haven’t even touched Sam in the past few months, at least not without you piloting my body. The easiest way to help you remember may be through Sam and Ruby.”

That… does make sense, Lena thinks, and Kara can feel her anxiety. It does, just… what if it doesn’t work? What then? Her wife squeezes her hand impossibly tighter. What if you touch Sam and nothing happens? What if I see Ruby and I don’t even… Lena’s breath and heart rate quicken and Kara releases her long enough to plop her onto her lap, wrapping the cape around them both fully and hugging her wife close.

Lena’s arms wrap around her and Kara can feel her shaking, can feel the fear like ice spreading through her. Kara holds her and lets her own certainty fill them both. “Lena,” she says, using her wife’s name and feeling the slight shock of that go through her. “you will remember, because you’re my beautiful, brilliant, badass wife, and you can do anything you put your mind to. You’ve already done so many amazing things— you gave yourself unheard of powers, you aided your own rescue and then saved yourself anyway, and you stayed alive despite all the shit you had to go through. So you’re going to remember, Sam and Ruby and Jess and Jack and everyone else you loved, and you’re going to realize Lena is an amazing person to be, Luthor name be damned.” Kara brushes hair back from her wife’s face and grins. “And you’re going to tell me all of Sam’s old embarrassing stories so I can tease her with them, and Ruby’s too because I am not above teasing a teenager, and I will of course tell you Alex’s so you have plenty of ammo to use against her.”

Her wife can’t help but laugh at that, especially when Kara recalls the prank war she and Alex had gotten into a few years after Kara had landed, and that Kara had decidedly won, albeit with the caveat that she was never, ever allowed to prank her sister again. Eliza had not been pleased to come home to her alien daughter hysterically laughing as her human daughter spewed expletives, her bright pink skin and neon green hair taking weeks to return to normal and forcing her to stay inside ‘through the peak of summer vacation’, as she put it. Kara had had to make it up to Alex with plenty of secret night flights… though in hindsight Eliza definitely knew and let them get away with it cuz she saw it as them making up.

I think I’m going to like your, uh, Eliza, her wife thinks.

“I do think of her as my Earth mom,” Kara says quietly. “I thought about calling her ‘mom’ for awhile since, well… my parents will always be my parents but I do use different words for them, just… I dunno, it’s like… I can only have one mom…” Kara mumbles the last part so quietly Lena probably only hears it through their mental connection, and her brow crinkles as she instinctively shields her wife from the burning bolt of pain in her mind before blinking and shaking her head slightly. “And I think you’ll love her. Though I should warn you I definitely got my habit of ‘adopting’ people from her so she is going to, uh, mother hen you… probably immediately, no matter how much you’ve recovered by the time you meet her.” Kara kisses her wife’s now-crinkled brow. “She’s very kind, though a bit of a… xenobiology nerd, so if you want anyone to help you figure out your new powers I think she would be delighted.”

Lena isn’t sure how to feel about that, or at least the emotions Kara is receiving are very muddled— worry, hope, excitement, fear.

“She would never hurt you,” Kara vows. “Or do anything you tell her not to, so long as it’s not for your own good. Eliza helped me with my powers when I was a kid, she’s the only reason I have as much control as I do now.” She frowns, then, considering. “Well, Aunt Astra helped me practice with my powers when I was small, but they were a lot weaker then, and… we stopped going to planets with a yellow sun when I was five for some reason…” Kara feels a dull throb of pain in her head that she easily shields her wife from.

Your cousin didn’t help? Lena frowns. I know you aren’t… overly fond of him, but surely he would have been helpful considering he has the same powers.

Kara snorts. “Oh I’m sure he would have been if he’d bothered making time for it. He dumped me with the Danvers and I barely saw him since, just a phone call here and there so he’d feel like he was helping.”

Now Lena’s eyes are wide, and Kara can feel her fury. If things had gone differently you would have raised that ungrateful brat despite being a child yourself and he couldn’t even spare the time to help a traumatized teenager acclimate to a planet he’s known his whole life? She pauses then. Your stalker is even more pissed than I am about this…?

Kara can’t help the warmth she feels at seeing her wife so furious on her behalf, and even her stalker honestly, but she also feels the need to clarify one thing. “For the record, while our powers are the same, mine are far, far stronger, baby girl.”

Lena freezes at the smirk Kara is giving her and collapses against her to hide her blush. Good, she manages to think, and Kara’s smirk widens at what her wife is currently feeling.

“Oh you weren’t lying when you said you like how strong I am,” Kara purrs, and almost laughs when she can tell that her wife wants to pinch her but is too embarrassed to do so, not wanting to touch her lest she touch a little too much. Then Lena’s thoughts turn inward, cursing her body for still being too weak for certain things, and Kara softens, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and relaxing back into the couch. “We’ll get there eventually,” Kara murmurs. “Give yourself a little more time. Your body has only been recovering for nine weeks, :zhao. You’re doing great.”

They’ve been sitting for awhile, Kara rubbing her wife’s back and her wife growing drowsy as they contemplate dinner, when Lena stiffens. Sam really, really does not want me to watch the news right now, Lena thinks, already using her powers to move the remote to her hand.

“Is she not guarding her thoughts still?” Kara asks, yawning, as her wife flicks the television on.

Uh, well… Lena purses her lips, focusing on flipping to the right channel. She’s trying, and it was working before but once you were done showing me your memories of her searching for Le— uh, me, my connection to her got stronger. It’s kind of… like I can hear the thoughts behind the thoughts, I suppose.

“Oh she is definitely not gonna like that,” Kara mutters, failing to hide her smirk. “My badass :zhao strikes again.”

Lena gives her a half-hearted pinch followed by a kiss to her cheek and settles against her, the cape pooled at their waists now. They watch as the news anchor wraps up his coverage of the gala incident earlier that night and signs off, switching back to the anchors in the newsroom, and Lena turns it up, leaning forward in anticipation.

“Thank you, Jonathan. Now for tonight’s final segment,” a woman in a crisp suit begins, “in a shocking turn of events, billionaire scientists and philanthropists Lillian and Lex Luthor have been declared missing.”

Head-shots of Lillian and Lex appear on screen, the matriarch Luthor in a plum-colored blazer and giving the photographer a thin smile and Lex in an expensive black suit and showing off his trademark ‘charismatic grin’ as some had dubbed it. Kara grimaces at the thought and looks down to see her wife staring at the screen with wide eyes, her hands now clutching tightly at Kara’s cardigan.

“The Luthors haven’t been seen in public for over two months now,” the woman continues, “and police have begun investigating their disappearance. While they have been busy with charity work and revolutionizing the tech industry, some worry that this may have something to do with the alleged criminal activity they were rumored to have been involved in years ago. We did contact Superman for a quote but the hero chose not to comment—“

It’s the mention of Superman that does it, oddly enough. Lena had been staring, transfixed, at the photos of her stepmother and half-brother, but it isn’t until Kara’s cousin is mentioned that the memories hit. Kara had already been closely attuned to her wife’s mind, and now they’re both trembling on the couch as the anchor drones on, Kara clutching Lena as tightly as she dares as she feels the crush of emotions her wife is experiencing in rapid succession.

Kara can’t really see Lena’s memories, isn’t sure she wants to but even if she tries she knows her wife won’t let her in, not for this, not when she can tell that the only memories being filled in are the ones from her captivity. Lena had remembered mostly the science of it before, a few memories from early on but without faces or names, but now she’s remembering all of it, and Kara only catches glimpses, quick flashes her wife wants her to see, to understand.

Anger at herself for trusting Eve, not enough to reveal much, no, but enough that her brother decided she was a threat, walking into her office with Lillian and Eve flanking him. A flash of satisfaction that none of them noticed her tap her phone’s corner a few times before handing it over to be destroyed, the ladybug text already sent. Frustration as she silently followed them out, fear that Jess wouldn’t escape in time compounded by fear that her relationship with Sam and Ruby would be discovered.

Shame and terror once she was underground in a lead-lined, soundproof bunker, her so-called family bragging about their kryptonite-hearted human weapon plan. Determination as she cobbled together a better plan that would use Lex’s ego against him— let him fight Superman himself and triumph over him thanks to his ‘genius’. A hollow kind of terror as she resigned herself to failing, Lillian standing over her as one of her minions cut open her chest, a surge of triumph when Lex arrived, already so besotted with Lena’s last-minute plan that he threw a tantrum and Lillian ceded to his demands.

Determination as Lena worked to give herself powers, frustration and fear at setbacks and triumph and even more fear when she succeeded, worried that Lex would successfully recreate her powers for himself. Frustration when she had to give Lex something, anything, and the portal watch was the lowest-risk thing she knew he’d accept, fierce joy every time she sabotaged something and got away with it (fear and pain when she didn’t).

Lena lets these bits and pieces slip through to Kara, showing her what she can even as her body shakes with the weight of the memories, but when she gets to about a year in, her own experimentation on herself over and her captors taking control, she shows Kara nothing, and for a long while after that Kara can only feel her wife’s fear and grief as she curls tighter against her, unable to contain her whimpers and sobs as she’s forced to relive the worst years of her imprisonment, this time not just the facts of it but the cold faces and cruel thoughts of those harming her as well.

Kara floats them to the bed once she can, lays curled around Lena with her cape blanketing them both and holds her :zhao, carding a hand through her hair and humming a Kryptonian lullaby. She doesn’t bother to contain her tears or try to quell her own rage and grief as she holds her wife, shaking more now with her own helplessness to console the woman she vowed to protect than Lena’s emotions at this point. It’s difficult to control her strength but Kara manages, refusing to leave her wife alone now of all times and devoting nearly all of her focus to it.

Eventually the remembering is over and the emotions begin to ebb, but still Kara holds her wife, and when she feels her slip into her mind entirely Kara takes several slow breaths, pressing her face into Lena’s hair and focusing on her heartbeat. With each strong thump of her wife’s heart Kara’s grief recedes, her sorrow fades and her contentment grows, You’re alive, you’re safe, I love you, she thinks, over and over, until her own consciousness is drowned out with her :zhao’s heartbeats.

Kara, the thought is quiet, a whisper in Kara’s mind, but she stirs all the same, eyes fluttering open to see red-rimmed green eyes watching her. Kara holds her wife closer, love and relief and affection overtaking her, and she kisses her, soft and slow, before pressing kisses to her cheeks, her forehead, the tip of her nose.

Khap :zhao rrip, Kara thinks, and continues peppering her :zhao with kisses and cradling her exhausted body to her own. I love you, baby girl, she thinks, thank you for surviving, thank you fighting. She finally stops kissing her and sits up, scooping Lena into her arms and smoothly bundling her up in her cape before floating them into the kitchen and beginning to prep a new pot of stew, her :zhao tucked into one arm.

Lena doesn’t say anything until Kara is ladling the stew into a large bowl and a tupperware, and what she does say is still whisper-quiet. I knew Sam was looking for me, and that Ruby and Jess were missing me, and I think… there’s someone else, too… Her brow crinkles and she shakes her head, turning to hide her face in Kara’s hair. But I… I felt so alone, Kara. Like I was fighting a hopeless battle that would only end with my death and I… there were times I wished I hadn’t made my body as… prone to surviving as it turned out to be.

Kara sucks in a breath and freezes for a long moment, a surge of fear and hurt rising within her, before releasing it all with a loud sigh. I get it, she thinks back, unable to suppress a shiver at the thought of her time in the Phantom Zone. I still don’t understand how I ever got out of there, but back then I… tried to order my pod’s life support to turn off… anytime I was remotely conscious. I wished my parents would have let me die with them.

Now Kara feels Lena’s surge of hurt and fear, and her wife clutches the cape tighter around herself, burrowing closer. I’m glad we were both thwarted, Lena thinks, a small smile on her face as Kara slides the tupperware into the fridge. Then she looks down at the bowl of stew and grimaces. Even if it means that’s my dinner.

“You can have a real breakfast,” Kara offers, “and we’ll suffer through a stew dinner together.”

El mayarah, her wife thinks wryly, and Kara snorts.

“El mayarah, baby girl,” Kara says, dropping a kiss to her head. “I know it’s kinda late but the roof is free right now…?”

Yes, please, Lena thinks, and Kara makes her way to the roof, glad that her more nocturnal neighbors are content to stay in their apartments for the night.

As Kara sets them up on the small sofa, Lena on her lap and sleepily accepting that Kara will be feeding her the stew, Kara presses a kiss to the side of her head. And baby girl? I will do everything in my considerable power to ensure you never feel alone again.

Kara feels her wife’s contentment and appreciation at that, and she turns to press a kiss to Kara’s jaw. And I will do the same for you, my love.

Chapter Text

When Lena tries to wake her the next morning Kara groans and rolls them over so she’s on top of her wife for once, though she floats slightly so she doesn’t put too much weight on her. She presses her face into the curve of her :zhao’s neck and ignores the warm fingers that poke her side. When the pokes turn to pinches Kara just burrows closer.

My love, you need to go refuel, Lena whispers in her mind.

“Don’t wanna,” Kara mumbles, her lips ghosting over warm skin. She feels her wife shiver and presses closer, lightly kissing along the column of her neck.

Kara, Lena somehow manages to sound annoyed and whiny all at once, and the thought gets Kara another pinch. For fuck’s sake.

Kara laughs at that and her wife wriggles out from under her, face flushed and her eyes narrowed. When Kara rolls onto her back, Lena straddles her hips and leans over her, dark curtains of hair falling so that all Kara can see is her face, one brow quirked and a dangerous smirk pointed her way. “Um,” Kara mumbles, her own face flushing now.

Yes, darling? Her wife leans down, but when Kara goes for a kiss she easily dodges and starts kissing along Kara’s neck instead. Something wrong?

“Babyyyy,” Kara whines, but despite her protest her hands curl around her wife’s hips to hold her in place, her neck arching to give her more access. Her :zhao continues her ministrations, now lightly sucking and nipping at her neck, and Kara’s hands flex on her hips, her breaths coming faster. “Fuck,” Kara gasps when Lena gives an especially sensitive spot her full attention.

It’s only once Kara’s thoughts are decidedly in the gutter that Lena pulls away, smirking down at her and nearly as flushed as she is. Feeling more awake, my love? Lena asks, and the smug grin she gives her only makes Kara’s blush deepen.

“I’m more something, alright,” Kara mumbles, and this time when Lena leans down she kisses Kara, long and slow, and when she pulls away again Kara pouts. “I need to give you more energy so you heal faster, baby girl.”

Lena just shakes her head and climbs off of her, resettling beside her in bed, one hand coming up to play with the top button of Kara’s pajama shirt. While I understand the sentiment, I’d rather not risk taking any more of your energy than I already do. She gives Kara a look that she’s seen Sam give Ruby, then. Especially when someone doesn’t like going to refuel in the morning.

Kara winces. “Sorry, I know I need to, I just…” Kara rolls onto her side and presses her still-flushed face into her wife’s hair a moment before pulling away, meeting thoughtful green eyes with a sheepish expression. “I don’t wanna leave you. To go refuel, to go on patrol, to go anywhere. It’s usually fine once I’ve left but the actual leaving is… uh, difficult.”

Lena’s hand comes up and cradles Kara’s face, her brow crinkled, and Kara feels her presence in her mind expand, nearly all the way. At her behest, Kara thinks about leaving, and her wife immediately snaps back into herself, grimacing. That was a bit more than ‘difficult’, my love. It was almost physically painful.

“Yeah, I tend to be nauseous for a few minutes after,” Kara mumbles, and at her wife’s hard look she winces. “I didn’t want you to worry so I kinda… ignored it as much as possible?”

Kara Zor-El Danvers, her wife starts, and Kara’s shame and guilt rise when she feels her :zhao’s fear and worry for her. Lena’s other hand comes up to cup her face then, and her ire fades as quickly as it came, her thumbs swiping along Kara’s cheeks. My love, she thinks instead, I know you worry for me, and I know I am… more fragile than you already consider humans to be, Lena’s annoyance at this prickles at them both, but I am your wife, and we agreed to protect each other. Not… I know I did something similar with the hard drives, her wife purses her lips and Kara feels her small curl of shame at the memory, but I don’t want us to keep doing this. Yes, we protect each other, but not by hiding our own pain from one another.

“I know,” Kara murmurs. “I know I should have told you, or at least… not hidden it from you for so long, but… I thought it would lessen as you got better.”

Lena narrows her eyes, hearing what Kara doesn’t say. It’s getting worse?

“I don’t think it has to do with your actual health,” Kara admits. “It was already hard to leave you that first day, but since everything with Corben…” She rubs at her chest, at the ghost of an ache she feels just thinking about it. “I’ve lost so many people, and I already almost lost you, and every time I leave I’m worried something will happen, to you or me or both of us, and…” Kara tucks her face against her wife’s neck again. My body knew from the first day that I needed to keep you close to me to heal you, and now that I… now that I love you so much, I just… I’m so scared, baby girl. And my body knows that too, so when I leave you… my body, uh, protests.

A hand begins carding through Kara’s hair and she lets herself relax, burrowing closer to her :zhao and focusing on her wife as she thinks through everything. Eventually, Lena speaks, her voice quiet in Kara’s mind. What would make it easier for you?

Kara lifts her head enough to meet serious green eyes, then buries her face again, lost in her own thoughts now. Last week… when you were here and I was having to use the sun bed every three hours, I was constantly sending you at least a trickle of my energy cuz… well, I… was worried if I stopped entirely that you would… Kara can’t even finish the thought, remembering her wife’s pale, feverish skin and uneven breaths, her weakened heartbeat, the empty space she left in Kara’s mind and the vast emptiness in her wife’s consciousness. She feels like she can’t get enough air, then, and the ache in her chest is back and worse, and—

The hands cupping her face disappear and Kara lets herself be rolled over, a warm weight settling on top of her. Her wife tucks her head under Kara’s chin and winds her arms around her, slipping her hands under her and tucking them against Kara’s bare back. I’m okay, my love, she thinks to her. I’m safe, we saved each other, all is well.

Kara wraps her arms around Lena, one hand raising to cradle the back of her head. “Never again,” Kara whispers, choked. “Please, Rao, never again." Her fear and worry are echoed by her wife, and she narrows her focus to just her :zhao’s heartbeat for a long while, only resurfacing when her own has slowed to match it.

Lena readjusts so she’s even with Kara, bracing herself on her forearms with her hands curled around Kara’s shoulders, and she presses soft kisses to her face. When Kara winds one hand in her hair, Lena kisses her, slow and deep, and when she finally pulls back she presses their foreheads together. Okay, she thinks to Kara, from now on, you can use your energy to keep us tethered. You may have to adjust how much you give me at night to compensate, but I’ll leave that up to you. Is there anything else that will help?

“No,” Kara says, voice soft. “That will help lessen the… physical reaction, at least.” Her fear surges before she can stop it and her wife narrows her eyes.

My love, Lena says, once again cupping Kara’s cheek with one hand. I know I am nowhere near as durable as you, and at the moment I am still quite weak physically, but please do not forget that my powers are not limited to simply tagging along with you mentally. If someone tries to attack me, I can fight back, and in ways they’ll never expect.

“I know you’re a badass, baby girl,” Kara says, grinning. “You’ve saved us both, remember?”

Lena smirks before dropping her head to rest on Kara’s shoulder. You aren’t the only one who worries, you know, she thinks quietly. I realize Corben was something of a fluke, but since there are still plenty of their evil minions left, and with how many people Alex’s so-called ‘kryptonite killer’ had to take out, well… I’ll feel much better once I can make you a new suit.

Kara slips her hand under her wife’s shirt and rubs slow circles against her back. “You’re right. We’re both badasses with targets on our backs.”

Lena sighs and nuzzles closer. Once all the evil minions are taken care of things will hopefully be a bit less dangerous.

“What’s the plan for that?” Kara asks, brow crinkling. “Sam did tell me you were gathering evidence, but I don’t think any of us know where that is. And I… have no clue how we’ll track down all of their network and… incapacitate them, however we end up doing that…”

Let me think about it for now, Lena says, her fingers tapping against Kara’s side. I may not have whatever information I had before, but between my psychic abilities, your powers, and the DEO’s reach… we should be able to do something.

Kara makes a small, annoyed sound, and her wife arches an eyebrow.

It would be lovely if you gave your stalker half this much focus, Lena thinks.

“Wait,” Kara says, eyes widening. “Before, when Nia was taking me to the DEO, did you…?”

Tell you they were probably Kryptonian? Yes, darling, nice to see you’ve remembered. Her wife sighs and rolls off of her. Now, please go to the DEO before Alex comes here herself to get you— the only reason she hasn’t is that Nia is there as well and told her you’ll be along soon.

“It wasn’t—“

Kara, I may not remember ever having met your cousin, but trust me, I would definitely have known if it was him. Lena’s nose wrinkles. I can’t say for sure, but I think he may be the reason I don’t like reporters.

Kara remembers Sam telling her years ago how both Mr. Kent and Superman had treated her request to search for Lena Luthor. Her old anger at her cousin rekindles, brighter than before, and when she growls her wife presses a kiss to her cheek.

Kara, sun bed, go. Lena clinks their bracelets together, both of them frowning as the gold vanishes. When her wife looks up and sees Kara still standing in her pajamas, she whips her glasses onto her face and triggers her suit with her powers. We can worry about your stalker and my family’s minions over breakfast, now… ah.

Kara watches her wife’s eyes widen as she feeds her a small line of her energy, tethering them together and making Kara slump ever so slightly with relief. “Khap :zhao rrip,” Kara whispers, pressing a kiss to her :zhao’s cheek.

Khap :zhao rrip, Lena repeats, still looking a bit dazed. She barely reacts when Kara tucks her old cape around her before zooming out the window.

“Why are you so late?” Alex snaps before Kara’s boots even touch the landing pad at the DEO.

Kara frowns at her sister. “I’m not that late.”

My love, you should have arrived nearly half an hour ago, Lena drawls, and Kara’s frown deepens.

“Okay, fine, I’m a little late.” She turns to Nia then and gives her a sheepish smile. “And thanks for not letting Alex come beat my door down.”

Nia nods, and Kara notices that the young hero is more tired than she’s seen her in awhile. When Kara opens her mouth to ask if she’s okay, Nia holds a hand up. “Not yet, I need to talk to you about something but not… right now.”

At that, Alex’s focus is diverted to Nia as well, but when Kara heads to the room with the sun bed they both trail after her, Brainy joining them along the way. Kara flops down, wincing when she feels her wife’s worry over whatever Nia isn’t letting herself think about. “It’s probably fine,” Kara mumbles.

Last time it was definitely not fine, Lena thinks back, her irritation spiking.

“Guys,” Nia says, “It’s nothing bad. Well, not for us…” Nia grimaces and leans against Brainy, who quickly transfers his tablet to one hand and uses his other to rub her back.

She hasn’t even told him yet, Lena thinks, her worry only slightly settled.

Alex steps closer, arms crossed. “Alright then. Kara, how’s your girlfriend?”

Kara turns her head and arches a single eyebrow at her sister. “That’s what you were so anxious to ask? Not even a ‘good morning, dear sister, how have you been’?”

They want to know if I saw the news, Lena thinks, and Kara is surprised to feel her wife’s amusement curling around her. Sam gave Alex very specific instructions on what she can and cannot say, and your sister has decided her best course of action is to ask how I am and then run away.

“Wait,” Kara says, eyes narrowing. “Alex, where’s your wife?”

Alex blinks at her and Kara hears her heart rate increase. “You were late and Sam had to take Ruby to school.”

Sam doesn’t want to risk you touching her so is going to do her best to avoid you, Lena thinks. As if your powers don’t make actually avoiding you impossible.

Kara shakes her head. “You two are ridiculous. And my :zhao is doing well, thank you.” She has to bite back a smile when Alex nods brusquely to her before leaving without another word.

Brainy stares after her with a frown before turning to Kara. “Supergirl, has something happened between you and the Assistant Director?”

“Nope,” Kara says. Her wife sends her a ghost of a pinch and she sighs. “Alex and Sam are scheming things, is all.”

Brainy clearly wants to ask more questions but Nia steps away from him and walks closer to the bed, shooting a wary look to the door. “Is anyone listening right now?” Nia asks quietly.

Kara checks for eavesdroppers (both living and technological) with her super hearing and Lena does a quick sweep of nearby minds. “Nope.”

Nia nods, then turns to Brainy. “This needs to stay a secret for now, so if you aren’t comfortable keeping it from Alex and Sam—“

“I will be fine,” Brainy interrupts. At his girlfriend’s disbelieving expression he flushes but doesn’t look away. “I wish to know what has been keeping you up at night so as to help. If that means not giving my trust to those who are already not giving me theirs, so be it.”

Kara frowns and her wife makes a small, sad sound. He knows Sam and Alex have been doing a lot without including him, and having him work on things with no clear context. He thinks he hasn’t earned their trust yet.

Nia holds her hand out and Brainy steps forward, entwining their fingers. She presses a quick kiss to his cheek. “Thank you,” she whispers.

“Always,” Brainy responds softly.

“It’s not that they don’t trust you,” Kara says, and winces when she feels her wife’s flicker of shame. “Just… it was made very clear to Sam that she isn’t allowed to talk about… some things. I’m kind of surprised she let Alex in, honestly.”

Me too, from what you recall Ruby saying about my… ‘rules’. Her wife’s shame flares brighter at the memory Kara had showed her from years ago, their niece’s sadness at not being able to even look at pictures of Lena without Sam’s help. I know they worked, but…

You kept them safe, Kara interrupts. Ruby and Sam are safe, and Jess is… probably safe somewhere. Kara starts wondering where the hell Jess is at that point, and is pulled from her thoughts by Nia clearing her throat. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Nia says absently, “Your zoning out isn’t even that bad right now. Uh, forget I said that, not important.” She shakes her head and ignores Kara’s wide-eyed look. “The thing we need to discuss right now is your stalker.”

Brainy makes a strangled sound and Kara squeaks indignantly when her wife laughs. What? I’m glad someone else is concerned about it as well.

“Why do you know about that?” Kara hisses.

“Why have you not informed anyone of it?” Brainy counters, frowning at Kara. “And is it Kara Danvers’ stalker or Supergirl’s stalker?”

“Both?” Kara says, unable to keep her voice from raising at the end. “They, uh, are possibly also Kryptonian.”

Brainy stills at that, and her wife tells her his mind is carefully blank now.

Ask Nia what she knows of them, Lena says then, already giving up on getting anything out of Brainy. I know you think they want to protect you, but I don’t like that they’re hiding from both of us.

Kara blushes at the reminder and turns to Nia. “Uh, what all do you know about them? I kinda got the vibe they want to protect me but… my wife disagrees.”

At Brainy’s quiet inhale Nia pats his shoulder. “Yes, Kara told me, in the dumbest way possible, full offense, Kara.” Nia shakes her head. “And you’re right, at least, she does want to protect you. The issue is how she’s going to go about it.”

Kara immediately jumps to the worst case scenario of her apparently female stalker deciding her wife is a threat to her and starts to sit up but a quick mental pinch and Nia shaking her head has her laying back down.

“No, your wife is safe, she doesn’t… love that you somehow found someone who can read Kryptonians’ minds, but she… listens to you both a lot, I think, so is fine with it.” Nia frowns and runs a hand through her hair in a nervous tick she definitely picked up from Sam. “Your stalker is determined to let you live your own life… as long as kryptonite isn’t involved. Or… anything else potentially lethal to you.”

Now Kara frowns, remembering what her wife said about the stalker showing up at the end of the Corben fight. “She saw me almost get killed so now she’s… my bodyguard?” Kara asks. “But… if she’s also Kryptonian, won’t it be hard for her to deal with kryptonite too?”

“You struggle against kryptonite because you try to resolve things without killing anyone,” Nia corrects, then winces. “Uh, usually. She… does not share that belief.”

“Supergirl’s… stalker-bodyguard is going to kill someone who tries to fight her with kryptonite soon,” Brainy surmises. What he says next surprises even Lena. “Do we care?”

Nia slaps his shoulder and Kara stares at him with wide eyes as her wife’s shock thrums through them both.

Brainy just frowns at them. “I am not the only one here who is relieved Corben is dead. Even if the next assailant merely wields kryptonite instead of being fused with it, well,” he shrugs. “To use enough kryptonite against a Kryptonian is attempted murder, and I at least do not take kindly to someone trying to kill my… friend.”

“Aww,” Kara says, ignoring her wife’s comment that their killing Corben has corrupted Brainy. “We definitely need to get back to doing game nights. Ooh, how do you guys cheat?”

“We don’t cheat,” Nia says immediately.

Nia uses her dreams and considers it ‘practice’ and Brainy… does the twelfth level intellect version of counting cards, I suppose, Lena says helpfully, her amusement dancing around Kara’s. Actual card counting, knowing all possible strategies for each game, analyzing opponents based on his knowledge of them and behavioral ticks, etc.

Kara hums. “Does this mean Alex is the only one who doesn’t cheat?” She frowns, considering. “She wins though. More than she should when everyone else is cheating. Hm.”

“Kara, focus,” Nia says, sighing. Then she mutters, “God, I can’t believe this is about to get worse.”

Lena and Kara both focus on that. “Worse how?” Kara asks.

Nia shakes her head. “Me warning you doesn’t change anything and you’re both fine with it, so I’m not gonna waste my energy. Now, what are we going to do about your stalker killing Mercy and Otis?”

Kara feels her wife’s shock at the names, and a surge of… anger and protectiveness. They’re definitely some of the evil minions, Lena thinks. Ask Nia how she kills them.

“How does she kill them, exactly?”

Nia frowns. “She doesn’t get close enough for you to even see her, she just… hurls red spikes at them that…” Nia makes a face of pure disgust, “rip through them pretty easily.”

See if she’ll show me, Lena says. When Kara asks, Nia winces but nods, and Kara takes her hand, watching through her wife as Nia remembers her most recent dream.

It’s a typical fight at first, Supergirl wearing the humans out without harming them, but then the woman, Mercy, pulls out chain-like whips that emit a sickly green glow, and the man, Otis, suddenly has two guns that shoot green-tipped bullets. Kara watches herself start to weaken, still dodging with far more ease than she would pre-Lena, but then one of the bullets grazes her and a whip wraps around her waist.

What happens next is too fast for Nia or Lena to see, and even Kara barely catches the four red blurs that fly at Mercy and Otis. The ‘red spikes’, as Nia had dubbed them, all make contact less than a second apart, and they watch as perfectly round holes appear in the two humans’ chests and foreheads. Mercy and Otis fall to the ground, dead, and the memory ends with Kara turning towards where the projectiles came from, an odd look on her face.

Nia pulls her hand away and Kara’s wife is already wondering why it didn’t seem like the projectiles hit anything else despite having made clean holes through their targets, but Kara turns to Brainy, a carefully blank expression on her face, and grabs his hand. “What do they know about Fort Rozz in the future?”

Brainy blanches and pulls his hand away and Kara lets him, her wife having already gotten what she needed. It went missing sometime around now, Lena tells her. They don’t know the exact date, but it was sometime this century at least. No one knows what happened to it. Though… I think Brainy knows more and isn’t thinking of it?

Kara lays back in the bed then, outwardly calm though her mind is anything but. Those red projectiles were Kryptonian technology, and the only person she’d ever known with aim so precise was her aunt. Her aunt, who had been incarcerated in Fort Rozz before Krypton had exploded. Fort Rozz, which like her pod, had impossibly escaped the Phantom Zone… which may be how her pod had done so. But if it was Astra, why was she hiding from her?

Before Kara can stop it, a flash of memory sweeps both her and Lena away.

“Kara, little one, are you alright?” Astra sounds out of breath, and when Kara turns she sees her aunt in the room’s entryway, looking at her with worried eyes.

“Of course, why?” Kara asks, taking a step closer, her brow crinkling. “Mom said—“ Kara stops when she sees her aunt flinch and take a small step back. “Aunt Astra? What’s going on?”

“Kara,” her mom is behind her, then, and Kara turns, startled. “Thank you for calling my sister here. Now, go to your room.”

“No,” Kara says, voice shaking. She isn’t one to disobey her elders, but she knows something is wrong. Her mom is watching her aunt with a look she’s only seen on her when she’s the judicator in her official robes, not standing at home with her daughter and sister. And Astra seems afraid, but even as Kara watches her, her aunt’s eyes harden and she walks towards them. Kara turns back to her mom, trying to calm her breathing even as her mom’s cold expression turns to her. “Tell me what’s going on.” She reaches out, grabbing her mom’s hand, and frowns when there’s no reaction.

Kara stares at her mom but the judicator doesn’t flinch, doesn’t so much as blink, and it’s Astra who grabs her shoulders, gently turns her away. She pulls Kara into a hug and Kara hates how it feels like goodbye.

“All is well, little one,” Astra whispers, squeezing Kara just a bit too tightly. “You won’t see me for awhile, but it’s okay.” Astra pulls away and gives Kara a smile that she doesn’t believe. “This is between your mother and I.” She presses a kiss to Kara’s forehead and gently pushes her towards the hallway. “I love you, Kara, now, go to your room.”

Astra is crying and her mom still has that horrible, cold look, and now Kara is crying too and she runs to her room, and when she collapses in bed she pulls her old baby blanket around her and cries even harder, mad at her mom for whatever she’s doing and mad at Astra for letting her do it and even madder at herself for calling Astra in the first place. She knew it was odd for her mom to ask her to, knew her aunt’s behavior when she gave Kara a ‘special way’ to contact her while she was on a mission this time was off, so why had she… why…

Her parents don’t even tell her where Astra disappears to after that, won’t talk about her aunt at all, and eventually Kara hacks Fort Rozz, assuming that if her mom was in her judicator role and her aunt was indeed a fugitive they would only send her to their most secure prison, and when she sees that ‘Alura In-Ze’ truly had arrested ‘Astra In-Ze’ and sentenced her to Fort Rozz, Kara barely speaks to either of her parents for the rest of the brief time she’s on Krypton.

Kara blinks, staring into the bright lights of the sun bed, and she can feel wetness on her cheeks. She revises her earlier thought, then. Forget hiding from her, if it was Astra, why was she protecting her to begin with?

The thought only brings more tears and at some point Alex had come back in, and now Kara has three pairs of worried eyes watching her and her wife in the back of her mind, still coming back from Kara’s memory herself and already trying to comfort her.

“I’m fine,” Kara says, annoyed when she sniffles immediately thereafter.

“You clearly aren’t,” Alex snaps. “What happened? I was gone for like ten minutes.”

Kara doesn’t look at her sister, continues staring into the lights of the sun bed as she tries to stop her tears. “It doesn’t have anything to do with my :zhao so you don’t have to worry about it.” It’s not a fair thing to say and she knows it, but Kara really doesn’t care right now. She doesn’t want to be here, she wants to be home, or… “Rao what if it is her?” Kara whispers. Then she shakes her head and gets to her feet, already brushing past a shocked Alex. “It can’t be, it can’t, she… she wouldn’t help me,” Kara decides. “Not after what I did.” She barely manages to shield her wife from the worst pain in her head she’s yet felt, and has to hide her next thought as well: that she had betrayed her… aunt, even before then… the thought falls away, the pain in her skull and her mental shield falling with it.

My love, Lena thinks. You were a child.

“A Kryptonian child,” Kara corrects, starting to float on her way to the landing pad lest she accidentally break the floor. Her friends are following her, all of them worried and confused. “I’ve shown you all the chaos I’d caused by that age, I was… I should have known better.” Kara’s hands curl into fists and suddenly she wishes the walls here were reinforced enough that she could punch them without the whole building coming down. “I shouldn’t have trusted… I should have at least stayed and seen what actually happened, for fuck’s sake.”

She sinks down onto the landing pad and stares up at the sun, the sky still streaked with red and gold from its rising. Her tears have stopped, at least, and now even the anger has seeped away, leaving her feeling hollow and drained, and at the thought of her aunt, and their past, a dull throb starts at the base of her skull which she instinctively shields her wife from.

Alex is in front of her now, hands on her shoulders to keep her from flying away. “What’s going on?” Her sister asks, worried eyes scanning Kara’s face. “Kara, please,” she whispers.

Kara stares at her through bleary eyes and can’t even think to answer, and it’s at her wife’s insistence that Kara leans forward and hugs her sister as tightly as she dares, burying her face in her shoulder even as she refuses to let more tears fall. “I hate this,” Kara finally whispers, and she doesn’t know if she’s talking about her stalker maybe being Astra but hiding from her or if she’s talking about her inability to trust her own sister with her wife’s secrets or if she’s talking about all the fucking headaches she’s been getting lately, and it’s all just too much. She feels her wife’s confusion at that last thing and refuses to think of it anymore, focusing instead on her sister’s heartbeat and getting her own to calm to match it.

When Kara pulls away, Alex still loosely embracing her, she sees Sam over her sister’s shoulder, watching them with a furrowed brow.

She wants to hug you too but doesn’t want to risk touching you because of me, Lena says softly. I can’t really say I’m… ready to risk you touching her either. If you want, I can… leave for awhile.

Kara instinctively increases the amount of energy tethering them together. Don’t you dare, Kara thinks, and even her mental voice is shaky. Baby girl, please, I can’t… never, but especially not right now, please.

I won’t, Lena rushes to say. I’m still here, my love, I’m not leaving. You’re okay.

Kara deflates and steps fully away from Alex, rubbing at her cheeks to erase the evidence of her tears. “I’m fine,” Kara says again, and this time she sounds slightly more convincing, though Lena lets her know that none of her friends believe her, and even her stalker is feeling concerned and confused. “I am,” Kara repeats, looking at them all with a smile that only wobbles a bit. “I… will be. I need to figure some things out, is all.”

Alex grabs her shoulders again and Kara meets her eyes, feels her love and determination and underlying shame through her wife. “We’re doing a sisters’ night next week, got it?”

Kara swallows past the lump in her throat and nods. “Mmkay.”

Alex nods, to herself or Kara none of them can tell, and steps back, and just as Kara is about to lift off she hears sounds that she should not be hearing: the snap of a cape approaching the city, and a heartbeat that she learned shortly after she landed.

Kara growls so loudly that her friends all flinch. “What the hell is he doing here?”

He’s on his way to your apartment, Lena thinks, and Kara can feel her panic.

Kara doesn’t say anything to her friends, just launches off the landing pad and shoots off in the direction that will let her intercept her cousin as far from her apartment as possible. Can you tell why he’s here? Kara asks mentally, not willing to risk Kal-El overhearing her having a conversation with no one else around.

Eliza gave him something to bring to you and he wants to see who you’re hiding that needs it, Lena thinks after a moment. I can read his mind far more easily than a human’s, though it… feels more like a human’s mind than a Kryptonian’s, which is odd.

Kara snorts at that. He’s basically just a human with super powers at this point, she thinks, unable to contain her disgust. He knows nothing of Krypton or of el mayarah.

Currently all he wants to know is who you’re about to use Kryptonian technology for, Lena thinks, and Kara feels her panic rising… and fear, as well. Kara, he hates the Luthors, all of us, I can feel it, and it’s… not unlike how Lex felt about him. If he sees me—

He’s not getting anywhere near you, Kara says, pushing herself as fast as she dares and finally spotting a red-and-blue clad dot on the horizon. He’s a nosy brat, though, so, uh…

Lena’s amusement outweighs her fear at Kara’s thought. You want me to use your cape to burrito myself to hide from Superman?

It blocks x-ray vision, Kara thinks sheepishly. He’ll still be able to hear your heartbeat but I don’t think he even bothered memorizing mine so I doubt he’ll recognize yours.

Lena’s anger flares at that even as she carefully turns herself into a Super burrito, having gained enough weight at this point that the cape barely wraps all the way around her. Do you have to think of it as a ‘Super burrito’, darling?

Is it inaccurate, baby girl? Kara can’t help her smirk when she feels her wife’s blush. Then her cousin is upon her, and they both come to a halt, floating miles above the outskirts of National City.

“Supergirl,” Kal-El says, nodding to her.

Kara squares her jaw, doesn’t bother telling him yet again to just call her Kara when he knows they’re alone. “Superman,” she says, and ignores how his eyes widen slightly. She always calls him Kal-El, even when he’s in the suit.

Kal-El clears his throat and pulls a familiar stone out of his pocket. “Eliza wanted me to bring this to you. Said you needed it for someone?”

Did your cousin… bring you an egg? Lena thinks immediately.

It’s similar to the marble that held the equipment for making our bracelets, Kara replies, and bites back a smile when she feels her :zhao’s eagerness. She gives her cousin a cautious nod. “That will be helpful, yes.” She holds out her hand and it’s only Lena sending her a warning that lets her react in time: Kal-El drops the egg and tries to zoom past her at a speed barely safe this close to so many buildings, but since Kara knows it’s coming she easily catches the egg in one hand and his cape in the other. His shock is so strong she feels it through her connection to her wife, and once Kara has safely tucked the egg into her pocket she yanks his cape so that he’s in front of her again before releasing it. She cocks her head at Kal-El and levels him with a cool stare she’s pretty sure she stole from Lena. “Do you have any idea what you just did?”

Kal-El flies backwards ever so slightly. “You’re planning on using Kryptonian technology on somebody, and you clearly don’t want me to know who.” Kal-El raises his head and squares his shoulders. “We have a duty to protect this planet, and using technology here that killed Krypton jeopardizes that.”

Kara gazes at her cousin with a cold disdain. “The Kryptonian technology to which you are referring, and which you just dropped in an attempt at a distraction,” Kara growls, “played no part in Krypton’s demise.” Kal-El opens his mouth to interrupt and Kara flies forward. “It never existed on Krypton, because I built it after I landed on Earth. It is my design, my creation, and it is one-of-a-kind and cannot be built again because this planet does not have the materials.”

“That only proves my point—“

“It is medical equipment that Eliza has used to save countless lives, alien and human, and that she sent to me because there is someone here who needs it.” Kara sneers in Kal-El’s face. “Had you managed to break it with that pathetic little stunt, even Eliza would not forgive you.”

Kal-El gulps but still glares at Kara. “Why don’t you want me seeing whoever it is that needs it then? Who is it that you have to hide them from Superman?”

The look Kara gives Kal-El at that makes him shrink in on himself and fly back again. “Did you not even consider the fact that it may have nothing to do with you, hm, Superman?” Kara says the famous moniker like a curse, and now she’s flying closer and she doesn’t stop, and Kal-El is forced to retreat, Kara slowly chasing him away from National City. “Did you pause long enough to think that maybe, just maybe, if they’re in such bad condition that Eliza is sending them her most useful piece of medical equipment, they’re bad off enough that they shouldn’t be dealing with any visitors or gawkers?”

Kal-El holds his hands up in surrender, clearly expecting Kara to stop, but still she’s flying toward him and he’s flying away, and now they’re above sprawling desert. Kara speeds up the pursuit, and she doesn’t stop until National City is a blip on the horizon. “Look, Kara, I’m your family, I was just—“ Kal-El tries, but Kara doesn’t let him speak.

“Enough,” Kara says, and she’s so angry now she’s shaking, the only thing keeping her from physically attacking her cousin the precious cargo in her pocket. “You only seem to remember we’re related when you decide I’ve stepped out of line. Where were you when I was half dead from kryptonite a week ago? Where were you when I first became Supergirl? When I was struggling to adapt to this world’s culture? Learning to use my powers?” Kara’s long-held anger has reared its head, and Lena does nothing to temper it, her own anger echoing it, Kara’s wife furious on her behalf. “Where were you when I couldn’t even touch other people for comfort because I was too strong? When I was having nightmares of my planet exploding every goddamn night and unable to even tell anyone in a language they understood?”

“Kara, please, just hear me out—“ Kal-El is pleading now, and Lena sends her his panicked thoughts and emotions: desperation, because he’s never seen Kara like this; guilt, because what she’s saying is true and he knows it; shame, because he’s always known it and never did anything about it, jealous that a child who knew his planet better than him had appeared when he was supposed to be the last Kryptonian, that this child was brilliant and could work with technology he didn’t even understand, that this child was stronger than him and would one day be a hero too, taking the only thing left that he’d always assumed was his alone.

“No,” Kara interrupts, and she has a realization that cools her anger, turns it from fire that wants to burn it all to ice that leaves her oddly calm. She blinks at Kal-El, no, Clark, and he must see something in her expression because he freezes. “We’re done,” Kara says, and she’s never felt so free. “I don’t need you,” she says, and smiles genuinely at her cousin for the first time since he’d dropped her off with the Danvers all those years ago. “I won’t come to your city, so you don’t come to mine,” Kara decides. She starts to fly backwards then, towards her city, her home, her :zhao. “What I do is no longer any of your concern, Superman, and if you try to…” Kara frowns, thoughtful. “If you try to control me, exert authority over me you mistakenly believe you have, well.” She smiles. “I’ll take it as a challenge, and we both know which of us is more powerful, don’t we?”

Clark finally finds his voice when Kara is nearly a mile away. “We’re both still members of the House of El,” he says. “Even if—“

“I am Kara of the House of the El,” she corrects, not even slowing down. “You are Clark Kent, a stranger who happens to share my blood.”

Lena stops sending her Clark’s emotions when it’s clear he won’t be following her, and as Kara begins flying over the buildings of her city, her wife says something that surprises her. Your stalker was listening to the whole thing.

Kara’s fear rises at that, at possibly-her-aunt hearing her disown the baby cousin she was supposed to protect, but her wife quells it with a wave of… her own satisfaction?

She was beyond pissed when you revealed that the, ah, egg that he dropped was something you had created, and when you were listing off some of the many ways he failed at being your family she… well, she would have shot him with those red lights even though they would have only punctured his suit, but she decided not to risk giving him a reason to come back later. Lena’s pride in Kara fills her with warmth even as the icy anger melts away. You were excellent, darling.

Kara swoops into her window then, and grins when she sees her wife on the bed, still a Super burrito. Lena rolls over at that, the cape unwrapping with her movement, and shakes her head at her. Kara just grins wider and slips her glasses on, pressing the small button before flying over and wrapping herself around her wife. “I stood up to Superman,” Kara whispers, giddy.

You did, Lena agrees, smiling at her and beginning to card a hand through windswept blonde curls, her smile widening when Kara simply leans into her touch. You were glorious, my love.

Kara meets her wife’s shining eyes a moment before peppering her face with kisses. I’ve wanted to do that for so long, she thinks, one hand now buried in Lena’s hair as she continues to press quick, light kisses to every inch of her face. She pulls away and buries her face in her wife’s hair. Is it bad that I just feel relieved? Shouldn’t I feel guilty or… something?

The only one who needs to feel guilty right now is him, Lena thinks, resolute. He’s the one who treated you so poorly— all you did was cut off some dead weight.

Kara snorts and rolls them over so her wife is on top of her. “Have I mentioned I love you?” She asks, and when her wife responds by kissing her, Kara slides one hand into her hair again, enjoying the warm weight of her :zhao on her as the kiss deepens.

Lena eventually pulls away and pinches Kara lightly when she pouts. We need to eat, her wife reminds her. And make plans for dealing with the evil minions and your stalker. Then Lena’s nose scrunches up. And you need to call Alex.

Kara groans. “What now?”

She’s the one who called Eliza, so between that and how you acted at the DEO she and Sam know that Superman came to town. Lena’s brow crinkles. They’re both freaking out about him potentially seeing me but they don’t know how to check in without revealing anything. And we also need to let them know it’s fine without revealing anything. Lena meets Kara’s eyes and she already knows what’s coming. And once all of that’s done I want to know everything about that egg.

“Alright, baby girl, one thing at a time,” Kara says, smiling. She presses a kiss to her wife’s cheek and barely keeps from laughing when her phone is slipped into her hand. Kara calls her sister, and when Lena tries to roll off of her to go start breakfast, she wraps her arm around her waist. Let’s make breakfast together, this won’t take long.

Lena arches a single eyebrow as Alex picks up. Darling, you don’t need an excuse to hold me longer. She rests her head over Kara’s heart. We do need to get started on things, but… this is nice.

Kara drops a kiss to the top of her wife’s head as her sister’s frantic voice comes from the phone, “Is everything okay?”

“I can’t believe you tattled to Eliza,” Kara starts, deciding to be a little mean and not let her blabbermouth of a sister know everything is fine just yet. Her wife pinches her but she can’t hide her amusement at Kara’s choice.

Alex makes an annoyed noise. “I was worried and I thought the egg would help! I didn’t realize she’d send Clark!”

You actually call it ‘the egg’? Lena asks.

“It looks like an egg, and eggs are protective and life-adjacent,” Kara grumbles. “I am an inventor, not a… namer.” She waves the hand holding the phone vaguely. “Also, reminder that I am smarter in Kryptonian.”

Lena snorts. Fair enough, darling, but once we have a lab going I will be naming things.

“We?” Kara asks, and feels her wife’s flash of trepidation.

Ah, well, I could… use your help with the alien side of things, if you’re willing. You don’t have to, of course, I can figure it out, I would just… prefer… um… Lena is biting her lip but Kara doesn’t have a free hand at the moment so she kisses the top of her head again.

“I’m down,” Kara says easily. “Though I do reserve the right to complain if you have me working with… Earth tech.” She can’t help but sneer and she feels her wife’s body vibrate with a laugh.

I’ll do my best to ensure that won’t happen, Lena thinks. Also, your sister is about to explode, metaphorically speaking.

“Oops, sorry Alex. Uh,” Kara has to replay the conversation for a moment. “I do agree that the egg will help, but please tell Eliza that Clark is no longer welcome in National City.”

Alex’s sharp inhale causes Kara to frown at her phone. “Wait, Kara, since when do you call your cousin by his ‘Earth name’?” Alex demands. “And what did he do that you banned him from the city? Is that even a thing you can do?”

Kara can hear a voice saying something to Alex on the other end that’s probably Sam but the phone’s microphone doesn’t pick up enough of it for even Kara to make out, and she hadn’t thought to listen in on the DEO, so…

Sam is even more worried now, Lena tells her. Though she isn’t worried for my safety at least since she heard you talking to me.

Kara lays her phone on the pillow beside her head and uses her now-free hand to card through her wife’s dark, silky hair, partly in thanks and partly to keep herself present and calm while she explains things to her sister. “Kal-El never existed,” Kara says. “Or, he stopped existing when he landed, I guess. I haven’t considered Clark my family or even a true Kryptonian… since he abandoned me within an hour of meeting me, honestly.” When Lena sends her a wave of guilt from Alex, Kara frowns. “I’m glad he did now, I love you and Eliza, but back then he was supposed to be my family and help me acclimate to this planet and he didn’t. The only time he bothers remembering we’re related nowadays is when I do something he doesn’t like, and I’m tired of it.”

“What exactly happened?” It’s Sam’s voice now, and Kara can hear how anxious she is.

Kara sighs and closes her eyes. “Eliza had him bring me the egg— I’m sure you remember it, you and Ruby complained for days when Alex used it to give you both check-ups,” Kara says, smiling at the memory, and her smile widens when her wife sends her Sam’s annoyance. “Anyway, I can’t make another one currently— this planet doesn’t have the materials I would need. My :zhao could tell Clark was coming directly to my apartment because he wanted to see who the egg was for, which is incredibly rude by the way, so I intercepted him. He didn’t like me daring to get in Superman’s way,” Kara doesn’t bother hiding the disdain in her voice, “so he decided to drop the egg as a distraction so he could get past me.”

“That fucking prick,” Sam growls.

“Agreed,” Kara sighs. “Luckily, my :zhao is a badass so she of course told me what he was planning and I caught the egg and his cape and we had a little talk.” Kara frowns. “Well, I talked. He mostly sputtered and failed at interrupting me.” Kara hums and focuses on Lena’s heartbeat for a moment. “I’ve been wanting to tell him off for… since I’ve met him, really, and while I only got into some of it I at least let him know that he has never once acted like my family and that he is no longer welcome in my city.”

Please inform them that you were excellent, Lena says.

Kara smiles. “My :zhao wants me to inform you I was excellent,” she repeats, and her wife sends her the surge of pride and fondness her sister and sister-in-law feel at that. “Anyway, I didn’t let him near my apartment because, as Sam said, he’s a fucking prick, and my precious :zhao does not need a self-righteous asshole lecturing her about how irresponsible it is to benefit from Kryptonian technology that he doesn’t even understand. As for whether or not I can ban him from my city…” Kara trails off, pursing her lips. She hadn’t told anyone about this, but she supposes now is the time. “He banned me from Metropolis when I became Supergirl,” she admits, and she feels not only Lena’s shock and anger but Alex and Sam’s as well, so strong her wife doesn’t even need to pass them on.

“He did what?” Alex’s voice is disturbingly growly.

“I wanted to see if he’d show me the ropes, I guess,” Kara says, and gives a hollow kind of laugh. “Don’t know why I thought he’d actually give a shit. He told me in no uncertain terms that a city only needs one Super, and that Metropolis was his and National City was mine. So today I told him to stay out of ‘my’ city, and from what my :zhao could tell he got the message. If he tries coming here again I’m dragging him straight to the desert.”

“Damn straight,” Sam says, and Kara feels her wife’s surprise at Sam’s thought: two Supers in a desert means a showdown.

“I’m surprised you didn’t beat his ass already,” Alex adds.

“Couldn’t, I had the egg in my pocket,” Kara grumbles. “And if I’d put it in my glasses and those had broken, well…”

Alex sighs. “Fair. Mom would be pissed if anything happened to that thing. She still brings it up every time we give her ‘lackluster’ gifts. As if even you could top that.”

Lena’s curiosity surges and Kara frowns down at her. “No, we are having breakfast first, then I will show you everything about the egg and we can use it to examine you. It’s nothing like Earth equipment, so as long as you haven’t picked up my claustrophobia you’ll be fine,” she adds when she feels her wife’s flash of fear. Lena’s brow crinkles but then she shakes her head— no claustrophobia. “Good. That is something we do not need to share.” Kara shudders at the thought of passing that particular annoyance on to her wife: cars, elevators, helmets, too-small rooms…

You were fine in Nia’s car? Her wife taps her side in question as well.

“I was so sleep deprived I was practically drunk,” Kara mumbles. “I would have been fine with anything at that point.”

A hushed conversation on the other end, and her wife feels amusement and concern in equal measure. Alex figured out what you were talking about and said she was surprised Nia’s car arrived in one piece even with your lack of energy at the time.

“Fair,” Kara sighs, and blushes when her wife raises her head, green eyes narrowed. “What?”

I need to make another portal watch, Lena decides. For getting us places without cars or flying. At the thought of flying Kara feels her wife’s curl of fear, but it’s quickly overtaken by excitement. And so I can visit the Fortress sooner.

“What parts do you need?” Kara asks, then frowns at herself— she doesn’t know anything about Earth tech so her knowing the names of the parts really won’t help them.

A few are hard to get, I think, Lena says, frowning. I won’t be able to make it until I get the lab running, probably. Or until I remember more and can find my old stashes.

Kara stares at her wife as a quick flash of memory floods them both: an underground warehouse overflowing with pieces of Earth tech, pale hands reaching for a black box made of nth metal tucked inconspicuously onto a shelf. “Uh, that would be useful, yes,” Kara mumbles, blinking back into the present. “Does…?” She trails off, belatedly realizing she’s still on a call with the woman she was about to ask about.

Sam doesn’t know, Lena decides, shaking her head. The only ones with access were Jess and myself. And… someone I apparently didn’t let myself even think about for the past four years? I think I was worried my brother would give himself my powers without my knowing and find out… though why I thought it was that important to keep hidden I don’t recall.

So until the lab is running or until we find Jess, Kara says, pulling her wife from her musings, and Lena nods, now trying and failing to remember if she left a way to contact her secretary after the ‘bug out’ plan was enacted.

“Parts for what?” Sam asks, her annoyance prickling at them both even from this far away.

“No comment,” Kara decides, blushing when Lena arches both eyebrows at her. “Look, they can apparently tell when I’m lying now so I may as well not waste my effort.”

Sam sighs. “Fine, just… you’re both okay?”

“Yes,” Kara says, darting up to kiss her wife’s cheek. Both of their stomachs grumble then and Kara bites back a laugh. “We’re both in need of food though.”

“Of course you are,” Alex says lightly. “Go have some ridiculous heart-shaped food with your girlfriend, then.”

“Will do,” Kara says, “Love you both, see you later.”

“Love you too, see you soon,” Alex says, and Sam echoes the first part at least.

Kara hangs up and Lena is smiling. At Kara’s questioning tap her wife’s smile widens. Sam is still determined to avoid you at all costs, but she’s also too much of a workaholic to be MIA from her job for too long. She’s going to go look for good hiding spots in the DEO now.

Kara shakes her head and they both get up, heading to the kitchen area. “She does know the DEO isn’t soundproof, right?”

I don’t think she’s considered it, Lena says, and smirks. That or she’s decided you’re too courteous of a sister-in-law to shove it in her face, so to speak.

Kara laughs at the mental image her wife sends her, of Sam crouched behind a rack of weapons in one of the armories, holding a receiver to spy on the main command room and looking up sheepishly at Kara. “That kind of makes me wanna do it,” Kara admits, pulling out the ingredients they’ll need.

Mm, if you do please ensure I am paying attention, darling. Lena smirks and Kara bumps their hips together lightly.

“Well of course, I wouldn’t dare tease your best friend without you there to witness it. When you get the chance to tease Alex I of course want to at least be listening in, though I guess you showing me your memory of it after works too.”

Deal, her wife thinks, sealing their agreement with a chaste kiss before turning the stove top on. We might be a bit evil, Lena adds after.

“I think we’ve earned it,” Kara decides, and Lena agrees.

Chapter Text

When they get to the rooftop garden, Lena arranges their food on the table while Kara flits around, gathering berries and leaves and bypassing flowers when her wife sends her a mental pinch at the mere thought. Kara pouts but adds a liberal amount of both Earth and alien fruits and seasonings to their meal.

“So what’s the plan for the evil minions?” Kara asks before stuffing an entire slice of French toast in her mouth, shoveling in some red berries that have a slight glow after.

At her observation, Lena frowns and pokes her own red berries with a fork. Are these really safe for humans to eat?

“You aren’t human, but also yes. Ruby loves them,” Kara says. When her wife still gives them a dubious look Kara cuts a small corner off of one of her own slices of French toast and spears it and two of the berries with her fork.

Lena’s eyes widen but when Kara holds the fork out to her she leans forward and eats the offering, wincing only slightly as she leans back. Her wife takes a long moment before she actually chews, but when she does she holds a hand up to her mouth, a surprised hum escaping.

“Good?” Kara singsongs.

Her wife nods, blushing. Yes, fine, they’re delicious. I’m still not willing to eat any of those flowers though. Her nose scrunches up and she shoots the nearby alien flowers with tentacle-like vines a glare. I appreciate that those ones eat mosquitoes but I will never so much as touch them.

Kara snorts and goes back to shoving food in her mouth, electing to talk mentally for awhile so she can focus more on eating. Fair enough, baby girl. Now, evil minions?

Her wife’s face pinches, and Kara feels her trying to remember something, but whatever it is keeps slipping away. I don’t think I was ‘gathering evidence’, as everyone puts it, in a… normal way, Lena finally says, absently eating some more glowing berries. Even after they took me, it was… like I was waiting for something. I didn’t expect it to save me, more like… I was frustrated that whatever it was hadn’t happened yet, because that meant it was going to take longer than… ‘we’ had planned.

“We?” Kara finally prompts, and when her :zhao doesn’t respond she increases the energy she’s sending her. Eventually Lena blinks back into focus and looks at Kara, her eyebrows crinkled.

I’m missing something, Lena says, her fingers tapping the side of her water glass. Someone? I was working with someone, she decides, frowning now. But it wasn’t Sam or Jess. We were gathering evidence and… I think I was mostly waiting and trying to… organize the intel we got? But I don’t know how we got it or where it was kept.

“If you were working with someone and they were managing to gather useful intel,” Kara says slowly, “did they know you were taken? Or about the evil lair?” She’s frowning now, her hand pressed against her stomach and her hand starting to clench the fabric of her shirt. “Why didn’t they help you?”

Her wife’s eyes widen at Kara’s anger and her response is immediate, instinctive, He couldn’t, she says, and they’re both startled by the conviction she feels at that. I don’t remember why, or who, but… I know he couldn’t have helped me, Lena decides. Not unless… Her expression pinches again and Kara can feel her annoyance at her own inability to remember.

Kara finishes her food with a touch of super speed, then, and plops her wife on her lap. She feeds her :zhao the rest of her breakfast, Lena trying to remember all the while, and when the food is gone her wife leans against her in defeat, too mentally exhausted to continue fighting her own mind. Kara slips her hand under her shirt and rubs her stomach and her wife pulls the thermos of stew out and sips it in silence.

Whatever evidence I was gathering, Lena finally says, her annoyance still prickling at Kara’s mind, it’s useless to us right now. Our best bet for starting the evil minion hunt is to keep Mercy alive.

“What about the dude, uh, Otis?” Kara asks.

Lena purses her lips. Ideally we keep them both alive, but I get the sense that Mercy will know a lot more than her brother. Hm, and that they’re siblings, apparently. Her wife closes her eyes and leans further into Kara. I doubt they’ll talk willingly, but if you touch them I should be able to see enough to know who to go for next. We’ll have to find them all one by one and use their connections to others to find the rest, and so on.

Kara feels her wife get a flash of déja vu but no memory accompanies it. “That kinda seems like it’ll take awhile,” Kara finally says.

Years, Lena drawls. And with far too much reliance on my powers. Her hands curl into fists but loosen when Kara presses a kiss to her head. I have no clue what my old plan was, when I didn’t have these powers or you or the DEO. It… must have something to do with whoever I can’t remember. I need to get my memories back, all of them, or this will take too long, but… what if nothing works? What if… the years below ground are all I can remember now?

Her wife’s fear curls around them, cold and jagged, and Kara holds her closer, pulls up all her own memories of Lena reacting to Sam or Ruby in ways that didn’t make sense at the time, but that do make sense if her memories are still there, somewhere, wanting to resurface. “You’ll remember, baby girl,” Kara whispers, and when she feels her :zhao’s disbelief she continues. “And if you don’t… that’s okay too. We’ll find all the evil minions and stop them no matter how long it takes, and you and Sam and Ruby can make new memories. It’s not ideal, but… they recognized you so quickly,” Kara says, feeling a mix of disbelief and fondness. “From small things I didn’t think to keep secret. You’re still you, and I think that’s the main thing that will matter to them.”

I hope you’re right, Lena thinks, and Kara can tell her wife is already wanting to go back to bed, which… will be useful considering all the tests she’s planning on having the egg run. At that thought Kara feels her wife’s curiosity rise, but to Kara’s surprise she pushes it back down. Your turn, her wife thinks, tapping Kara’s side. What’s the plan for your stalker?

“Uh, well, is she… listening right now?” Kara asks uncertainly. Her wife pulls away enough to turn to her, eyes open now and one eyebrow quirked. “What?”

First, I would suggest asking questions like that mentally, Lena drawls, leaning back against Kara again. And second, darling, as I have apparently not made this clear enough— she is always listening, and has been since Corben, most likely. I don’t know if she’s even sleeping at this point.

Kara’s mouth falls open and she turns to face the direction her wife lazily points in. “Okay, Miss bodyguard-stalker,” Kara starts, “I may not know who you are, but I do know you’re Kryptonian, and we need sleep too.” Kara frowns when her wife sends her what her stalker feels at that: stubborn determination, and a touch of fondness. “No, I am being serious. You will pass out at some point, and trust me, it will be the worst possible timing. I know you’re more powerful than me— baby girl if she can follow me without me noticing, her powers are even stronger than mine, I have accepted this— but I tried the whole ‘no sleeping’ thing back when I first landed cuz nightmares and whatnot and I lasted less than a month before I finally passed out.” Kara grimaces. “And it happened in gym class. I mean, it worked out cuz I was definitely not doing well regulating my powers so getting permanently excused was nice, but… everyone thought I was a wimp and the only reason some of those kids quit picking on me was cuz I also didn’t know how to fake taking a punch yet and broken hands are a great deterrent.”

Both her wife and her stalker feel a mix of anger and amusement at this, Lena chiming in that it’s too bad the bullies didn’t try punching her with their other hand just in case.

Kara sighs and shakes her head. “Look, I appreciate the… I dunno, protection detail, but I can handle myself.” Her wife pinches her. “Okay, I can usually handle myself, and Alex isn’t here to dispute that so you both have to take me at my word.” Kara nods to herself.

Darling, Lena thinks, and Kara feels her concern, that was the opposite of convincing. I am hacking the DEO later and looking up every incident you were involved in.

Kara flushes. “I’ve been Supergirl for years now and I’ve only almost died like…” She squints and after recalling a few instances and feeling her wife’s panic she stops and grabs her phone, calling Alex.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asks after the first ring.

“How many times have I almost died?” Kara asks, now feeling both her wife and stalker’s shock that she has to outsource the question.

“You’re gonna have to be more specific,” Alex drawls and Kara is hit with the memory of an icy cold pinch.

“Are you trying to get me in trouble?” Kara grumbles, and she scowls when Alex just laughs. “And I mean, like… hm, without the DEO or other outside intervention I’d be dead.”

“Okaaaaay,” Alex says, drawing out the word. “And are we only counting from when you got to Earth? Cuz from what you’ve told me you did some dumb shit in the labs on Krypton, not to mention all your adventures with your aunt.”

Kara flushes as red as the cape Lena now has wrapped around them both and when she feels both her wife and her stalker’s concern and amusement she buries her face in her wife’s hair. “Alex, please,” Kara groans. “And since I landed, obviously.” Then she lifts her head and squints at the phone. “Specifically since I donned the cape.”

“Oh so you don’t want me to count the time you ‘tried to fix’ some kind of space junk you found somewhere and nearly turned Midvale into a crater?” Alex asks innocently.

“I would have survived that!” Kara says indignantly. “And I did fix it, I just didn’t realize it was a bomb until almost too late.” At her wife’s incredulity Kara winces. “Okay, look, it was from a planet with a very durable species and their children’s toys blow up half the time, so it’s really not my fault… all the way. And I tossed it back up easily enough.”

“It’s a school holiday there now,” Alex adds helpfully. “’The day the sky blew up’, they’re thinking of having a parade from what Mom said.”

“Alex, please, just answer the question.” Kara kind of wants to hang up but she’s pretty sure Lena won’t let her at this point. “With a number, preferably. I don’t need a list, I was trying to count them and my :zhao, uh, got upset.”

“No shit,” Alex says and sighs. “Since you became Supergirl, without the help of the DEO, another hero, or some ordinary citizens who hid you until we could arrive…” Her sister’s fear and grief surge so strongly that Kara feels it through her connection to Lena. “You’ve almost died seventeen times,” Alex whispers. “Including Corben.”

Kara’s brow crinkles even as she feels her wife and stalker’s shock and fear. “Okay, y’know, that may be more than I thought. I am either very lucky or very unlucky.” Then she frowns. “Wait, are you counting Mxy? Cuz I wasn’t actually going to blow up the Fortress, I was bluffing.”

Your stalker is considering blowing her cover to come give you a lecture, Lena says. Or having me give you one since she can feel me listening in. And who the fuck is Mxy?

“Fifth dimensional imp,” Kara says, and her stalker’s annoyance thrums through them both. “He’s gone now,” Kara waves her hand. “I set the Fortress of Solitude to explode and the password to stop it was his name backwards.”

Alex, of course, decides to chime in with something Kara would really rather have not mentioned. “And in case you were wondering,” Alex says, and Kara’s wife stiffens in her arms, having already heard the thought, “he only cared enough to do that because he was in love with my dear sister despite never having met her and was trying to force her to marry him. Dude did not know the meaning of the word ‘no’.”

“Okay, thanks Alex, love you bye,” Kara hangs up before her sister can reveal any other secrets she’d rather not be shared at the moment.

And spelling his own name backwards means he can’t come back here? Lena asks, tapping Kara’s side. Kara can’t tell if her wife is more pissed or confused. How does that work, exactly?

Kara’s nose scrunches at that. “Fifth dimensional imps are part of the whole ‘magic is kind of real’ thing, and I honestly don’t know. It seems to have worked? I only knew about it because of a Daxamite who, uh, really only bothered telling me because he was also trying to ‘get in my pants’, as Alex likes to say.”

Your stalker really and truly does not like Daxamites, Lena observes as the unknown woman’s anger fills them both.

“A true Kryptonian,” Kara says, nodding, and the anger fades, a curl of amusement in its wake. “Who still needs sleep,” Kara adds then. “I apparently average 3.4 deaths a year, and I’ve already had, uh,” her brow crinkles, “two this year, I think. So I’m probably good for awhile.” Neither her wife nor her stalker appreciate this. “Well, I’ll apparently be fighting some people with kryptonite again—“

Her stalker’s fear at this is so overwhelming that Lena and Kara both freeze and have to breathe for a long moment until it ebbs.

She’s going to kill them, Lena says, and I don’t blame her, honestly.

“We kind of need them alive,” Kara says, frowning when her wife sends her the woman’s refusal. “Okay, so looks like we need to… I dunno, catch them before the kryptonite comes out?”

She doesn’t know what they look like so that will work, and it greatly annoys her, Lena thinks, biting back a smile. If you knock them out as soon as you get there it should be fine.

“I’m not great at… knocking out humans,” Kara says, the hand rubbing her wife’s stomach stilling for a moment. “It took me months to touch without bruising, and I didn’t try to hug anyone for a year… I can do gentle touches now but… fighting is… there’s a reason I tend to destroy their weapons and then restrain them until authorities arrive.” Kara drops her head to Lena’s shoulder. “You’re better at controlling my strength than I am.”

Lena stiffens but relaxes again. Your stalker already knows I can pilot your body, which… explains her fear when she saw us kill Corben. She figured it out then.

“Shit,” Kara mutters, only just realizing her slip up.

And unlike everyone else, she is not surprised by you cussing, her wife adds, amused. Though considering your proclivity for Kryptonian curses I suppose that makes sense.

Since they seem to be having a long-distance conversation Kara almost asks her stalker if she really is Astra, but… she can’t. She pushes away the thought and the fear (and shields her wife from the sudden burning pain in her head at the thought of Astra being on Earth) and refocuses on the issue at hand, rubbing soothing patterns into her wife’s stomach again when Lena’s hand raises to scratch at her scalp. “We don’t know when they’ll show up but… if you’re up for it… do you… wanna knock em out? With my body or like… psychically, if that’s… a thing.” Kara cringes, shame filling her for asking her baby girl to do something she knows could use too much of her powers. “Only if it…” Kara squeezes her eyes shut. “Not if it will hurt you,” she whispers. “Let’s… let’s see what the egg can tell and we’ll go from there.”

When her wife starts squirming Kara releases her and is surprised when Lena turns to straddle her, both hands cupping her face and forcing Kara to meet her eyes. My love, her :zhao thinks, gaze intense, do not feel ashamed for asking for help, especially not for asking me. We are in this together.

“El mayarah,” Kara murmurs, and while the shame is gone, fear overtakes it. “I know, but… I shouldn’t ask you to…” Kara closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “I’ll ask for help when I need it, but please, baby girl, don’t… don’t do anything that will hurt you if you don’t have to. This isn’t like Corben.”

I know, Lena says, and kisses Kara lightly. I won’t endanger myself without due cause, my love, I promise.

“Thank you,” Kara murmurs, hugging her wife to her as tight as she dares. She lifts her head and squints in the direction her stalker was last in. “Okay, goodbye for now, Miss bodyguard-stalker, or, since you’re always listening… ugh, just take a nap, for fuck’s sake. Anyway I need to go put my wife in an egg so,” Kara says, standing, her wife squeaking and wrapping her legs around her waist. Kara looks at her, brow crinkled. “Did you not know I was about to do that?”

Lena flushes and the blush reaches the tips of her ears when Kara slips her hands under her thighs to support her weight. Knowing it’s going to happen and it actually happening are two very different things.

Kara hums noncommittally. “Well if you don’t like it I won’t do it anymore, and I need to pack up our stuff anyway… or not.” Kara smiles when their bag hovers near her, all of their breakfast things already packed away. She releases one of her wife’s thighs long enough for the bag’s handle to be slipped over her wrist. “Does that mean you do like it?” Kara asks, and though Lena is resolutely silent she still uses her powers to open the rooftop door for her. “I’ll take that as a yes,” Kara whispers, pressing a kiss to her wife’s head and checking that no one is around before heading back to their apartment.

Lena continues to open all the doors with her powers, and when they get to their apartment Kara almost laughs when her wife unlocks it from the inside instead of bothering with the key tucked into the bag, which is then floated off of Kara’s wrist and deposited on the kitchen counter, the items within flying out and neatly tucking themselves into the dishwasher. Even as Kara is filled with pride for her :zhao’s progress and accuracy with her powers, she smirks.

“Okay so you really like it then,” Kara says, floating over to the bed and sitting on it, Lena now in her lap. Her :zhao pulls back enough to give her a half-hearted glower before dropping the act and kissing her, winding her hands through golden hair. Kara’s hands fall to her hips and she deepens the kiss, and they stay that way for… longer than her stalker probably appreciates if she is Kara’s aunt, but it’s not like Kara asked to be spied on 24/7. Lena pulls away then and shakes her head.

You’re ridiculous, Lena says, and Kara feels her wife’s amusement and fondness filling her. Now, teach me about this egg you made. She’s still flushed from earlier, her dark hair messier than usual, and her eyes are bright with excitement, and Kara can’t help kissing her one more time, albeit a tiny bit more chastely. My love.

“I’m sorry,” Kara says, as seriously as she can. “My wife is just far too beautiful, I can’t help myself sometimes.” She shakes her head, frowning. “Having a gorgeous wife is truly a terrible affliction, you must understand.” Kara starts laughing when Lena pinches her, and in a quick but smooth move she maneuvers them so she’s laying atop her wife on the bed. Kara peppers her face with kisses before rolling off to lay beside her, entwining their hands. “The first part is the truth, you know,” Kara murmurs, squeezing her :zhao’s hand as Lena’s happiness at that fills them both. Then Kara grins, “And the second part will be true for Alex and Sam once we all start hanging out in person.”

Lena snorts and turns to curl against Kara, pressing her forehead to the side of Kara’s head. Your stalker wants me to tell you that your sister gets a free pass for threatening you with kryptonite at least once for that.

Kara makes an indignant sound but refrains from telling her possibly-aunt that her Earth sister already used kryptonite on her once, as her wife agrees that is not a good idea. “Rude,” Kara decides, pouting. “I’m not asking you to listen in, you know. You could go take a nap. Before you pass out and I have to catch you cuz you were mid-flight or something.”

She didn’t deign to reply to that, Lena says, her own amusement curling around them. She taps Kara’s side. Now, enough talking to your stalker, show me the egg.

“Bossy,” Kara murmurs and she really wants to kiss her wife again but then Lena arches an eyebrow and Kara sighs. “Fine, fine, baby girl. You wanna see the whole process of me building it or just get a general—“ Kara cuts off when her wife rolls on top of her, green eyes glaring down at her. “It took me like three months to build and that was based on a few years of research and design, it will take awhile to show you everything.”

Lena sits up, straddling Kara’s hips, and her fingers tap on Kara’s stomach. You said earlier that my wanting a nap would be useful, so I take it I’ll be… in the egg for awhile?

"Yes,” Kara says. “I can only tell so much with my senses, and I’m going to have it run every test it can on your heart. It’s definitely stronger, but…” Kara’s jaw clenches, her anger rising as she remembers the flash of memory Lena had shown her, Lillian Luthor smugly standing over her as someone cut into her chest, and her wife leans down and kisses her cheeks, her forehead, the tip of her nose. Kara relaxes and releases the anger, sitting up enough to press a gentle kiss to Lena’s lips. “Thanks, baby girl. And you’re right— you’ll be in there awhile so we may as well get started and then I’ll show you how it works.”

Kara is planning on getting up but her glasses float into her wife’s hands, and after scrutinizing them a moment, Lena carefully puts them on Kara’s face, pressing the invisible button that swaps her outfits. Kara watches her wife smirk when she looks down and sees Supergirl beneath her, hair mussed and face still flushed.

“Do you see my problem?” Kara drawls, and instead of rolling her eyes as she expects her to, her wife leans down and kisses her again, only pulling away when she needs air.

I think I may have the same problem, my love, Lena agrees, shaking her head. Also, I’ve decided that the top half of your suit, at least, is designed alright. Minus its… lack of actual protective capabilities.

Kara feels her wife’s hunger then, and for once it isn’t for her alien knowledge. Lena scoffs at that, but when Kara slips the egg from one of her pockets green eyes lock onto it and don’t look away, and the hunger quickly flips to the usual kind.

At that thought Lena finally pulls her eyes away and stares at Kara, scrunching her nose up. Really, darling, I’m not that bad.

“Do you want me to make a6559 Venn diagram?” Kara asks, arching a single eyebrow. “Times you’ve hungered for knowledge versus hungered for me, the central overlap of course being reserved for times my science skills made you—“ Kara is cut off with a kiss that she’s pretty sure is mostly to shut her up.

Not inaccurate, and fine, yes, I am that bad, Lena says, pulling away and blowing out a long breath. Please refrain from using the word ‘horny’ in front of your possibly-aunt.

“That means I can never say it,” Kara grumbles, and only stops pouting when her wife kisses it away. Once she’s mollified, Kara sits up, one arm around Lena and her other hand cradling the egg, and she floats them both up and away from the bed. She scans the room for a moment and, seeing what she needs, Lena uses her powers to move a few tables to the opposite wall and the large rug to the center of the empty space. Kara kisses her cheek in thanks and flies them to the center of the space, setting the egg-shaped stone on the rug as gently as she would a real egg, before flying back.

The egg glows a soft red and wobbles side to side before growing, the sides pulsing and shimmering, and Kara watches the light dance in her :zhao’s eyes, Lena staring transfixed as Kara’s creation activates. The lights finally fade away once the egg has settled, now the size of a small car and hovering about a foot above the carpet. What had looked like rough, pockmarked stone is now sleek and shining, a smooth metal not found on Earth, and thin lines of gold and silver run through it from top to bottom, following the curves in glittering seams. A quiet hum fills the room, and Kara feels her wife sink against her, looks down to see her slowly blinking up at her before a yawn overtakes her.

“Whatever species you turned yourself into,” Kara says quietly, “my egg will still work on you, so that’s good to know. That’s part of why I never went to get it from Eliza. Well, that and I didn’t wanna leave you or tip off Alex.”

Lena’s head sways and she rests it fully against Kara before using one hand to tap her arm in question.

“I designed this egg for people who are likely to need it for awhile, or for more than a quick check-up at least, so the hum acts as both a… test and a lullaby, I guess.” Kara floats them closer to the egg and a Lena-sized hole appears in the side facing them. “It already did an initial scan of us and recognized you as the patient, and it’s emitting a hum it can tell will make you sleepy. Since the hum is having the intended effect, the scanners can read you accurately enough that more in-depth tests should work fine.”

Kara tucks Lena into the empty space inside the egg, and she feels her wife’s shock when she realizes she’s floating on her own now. Before the hole vanishes, Lena reaches out and grabs the cape still draped over Kara’s arms, wrapping it around her shoulders and giving Kara a haughty look as the egg closes when Kara feels a surge of love and amusement at her wife wanting her cape for this.

The egg looks just as it did before, though now it has her precious :zhao tucked away within it, and Kara already knows it’s resistant to her x-ray vision. Though she can still feel Lena in her mind and hear her heartbeat, calm and steady now in her sleep, Kara starts sending her more energy, only relaxing when she feels more strongly tethered to her.

As Lena watches through her eyes, Kara places a hand on the egg and, after doing some mental calculations, she tells it to run a species identification test followed by all relevant health tests, beginning with those related to the heart. She removes her hand and stares at the egg, frowning, then touches it again. “By the authority of Kara Zor-El, add the current patient, Lena, as a chicken.”

Kara feels her wife’s shock and then amusement as she understands, and when the egg speaks aloud, acknowledging Kara’s command and calling her ‘farmer Kara’ in the process, her wife laughs in her mind.

“Baby, I already told you I am bad at naming things here,” Kara says, pouting. “Krypton had plenty of naming processes and I always used those, but the direct translations just don’t work in English, so I kinda… use whatever words come to mind when I set things like this up. The machine is the egg, so those who can use it are chickens— that’s Eliza, Alex, and you now— and I’m the one who can add chickens, so I’m the farmer. It makes sense.”

Maybe I should let you name things when we have a lab, Lena thinks to her, amusement still tickling them both. Just to see how the rest of the world reacts.

Kara decides she lost this fight as soon as she officially named what was likely the most high-tech medical equipment on Earth ‘the egg’, so she sighs dramatically and tosses herself onto the bed, using her hearing to check the city quickly for issues (none that require Supergirl, thankfully), before diving into her memories of making the egg.

She resurfaces a few hours later, only because the egg recognizes that its patient is hungry and expecting food around this time, and she pulls a sleepy Lena out of the enclosure, bundling her more securely in her cape before heading to the kitchen, her wife in her usual one-armed hold.

Lena doesn’t fully wake up until about halfway through the meal, and Kara feels her wife’s muted surprise when she realizes they’re on the roof and Kara is alternating between feeding her and feeding herself. Ah, thank you, my love, Lena murmurs in her mind, turning to kiss Kara’s jaw before slipping off her lap and beginning to slowly eat her food.

“I think I may need to revise your title,” Kara says, grinning as bleary green eyes narrow in her direction. “You aren’t just any nerd, you’re the queen of the nerds.”

Her wife doesn’t even deign to toss any food at her, though Kara can feel her considering it. You peeked into my mind, didn’t you? Lena asks.

Kara smirks. “I wanted to see what you were up to since you were so out of it, but even I didn’t expect you to already be recalling everything I taught you and studying it.”

Lena takes another bite of food, chewing slowly as she considers her answer. We only got a month in, she finally says, frowning down at her plate, you need to go on at least one patrol, and based on Nia’s current mix of exhaustion and anxiety something is going to happen sometime today, so since it may be awhile until we get to the next two months of building the egg I want to ensure I have the first month fully understood. Her wife looks at her and Kara gapes when she’s given a wide, beautiful smile. It’s a wonderful creation, my love. I want… Lena sets her fork down and her fingers tap restlessly on her thigh. It needs to be ‘Earthified’, as you’ve dubbed it. Even if I can’t replicate all of its functions, its testing capabilities alone would save a lot of lives.

After watching Lena sink back into her own thoughts for a few minutes, Kara finishes her own food and puts her wife back on her lap, feeding her the rest of her meal and doing her best to tamp down her amusement at how she eats automatically, her mind whirring away. Once all the food is gone Kara packs up one-handed and sets the bag by the door before sitting down in the clover field, her precious :zhao in her lap and a yellow sun shining on her face. She basks for several minutes, letting the sunlight fill her and then sending its energy into Lena, flooding them both with a golden warmth that eventually draws her :zhao back to the present.

Sorry, Lena thinks, and Kara is surprised to feel her wife’s curl of shame. I started running through ideas for things and working backwards from the end result I wanted and it… took awhile.

“Nothing to be sorry for,” Kara says quietly, and kisses Lena’s cheek. “I love how smart you are and how excited you get to learn new things and how much you wanna help people. And I’m extremely impressed you already have ideas for Earthifying the egg because Eliza has been trying to get me to make more for years.” Kara’s brow crinkles. “I really only made that one to make up for the toxic birthday cake incident. I didn’t think she’d find it that interesting.”

Kara’s wife has her own crinkle now and Kara can feel her disbelief. Darling, Lena starts, you created a singular device that can not only run every diagnostic test this planet knows of and far, far more, it can also directly treat or outline treatment plans for most of the things it diagnoses, and for nearly every species. How is that not revolutionary?

“Huh.” Kara frowns, thoughtful. “I mean, I designed it back on Krypton, it was supposed to be my project for admittance into the Science Guild. I was planning on playing with some, uh, more interesting things, but ukr revoked my access to those labs until after I was admitted and told me to make something that could heal me if I blew myself up later.” Kara scowls and her wife valiantly does not laugh, though Kara can tell she wants to. “I didn’t really… appreciate that, so I kinda just… sketched out the egg’s design and showed it to him that same day? I figured he would laugh at it and let me back into the fun labs but instead he just stared at it for a long time and then handed it back and told me to make it, which… I didn’t get the chance to do on Krypton, but…” Kara shrugs, remembering all the other designs she’d brought to her dad. “He didn’t even comment on it or interrogate me. It was weird.”

Lena tilts her head, frowning, and then nods. Your stalker wants me to tell you a few things. First, your egg would have been revolutionary even on Krypton, though less so than on Earth since it is designed to help every species and older Kryptonians were very conservative and Krypton already had equipment for most things that could affect Kryptonians. Second, until now she believed that Zor-El never once allowed a design to be enacted with no input, and third, him silently staring at the blueprint for so long most likely means he was struggling to understand it, especially given that you sketched it up that day and didn’t think it was even worth creating.

Kara tilts her head now, frowning. “Hm. I still don’t see the big deal? My medical knowledge is… not great, I really just kinda… mushed together everything we knew on Krypton and then Earth into one design. Even after making it I don’t understand its results much past the overall synopsis, which we won’t get for you until hm, sometime tomorrow.”

Lena turns and Kara blinks in surprise when her wife straddles her, both hands on her shoulders and practically nose-to-nose with her. And how, pray tell, did you ‘mush everything into one design’?

“I mean, I did research it for… maybe an hour and a half?” Kara’s nose scrunches up as she tries to remember. “Ukr told me to create something that could heal explosion wounds, basically, but that seemed kinda boring, so I started thinking of all the ways I could cause explosions, and…” Kara sighs and her wife tells her she sounds a little too dreamy. “Anyway, it seemed more useful to create something that could heal different kinds of wounds with varied causes so I looked at Krypton’s medical equipment and saw some patterns.”

Lena curls closer against her and Kara realizes she should probably get her out of the sun at this point so she hops up, her baby girl in her arms, and heads inside, the bag floating along behind them at her wife’s insistence. Once they’re back in their apartment, Lena once again unloads the bag with her powers and Kara watches, chest puffing up with pride that makes her wife pinch her for some reason.

“What? I literally vowed to always be proud of you.”

Yet you aren’t proud of yourself for designing and building a ridiculously advanced piece of medical equipment? Lena drawls.

Kara purses her lips. “I never said I wasn’t proud of it, baby, I just don’t think it’s all that special. It’s… a remix, of sorts. I wasn’t actually expecting ukr to accept it as my official project, and I didn’t want to risk having to make a second project, so I decided the egg needed to be able to diagnose and treat as much as possible, not just explosion wounds, and I had to do… so much research.” Kara shudders as she recalls the sheer number of Kryptonian and later Earth medical journals she had to skim. “I didn’t have super speed on Krypton and it took so long. The patterns I saw in the equipment didn’t make sense unless I learned more about what the equipment was for and ugh. I do not envy Alex and Eliza, medical and biology stuff make my head hurt, especially… DNA and genes and all that. I had to find the patterns behind the patterns and then find ways to combine things that weren’t always super compatible… Building the damn thing was the easy part.”

Your stalker is feeling a mix of fondness and frustration, though they also seem surprised that… you dislike biology? Lena tells Kara, brow crinkling even as she cups her face with both hands, and Kara automatically shields her wife from the flash of pain in her mind at the mere thought of it. And I’m not sure whether I love you or hate you right now. Even as her wife says it she sends Kara an overwhelming wave of love and affection, though Kara can feel some annoyance and frustration as well. You’re a fucking super genius and you don’t even realize it, Lena’s voice growls in her mind.

“Am I?” Kara doesn’t believe her and she feels when her wife has had enough.

Call Ruby, Lena demands.

“Right now?” Kara looks at the time. “I mean it is her lunch time but I think Sam and Alex took her somewhere to eat. She’s been complaining the school lunches are too small, apparently.”

Exactly, they’re in the car on the way back to school now, tell her to put you on speaker phone.

Kara frowns at her wife, but she does want to see where this is going so she takes the phone that’s floated into her hand and calls their niece. Ruby picks up on the third ring.

“Aunt Kara? Is something wrong?” Ruby sounds a bit worried but mostly just confused. “I’m on the way back to school with my moms.”

“Yeah, I know, uh… my :zhao told me to call you and have you put me on speaker?” Kara’s voice ticks up at the end and she almost gasps when her wife starts sending her not only Ruby’s emotions but Sam’s and Alex’s as well— mostly confusion, but she can tell her sister and sister-in-law are worried Lena has remembered something.

“Okay, you’re on,” Ruby says. “What’s up, Kara’s :zhao?”

Lena doesn’t pilot Kara since she’s determined to send her the Arias-Danvers family’s emotions for some reason, so Kara instead parrots what her wife says: “Um, first she wants you to know that she has all of her working knowledge still and that with the right parts and equipment she could build a functional time machine, not that she wants to since there are apparently time wraiths— yes, I have seen them, they’re freaky as hell— and that she definitely has multiple STEM degrees even though she doesn’t remember specifics right now.”

The only one shocked by any of this information is Alex, though it seems to specifically be the part about the time machine, which Kara can tell her wife finds annoying considering she knows Alex knows Kara has one somewhere.

“Second, she figures you should know she is currently projecting all of your emotions to me because she needs me to understand the enormity of this— I told you, I am proud of the egg I just, ugh, fine— since I don’t believe just her.” Kara rolls her eyes when her wife adds a quick ‘and your stalker but don’t mention that of course’.

“So there’s two people in my head, lovely,” Alex drawls, and Kara valiantly does not laugh when both Sam and Ruby pinch her. Kara’s wife is not so kind, but she laughs silently at least, tucking her face against Kara’s neck as Alex’s annoyance hums through them both.

“Aunt Kara, what did you do that she needs you to get outside input?” Ruby asks.

“Literally nothing,” Kara says, ignoring that they can all hear her pouting. “Mm she says that’s part of the problem, actually. That I…” Kara frowns when her wife tells her she should be shouting about her egg from the rooftops and writing articles about Kara Danvers instead of Supergirl. “Okay why would I do any of that? I am already fairly well-known, and my ego is not that big, god complex notwithstanding— ack,” Kara rubs at her side when her wife sends her the memory of an icy pinch. “Quit cheating, Rao, okay, anywayyy, she says to tell you all— that’s rude, I’m not saying that. I didn’t say it wasn’t true, but…” Kara frowns when her wife resorts to blackmail. “I can also blackmail you— if you don’t go back in the egg after this I will not show you the next two months of my building the egg.” Kara learns, then, that she may have a weakness that rivals kryptonite: her baby girl glaring at her as her determination and annoyance prickle at her mind. “Ugh, fine, I’ll say it.”

“Kara, today, please,” Sam says, though Kara can feel her amusement. “We need to drop Ruby off and get back to work.”

Kara sighs. “Reminder that my :zhao is the one saying this,” she begins, ignoring her wife’s glare, “she wants me to tell you all that I am smarter that her.” Kara can feel Sam and Ruby’s shock but Alex doesn’t seem surprised. “Rao, this is so rude— also you have a god complex too, yeesh— she is insisting I tell you that if the average human has half a brain, she has at least 11 brains and I have at least 20. Why I would want that many I do not know.”

Alex is actively laughing but Sam and Ruby can only feel shock, enough that Alex eventually notices and stops laughing. “Why are you two so surprised? I have told you some of the things Kara has done.”

“That’s almost twice as smart,” Sam hisses, and Kara suddenly remembers their first meeting, Sam telling her that Lena is the smartest person she knows. “How the fuck is that even possible?”

“Language,” Ruby says absently. “And is this ‘smartness’ rating based on knowledge or application thereof? Like is it because Aunt Kara got a better education?”

Lena considers this, her fingers tapping at Kara’s side. With your education I still don’t think I could have made the egg, she decides, running through a few more things and occasionally getting input from Kara.

“Uh, she says that my education does account for some of it? I’ve shown her a few years’ worth at this point but in hindsight part of why she’s picking it up so quickly is that she’s seeing my understanding of it as well. So if we ignore education: average human has half a brain, she has 11 brains, and I have maybe 17?” Kara frowns. “I find this whole thing very rude still. And inaccurate— do you have any idea some of the things I have seen and heard people do?”

“Auntie Kara,” Ruby singsongs, amusement outweighing her shock now. “Are you saying the average human has less than half a brain?”

“I don’t think I should answer that,” Kara decides.

Darling, Lena thinks, I assumed what you thought was rude was my saying most people have half a brain… but you just thought that a lot of them have not even one tenth of a brain.

Kara squeaks. “I still save the stupid ones! I… mostly save stupid ones, occasionally unlucky ones.” Kara sighs when she feels the Arias-Danvers’ amusement. “Look, it’s like orange male cats, okay? People know they’re dumb but they still love them. I can still love stupid people, and I have already admitted I have a god complex. It’s fine.”

“Is this like elephants finding people cute?” Ruby asks. “Maybe they think we’re all dumb too.”

Kara sniffs and looks away from her phone. “I’ve talked to some human first responders who feel the same, okay? It’s not uncommon.”

Alex hums. “You do see and hear some of humanity’s worst. We aren’t exactly putting our best foot forward.” Kara is sent her sister’s spike of anger. “Still doesn’t mean you get to tease me for struggling with Calculus. I was a kid, and you couldn’t do it either.”

“Wouldn’t,” Kara corrects. “It’s dumb.”

“Aunt Kara,” Ruby gasps. “Does this mean you won’t help me with Calc next year?”

Kara almost blurts that Ruby’s other godmother can help her but said other godmother slaps her hand over her mouth. She doesn’t release it until Kara realizes her mistake, flushing. “I… can.” Kara grimaces, then brightens, because even if she can’t reveal they know who her wife is, they’ve already established she has most of her knowledge intact. “Ooh, I’ll bribe my :zhao into helping. I have some old inventions of mine I can dig up.”

Ruby cackles at Kara’s determined avoidance of Earth math and Sam and Alex aren’t much nicer.

“Okay, glad that that’s done, love you all, goodbye.” Kara barely lets them repeat it before hanging up. “Are you happy now?”

Not exactly, Lena thinks, and kisses Kara’s pout away. But you do seem to have a better grasp on just how intelligent you are now. You put a lot of stock in Sam and Ruby’s opinions, of both my intelligence and yours. Her wife smiles at that before pointing imperiously to the egg. Now, my chariot awaits.

Kara shakes her head, clinking their bracelets together before bundling her wife up in her cape and gently depositing her in the waiting egg, its pleasant hum already making Lena yawn.

And just so you know, darling, you could make a fortune on this sound alone, Lena thinks, eyes already closing as the egg solidifies. Many people would pay good money for a sleep aid like this.

“Humans are weird,” Kara decides, not for the first time.

I thought I wasn’t human? Her wife asks, already having mostly slipped into her mind.

“You’re human enough,” Kara says, grinning when she feels the ghost of a pinch. “Now, any preferences for my patrol route?”

Mm, fly by the DEO last, Lena says. No one is there yet but… there’s… a lot of mental energy being directed that way? Her wife’s confusion laps at Kara’s mind. It’s not coming from humans or… any kind of alien you’ve encountered since I’ve been with you, but it feels familiar.

“What kind of ‘mental energy’?” Kara asks as her suit materializes.

Mostly fear, Lena says. There are a few of them, I’m not sure how many. All of them are focused on the DEO, all of them are afraid. Two are guilty, and one… determined? Also, Nia is camped out near Ruby’s school ‘just in case’, which I… don’t love.

“If she hasn’t told us then it probably isn’t something she dreamed,” Kara says, using her hearing to check in on her niece and her friend. “More like… it’s something that was mentioned in a dream, a possibility that’s so remote it didn’t make it as a potential future. But since it’s Ruby she’s being careful.”

Why not tell at least you? Lena doesn’t like anything being kept from them that has to do with their niece.

“I’m probably needed wherever the real threat is,” Kara says, her nose scrunching up. “For now, I need to go stop some ‘average humans’ from starting a forest fire.”

Even in her sleep, Kara feels her wife’s eyebrows raise when she sees what Kara does: a group of adult campers already packed and leaving, their fire still smoldering and embers already reaching nearby blades of grass. Okay, my love, you were right: less than one tenth of a brain it is.

Chapter Text

As per her wife’s advice, Kara ends her patrol at the DEO, touching down on the landing pad and biting back a smile when Sam sees her and almost drops the tablet she’s holding.

“Supergirl,” Sam says, taking a small step back. “Um, since when do you check this area this late?”

Alex walks up and puts herself between Kara and Sam, crossing her arms and, according to Lena, doing her best to not think about the Luthors. “You did your patrol in reverse today, why?”

Sam pinches Alex and hisses, “Why didn’t you warn me?” Then she looks over at Kara with wide eyes. “Uh, ignore that.”

Kara shakes her head at both of them as her :zhao laughs in her mind. “I have it on good authority that I need to be here around this time, though we aren’t sure why yet.”

Sam and Alex both narrow their eyes at her. “Dreamer?” Sam guesses.

“Nope, whatever it is she didn’t feel the need to warn me about.” Kara frowns and uses her hearing to check the building once again. Nothing seems out of place yet. “And I can’t ask her since she’s busy stalking Ruby.”

You maybe shouldn’t have said that, Lena observes as both Sam and Alex go rigid.

“They’re fine,” Kara says, knowing even her wife is keeping tabs on them. “If Ruby was actually in danger she would have told us.”

Sam steps forward and Kara can tell she’s ready for a fight even without her :zhao giving her a warning. “If Dreamer feels the need to tail my thirteen-year-old daughter then she is clearly in some kind of danger,” Sam snarls. “Now you can go get Ruby and bring her here or I can go get her, your choice.”

That’s what makes it click for Kara and her wife: if Nia had told any of them, Sam wouldn’t have left her daughter’s side, and Ruby would probably be at the DEO right now.

“I think that’s exactly what Dreamer is trying to keep from happening,” Kara says slowly, and Sam freezes, Alex at her side now and already looking around with narrowed eyes. Kara checks the building again, but still everything is fine. “She either doesn’t want Ruby here… or…”

Sam’s the one in danger, Lena finishes, and Kara feels her wife’s fear. That’s why Nia didn’t warn us, you need to be with Sam, and Ruby needs to stay away.

Alex has the same thought, one of her hands grasping Sam’s upper arm and her other on her holster. “Supergirl.”

“Everything is still normal,” Kara snaps. The anxiety and fear thrumming through her are making her twitchy, her grip too tight even though she knows she needs to do this so they won’t blame themselves— Kara’s brow crinkles. Those aren’t her thoughts, and her hands are empty, but for a moment she’d felt a knife handle in her grasp.

There are too many heartbeats in this room, Lena says. Whoever is affecting you just entered and they’re headed your way.

Kara uses her x-ray vision and now she can see who her wife sensed, or at least… their bones, the sharp weapon in their hand… and the thick metal collar around their neck. They’re only a few steps away and making a beeline for Sam, the knife trembling in their grip, and though Kara knows they’re an alien she can’t tell what species. What she can tell, as someone who has looked at far too many beings’ skeletons, is… It’s a child, Kara thinks, frantic. They’re desperate, baby girl, they’ll fight back, and if I use too much force—

Lena takes control of Kara’s body then and Kara falls back in her own mind, only leaving enough of herself at the forefront to maintain her x-ray vision. She watches as her body takes two strides past Alex and her hand reaches out, Sam flinching away and then leaping back when Kara’s hand pulls a blade seemingly out of thin air, the weapon appearing as soon as it leaves the child’s grasp.

Kara feels the child’s fear spike and they lunge for the blade but Kara’s body dodges easily, and when the child realizes this person can see them their fear is so staggering it makes Kara feel queasy. The child tries a sloppy feint this time but Kara’s body drops the blade and grabs the small, invisible child instead, pinning them to the floor in a practiced move that uses the exact amount of force necessary.

I need to look into their mind, can you hold them? Lena asks, and at Kara’s mental nod her wife recedes and now Kara is back in control, knees braced on either side of the tiny, squirming body, their skeleton all she can actually see… that and the collar. Kara forces herself to breathe through her own burgeoning anger and the child’s fear and focuses solely on maintaining her grip without changing the amount of strength her wife had used, and she feels Lena’s consciousness slip away then, flowing from Kara into the terrified child, who goes rigid and then limp in her grasp.

Behind them, Alex has pulled Sam to the edge of the room and the other agents are surrounding them, a physical shield against anymore invisible threats, but Kara knows that there aren’t any others present, and is just glad her sister is occupied right now.

Her wife is back moments later, and now Kara can tell the child is fully unconscious, their fear gone even as Lena’s rage floods Kara. She isn’t even Ruby’s age, her wife snarls, she has three older sisters, they all have these fucking collars and we’re taking hers off right now.

Getting the collar off takes both of them: Kara following her wife’s directions to dismantle what she can, and then using a quick blast of heat vision to destroy its core instantly, all while her wife uses her powers to guard the girl’s mind, the collar having been designed to cause both mental and physical harm— pain if the wearer disobeys and death if the collar is removed.

Kara tears the collar off easily once its power source is gone and tosses it over by the knife, her wife resettling in her mind, anger still pulsing through them both. Lena sends her flashes of the girl’s memories then: landing on Earth a little over three years ago, being found by Lex Luthor and captured, skin and blood samples being taken, Lex placing collars on them all and gifting them to Morgan Edge, living on his compound and being treated as nothing but a nuisance because as the youngest she worked better as incentive for her sisters… who acted as Edge’s bodyguards and enforcers.

Then Lena sends her a more recent memory, in full detail.

She’s standing with her sisters in Edge’s office, the television playing old news footage on a loop: Lex and Lillian Luthor are officially missing, and there’s coverage of it from every station. Just seeing their faces makes her old fear rise, phantom pains running through her, so she focuses on Edge instead, a human she hates but has yet to truly fear.

He’s more haggard than usual, glaring at his screen even though he knows they’re all there, and he keeps typing on his computer for several minutes, continuing to ignore them. Finally, he tosses a folder on the desk. “The Director of the DEO had the Luthors declared missing,” he says, and his anger batters at them all, so strong she’s shaking, as always affected by emotions too strongly, her sisters calm beside her. “I was enjoying having control of things for awhile, but now everyone is questioning me.” His fist slams the table but she doesn’t jump, already knowing it was coming. “Open the folder, Two.”

Her second eldest sister steps forward and flips the folder open, and a child’s face stares up at them, smiling in a school photo. She feels her sisters’ shock and fear.

“That’s the DEO Director’s daughter,” Edge says, and his smile makes her want to run away. “The Director isn’t actually a threat to me, but she has… annoyed me. So I’ve decided to send her a message. One, Two, you will kill this… Ruby Arias-Danvers… and return here by sundown. Dismissed.”

Now she’s trembling not from Edge’s fury but her sisters’. “I won’t kill a child,” Two… no, Jade, her name is Jade, snarls.

Edge stills and looks up, his face expressionless, but now his rage is back and stronger. “Excuse me?” He looks at them all then, or through them, knowing only that they stand arrayed before his desk. “One?”

One… Meri, her name is Meri, how bad is it she’s forgetting her sisters’ names? Meri steps forward and lifts the picture of the human child, rips it to shreds. “We will not kill a child, regardless of its species. We will take your punishment if we must.”

She’s trembling with her own fear now, but she agrees with her sisters and they know it, and Three… no, Enna pulls her to her side, to comfort her and to keep her from running away, lest their punishment increase.

Edge stares through them for a long while, and they all feel when his fury peaks and turns toward Jade and Meri, the DEO Director forgotten. “Fine, then. If One and Two won’t kill a child, I can accept that.” He pulls the folder towards himself and removes a new picture, placing it on the table. “This is Samantha Arias-Danvers, the Director of the DEO. You will kill her and return by sundown.” Then he smiles and for once manages to look right at… her. “Four will be going alone.”

Edge has never directly addressed her, always dangling her over her sisters to get them to obey, often saying things like ‘if you don’t do this then I’ll activate Four’s collar’ or threatening to withhold her meals, but now he’s sending her to kill someone, alone, and she’s never even held a weapon. Enna’s grip on her tightens to the point of pain and Jade slams her hands on the desk. She can feel even Meri’s fury now and she cowers closer to her older sister.

“You haven’t even given her any training,” Jade snarls. “Allo isn’t going anywhere.”

Edge doesn’t even reply, just taps at the screen of his watch, and Jade’s collar lights up. Then her sister is convulsing on the floor, and though Jade tries to contain it she can’t, her pain rippling through all their minds, and she and Enna sink down beside her, and even Meri can barely stay on her feet.

Several minutes pass before the human taps his watch again and the collar’s lights fade, Jade panting on the floor as the pain ebbs, and when Jade manages to sit up, she grabs her and Enna and hugs them fiercely, and they can all feel Meri struggling not to attack Edge, as that never goes well.

“You all have disobeyed me twice now,” Edge says calmly, though his rage and hatred still thrum through them. “How many times have I had to remind you of your names, hm?” He pushes the folder off the desk and it falls to the ground, Samantha Arias-Danvers’ photo smiling up at them. “Four will kill the Director of the DEO, and the rest of you will stay here and patrol my compound. If Four fails to complete her mission, she will face the usual punishment. Dismissed.”

They leave Edge’s office and she can feel her sisters’ fear and fury… and shame. If they had accepted the first mission she wouldn’t be in danger, but if she fails to kill the DEO Director and return by nightfall… she will die instead, and her sisters will never forgive themselves.

When her elder sisters’ discussion of what to do turns to arguing she shields her mind from them and slips away. She pauses only a moment, one hand raising to clutch at her upper arm and a familiar certainty that everything will be okay flooding her, before grabbing the first weapon she finds in the armory. By the time her sisters realize she’s gone— their shock and fear stealing her breath away— she’s already in National City, following the map from the folder that leads to the DEO.

Kara blinks back into awareness, cheeks wet with tears from emotions that aren’t her own, and looks down at the young girl still pinned beneath her, restless even in her sleep, her heart beating faster than Kara is used to, though whether that’s from the fight or simply her usual rhythm she doesn’t know.

Sam can tell the attacker is young, I apparently used to spar with Ruby and pinned her the same way, her wife says, barely registering the new information, but she hasn’t said anything to Alex yet and your sister is quite murderous at the moment and already headed our way. What are we going to do, my love?

She can tell what her wife wants to do, and she knows what she wants to do as well, and then she looks over and sees the tablet Sam had been holding, lying cracked on the floor, as the screen lights up with a message from Nia.

Dreamer: supergirl, forget pancakes and make lava cake instead, whatever the fuck that means???

Kara grins and feels her wife’s shock. What, it’s a lovely idea, Kara says, scooping the child into her arms and zooming out of the DEO.

I think killing Corben corrupted you too, Lena says, her concern filling her. My love, you don’t have to. I can do it, or we could probably have your stalker take care of it if you prefer. Even Alex would happily agree once we tell her what he’s done, you know she has a soft spot for children.

Kara shakes her head and touches down on the roof of her apartment, nodding cordially to her next door neighbor as he eats some of the flowers she planted, though he oddly ignores the petals. He nods back and isn’t even surprised when Kara slips her glasses on and her suit disappears, though her wife, highly amused, informs her that he does wonder why she’s acting like she’s holding something as she opens the door.

“You and I already know where this is going,” Kara says as she heads down the stairwell, cradling the child and hovering so as not to jostle her. “They’re kids, they don’t know how to survive here on their own, and I know why you showed me her memory of having samples taken.”

I definitely used their DNA to create my powers, Lena acknowledges, and Kara feels her shame. They were the unknown aliens who helped it all come together, and I… I assumed everything my brother gave me to work with was… either gathered secretly or from… aliens he’d already killed. But there were too many samples, Kara, I should have realized they were being held captive. I should have found a way to help them.

Kara opens her unlocked door and ignores her wife’s brief spike of annoyance. “You’re the one who left it unlocked this time, baby, don’t blame me. And how were you supposed to help them when you were being held captive too?” Kara lays the girl on their bed, and tucks her in before turning to the egg with a frown. “And don’t say you should have at least known to tell me to look for them— we had no way of knowing where they were. Now, do you feel up to breaking three more collars or should I send you some more energy first?”

I can handle it, Lena thinks, and Kara is pleased to note that her wife did indeed take stock of her physical and mental state before responding. As Kara flies out the window and heads for Edge’s compound, her wife remembers something. And what did you mean you know where this is going? What does that have to do with you killing Edge?

Kara hums to herself as the buildings come into view, the compound she didn’t even know was miles from National City sprawling before her. “They’re kids with your powers, baby. You feel bad for not realizing they needed helping, I feel bad for not finding them when they landed, and they risked themselves to save our niece. We’re obviously keeping them, and I’m not about to let someone who hurt my family go free.”

El mayarah, Lena thinks softly, and Kara grins when she feels her wife’s contentment with it all, then she feels a curl of amusement. Your stalker would like to know just how many kids you’re talking about and if you’re kidnapping them, her wife adds.

“Four total,” Kara says, rolling her eyes. “Three teenagers and an almost-teenager, I think, and they’ve already been kidnapped, so I am liberating them. And then also kidnapping them, I guess, but hopefully they’ll be chill with that. I mean I basically kidnapped my wife too and she’s fine with it.”

Lena snorts in her sleep and the stalker’s shock and annoyance are so strong Kara feels them through her connection to her wife. Please tell her I am indeed fine with it, and you spent all of your free time keeping me alive and treated me as family long before we got married.

“I don’t know that two months is all that long,” Kara muses, stopping a ways from the compound and surveying the mostly empty buildings with her x-ray vision. “But my wife wants me to let you know that she is indeed fine with it and that I ‘spent all my free time keeping her alive’, as if that wasn’t mostly forcing her to eat gross stew and cuddling with her to send her my energy, and that I treated her as family before we, uh, talked about everything and exchanged bracelets.” Kara realizes something then and frowns, even as she notes the three locations where she can hear heartbeats that sound similar to… Allo’s, she thinks. “Oh so since Clark is no longer coming to the Earth wedding should we invite my bodyguard-stalker instead?”

She says you are far too trusting and that sadly she cannot attend, considering she’s kind of trying to stay hidden and all, her wife says, and Kara feels her amusement.

Kara shakes her head. “Having long-distance conversations via super hearing and telepathy is not staying hidden, so we’ll see about that. Now, I need to go kidnap some children, so talk to you soon.”

Lena helps her figure out which child is which, and since Meri and Jade are in the main building they target Enna first, who’s outside and facing National City, radiating worry. Kara lands behind her, x-ray vision still active, and the girl is already turning, a fist flying towards Kara that she catches easily. Her wife uses the contact to send Enna a memory of Kara’s: Allo asleep and collar-free, tucked into the bed in their apartment.

Okay, it’s more… Allo’s skeletal structure, but Lena manages to get the idea across and Enna retracts her hand and lifts her chin, and when Kara and her wife begin dismantling the collar the girl doesn’t even flinch, though her surprise at Lena’s ability to shield her mind from the pain she expects ripples through them both. The collar hits the ground and at her wife’s insistence Kara uses her heat vision to destroy it, Enna apparently knowing what’s coming and already looking away.

Kara turns to tell the girl to wait for her here but she’s already shaking her head. “I’m coming with you. My sisters don’t trust easily and since they haven’t even noticed what just happened…” She turns toward the main building. “We need to hurry, they may be about to do something foolish.”

They’re going to attack Edge, Lena says, and now Kara can feel both her and Enna’s fear… and the determination of the two in the building. They were shielding their thoughts until now so Enna wouldn’t intervene— they don’t expect to survive this but they hope Enna and Allo will.

Kara grabs Enna and races into the main building, only avoiding going through walls since she isn’t sure how durable the girl is. Kara hears the two quick heartbeats rush into Edge’s office, looks with her x-ray vision and sees who she’s pretty sure is Meri advancing on him with a knife drawn and visible and Jade coming at him from the side, an invisible gun aimed at his head. Edge doesn’t know Jade is there, his focus on the knife floating toward him, and he sighs and taps at his watch… which is exactly what the sisters were planning. Just as Kara gets to the open doorway, Meri hits the floor, her collar flashing, and Jade pulls the trigger.

Well, she tries to pull the trigger.

Jade’s finger is frozen and then the gun falls from her hand, blue currents of electricity arcing over her from the collar around her neck, and Kara can feel both sisters’ pain flooding her system and even Enna’s.

Lena’s presence in her mind expands then, and Kara falls back, watching as her body gently releases its hold on Enna and heads toward Edge. “Supergirl,” the man starts, and barely feels nervous at all. “I’m not sure why you’ve broken into my home—“ Kara’s hand reaches out and flicks his forehead and he’s immediately unconscious. She grabs his wrist, raises the watch and scrutinizes it before using his other hand to tap it, going through a few screens that Kara doesn’t bother trying to make sense of, and then the collars deactivate— Meri’s was manually set to kill and Jade’s had automatically triggered to keep her from harming the wearer of the watch.

Kara blinks back into her body as her wife recedes, and when she turns she sees Meri and Jade both on the floor, Enna at the unconscious Meri’s side and Jade facing Kara. “Who the fuck are you two?” Jade growls, and it is far less intimidating than Kara knows she wants it to be. “Shut up, asshole.”

“I think I understand why Nia said my zoning out was going to get worse,” Kara muses, appearing beside Jade and gingerly tilting her head up. “You and my sister are going to get along like a house on fire, now stay still while we get this thing off.”

Jade only listens because Enna mentally flicks her, according to Kara’s wife, and once they get her collar off Kara kneels on Meri’s other side and they get hers off as well. Kara frowns down at the unconscious girl and quickly scans her body. “She sustained injuries from the collar that the egg should fix easily as long as… it works on her species,” Kara mutters, “but I don’t think it can help with the… mental injuries? That’s what they feel like anyway.”

Accurate, Lena decides. Bring them all here and we’ll put Meri in the egg, and once I’ve recovered from dealing with the collars I should be able to heal what the damn thing did to her mind.

“Again,” Jade growls, at some point having dragged herself over to Enna’s side. “Who the fuck are you two?”

“You really do remind me of Alex when she was your age, what are you, seventeen?” Kara asks, wistful. “And I’m… oh I probably shouldn’t say that here, hm.” I’m Kara, she continues mentally, and the person tagging along mentally is my brilliant wife.

Also known as Lena, her brilliant wife chips in, and Kara is fairly certain she’s rolling her eyes. Now, darling, melt those damn collars and bring the girls here. Edge will be out long enough that you can ‘lava cake’ him after.

Enna looks confused, more so when Kara can’t contain her mental explanation of that, but Jade looks… eager. “I’m coming,” Jade says immediately.

Kara raises an eyebrow at her even as she gently gathers Meri into her arms. “You’re a child, you are not coming.”

She can tell Jade wants to fight her, but then she sighs, likely because she feels what Kara does: Lena is not going to budge on this. “Ugh, fine, at least wait til he’s conscious to drop him in.”

Kara grins, and decides that yes, she may be a little evil. “Oh, that I can do. Now, did you two want to wait here, or…?”

So it is that Kara flies back to her apartment in a kneeling position, one girl unconscious in her arms, one sitting behind her on her calves with one arm looped lazily around her thigh, and another sitting on her shoulders with both hands clinging tightly to her hair. I could have at least made two trips, Kara tells them, and is very, very glad these children are invisible so at least the only thing that may make the news is her odd flight position.

Like hell am I letting you kidnap my big sister when she’s unconscious and injured, Jade snarls in her mind. Especially when you apparently already have my baby sister.

I didn’t want to stay there alone, Enna adds, and Kara feels the girl’s embarrassment. Sorry, Supergirl.

You can call me Kara, you know, Kara says, and Enna’s grip on her hair tightens before she nods. Good. Now, am I right in assuming that Allo is at home, Meri is the one I’m holding, Enna is on my shoulders, and Jade is the adrenaline junkie barely hanging on to me at the moment?

You have super speed, you can catch me if I fall, Jade thinks petulantly, and almost crosses her arms but tightens her grip instead when Lena mentally pinches her. Rude.

If you fall, Lena thinks coolly, Kara will of course catch you, and it will greatly jostle both of your sisters, one of whom is not in good condition right now.

Jade’s shame floods Kara then. She’ll be fine, Kara says, her own relief drowning out the girl’s shame when the rooftop garden of her apartment comes into view. Also, once the egg is done with Meri I’m putting you in it next, she adds, watching with a frown as Jade climbs off of her calves onto the roof and almost falls over. You’re definitely sturdier than a human but electrocution is not fun. And I’ve been hit by lightning, so I know.

Jade scowls but doesn’t disagree, instead helping Enna climb down, and Kara is glad that the only one currently using the garden is her upstairs neighbor, an alien who is nearly as blind as the girls she just kidnapped, and who uses a form of echolocation to make out his surroundings.

We aren’t blind, Enna says.

You don’t have eyes, Kara replies, opening the rooftop door as her suit recedes. When the red and blue have vanished, her neighbor turns to her, still a ways away, and clears his throat before speaking in his native tongue, which he was delighted Kara knew when she moved in.

“I swear I just saw Supergirl, did you happen to see her, Miss Danvers?” He asks, and Kara gets the sense that while Enna and Jade don’t understand the language they can understand it through her, much like Lena can. He steps closer but muffles a cough and steps away, and even as she continues the conversation Kara has to resist the urge to touch him, though why she doesn’t know.

“Oh, no, you must be mistaken, Mister Felx,” Kara replies, edging toward the door. “Surely Supergirl is far too busy to visit such a nice neighborhood.”

“Too bad,” Mister Felx muses, and thankfully comes no closer, “I wanted to thank her for such a lovely garden. She even procured my favorite fruit, which I hadn’t seen in decades.”

Kara smiles as Jade and Enna slip past her into the stairwell. “Well I’m glad you like it, sir, please try the glowing red berries as well, they complement the blue ones nicely.”

“I’ll be sure to, Miss Danvers,” Mister Felx replies, meandering towards the red berries now. “Have a nice day, and make sure those two children try some of these delicious berries as well.”

Enna squeaks in surprise and Jade grabs her and starts dragging her downstairs even as Kara laughs. “Will do, see you later, sir.”

She idly wonders why he thought there were two children and not three, as if he was sensing them with his mind instead of his echolocation— the thought falls away before anyone can catch it, and her memory of having seen her ‘neighbor’ on the roof follows it into the abyss.

They get to Kara’s apartment unencumbered after that, though when the door unlocks from the inside and opens to no one there Jade takes a small step back.

It was me, Lena tells them. Obviously, now get in here before Kristy comes out, or her yappy little dog is going to lick you and give me a headache.

“His name is Tony Tony Macaroni,” Kara corrects, slipping inside after the girls and rolling her eyes when her wife closes and locks the door behind them. “And he is adorable. If a bit shrill.”

Kara heads toward the egg, Enna and Jade following her, and Enna’s annoyance prickles at her. We aren’t blind, Enna repeats. We see everything with our minds. It’s normal where we’re from. Seeing through your eyes is weirder.

“Fair enough,” Kara says. “I also thought seeing through my eyes was weird after I landed. Not even the x-ray vision, really, just… this planet is very dusty and I can see all of it.” She shudders and stops near the egg, pleased when Enna’s annoyance turns to amusement. “Now, Allo is still resting in bed and when she wakes up I assume you’re both good to catch her up, and honestly Jade should also lay down.” Kara glares at her until Enna drags her over to the bed and pushes her onto it. “Good.” She taps the egg with her elbow and it opens, both girls startled to see Lena inside. Kara almost laughs. “Did you think she didn’t have a physical body?”

“Well, no,” Enna starts, uncertain. “But we could tell that… um, Lena felt… guilty towards us, like she had benefited from them taking us somehow and… well, she looks worse off than we are.”

Lena’s eyes open then and she slips out of the egg, pulling the cape more tightly around herself and stifling a yawn. Not entirely inaccurate, she replies, stepping aside as Kara places Meri inside. I used the samples they gathered from you to create the powers I now have, though I didn’t know you existed, nor was I exactly eager to experiment on myself. My lovely family didn’t leave me much choice. Her wife thinks of Lex and Lillian then, and both Jade and Enna flinch when they feel Lena’s fear and hatred for the two Luthors, even stronger than their own. You four were treated as weapons, which humans of course like to keep in peak condition. I was merely a prototype— expendable. She frowns down at herself as Kara orders the egg to run a species test before diagnosing and treating the patient’s current pain. I am healing with Kara’s help but there’s only so much her energy can do.

With Meri safely tucked in the egg, no humming necessary since she was already out like a light, Kara turns to her wife and hugs her from behind, pressing a kiss to her head. “You’re doing great, though once the egg is done with Meri and Jade you need to go back in for a few hours. Hm, though I may have it give Enna and Allo a checkup as well. Now,” she pulls away and presses the button on her glasses, her suit materializing once more. “while my lovely wife navigates suddenly having four children, I am going to go make a lava cake, so I will see you all shortly.”

“We’re not children,” Jade grumbles. “Okay, Allo is twelve so she’s a child, and Enna is kind of a child since she’s fourteen, but I’m seventeen and Meri is nineteen, so half of us are adults. You two aren’t even that much older than me.”

I’ve got a decade on you, at least, Lena thinks, sitting gingerly on the bed beside Allo and placing her fingertips on the girl’s head. Hm, she should wake up tonight. Me going through the last three and half years of her memories exhausted her.

Jade’s rage at this is tempered by Enna flicking her head. “Ow! What, that’s fucking rude.”

“Language,” Kara says, sliding the window open. She smirks back at Jade. “Children shouldn’t curse, and despite my youthful appearance, I’ve got over three decades on you, thank you very much.” Kara zips away as Jade makes an indignant sound.

I think in this case we should let Phantom Zone time count, Lena muses, and though Kara kind of knew it was coming she still almost swerves into a billboard when she hears another voice in her head.

Were you a criminal or something? It’s Jade, because of course it is, because what else does Kara need except a mini Alex in her head. And who the fuck is Alex?

Language, Kara and Lena think.

Then Kara realizes something. Uh, baby what’s happening at the DEO right now? Surprising both of them, neither Jade nor Enna poke fun at the pet name.

Lena takes a few moments to respond. Nia just arrived with Ruby— Jade, quit feeling guilty you literally saved her life— and is trying to convince Alex that Sam and Ruby are safe now. Your sister is disturbingly close to locking them both in a cell to keep anyone from getting to them, though.

“That’s not exactly surprising, she’s always been overprotective,” Kara muses. “And Alex is my snarky, potty-mouthed older sister, who does her utmost to keep me safe even though she’s human and I’m extremely durable.”

Your stalker wants me to remind you that you’ve almost died seventeen times, and that’s only counting since you became Supergirl. She apparently knows of at least a dozen back on Krypton. Lena’s concern at this is echoed by Enna and even Jade.

“So I am incredibly lucky,” Kara says, nodding to herself as she arrives at the compound. “It’s probably good that Edge was so paranoid,” she muses, walking into his office unencumbered. “Not a single person here to find the bastard.”

What happened to no cussing, criminal? Jade asks.

Kara heaves Edge over her shoulder and starts heading out, using her heat vision to burn everything as she goes. First of all, I can cuss, I am not a child, Kara thinks idly. And second, I am… at least officially, not a criminal. Sam made sure no authorities came after me for Corben’s death, there won’t be a body to find for Edge’s, and I was in the Phantom Zone because my parents sent me to Earth when my planet died. Kara flies out of the burning building and begins setting fire to the others. The buildings’ sprinkler systems are high tech enough that they’ll put the fires out on their own, not that that will save any of what Kara has destroyed. I only ended up in that awful place because my planet fucking exploded, and some of the debris hit my pod and sent it… very far off course.

How long were you there? Enna asks, and Kara can feel the girl’s worry. I’d never heard of… anything outside of our solar system until we landed here, but from what little I know of the Phantom Zone it… couldn’t have been good, and… if it was your parents… how old were you?

“Thirteen,” Kara mutters, lifting off and flying at a speed not super safe for humans, heading away from National City now, Edge still unconscious and slung over her shoulder. “And I was there for twenty-four years.” Kara growls then. “Which my pod chose to ignore, so even though it knew I was technically in my thirties the damn child safety locks were still in place. ‘Access to life support functions denied’,” Kara parrots in Kryptonian, “I must have heard that hundreds of times.” She mutters a Kryptonian curse and ignores that Jade definitely memorizes it.

Your stalker saw you somehow, Lena says, and Kara feels her frowning. I… saw a flash of her memory. She saw you in your pod, awake and trying to order the life support to turn off… her… Kara, I’ve felt Sam’s grief for me dozens of times now but… the anguish this woman felt, fuck… it was physically painful, my love. Her wife is quiet for a long while, and all Kara can hear is the wind in her ears. Then, She knows I saw her memory and is making it very clear I am not to show it to you or send you what she was feeling then.

Kara growls, her anger briefly surpassing her mix of hope and fear. “Even if you are my aunt you are not to threaten my :zhao.” Her stalker’s shock at that is so strong she feels it without Lena sending it on. “You seeing me in the Phantom Zone basically confirms it, Aunt Astra. Fort Rozz vanishing from an inescapable place in the same century my pod somehow did is kind of a tip off, though I knew as soon as I saw how accurate your aim is— though how you managed to get guns I made you onto Fort Rozz I do not understand.”

You made them? Her wife’s shock almost makes Kara drop her cargo. Okay I want an explanation later, a detailed one, darling, but also she’s definitely Astra and is a little confused considering Brainy never answered your question and only you, Nia, and myself saw how she’s going to kill Mercy and Otis.

Kara sighs, the wind whisking it away, and idly hopes that her family drama is helping keep the two awake children in their apartment entertained.

Oh it definitely is, Jade says, ignoring when Enna flicks her again.

“Nia is half Naltorian,” Kara says tiredly, “when she warned us you were going to kill some people who try to use kryptonite against me, we used my wife’s powers to see her vision as well, and you shot them from ridiculously far away and still managed to perfectly hit both of their hearts and the exact center of their brains almost simultaneously. I recognize my own work, and I also know that the only one who ever managed to actually hit their targets with it was you. I… maybe should have made the kickback a little less,” Kara adds, sheepish. “I was more focused on the whole ‘only hits its target and nothing else’ aspect. I think I… had a plan for it…” Her brow crinkles and she barely manages to shield everyone in her mind from the bolt of pain that flashes through it.

I know I don’t make weapons but fuck, Lena says, then, mm we probably should work on cursing less since we’ll have four children in our heads soon, and from what I can tell Allo at least will unashamedly repeat whatever we say.

Accurate, Enna comments. She’s very excitable.

I’m gonna learn all the Kryptonian swears, Jade adds, and proudly repeats the one Kara already said. Look at that, I speak another language now.

“Careful, kid, or I’ll make sure you can actually speak the whole language and not just the fun parts,” Kara says, smirking when she feels Jade’s trepidation. “Aw, you’ve given up getting me to quit calling you a child. Wise decision.” When she feels the girl’s annoyance flare she turns her attention back to her… aunt. “As for Brainy not answering, I am used to him refusing to divulge literally anything about the future, so I made physical contact with him when I asked the question and my wife got the answer, though she suspects he still kept something hidden. They don’t know what happened to Fort Rozz, but they know it disappeared around now. What I don’t understand,” Kara mutters, “is why you’re hiding from me. Or helping me at all.”

She arrives at the volcano then and flies as close to the lava as she dares, not wanting her suit to burn. Edge starts squirming in her grasp as the heat rises, and Kara frowns when she realizes she hadn’t even noticed him wake up.

He woke up a few minutes ago, Jade says helpfully. And he has a fear of heights, though he’s now learning his fear of lava is greater. The vicious glee she feels at that is mildly concerning, but oh well.

Kara pulls the man off her shoulder, dangling him above the glowing lava with one hand, and he immediately begins sputtering. “Lex made me do it, Supergirl, I swear, I didn’t want to hurt those poor, sweet children, I…” He’s still talking but Lena is sending Kara his thoughts and actually, dropping him into the lava is too good, her suit be damned. Kara flies lower, the heat making her suit sizzle against her skin, and slowly, inch by inch, lowers him into the lava feet first. She feels when Jade blocks Enna’s view, only for Jade to be annoyed when Lena then blocks hers, and once Edge’s screams peter off into sobs and then silence, Kara releases him, watching his body slowly be eaten by the lava before she flies away, headed back to National City.

“Do you think Cat would be horrified?” Kara asks. She doesn’t even feel bad, really, though she would have preferred neither Jade nor Enna be present. “She seemed confident I wasn’t a killer.”

Mm, she’d probably blame me, Lena thinks, and Kara can feel her wife’s shame. And she’d be right, most likely. I have definitely brainwashed you.

Kara hums. “Aunt Astra, do you think my wife had to brainwash me for me to be capable of what I just did?”

She feels her wife’s surprise a moment before she hears her coming, and just as Kara stops and turns, brow already crinkled, Astra is there, clad in a black Kryptonian battle suit that again, Kara does not understand how she had on Fort Rozz. She doesn’t look any older than Kara remembers her being, and despite being nearly certain her stalker was her aunt, Kara can only feel shock at seeing Astra, alive and well and here.

Alive and well and here and flying straight at Kara and looking the most upset Kara has ever seen her. Lovely.

Chapter Text

Kara doesn’t even have time to react, still reeling from the shock of her aunt being on Earth at all, much less in front of her, and then Astra… is hugging her?

“Oh,” Kara says quietly, her aunt warm and solid against her in a way no human ever is.

She hasn’t been hugged like this… ever, since she landed. Astra is squeezing her as tightly as she can, Kara’s charred suit is audibly complaining, and a moment later Kara’s arms are around her as well, and for the first time in decades she can really, truly feel someone’s hug.

Astra’s love for her floods Kara then, and between its sheer volume and their physical contact it easily flows through her connection to her wife, and Kara is pretty sure they’re all crying, which is not ideal because she still doesn’t think her baby girl is hydrated enough for that. Kara ignores the halfhearted ghost of a pinch that thought gets and buries her face in the crook of her aunt’s neck, feeling for a moment like she’s still a child on Krypton, the sun a brilliant red and her… aunt about to take her on some new adventure.

Then Astra pulls back, not far, Kara’s arms are still locked around her waist like she’s afraid she’ll vanish or was never there to begin with, and Astra’s hands move to cup Kara’s face. Intense blue eyes lock with hers and when Astra speaks it’s in Kryptonian, and Kara is awash with nostalgia again even when her aunt’s words confuse her.

“Little one, why would I not help you?” Astra demands, and through her wife Kara feels her aunt’s confusion and hurt.

Kara stares at her, brow once again crinkled. “Because I betrayed you,” she whispers, the Kryptonian feeling clumsy on her tongue. Astra’s confusion only increases and Kara wants to look away but can’t, her vision blurring with tears. “Back on Krypton, I knew something was wrong when you gave me a new way to reach you, I knew Mom asking me to call you during a mission was strange… and I did it anyway. And then I didn’t even, I didn’t even stay to see what I’d done.” Kara squeezes her eyes shut, chest heaving with sobs she refuses to release. “I only even knew you were sent to Fort Rozz because I hacked into the prison records when my parents refused to talk about you anymore. Why would you want to help me?” Her voice breaks and fuck, she’s crying again, and she barely manages to ask her next question, “How do you even still love me?”

Kara feels her aunt’s confusion turn to shock and then anger, but it isn’t directed towards Kara but herself. “Kara, little one, you did nothing wrong,” Astra says, but Kara just shakes her head. Her aunt pulls her into another hug, one arm around her and her other hand guiding Kara’s head to the crook of her neck again. “I need to show you some things, is your wife able to…?”

Lena’s presence in her mind expands a bit, and Kara is pretty sure Jade and Enna are also going to be eavesdropping, but Astra doesn’t seem to mind, and now… now Kara finally sees what she didn’t back then.

“Kara, little one, are you alright?” Astra is out of breath, her fear only slightly lessening when Kara turns, seemingly unharmed. She had been worried the girl had hurt herself with some experiment or other, unwilling to tell her parents lest she be banned from the labs again.

“Of course, why?” Kara asks, and Astra frowns when she sees the child’s brow crinkle. “Mom said—“ She stops talking when Astra can’t keep from flinching, and when Alura walks in Astra takes a small step back. “Aunt Astra? What’s wrong?”

“Kara,” Alura says, and Astra’s anger kindles when the child startles, clearly not having expected her mother to be there. “Thank you for calling my sister here. Now, go to your room.”

“No,” Kara says, and Astra’s anger grows when the child’s voice shakes. Kara is only twelve, and while she’s already working on her project for her official entry into the Science Guild she is still only a child, yet her own mother dared to use her as bait. Worried blue eyes are trained on her, and Astra raises her head and walks towards them, lest Kara know the full extent of what her mother has done. Kara turns back to Alura, then, grabbing her hand as she so often does, and Astra can tell she’s struggling to stay calm, even as the woman’s cold gaze moves from Astra to her. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Astra reaches them and the girl is still staring up at Alura, determined and terrified, and Astra grabs her shoulders, gently turns her away. She pulls Kara into a hug and squeezes her as tightly as she can.

“All is well, little one,” Astra whispers, pulling the girl impossibly closer. “You won’t see me for awhile, but it’s okay.” Astra pulls away and gives Kara the most genuine smile she can. “This is between your mother and I.” She presses a kiss to Kara’s forehead and gently pushes her towards the hallway. “I love you, Kara, now, go to your room.”

Astra can feel the tears on her face and when she sees Kara crying as well her heart breaks, but thankfully the girl turns and runs to her room, and Astra takes a deep breath and faces her sister. She expects her to still be wearing her judicator mask, but no, now that Kara is gone the cold gaze is gone as well, and Astra sees fear and anguish on Alura’s face.

Still, Astra is angry, and she steps closer. “How dare you use her like that,” she hisses, and is surprised again when her sister flinches.

Alura looks at her then, and she pulls her shoulders back, straightening to her full height before speaking. “You vanished, Astra, I had no choice. You must be sent to Fort Rozz.”

“Our planet is dying, and my capture is what the council chooses to prioritize?” Astra laughs, a wild and desperate thing, and leans closer still, snarling now. “I am the one who was in charge of that prison’s latest upgrades, Alura, you know Fort Rozz cannot contain me.”

Her sister smiles then. “That’s what I’m counting on.”

Astra steps away, tilts her head. Her sister is afraid, but not of her. She is grieving, but not for her. “What are you scheming?”

“Krypton will explode within a year,” Alura says, and her voice is calm.

Astra’s is anything but, and only Kara being nearby keeps her from screaming. “Only a year?” She knew the planet was dying, but she hadn’t known it was that bad. “How long have they known? How long have you?”

Her sister shakes her head. “None of that matters now, what’s done is done. Krypton is doomed, and the council has decided we must all accept our fates and die with it.” Alura looks at her then, and Astra sees the rage in her eyes. “Even our children.”

Astra freezes and she briefly considers taking Kara and running, going to a planet far away and not looking back, even if the girl would hate her for taking her from her home, when she’s only her aunt and no longer her— But then her sister shakes her head and Astra feels her stomach sinking.

“All of the ships are being destroyed as we speak,” Alura says. “No one will be leaving, and all travelers still in communication with us have been ordered to return.”

The Kryptonian curse Astra mutters then is one Zor-El would be proud of. “What is the council doing?”

Her sister shrugs. “I don’t understand it either, and I don’t care to. The only portal remaining is the one that connects to Fort Rozz, which the council has chosen to ignore, content to let the criminals rot for eternity.” Alura steps closer to Astra then, and puts her hands on her shoulders, leaning forward as if afraid to be overheard. “You will be sent to Fort Rozz, and when Krypton explodes, Kara and her unborn cousin will be sent to Earth in pods, crafted using the parts I had you procure. I will ensure what you need is there, in a place only you can access, so you will overcome the phantoms, Astra, and find a way to get to them. To get to our… to get to Kara.” Her sister doesn’t look away, and Astra can see her fear now— not for herself or Krypton, but for her daughter. She remembers the last few years, Alura requesting odd pieces of technology that Astra had assumed were for Kara to play with, but no… they were all key components in making small spacecraft.

Astra had wanted to tell everyone what was happening so they could save their planet, but with less than a year left… it’s already too late. Krypton is doomed, and the council is determined for everyone to die with it… but Kara doesn’t have to.

“We didn’t realize just how little of what she left in the House of El’s storage was still usable,” Alura mutters then, hands tightening on Astra’s shoulders and her gaze suddenly far away. “Zor-El was sure there would be enough for a pod for you as well, but…” Her sister shakes her head and her eyes focus once more. “I don’t know how you’ll do it, but you’ve done the impossible before, sister, so find a way to get to Earth, and…” Alura pauses, uncertain, and Astra’s eyes narrow. “Try to arrive soon enough that Kara doesn’t have to raise any infants,” she finally says, a new grief in her gaze. “And, for what it’s worth… I’m sorry, Astra. We thought we had more time, and… she must have as well…”

Alura is still keeping something from her, even with the end of the world drawing closer and even as she implores her to go to Fort Rozz of all places, but… Astra knows the hard look in her sister’s eyes, the same as back then, so she knows Alura won’t reveal anything else now, and… it’s for Kara.

So Astra nods, and lets her sister take her away, and when she passes through the portal to the Phantom Zone, guards on each side, she sees her sister, the indomitable judicator, cry for the first time since they were children.

Kara barely has time to register that the memory is over before her aunt shows them all another one, both of them still clinging to one another miles above the Earth.

It takes twenty years, but Astra finally has full control of Fort Rozz. It had taken her over a decade to overcome the phantoms, to free her mind of their influence enough to tell reality from nightmares, and another six years to seize control of the ship. Four more were lost to separating the worst prisoners from those who only wanted to live peacefully at this point, and that was only possible thanks to the alien standing beside her now, a mixed species with the powers of a Green Martian and one he wouldn’t say, whose abilities seemed geared towards surveillance. The man’s powers had helped reveal just how vile Astra’s husband Non was, and he was one of the prisoners she had executed, which she knew Kara would not be pleased by.

Kara, who was… already grown now, in her early thirties even…

“You’re thinking about your niece, aren’t you, Captain?” The man, Y'onn asks, his English far more fluid than even Astra’s despite her insistence on them all learning it now. “You have that look again.”

Astra looks away, anger at herself overcoming her nostalgia. “She is grown by now,” she says softly. “I was supposed to have joined her when she was still a child, and now that I have killed my husband… she will not want to see me.”

“The Phantom Zone changes people,” Y'onn rumbles, “she will understand. You have done what you must to ensure your arrival does not throw her new home into chaos.”

Still Astra looks away. “She was a child and they sent her there with an infant to raise. I failed her, Y'onn.”

A large hand rests on Astra’s back for a moment before the man pulls away. “For now we must find a way to get to Earth in this stationary prison, and I think I’ve got it.” His voice raises, breaks in his excitement, and he hurriedly clears his throat.

Astra looks at him then, watches as he forces his excited expression to one of neutrality. Y'onn had been searching the space surrounding them for months to no avail, but… “You found a way out of here?”

Y'onn nods. “There’s a craft here, a small one, but it is powerful. If we can hitch our ship to it and take control of its steering, we can break free.”

But now Astra frowns. “What craft is powerful enough to pull this monstrosity of a ship? And why is it here?”

Y'onn looks away for a moment before shaking his head. “That I cannot say, Captain. Its sole occupant is unconscious, in some kind of forced sleep, and much like you, I cannot read their mind. As for how powerful it is, it is powered by Kryptonian technology, and the finest your planet had.”

Astra freezes, and she is not proud of her next thought: please, please let it be the baby. “Show me the occupant,” she orders, and Y'onn flinches at her tone but obliges, using his powers to project a visual of the interior of the craft. A familiar child is inside, a red blanket over her, blonde hair back in a braid, and even as Astra watches her brow crinkles and blue eyes open, looking blearily upwards.

“Disable life support,” Kara whispers, and the pod immediately responds in the negative. “Please, I have been here for decades, I am not a child, disable life support…” Her voice breaks and peters out, and her eyes close as the pod forces her back to sleep, back to the mercy of the phantoms.

“Kara,” Astra whispers, and the projection vanishes, but Astra barely notices, on her knees now and bent at the waist, grief and rage anchoring her to the floor. “She is supposed to be on Earth, why is she here? How…” Astra whispers, and Y'onn does not come near. The others around can only watch, helpless, as their leader crumbles before them, and only when she starts screaming and pummeling the metal floor does Y’onn step forward, forcing her up and to her feet.

“You injuring yourself will not help your niece,” Y'onn rumbles, and just like that Astra is focused again. “We can use her pod to get all of us out of here. That is our best chance, Captain.”

The memory fades and Astra’s hold on Kara has somehow grown tighter, and what she shows her next is in flashes, a brief look at the following years.

It takes another four years for them to escape, three to fix the damage to Kara’s pod and one to get the hitch working and figure out how to both escape the Phantom Zone and land on Earth with both crafts surviving, and every day Astra has Y'onn show her Kara, sleeping restlessly in her pod, and any time Kara wakes and orders the life support to turn off Astra is glad it refuses, and ashamed at her own happiness, because the pod’s log shows that Kara has been trying ever since she arrived, and when it refused on even her twentieth birthday, the age of adulthood on Krypton, the pod had to use extra resources to force her back to sleep, her vital signs showing she was on the verge of a panic attack.

When the memories fade this time Kara can hear her and her aunt’s hearts pounding far too quickly, their breaths coming too fast, and she knows they’re both on the verge of slipping back into nightmares, the Phantom Zone far too recent in their minds now. It’s Lena who pulls them from it, uses her experience stopping Kara’s dreams from going to dark places to yank their minds firmly back into their bodies, and Kara pulls back, her aunt’s arms like steel around her, and she looks into teary blue eyes. “Khap ukiem rrip,” Kara whispers, for some reason unwilling to add ‘Aunt Astra’ as she usually does…

She has to raise another mental shield then, the pain that thought elicits near crippling, and there’s another pain behind it, and her shield also hides her next thought, that she betrayed Astra in a worse way, an unforgivable way— but the thought falls away, the pain with it, and she lets her mental shield slip away after idly wondering why she’d erected it in the first place.

“Khap ukiem rrip, kir chahv,” Astra whispers, hugging Kara again. She continues murmuring it, hugging Kara close for several long minutes. Kara hasn’t been called ‘little one’ in Kryptonian for decades, and it fills her with a warmth so happy and bright it surprises the others in her mind. When Astra finally pulls away, she looks Kara over, her hands still holding her shoulders, and Kara blushes when she remembers how her suit was burned by the proximity to the lava. “I agree with your wife— this suit is pathetic.” Astra pulls a small, black cuff from a hidden pocket on her own suit and Kara’s eyes widen. She holds it out and Kara eagerly grabs it, slipping it over her bracelet-free wrist and up to her bicep, where it tightens, and seconds later a black battle suit ripples into existence, fitting Kara like a glove, the fabric soft and breathable in a way no Earth fabric could hope to replicate.

Astra releases her shoulders and Kara does a little spin, grinning manically. “I’ve always wanted one of these,” Kara whispers, and she feels her wife’s spike of excitement. Kara’s grin widens. “Yes, you can study it once we have a lab. Uh, as long as my… aunt is okay with that.” Kara looks up, biting her lip, and she and her wife are surprised to feel Astra’s fondness… for both of them.

“Yes, she may study whatever she wishes,” Astra says, leaning forward and kissing Kara’s cheek. “I was wary when I realized you had found someone who could not only sense our thoughts but even control your body, but you chose well, little one.”

Kara had known her family would love her :zhao, but hearing it from Astra makes her preen, chest puffing up with pride. “Damn straight,” Kara blurts, switching back to English, and she feels her wife’s joy and amusement, Jade snickering and Enna flicking her sister again. Astra just smiles and shakes her head.

“As for your wife’s earlier question,” Astra says, also speaking in English now and causing Kara’s eyes to widen, “I do not believe you… ‘lava caking’ that man has anything to do with her influencing you.” She squares her jaw, looking away now. “The Phantom Zone changes people, it cannot be helped. I… was surprised when I saw you acting so much like the child I remembered.”

Kara realizes, then, that Astra landed at the same time as her, and yet… “Where have you been?” She asks, and when her aunt flinches Kara reaches out, hugging her again. “I’m not mad,” Kara whispers, and she really isn’t, because— she pushes away her memory of her aunt’s prison file before anyone in her mind can see. “I don’t care about Non, I… don’t know why you thought I would, honestly, I never liked him…”

Her aunt pulls away enough to frown at her. “Kir chahv, I lived with Alura and Zor-El for many years before you arrived, and as soon as I married Non you told me any time he was mentioned that a wife and husband should be living together.” Astra’s frown deepens when Kara’s brow crinkles. “I thought it was your way of telling me to leave at first, but when your father asked you if you wanted me to move into Non’s house you started crying and did not let me put you down for the rest of the day.”

Kara squints at her… aunt and resists the urge to rub her forehead, instinctively shielding those in her mind from the pain. “I… never liked Non,” she finally mumbles. “If you had tried to move out anywhere I would have followed you until you gave up and moved back in, I don’t…” She does remember something, then, and whispers it so softly she isn’t sure if even Astra will hear it, “We all have roles to fulfill; order must be maintained.” She says it in Kryptonian, and even though it came from her it feels wrong, and she can barely keep the others from feeling the pain in her mind and Astra is watching her with narrowed eyes now, and Kara… lets it all fall away, and even as she wonders why her wife and children are feeling confused and a bit concerned she blinks at her aunt for a long moment before quietly asking, “Where were you after we landed, Aunt Astra?”

Astra watches her a moment longer but eventually sighs, and with a jerk of her head indicates they should start flying back. Kara follows her closely and is easily able to hear what she says even as the wind carries it off. “I spent years with Y'onn weeding out criminals who would cause trouble on Earth, but after landing I still needed to help those left acclimate to this planet. I spent the entirety of the first year here getting them settled and… keeping them from causing problems. The next several years after that I had to check in on them often, but now I may do so less frequently.”

She’s quiet for several miles then, and only Kara’s wife telling her to give Astra time keeps her from prodding, though Jade and even Enna are nearly as impatient as Kara.

“Fort Rozz landed several hundred miles from your pod because of how we had to enter Earth’s atmosphere,” Astra finally says. “By the time I had everyone calm enough to leave, your cousin had already gotten there. I… I saw him open your pod, and I knew who he had to be, he wore your family’s crest and looked just like your father’s brother. He took you with him, and I assumed he would keep you.” The Kryptonian curse Astra mutters makes Kara’s eyes widen, and she almost laughs when she feels Jade eagerly memorizing it. “I thought it would be fine if I left you with him while I got everyone set up at least. I did not expect it to take as long as it did, and… by the time I checked on you a year after we landed, you were with the Danvers and seemed happy. You were still struggling to control your powers, which was… odd, but… I knew you would be better off without me, so I stayed away.”

Kara pulls up short at that and Astra has to make a sharp turn and backtrack nearly a mile thanks to how fast they’d been flying. She stops in front of Kara and her worry thrums through them all until Kara tackles her in another hug. “Never, I’m never better off without my family, how could you even think that?” She wants to call Astra something then, but can’t, and burrows closer to her instead.

A hand comes up and cards through Kara’s windswept curls and her aunt uses her other arm to hug her back. She kisses the crown of Kara’s head and takes a long moment to answer. “You were still so bright, little one. I know your time in that place was not good, but I spent my time there… murdering and manipulating people to achieve my own ends. I never liked him, but I killed my own husband and did not feel anything. You had a new family who loved you, and you were happy, not… I do not mean to belittle what the phantoms subjected you to, Kara, truly, but the nightmares of an innocent child do not compare to those of one who has fought in wars.” Astra holds her closer, and whatever Lena sees in her mind then, they both hear her vow to never share. “You have my thanks, and my apologies for your seeing it,” her aunt murmurs. She pulls away then, gives Kara a wan smile. “The phantoms could not read our minds as your wife can, merely… force our minds to act against us. My subconscious… was not kind.”

Kara hugs her aunt again, squeezing as hard as she dares, though it’s still only a small portion of her strength. “Fuck the phantoms, and fuck the Phantom Zone,” Kara growls, and the only one not shocked by this is Lena. “You’re still you, and I’m still me, and I love you, and you are not disappearing ever again, got it?” She pulls away then, narrowing her eyes at her very surprised… aunt. “I’ve memorized your heartbeat now and my wife’s powers are still growing stronger, so we will find you.”

Astra smiles and Kara can tell she’s trying not to laugh. “So you kidnap yourself a wife and four children, and now your aunt is your hostage? Is that correct, kir chahv?”

Lena is laughing and Jade is sputtering with indignation and Enna… honestly doesn’t seem surprised, and Kara just puts her hands on her hips and gives her aunt a brilliant grin. “Damn straight, I’m almost as stubborn as my :zhao and she’s even more stubborn than Alex, so you’re all stuck with me now.”

Astra’s smile grows to match Kara’s and she hugs her again. “I would have it no other way, little one,” she murmurs.

Nor I, Lena adds, and they all ignore Jade chanting Kryptonian curses until Enna flicks her again.

What? Enna asks when her sister hisses at her. I think Allo will appreciate it. And you and I both know we wouldn’t be much help— do you want Meri to have to raise us all?

Jade is stubbornly silent but they feel her… reluctant acceptance. When she realizes this she growls. Fine, but I’m calling you both my kidnappers.

It’s Astra who laughs at that, pulling away from Kara and covering her mouth with her hand, and Kara’s eyes widen. “Baby were you projecting all that intentionally?”

Her wife is also shocked. No, can she hear us now? Kara asks her aunt, who shakes her head. She feels Lena frown. It must be when she’s touching you, though since she’s also Kryptonian her connection to… us, may grow stronger.

Kara has a horrible thought then. “Maybe I shouldn’t beat Clark up if I see him again. I really, really do not want him in my head.” She shudders and pouts when her aunt starts laughing at her now. “What? He’s a brat.”

I think we have to like them, Lena thinks, her own amusement curling around Kara. And the girls’ powers are definitely… learning, from my own, so while I don’t think they’ll develop telekinetic abilities they’ll probably be hanging out in your mind as well from now on, Meri and Allo too once they’ve woken up.

“I’m a hive mind,” Kara whispers. Then she groans. “And Nia saw it coming and didn’t say anything!”

Astra raises her eyebrows at her. “She did, little one. She said warning you would not change anything because you are both fine with it.”

Kara pouts. “Okay, but… ugh, fine. You’re right.” Her nose scrunches up. “And she did help out with the lava cake message. Though I don’t think she knew what it meant.”

I don’t know how you knew what it meant, Lena comments wryly.

“Cake means murder now, obviously,” Kara waves her hand. “Oh, should I be heading home or to the DEO? Like how murderous is Alex feeling right now?” She looks at Astra with wide eyes. “Metaphorically speaking.”

Astra tuts. “I already know your sister used kryptonite against you once.” At Kara’s shock she shrugs. “I have been keeping tabs on you, kir chahv, I just… was not entirely aware of how many times you had almost died until now.” Her brow furrows. “Your mother sent you here so you would be safe, but this planet has far too much kryptonite for my liking.”

Kara groans. “Oh Rao I still need to knock out two humans before you kill them, don’t I?”

“If someone uses a lethal amount of kryptonite against you I will kill them, yes.” Astra crosses her arms, and Kara’s wife sends her her aunt’s sudden fear. “Even if you do not want me in your life because of it—”

Kara tackles her in another hug and this time it’s strong enough to take her aunt’s breath away. “Everyone in my life lately is a little murdery, so it’s fine,” she says, voice muffled. She pulls back and grins. “Luckily for me I’ve brainwashed you all into liking me.”

Lena sends her a ghost of a pinch and Jade somehow figures out how to do it as well and copies her, earning another flick from her sister. Astra just kisses Kara’s forehead. “Whatever you say, kir chahv. Now, though I have never met her, your sister is likely not in a good place at the moment, so I suggest we head for the DEO.”

Alex is very, very close to coming here and breaking your door down, Lena says then. Assuming it’s actually locked, that is. Nia is doing her best to keep her at the DEO but you’ve been gone longer than she expected.

Kara squeaks and starts flying again, as fast as she dares, her aunt close behind her. “Wait so are you also coming to the DEO?” She asks her aunt.

“Depends,” Astra says, humming to herself. “Your sister is currently terrified for her family’s safety, and you need to tell her you have adopted four children, one of whom is partially responsible for that fear. So, little one, would you prefer I introduce myself to her as her little sister’s stalker or her little sister’s long-lost, murderous aunt?”

Kara does a small nosedive before pulling back up. “Okay, fair, introducing you can wait a bit. Mm it should probably happen before the Earth wedding.” She spins then, flying backwards and narrowing her eyes at her aunt. “Which you are coming to. I already invited you and you are clearly very bad at staying hidden.”

Astra makes an annoyed sound. “I am excellent at staying hidden, but since you already knew who I was thanks to,” she waves her hand at Kara in annoyance, “you somehow ending up with a telepathic wife and a friend who can see the future,” her annoyance prickles at Kara’s mind and she does her best not to laugh, though her aunt glares at her anyway, “and then you said that nonsense about not knowing why I would help you, I had no choice.”

She did stay hidden from you for over a decade, Lena muses. I think she makes some good points.

Kara pouts and Astra smirks. “Your wife agrees, does she not?”

“Ugh, fine, you’re good at hiding.” Kara grins and looks at her aunt. “Only because your powers are stronger than mine, but that makes sense since you were somehow the jock in a family of nerds. Race you to National City!” She speeds off then and her aunt actually gives her a full minute head start.

Which does not help because Astra still beats her to National City by over twelve minutes, Kara arriving out of breath while her aunt floats lazily a few miles out from any buildings. “I think I know how Clark feels now,” Kara pants. “Fuck, no wonder he hates me, we raced once when I was thirteen and I trounced him.”

Astra and Lena both growl at that, and Kara shakes her head when her aunt mutters a string of curses that Jade once again memorizes.

“Aunt Astra you are teaching my new child far too many curse words,” Kara says lightly, ignoring the ghost of a pinch Jade sends her… more in rebuke for trying to get Astra to stop than for anything else, oddly.

Kara’s aunt stares at her for a solid minute. “Kir chahv, you taught me half of what I know. The Science Guild was by far the most foul-mouthed in all of Krypton, and your father was the worst of all. Your first words were curses so vile your mother almost fainted.”

Lena is absolutely delighted by this information, as is Jade, and Enna now resolves herself to learn Kryptonian curses as well. Kara blushes but… well, it isn’t untrue. The reason she didn’t used to bother with cursing in English was because the words simply didn’t hold a candle to Krypton’s.

I’m telling Nia as soon as I meet her in person, Lena vows, and Kara’s blush deepens.

“Anyway,” Kara says, turning toward the DEO. “Time to go face my sister.” She lifts off and then turns to her aunt with a frown. “I know you aren’t sleeping, but where are you staying right now?”

When Astra immediately looks away, Kara shakes her head.

“Go home,” Kara says, and when she feels her aunt’s confusion she raises a single eyebrow. “It’s the building with the rooftop garden, you can’t miss it.”

Astra’s eyes widen. “Little one, I think your apartment is already a bit crowded. I am fine resting in the woods over—“

“Aunt Astra, I have had over twenty aliens in my apartment at once, and one of them was nearly as big as the building, I can accommodate five more people easily.” Kara almost drops when everyone’s shock hits her. “Why is that so surprising? I’m an inventor.”

Darling, her wife thinks, and Kara can feel a mix of excitement and anger from her, how many of your working creations are in this apartment?

Kara purses her lips. “I don’t know that I should answer that… mostly cuz I never bothered counting, and if I try right now Alex will make it there before I do. So for now, I’m just… gonna go.” She takes off then, heading straight for the DEO, and this time it’s Lena who curses, choosing one of the more colorful ones she’d seen Kara’s father say in an old memory, and both Jade and Enna take note of it. “I think I may be a bad influence,” Kara muses aloud, and she hears Astra, still outside the city, laugh. “Aunt Astra, home, now.”

“Yes, yes, kir chahv, I am on my way,” Astra drawls, “Though I will be waiting in the garden until you get back. I… have yet to actually meet your wife and I do not wish to intrude.”

Lena speaks to both of them then. Since you are Kara’s family you are mine as well, and our home is yours, her wife says softly, then they feel her amusement, with an undercurrent of embarrassment. And I’ve literally been intruding in your mind, Astra, so I don’t think you’re the one who needs to worry about making someone uncomfortable.

“I was stalking your :zhao,” Astra says softly, “if you did not take precautionary measures upon learning that, I would question your commitment to her. I apologize for causing you worry, Lena.”

They switch to having a more private conversation then, and as Kara lands at the DEO she smiles, hearing her aunt settle on the roof of her apartment, stubborn as ever but sounding much more at ease, thankfully. Then her sister and Nia are both making a beeline for her and Kara suddenly wishes she’d brought her aunt with her instead, if only to distract them from their current, frenzied focus on her.

Good luck, my love, Lena says, and Jade helpfully chimes in with… yet another Kryptonian curse, Enna echoing it.

Thanks, Kara thinks, giving her sister a thin-lipped smile. I’m fucked aren’t I?

Language, Jade and Enna singsong even as Kara feels her wife nodding.

“You’re late,” Nia hisses before they even reach the landing pad.

“Kara Zor-El Danvers,” Alex growls once she’s close enough, “you have a lot of explaining to do.”

“More than you’d think,” Kara mutters, and then she sways, just a bit, because she maybe shouldn’t have raced Astra considering how much power she’d used today, and Alex’s frown deepens. “Sun bed room?” Kara asks weakly, and Alex huffs and leads the way.

Chapter Text

Once Kara is settled on the sun bed Alex starts pacing and Nia sits in one of the chairs, shooting Kara a tired glare. “So… is Sam going to join us or did you end up locking her in a cell?” Kara finally asks.

Alex actually growls before storming from the room. A few minutes later she returns with Sam, who falls into a chair, looking even more tired than Nia. “Alex, babe, I am fine, Ruby is fine, chill.”

Kara sits up. “You didn’t actually lock your family in a cell, did you?”

Sam snorts. “Please, like I was going to let her do that. Ruby is annoyed enough that she was dragged here hours ago and is ‘being held captive’ in the break room. Brainy is babysitting right now so she doesn’t sneak off.” She glares at Alex then. “Or get into the armory, since Alex has definitely told her the password.”

Kara bites back a smile when her sister scowls. “I am not the one in trouble here. Kara kidnapped your attacker and she’s been gone for hours, and now she’s back wearing some weird suit and doesn’t even have anything to say for herself.” Alex crosses her arms and glowers at Kara. “I know you don’t want the DEO to lock away innocents but they tried to kill my wife.”

Sam looks at Kara then, and to Kara’s surprise she pulls Allo’s broken collar out and holds it up. “It was a child, wasn’t it?”

Alex freezes and doesn’t even flinch when Kara’s hand shoots past her and grabs the collar from Sam, her wife and the two girls in her mind enraged at the mere sight of it. Kara turns and uses her heat vision to melt the damn thing, molding it into… well, it kind of looks like a pancake, honestly. Kara sits it delicately on the bed beside her and lays back down. “Officially,” Kara says lightly, “nothing happened. I tripped and dropped this… pancake, is all.”

Her sister still doesn’t move, and Sam pulls out the weapon Allo had brought, raising both of her eyebrows in question.

Kara once again snatches it and melts it with her heat vision, this time into something resembling… hm, a lava cake. She sets it neatly on the pancake. “And this lava cake.”

Surprisingly it’s Nia who speaks next. “Okay, I gotta ask, what’s with the suit?”

Kara frowns down at her battle suit. “My usual one got a little… crispy. And someone kindly offered me this instead.”

Nia chokes. “Fucking hell, Kara, did that stupid text I sent Sam actually mean for you to go near lava? And what’s with you and pancakes all of a sudden?”

I WANT PANCAKES TOO— wait who are you and why do you think of pancakes as being murdery? It’s Allo, Kara knows this, but she wasn’t expecting the child to scream in her head and she immediately slams her hands over her ears.

“Fucking hell,” Kara hisses. Her wife sends her an apology as well as her aunt’s spike of worry. “I’m fine, just, Allo, please, indoor voices… Jade if you do that too I will never curse in Kryptonian again I swear to Rao.”

WHERE’S MERI? Allo screams and Kara slams her hands over her ears again.

“She’s in the egg,” Kara mutters, and is glad that Allo is able to pick up on her meaning… though then the child’s panic is back because what does her sister need healing for? “She’ll be fine, I promise, it’s healing her and my :zhao can do the rest, please just calm down, kir chahv.” The endearment slips out and Kara flushes when her aunt’s shock and fondness surge so strongly she feels them through her connection to her wife. “You are all safe and we will not let anyone hurt you again, I promise.”

They’re keeping us, apparently, Jade adds, dodging Enna’s flick this time. I didn’t say it was a bad thing, I for one am enjoying all the new words I’m learning.

Enna steps in then and shows Allo her memories of what happened, only leaving out what she saw in the office and the… specifics of Edge’s death. We are all safe, and Meri will be okay, she finishes, and Kara can tell she’s hugging Allo now.

Allo accepts it all easily enough, to Kara and her wife’s relief. Hm, okay, so can I have pancakes? And why are they murdery again?

Kara groans and glares at Nia. “Did you ask about pancakes on purpose?” Nia looks away but she’s already grinning and Lena confirms it. “Nia, I think you may be more evil than me, and I… uh, nevermind.”

Pancakes… and ice cream? Allo is still happily rambling away in Kara’s mind. I’ve never had ice cream but you seem to really like it, Super Kara.

Kara’s head thumps back onto the sun bed and she closes her eyes. “I will make you pancakes and get some ice cream on the way home, so please chill long enough for me to have this conversation, my sister kind of wants to kill me right now.”

Hm she seems more scared and sad, I think, Allo says, and Kara feels her dislike of that. Quit letting your big sister be sad— they protect us and we cheer them up. Enna and Jade are both surprised by this and Kara feels their fondness surge, and now Jade is also hugging Allo. You’re squishing me, the girl informs them, though her happiness is palpable.

Kara opens her eyes and turns towards Alex and Sam. “Unofficially,” she says, squinting at her sister who still has not moved. “Yes. And we’re keeping her, and her three sisters… hm though the oldest is still unconscious so she has yet to be informed of this.”

Sam’s eyes widen and Alex finally unfreezes. She turns to Kara, her face expressionless. “Who’s responsible for this?” Alex asks, and Kara’s wife sends her her sister’s… rage.

“He’s dead now, so it doesn’t matter,” Kara says. When Alex’s fury doesn’t ebb she picks up the lava cake she made out of Allo’s weapon. “It was not a quick death.”

Alex’s brow furrows and Nia gets it first. “Holy shit, Kara did you feed him to a fucking volcano?”

Kara turns to her with a frown. “Language— there is a twelve-year-old present, and we are only teaching our children Kryptonian curses.” Nia’s mouth drops open in shock and now Sam’s rage matches Alex’s.

“They sent a twelve-year-old to kill me?” Sam hisses. “Who was it?”

She knew it was a child but didn’t know just how young, Kara’s wife says. She’s assuming it’s Lex at this point. Also… you should tell them that Ruby was the first target.

Jade’s fear is so great at that that Kara’s hand goes to her stomach, clenching at the fabric of her battle suit which of course barely wrinkles in her grip.

You refused to even try to hurt her, Lena says, and Kara feels her wife reach out, able to sense the invisible children well enough now that she cups Jade’s face. They will be grateful to you, and your sisters. And… they have a right to know someone targeted their child. Lena sends the girl her own emotions, her certainty that Sam and even Alex will understand and be thankful, and finally, Jade nods. My love, she whispers, and Kara nods as well.

“You weren’t the original target,” Kara says, meeting Sam’s eyes. “When you got the Luthors declared missing, it pissed off someone who had been using their name to do whatever he wanted. He didn’t see you as a threat, but he wanted to make you hurt, so… he ordered the two eldest girls to kill Ruby.”

Sam doesn’t move but Kara can hear her heart hammering, and her terror floods them all without Lena passing it on… just as Alex sinks to her knees beside Sam’s chair, heart pounding faster than Kara has ever heard and gasping like she can’t get enough air, very, very close to an actual panic attack at the thought of their daughter being in danger.

Touch Alex, Lena thinks, urgent. I need to intervene or we’re going to have to tranquilize her.

Kara lunges off the bed and grabs her sister’s face with both hands, and they all watch in shock as Alex calms, her breathing returning to normal, her heart rate decreasing to only a bit faster than usual. When she finally opens her eyes she halfheartedly glares at Kara. “I’m fine, now get back in the bed.” Kara squeaks and obliges, and when Alex stands she runs a hand through her hair and sits beside Sam. “Sorry, and thank you, and please continue.”

“No problem,” Kara says at her wife’s behest, and then she clears her throat. “Uh, anyway, Meri and Jade refused to kill a child… they’re nineteen and seventeen by the way, so also children, and they were expecting to be… well, tortured for it… fucking sadistic bastard,” Kara mutters, remembering what she’d seen in Edge’s office but managing to push it away before Allo sees. “But instead, his anger turned toward them so he sent the youngest, Allo, to kill Sam on her own.” Kara’s hand is on her stomach again, and at this point she’s surprised even Kryptonian fabric is holding up to her grip, which she’s barely managing to regulate. “They all landed here three and half years ago, and Lex found them and gave them to his favorite minion at the time,” she sneers. “They trained Meri and Jade immediately but Enna only just began training— she’s fourteen now— and Allo was only ever used as incentive for the others. He sent her on a suicide mission.”

Everyone’s anger flares then— Kara, Lena, Astra, Alex, Sam, Nia, Jade, and Enna, and Allo is immediately indignant.

I’m strong! She shouts at a thankfully lower level. Not… that I wanna hurt anybody, but I’m not a baby.

Kara scoffs. “Twelve is a baby, sorry Allo. Enna’s a baby too if it makes you feel any better.”

I’m practically an adult, Enna thinks, and Allo’s anger turns to glee at her big sister also being deemed a baby. I am not a baby.

“You’re both babies,” Kara says happily. “And on Krypton you aren’t an adult until you’re twenty so honestly, Jade and Meri are babies too.”

Now it’s Jade’s turn to be enraged while her little sisters laugh at her, and Lena sends Kara the ghost of a pinch. Darling, you are the oldest one here right now, please quit teasing the children.

Kara sticks her tongue out at no one. “I have no regrets, :zhao, we’ve already established you’re all stuck with me, so I will tease you to my heart’s content.” She means it as a joke, kind of, but her wife’s love envelops her, then, and Jade grins, Enna smiles and Allo is happy as long as Kara brings home ice cream. Lena even sends her Astra’s surge of love, and now Kara is blushing. She turns to Alex, grinning, and says, “I am the most beloved kidnapper in the world.”

Alex just blinks at her, Sam and Nia now shaking their heads. “Okay, then,” her sister drawls. “Are my wife and child safe now?”

Kara checks in with her wife for a moment, and her brow crinkles. “When did you— okay, fair, it was a long flight.” She blows out a breath, then, both annoyed and relieved that Edge’s contact with other evil minions was entirely digitally-communicated orders… they have no other minions to go after yet, but his anger at Sam only made it as far as the girls now in their care. “He didn’t tell anyone else or give any other orders regarding any of us,” Kara says, resolute, and her sister slouches into her chair, her relief flooding Kara.

Sam, though, is leaning forward, eyes trained on her. “Your girlfriend read his mind, didn’t she?” Her hope and fear filter through to Kara, who winces but nods. “What did he know about the Luthors?”

Kara almost blurts ‘no comment’, but… her jeju didn’t betray her ye— aunt, after all. She did what she could to save Astra, and to let her stay with Kara. She frowns, turning from Sam and staring up into the lights of the sun bed, her fingers now tapping her stomach. Kara… isn’t worried about telling Sam and Alex anymore, she realizes, a bit shocked. Then again, she also hadn’t worried about telling them about the girls… Kara hums and bites her lip, considering what to say, when she hears two familiar heartbeats approaching… very quickly?

She turns to the door just as Ruby runs through, Brainy a few steps behind, and when Kara meets Ruby’s eyes her own mind quiets, because her wife…

Oh, Lena thinks, and in a move similar to when they scolded Sam and Alex for worrying their daughter, her wife’s presence in her mind expands, to the point that Kara isn’t sure which of them is moving now, Kara sliding off the bed and moving at near super speed to Ruby, only to stop in front of her for a long moment, frozen, before sinking to her knees.

Ruby steps forward, a determined look on her face, and ignoring her mom’s shout she reaches out and places both of her hands on Kara’s cheeks, not breaking eye contact. The child’s fear and hope flood her then, and her wife…

Lena remembers, but it isn’t like before. Though Kara can tell there are painful memories, it’s the happy ones that shine through, and she shows Kara flashes of them.

A woman with red hair dancing with a tiny Lena in the kitchen, the room warm and filled with the smell of their dinner in the oven. A few of Lex early on, teaching Lena chess and later building things with her in a small home lab. Meeting Sam at boarding school, Lena impressed by the other girl being the only other occupant in the library in the wee hours of the morning and the two eventually going to get a ‘3AM breakfast’.

More and more memories with Sam, laughing and studying together, and later Ruby is there too, and Kara sees her grab Lena’s face with her tiny hands again and again, determined to get her attention so she can very seriously tell her everything from “Did you know my favorite color has to be red cuz of my name” to “Auntie Lena you need a nap too” to “My mommy is working too much and she always listens to you, so please talk to her”.

A bearded man with warm brown skin and a wide grin, Jack, asking Lena on a date back in college that somehow ends with them both friend-zoning each other and later starting a company together. Meeting Jess in a business class Lena hadn’t wanted to take, the other young woman muttering snide comments about the professor’s rose-colored teaching on economics and Lena now determined to befriend her and succeeding.

Lena and Sam and Ruby and Jack and Jess celebrating Ruby’s birthdays, again and again, always in private locations but it’s always warm and bright and happy.

When the memories finally stop Kara is crying, for the umpteenth time that day, and Ruby is crying too, and she can feel Sam and Alex hovering nearby, Nia and Brainy watching them closely from the side of the room.

“Now does she remember anything about herself?” Ruby whispers, voice thick. She starts breathing fast when Kara is silent, still overwhelmed from the bits of memories she’d gotten to see. “Auntie Kara?”

Lena slips into Kara’s body and Kara falls back, watching as her hands raise and gently pull Ruby’s away from her face, and they feel the girl’s grief, then, but it vanishes when Kara’s body stands and scoops her up in a hug, easily lifting the teen and holding her in a way Kara now knows Lena did when Ruby was small. Kara’s body holds their niece for several minutes, swaying back and forth and humming something Kara has never heard, but somehow recognizes as an Irish lullaby.

Sam is still behind them, and Kara can tell she has a death grip on Alex and is crying herself now, and Kara’s body doesn’t set Ruby down until the girl has calmed, and even then Kara’s arms stay around her loosely, and their niece is gripping the fabric of the battle suit as best she can and staring up with wide eyes, red and puffy from crying now. “I know you need more time to recover,” Ruby says, sniffling, “but you’re still gonna come to my birthday, right?”

Kara’s body leans down and cups Ruby’s cheeks, presses a kiss to her forehead. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world, a stóirín.” At Kara’s flicker of curiosity her body smiles. It means ‘little treasure’, her wife tells her, It’s one of the few things I actually remember from when I lived with my mum. Ruby darts forward and hugs her again, as hard as she can, and Kara idly thinks that her niece has definitely gotten stronger. Kara’s body places a hand on her back, rubbing slow, soothing patterns, before she looks up at Sam.

Sam squeaks and takes a small step back, wincing when a single eyebrow is arched her way. “It was for your own good,” she says weakly.

Kara’s body hums. “I seem to recall telling you that a few times,” she says, “and not once did you appreciate it.” Sam winces and Kara’s head shakes. “We both… made some incorrect choices with the best of intentions,” she allows, and Kara can see the absolute shock on Sam’s face. “What?”

“You are… actually Lena, right?” Sam asks, sounding genuinely worried.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Samantha,” Kara’s body drawls. “I finally remember everything and now you doubt it?” Kara mentally laughs when Jade, Enna, and even Allo gleefully singsong ‘language’ in her mind, and her body sighs and rambles off a Kryptonian curse. “There, now…” Her brow crinkles and her fingers tap idly on Ruby’s back. “Mm, darling, you’re alright with telling them everything, correct?” Kara gives her assent and her body nods. “Good, although,” she looks over to Nia. “I believe we’re short a few people at the moment.” Nia suddenly looks very excited and nods. “In that case we should all meet tomorrow.” She turns and narrows her eyes at Sam. “I will be attending… remotely, of course.”

Sam steps forward and crosses her arms, head tilted up. “We all know it’s you now, so why can’t you come in person? And how the hell did Ruby know anything?”

Ruby turns her head enough to peek at her mom. “Auntie Kara had her watch one of the old sci-fi movies I like and she drew up blueprints for working versions of some of the tech in it,” Ruby says, then smirks. “And she cracked her television screen.”

Kara’s body blushes and rolls its eyes when Sam has to turn away to hide her laughter. “I am still getting acclimated to these powers, and that happened even before Corben. As for my… staying hidden awhile longer…” Kara’s body looks away, her hold on Ruby tightening slightly. “You both remember me from four years ago. As Alex can attest, I…” She takes a deep breath, and Kara sends her as much love as she can, pleased when it helps her wife calm down. “Kara’s energy is helping me heal far faster than a human, so I would like a few more weeks to continue recovering, especially since… I already feel your emotions very strongly and it’s only going to be more intense in person.”

Sam stiffens and Kara can see the rage in her eyes even as Ruby hugs Kara’s body even tighter, Kara now wondering how exactly her teenage niece is so strong that she can feel her hug like this.

“I’m going to kill them,” Sam hisses, and when Alex puts a hand on her shoulder she rounds on her ready to fight. “Alex—“

“Oh no, I agree,” Alex says, glowering, and Kara and her wife both know she’s remembering what Lena had shown her. “I just wanted to add that we should kill them slowly.”

Ruby pulls away enough to frown at her moms. “Should you be plotting murder in front of me? And Supergirl? And Dreamer and Brainy?”

“Kara agreed with Alex, actually,” Kara’s body says, and then she smirks. “Though fortunately for Lex and Lillian, she was a bit too late to have a say.”

Ruby gasps. “That’s why Aunt Kara didn’t want you near the DEO,” she says quietly. Alex makes a strangled sound and Sam doesn’t seem much better off.

Why do pancakes also mean murder to you? Allo asks, and Kara can tell she’s shaking her head. I still want some real ones though. And ice cream!

“Noted, now, we’re a bit busy tonight,” Kara’s body says, smiling when the three little eavesdroppers back home jump, startled at being called out, “so tomorrow we all need to have a meeting.” Her lips purse. “Here works, I suppose. If we actually go somewhere soundproof I don’t think it will be appreciated.” Kara’s body smirks when her wife hears Astra’s agreement, with Kara’s super hearing this time. “You could always come in person, you know,” she drawls, and Astra threatens to head to the woods, prompting her to sigh. “As you wish. Now,” she picks up Ruby and hugs her again before walking over and setting her down by her parents. “While I am very tempted to follow Kara’s lead and kidnap you for at least a few days, I don’t think that’s wise at the moment.” She frowns, considering. “We’ll meet here after lunch tomorrow,” Kara’s body declares. “That should account for the time zone issue and leave me enough time to at least begin healing Meri… and Kara will probably need the sun bed again.”

“Lena,” Sam says, and it sounds like both a warning and a plea.

Kara’s body turns to Sam, and after a moment of hesitation she engulfs her in a hug. “Thank you,” she whispers. “We’ll tell you tomorrow, I promise,” she says, squeezing Sam as tightly as she dares with a Kryptonian’s body. “No more rules, no more keeping you in the dark.” She pulls away and meets her best friend’s teary gaze. “You found me, I’m safe, and,” Kara’s body tilts its head up, exuding far more confidence than Kara herself has ever managed, “now that the ring leaders are gone, well, I think it’s time to wrap things up, don’t you?” She winks at Sam before turning and pressing another kiss to Ruby’s forehead, whispering “Good night, a stóirín, I love you.”

Lena slips away once Ruby manages to say it back through her sniffles, and Kara shivers when her body is her own again. Baby what did you mean by ‘time zone issue’? Kara asks, and she feels her wife’s joy.

It’s time to bring in the big guns, Lena says. Jess Huang and Jack Spheer.

Kara’s eyes widen and she almost slips up and speaks aloud. Isn’t he dead?

She feels her wife shrug. He isn’t exactly… alive, and don’t worry, Ruby knows already.

Kara raises both eyebrows at her niece and shakes her had. “Rubes, you are disturbingly good at keeping secrets.”

Ruby frowns. “Which one this time?” Sam’s hand lands on her shoulder in a death grip and the girl looks up at her mom with a frown. “None of them are bad secrets, Mom.” She grins at Kara. “Some of them are very, very good secrets.”

Kara shakes her head at their niece, and then focuses on what Jade has: What do you mean he isn’t alive?

Her wife sends them a memory then, and Kara reels back and sputters a slew of Kryptonian curses that Allo immediately starts parroting back, much to Jade and Enna’s amusement. “Why is he—“

Nia’s hand slaps over Kara’s mouth. “Do not ruin this for me,” her friend says, stony-eyed. “Listen, I have helped you two a lot, and I only ask one thing.” She’s silent after that, eyes widening as Kara’s brow crinkles.

Lena clearly heard her thought and is already laughing. She wants to be the one to ‘summon’ him and insists her dreams have revealed that if I let you do it you’ll crush anywhere between 12 and 2000 pieces.

Kara reaches up and pulls her friend’s hand from her mouth, scowling at her. “I am not that clumsy.”

Oh, no, you definitely are, her wife thinks. She just showed me her dreams, my love, and 2000 was a gracious underestimate. Please tell her she may have the honor tomorrow once everyone else arrives.

Kara pouts. “She says ‘you may have the honor once everyone else arrives’.” She crosses her arms when Nia’s glee hits her. “He isn’t that fancy.”

I should give him some upgrades once I have a lab built, Lena agrees, and Kara feels her wife’s smugness. I remember all my old bank accounts now, so it shouldn’t take too long, and… hm, do you still want to be a sugar baby, my love?

Kara blushes as Allo starts demanding to know what a sugar baby is and if it’s edible and Enna physically restrains Jade to keep her from saying anything.

Ruby’s eyes widen and her mouth drops open. “THAT SECRET?” She screeches, and now she’s practically vibrating. She reaches out and grabs Kara, bouncing up and down. “I’m invited to this meeting, right? RIGHT?”

Sam is watching Ruby with utter confusion and Kara feels her wife’s curl of guilt. We didn’t tell her or Jess, Lena says softly. We didn’t think it would take this long… he’s been ‘dead’ a year longer than I’ve been gone. And yes, Ruby is invited, though… do you think the pancaking incident is too graphic for a thirteen-year-old?

Lena, Allo thinks, very seriously, did you murder someone with pancakes?

“No, she did not,” Kara says, sighing, “and yes, Ruby is invited, but some contents of the meeting are PG-13, not that that really matters since a twelve-year-old will be tagging along regardless of what we do.”

“Moms—“

“Yes, you can come,” Sam says tiredly. “If only so I can determine exactly how much you knew and if you need to be grounded for it.”

Ruby is too excited to even pout. Then her eyes grow wide and she steps closer to Kara, whispering at a level only a Kryptonian can hear: “Will Jess be there too? Is that what the time zone thing meant?”

Kara… is a little annoyed her niece figured it out when she had to ask, honestly, and her wife pinches her. She sighs and nods and idly wonders if Ruby is going to be able to get any sleep tonight at all with how much she’s bouncing now.

Alex glares at Kara. “Did you just give my daughter a sugar high right before bedtime without even using junk food?”

The mention of junk food, unfortunately, reminds Allo of something very, very important. Ice cream! And pancakes! Without any murder, please. The child in her apartment is almost as excited as Ruby now. Please please please please—

“I will get ice cream on the way home,” Kara interrupts, glaring at her sister now. “And… actually, what do y’all eat?” Her brow crinkles when she senses Allo, Jade, and even Enna scheming so they can try all the foods they’ve been wanting to. “You will have plenty of time to try new foods, but your nutrition is important, especially when you’re still growing.”

From what I saw in Allo’s memories, Lena thinks, ignoring the girls’ disappointment, their nutritional requirements are similar to humans, but they need about three times as much food for any given meal. And they weren’t ever allowed dessert or sweets.

“You never got any dessert?” Kara yelps, then she frowns. “Giving you a dinner of only desserts doesn’t exactly set a good precedent, but…”

Lena, Sam, Alex, and Astra all give Kara a vehement no at that, much to the girls’ disappointment, and Nia looks highly amused.

Ruby is staring at Kara, her head tilted. “Now who are you talking to?”

“I would like to know as well,” Brainy says, frowning at them.

Kara squeaks and takes a small step towards the door. “Uh, my :zhao and I… found some children,” she says, wincing when Brainy gives her a disbelieving look.

“And let me guess,” Ruby drawls, shaking her head. “You’re keeping them.”

Kara coughs. “Yes, well, they have similar powers to her, and similar eating habits to me, so it… kinda seems like a good fit?” She shifts uncomfortably when Ruby stares at her. “What now?”

“How many children, what are they like, and how old are they?” Ruby demands.

Lena’s amusement curls around Kara. This is the first time she’s truly wondered if you’re taking advantage of me, she says. And she’s a little jealous they’re here and she isn’t.

She’s tough, Jade comments. I’m glad we didn’t kill her.

And her mom seems nice, Allo adds, thoughtful. I’m glad I didn’t kill her either.

While the children in her head bicker about whether or not Allo would have had a chance against Supergirl sans her psychic wife, Kara looks at anyone but Ruby. “Uh, well, Allo is twelve and so far all I really know is she desperately wants to try pancakes and ice cream, Enna is fourteen and thinks seeing through my eyes is weird, Jade is seventeen and a mini Alex, and Meri is nineteen and… hasn’t woken up yet.” She glances at Brainy and sees him… trying not to laugh, which is odd, especially for him.

Ruby hums and saunters up to Kara. “And did your :zhao have a say in you deciding to keep them?”

Kara gulps. “Yes?” She takes a step back when her niece steps forward. “I mean, she was surprised when I said we were going to, but she was happy with it. And…” her brow crinkles. “I kinda think it was her idea first? But… more like a thought behind a thought. She didn’t voice it but I could… feel she wanted to.”

Lena agrees with that and Kara grins, puffing up with pride. Her niece sighs and waves her off. “Fine, fine, go make dinner for your ever-growing family.” Ruby shakes her head. “I know you can mess with the space in your apartment but it still seems a little cramped for six of you.”

“Seven,” Kara corrects without thinking, and now everyone’s eyes are on her.

“That’s why you were late,” Nia hisses, and Brainy looks… like he’s doing his best not to react. Right, they both know about the stalker, oops. “I knew something was off when you took so long to come back. Wait… did you really have your—“

“Uh, no comment, love you all, bye!” Kara zooms away before Nia can finish, and she hears Astra, still on the apartment building’s roof, laughing at her.

Kara shops as quickly as she can, now in her civvies instead of her battle suit, and when she checks out with a cart full of food (four children who eat almost as much as her and her aunt who probably eats more… she needs to stock up), she’s still flushed and barely manages to thank the cashier before heading out, idly tapping the other side of her glasses on the now-full reusable bags to store them.

Cheater, her wife thinks as Kara slips back into her battle suit and flies home. Also, your aunt is still on the roof and has resorted to… eating flowers.

“They’re edible,” Kara grumbles. “And even if they weren’t, she’s also Kryptonian, so if I wanted to make her a poisonous meal it would be fine.” She lands on the rooftop then, and Astra turns to her, eyebrows raised. “What?”

“While I know you had the best of intentions, kir chahv,” her aunt begins, opening the rooftop door for Kara to pass through first, “I do not know that I would willingly eat a cake so poisonous it nearly killed humans merely with its odor.”

The neighbor’s dog, Tony Tony Macaroni, runs up to them as soon as the door is closed, tail wagging, and Kara’s mental shield rises. She leans down and pets the dog’s head absently, standing again when the dog can’t help but flinch at her touch and sneeze.

“How did you know about that?” Kara asks her aunt suspiciously, barely registering when Tony Tony Macaroni demands pets from Astra as well before racing down the steps and vanishing.

Aha, Allo says happily, Lena didn’t kill someone with pancakes, Super Kara did!

“I did not!” Kara yelps indignantly.

“Just because you did not know I was there does not mean I was not watching,” Astra says, and Kara has a sinking feeling in her stomach when her aunt grins at her. “Your prank war with your human sister was a delight to behold, little one.”

Kara flushes and grabs blindly for her door handle, and if not for her wife quickly unlocking it with her powers she would have broken the lock again. “That’s— oops, thanks, sorry— how much did you see?”

Astra’s grin only widens and when they enter the apartment Lena is already shaking her head, Enna is feeling uneasy, and Allo and Jade are a little too eager.

She saw it all and now so have we, her wife says from her place on the couch as she pauses… a familiar movie? Allo insisted we watch ‘the movie that made Lena break the television’ while we waited. Lena’s blush tips her ears pink and Kara really wants to kiss her then but figures that probably isn’t appropriate at the moment.

“Wait,” Kara says, frowning. “If we always have children in our heads, uh…”

Jade makes a noise of disgust. “I’ve know you two for less than a day… oh no what have you done in this bed?” She apparently had not moved since Enna forced her to lie down but when she starts to get up she freezes, and now Kara is blushing too, knowing the girl heard her thoughts. “Nothing? Aren’t you married?”

“ICE CREAM!” Allo yells, jumping at Kara, who barely manages to catch her in time, too busy looking anywhere but at her aunt. “I KNOW IT’S IN YOUR GLASSES SOMEHOW!”

Lena pulls the cape draped around her shoulders tighter and is resolutely looking at the movie paused on the television. First, Kara, yes, you can make them all a bowl of ice cream… not a ‘Ruby is blackmailing me’ amount, mind you, they still need a proper dinner. Her wife watches her go to the kitchen area with a small smile, Allo now on her back and cheering at a volume Kara knows is quiet… for her. Second, Jade, there was a reason I was in the egg when you all got here… I am… at least a month out from being able to do any strenuous activities from the readout I looked at.

“Yikes,” Jade whispers, flopping back down. “Well, at least my kidnappers won’t traumatize me for another month.”

The bowl in Kara’s hand shatters and she tosses it in the trashcan and grabs another one, putting ice cream in that one instead. When she turns, three bowls of ice cream in her hands and two in Allo’s, who at some point climbed onto her shoulders, Kara is surprised to see everyone looking at her. “What?”

Enna, sitting in the chair nearest the egg, tilts her head at her. “You broke a bowl, threw it away, and got a new one, and the actions were so ingrained that you barely registered them mentally. How often do you break things?”

Kara purses her lips, passing the bowls out to Enna, Jade, Lena, and her aunt, and depositing Allo and her bowl onto an empty spot on the couch. “I decided to quit keeping track when I passed a certain number. And yes, there is enough of this flavor of ice cream left for Meri when she wakes up.”

She goes to the egg and checks a few things, and is happy to see that it has already started treating the girl’s physical wounds and should be done around when they’ve all finished eating. Kara frowns then, because Meri definitely won’t wake up until her :zhao heals the mental damage the collar somehow inflicted, and she won’t have energy enough for that until morning, or at least until Kara starts sending her more energy… well, it won’t be the first time Kara has forced a newly kidnapped person to eat bland stew. Nodding to herself, she turns back to see… everyone once again facing her.

“What now?” Kara asks, crossing her arms defensively. She can feel her wife’s… curiosity and worry, her aunt’s concern, and the girls, also sensing the others’ emotions, haven’t even tried their ice cream. “Am I forgetting something? Oh,” Kara flushes, “did we wanna do formal introductions or something?” Her nose scrunches up. “Though on Krypton that was done by the ‘man of the house’ and I don’t know that I want to assume that role.”

“Little one,” Astra says, stepping towards Kara, “you should not still be breaking things. It took me only a few months to regulate my strength properly, and while I admit control of one’s body is an important aspect, it is primarily a matter of calculating the force you use.” Her eyes move up and down Kara’s body, and Kara is pretty sure her aunt is checking her with x-ray vision. It feels odd to have someone do it to her for once. “Your intelligence far surpasses mine, so your control should have come easier, not… this should not still be an issue.”

Kara flushes. “It took Clark a few years, you know.”

Now her wife arches a single eyebrow. Darling, that does not surprise me. Your cousin is… not bright. Lena’s fingers tap the side of her bowl. I had assumed you breaking things was due to a momentary lapse of focus, and I’ve never seen you break anything in person until now, but… you have never once lost control when touching anyone that I’ve seen.

“And I won’t,” Kara says, resolute. She walks over to Lena, cupping her cheek and tilting her face up enough to press a kiss to her forehead, using the brief contact to greatly increase the energy she’s sending her wife. She pulls back once she knows Lena’s own energy has replenished enough that the strain from all her power use that day has lessened. Kara moves past Allo then, and brushes a hand gently over the girl’s head, idly noting that her hair feels like feathers. “And you should eat your ice cream before it melts, kir chahv, or you’ll be left with overly sweet candy soup.”

Allo’s alarm at this is so great Kara almost laughs, and when the child puts the largest amount of ice cream possible on her spoon and eats it Kara feels her shock and then joy. Enna and Jade immediately copy their sister, eager for their own tastes, and Kara has the sudden realization that she is now going to get to re-experience her first taste of Earth foods fourfold once Meri is awake as well… she idly wonders if she can talk her wife out of including kale in their meals.

You can’t veto kale, Lena says easily, starting to eat her own bowl of ice cream now. And we all basically know each other at this point so ‘formal introductions’ can wait until Meri is awake. Now, what are you hiding, my love?

Astra sits down on the far end of the couch and begins eating her ice cream as well, though Kara can feel her aunt’s gaze.

She doesn’t want to answer yet, so takes her time unpacking the bags and putting everything away, and when she’s ready to start making them all dinner she turns to find Enna beside her, a stack of empty ice cream bowls in her hands.

“May I help make dinner?” Enna asks, and Kara can feel her nervousness. “I was responsible for cooking our meals before, so I’ll be useful, I promise.”

Kara’s brow crinkles even as she takes the bowls, tucking them into the dishwasher. “If you wanna help, then sure, but you don’t have to.” She turns back to the girl and grins. “I kidnapped you, remember? Ergo, feeding you all is my responsibility now.” When she feels a few other people preparing to come help she turns to them with a frown. “Hell no. The only ones allowed to help right now are Enna and Allo, and that’s only if they want to. You,” Kara points to Lena, “used way too much of your power today, baby girl, and I’m considering Jade incapacitated until she gets time in the egg, not that she wants to help anyway, and you,” Kara shakes her head at her aunt, “are not allowed anywhere near any of my kitchen appliances. I have made my apartment more durable, but that doesn’t mean it can stand up to you somehow getting a perfectly functioning, uh, oven-adjacent appliance to blow up.”

Astra flushes but doesn’t even try to defend herself, and Kara feels her wife’s amusement, echoed by the sisters, as they all see both Kara and her aunt’s memory of the event that led to Kara’s mom putting a security system in place for their kitchen solely to ban Astra from entering.

“I want to help,” Enna assures Kara, already prepping the ingredients for the stew, the recipe still taped to a cabinet. Kara frowns but elects not to comment on the fact that she can feel the girl’s worry and need to be useful still, as Kara feels Enna’s flash of panic as soon as she has the thought.

“I’LL HELP WITH THE PANCAKES!” Allo yells, flopping onto the couch with her head on Lena’s lap and her feet on Astra’s. Kara feels her wife’s surprise at the sudden physical contact, and Allo does too cuz she scoffs. “You already looked through my whole head, Lena, I don’t think me touching you is gonna do much.”

True, Lena says, and after a long moment of hesitation she begins to gingerly pet Allo’s… well, it’s where a human’s hair would be, but both she and Kara think it feels more like feathers.

“So,” Jade drawls, “is blowing things up a Kryptonian thing or just a ‘Kara’s family’ thing, and if it’s the latter, how soon before I get to start?”

“I’m sure Alex will be happy to let you play with some of her toys,” Kara says absently, mostly focused on making food now, and at Jade’s confusion she thinks of some of the more volatile weapons she made for her sister, and decides to only be mildly concerned at the rush of excitement the seventeen-year-old feels. “You’re definitely a mini Alex.”

“I no longer take offense to that,” Jade says, stretching so she takes up as much of the bed as possible. “Now, Super kidnapper, please hurry up and explain why you break things so much before psychic kidnapper and Super aunt’s worry give me a headache.”

Kara sighs but obliges, and not once does she look at her wife or aunt, still devoting most of her focus to preparing dinner and showing Enna what would be most helpful at any given point. “It’s not that I was hiding it,” she starts, using a blast of heat vision to jump-start the water boiling, “it’s just that I figured it out within a few weeks of landing and haven’t thought of it much since. Everyone assumes I’m a klutz and you two are the first to think otherwise, though… Brainy always seems surprised anytime I break something.” Kara’s brow crinkles and she shakes her head. “Even Eliza doesn’t know, but… okay, I may have hidden it from her. I hadn’t known her that long yet, and I didn’t see the point of bringing it up once I did.”

She frowns, flitting around the kitchen at near-super-speed to do a few things, and she wonders if she should worry about trying to phrase things so as not to freak anyone out when everyone but Astra is hearing her thoughts anyway. Her aunt hums at that and Kara rolls her eyes. Okay, so she’s in her head too now. The hive mind grows.

“Aunt Astra, can I assume you’ve noticed that you’ve barely aged since landing here?” Kara asks, only continuing when she sees her aunt nod. “It’s kind of like that,” she starts, sliding a pan into the oven. “I checked the Fortress’ records, tested mine and Clark’s DNA, all that stuff. The records didn’t tell me much— there was a single line in an old journal about ‘Kryptonians under a yellow sun being affected differently’, but that could have just meant some are, for example, faster than others.”

“You could have won that race if you’d played dirty enough,” Jade comments, ignoring both Lena and Astra looking her way with their eyebrows raised.

“I only play dirty at game nights…” Kara frowns. “Fuck, if Aunt Astra starts coming to game nights at some point my cheating is not going to be nearly as effective.” She rattles off a quick Kryptonian curse when three voices chorus ‘language’ at her. “Anyway, the point is: we all get powers, but their strength varies by individual. Generally speaking, Aunt Astra is more powerful than me, and I’m more powerful than Clark. However,” Kara turns and looks at her wife and aunt, arms crossed and her fingers tapping restlessly on her bicep. “Clark is about 15% more durable than I am, and while I know our lifespans are greatly lengthened, we’ve been here almost fifteen years, so you should look at least a little older, but you look the same as when I last saw you on Krypton.”

Astra frowns at her. “Even if you are stronger than your cousin and I, that should not make it so difficult to regulate your strength that you are still breaking things even now.”

Kara bites her lip and her fingers tap faster, and she knows everyone in the room can feel her anxiety. “I will never be able to fully control my strength every second of every day,” she finally admits, and plows on when she feels their confusion. “When I am close to others or actively touching them I have to devote a significant portion of my brain power to calculating how much strength I have and thus how much force I can exert, and while that normally wouldn’t be an issue, I have to do it continuously, running new calculations and adjusting my force as soon as the last one is complete. Doing so means I recalculate and readjust how much force I exert hundreds of times every second.”

Lena is staring at her with wide eyes. My love, are you saying that not only is your strength continuously increasing, it is doing so at an inconsistent rate? When Kara nods, her wife frowns. I’ve piloted your body many times now and your strength has always been the same— Her eyes narrow. It’s the same as my inability to make you fly or trigger your heat or x-ray vision, isn’t it?

“That’s my understanding of it, yes,” Kara says evenly. “You can access a set portion of my powers, and that includes a cap on my super strength. And to be clear, the only thing increasing is my strength. If I were to use too much at any given point, the rest of my body would not be able to keep up. My strength far, far outweighs my durability and my healing capabilities. I’ve tried different ways to force it to decrease, and the only thing that works is kryptonite, which is both temporary and not sustainable.” Kara frowns, then, reconsidering. “I take that back. If I send you enough of my energy any given day then the number of objects I break drastically decreases, and I think the day I exhausted myself to the point that Nia had to come get me… it decreased my overall strength, but it didn’t take long to reach and surpass the old threshold.”

Lena is still stroking Allo’s feather-hair, but her other hand falls to tap at the couch’s armrest. Astra, if I show you Kara’s memory of how she sends me her energy, could you try to do it?

Astra holds her hand out and Lena stops petting Allo’s head (much to the girl’s annoyance, Kara can tell) to take her aunt’s hand. Kara watches them in between preparing more parts of the meal, and she feels her aunt’s rising frustration and her wife’s rising certainty.

They finally stop holding hands and Allo immediately grabs Lena’s hand and puts it back on her head, giving a pleased little hum when she starts petting her feather-hair again. Lena looks at Kara now, and Kara is surprised to feel her shielding her emotions.

My love, her wife thinks, her free hand now gripping her cape tightly, I have by no means tested it exhaustively, but I believe the ‘energy’ you’re sending me is the cause of your strength increasing. Lena looks towards the egg, then. I had the egg give me the results it found after each test, and one revealed that the changes I made to my cells with Kryptonian DNA gave me the ability to use and store ‘processed sunlight’, but not the ability to actually process the sunlight. Normally Kryptonian cells take several hours to process a significant amount of light and then store the resulting energy evenly throughout the body, but if your cells are able to process it constantly and for some reason store all the extra energy towards your strength…

Kara frowns, thoughtful, and shields everyone from the dull pain blooming at the base of her skull. “That would explain why it’s inconsistent— I get varied amounts of sun throughout the day, based on where I am, what I’m wearing, how I’m moving, cloud coverage… and moving at super speed makes all of those change rapidly.” Her nose scrunches up. “Shit, am I even getting energy from moonlight? That’s not fair.”

Your aunt can’t send me any of her energy, Lena says quietly, and I doubt your cousin could either. The only reason you can is that you’re so overflowing with energy that your body doesn’t know what to do with it— so when it sensed my body was able to hold the energy it wanted a place to send it… an empty vessel to fill instead of continuing to overfill itself. Lena’s hold on her emotions slips then, just for a second, but Kara feels her fear, and she’s there in an instant, kneeling in front of the couch, her hands on her wife’s knees as she peers into terrified green eyes.

“What’s wrong, baby girl, why are you afraid?” Kara asks, the pain she’s still shielding lessening drastically in the wake of her wife’s terror.

Lena takes a shuddering breath. From what you said, the differentiation between individual Kryptonians’ powers under a yellow sun lies solely in their capacity to store the energy their body can create. Your overall power is generally based on how much total energy you can store, but everyone has different storage capacities in regards to aspects of the power as well— speed, strength, durability, longevity, possibly flight and heat vision… Your cousin can store more energy in parts of his body that aid his durability, your aunt her longevity, and you, for some reason, can put potentially unlimited energy towards your strength. Lena’s free hand releases its death grip on the cape and falls to Kara’s, and she can tell her wife is squeezing her hand even harder than she was the cape. Putting aside that you can for some reason store a ridiculous amount of energy for strength, there is no reason your body should be processing sunlight as quickly as it is.

“That’s how it’s been since I landed here,” Kara says slowly, continuing to both ignore and shield the dull ache in her mind, “and I didn’t even know that was why until now. I’m fine, so why are you… feeling guilty?”

Because! Lena’s fear and guilt wash over them all, and Allo, sensing what Kara wants, sits up and moves closer to Astra, allowing Kara to scoop her wife into her arms and steal her spot on the couch, Lena now in her lap. She winds one arm around her waist and uses her other hand to guide her wife’s head so it rests on her shoulder, her forehead pressed to Kara’s neck. We don’t know why it’s happening, Lena finally thinks, her voice quiet but frantic. It’s already negatively affecting your life, it could kill you if you mess up even slightly, it could kill you regardless if your body can’t handle it longterm, I… She trails off, her guilt filling Kara’s mind, and only when Kara starts carding a hand through her hair does she continue. I should be trying to find solutions but all I can think about is how if anyone else had found me I would definitely be dead and the only reason I’m alive is that you may be dying and—

Kara doesn’t say anything yet but she does manage to nudge the cape aside enough to clink their bracelets together, her wife’s terrified rambling halting as the gold shimmers into view. Only when Lena curls closer, still silent, does Kara finally speak. “I understand why you’re so afraid, and… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” She kisses the top of her wife’s head. “I truly just never thought about it, even when I noticed you had an easier time controlling my strength than I did. I’ve… honestly never even had the egg give me a general checkup before,” she admits, wincing. “It’s kinda… small, but once everyone else has had their turn in it,” Kara sends a significant glance to Astra, who rolls her eyes but nods, “I’ll have it run all relevant tests for a Kryptonian, and if there’s anything else you want— other tests, blood samples, whatever— we’ll do that too, okay?” The pain in her mind finally vanishes in the wake of her wife’s relief, which washes away even her own trepidation at entering such a small space.

Lena manages a tiny nod, and Kara feels her wife’s fear ebb, though the guilt remains. She presses another kiss to her wife’s hair.

“Whatever is happening,” Kara continues softly, “however it happened,” she barely manages to keep them all from feeling the bolt of pain at that, “whatever the longterm effects are, I will forever be grateful that it’s letting me heal you, and that I was able to use my energy to keep you alive.” Her wife looks up at that and Kara can feel her annoyance, and anger. “Nope, we agreed— we protect each other, el mayarah, baby girl. We’re both going to do dumb shit to keep the other alive, and I don’t see how this is any different, especially given that it’s already been happening. I love you, and I love Ruby and Sam and they love you, and that makes whatever comes worth it.”

Lena’s annoyance at this thrums through them all, and her fingers start tapping on Kara’s side, and when she realizes her wife is trying to think up a counterargument she nearly laughs, which earns her a light pinch. And I love you, and I love Ruby and Sam and they love you, so if whatever is happening is dangerous I will put a stop to it, Lena finally says, pulling away enough to look at Kara, her face set with determination.

Kara, of course, finds this quite adorable, so leans forward and kisses her wife as chastely as she is able, Lena isolating their connection from the others, and when she feels the last of her precious :zhao’s guilt fade she finally pulls away… and then kisses her one more time just because.

Astra, by now, has had enough, Kara can tell, but Jade is the one to finally break them up, and she doesn’t even need to throw a pillow at them. “If you leave Enna alone in the kitchen any longer our dinner is going to burn,” she says helpfully.

In hindsight, taking a break in the middle of cooking dinner while cheating with super speed, while your helper does not have super speed, is maybe not the most polite thing to do. Kara finally stops kissing her brilliant, beautiful wife and reluctantly sets her back on the couch, needing both hands to cook a dinner this large. She presses one last, quick kiss to her forehead before zooming into the kitchen, relieving a somewhat frantic fourteen-year-old of head chef duty. She idly notes, then, that she hadn’t even tied her hair back yet, and while she does put it up in a quick ponytail it’s more for the sake of cooking than to get the yellow strands out of her line of sight.

Chapter Text

Enna did well keeping all of the food they were making going, but Kara was really and truly relying on her super speed to make a meal this large, and while the child’s physical capabilities far surpass a human’s, they’re nowhere near a Kryptonian’s.

“I tried to keep up,” Enna says sadly. “There’s just so much.”

“No worries, kir chahv,” Kara says absently, one hand removing a pan from a burner and another chopping a vegetable at super speed. “You’re faster than a human but I am super cheating to get this all cooked at once. This kitchen could barely handle food for one of me, much less, hm, four and half of me? I dunno how much Aunt Astra eats yet.”

“I thought I was kir chahv!” Allo hollers, indignant. “Oh and Super Kara is Auntie Astra’s kir chahv, but still!”

Astra bites back a laugh but Kara feels her aunt’s surprise and happiness at being called ‘Auntie Astra’ by Allo.

“It means ‘little one’,” Kara says. “I can use different phrases for each of you if you want, I mean I’m mostly gonna use your names, promise, but I’ll probably call Meri that too at some point even though she definitely isn’t going to like it.”

Surprising them all, Jade sits up in bed, facing Kara and radiating annoyance. “What about me?”

Kara actually stops everything she’s doing and looks at the grumpy teenager, confused. “What do you mean?”

Jade’s annoyance grows. “I get why Allo and Enna are kir chahv or whatever but if Meri’s gonna be too then what about me?”

“Uh, well, you just remind me of my big sister… so much,” Kara winces, then lights up even as Jade raises her hands in surrender. “Eliza called her ‘sweetheart’ all the time—“

“NO, ugh, stupid Super kidnapper,” Jade grumbles, laying back down. She does well at projecting her annoyance, but Kara can feel the hurt underneath, so she zooms over to stand by the bed, staring down at the girl. “What do you want now?”

She reaches down and runs her hand gently over Jade’s feather-hair, surprised to find it both longer and softer than Allo’s. “I was only teasing, kir chahv,” Kara says, hoping the girl can feel her earnestness. “I… didn’t see all of Allo’s memories like my wife did, but she showed me the one of Allo being sent to the DEO, and… I really am going to try to use your names most of the time. Uh, or all of the time if you want…” She has to push away her anger at Edge calling the children by numbers, remembering Allo’s fear that she was forgetting her sisters’ names.

Jade sighs and Kara feels her hurt vanish, a sort of melancholy in its place. “Nicknames and stuff are fine,” the girl says, voice gruff. “If… if it comes from a good place and elicits good feelings, then it doesn’t matter what you’re called. That’s what our parents said when they sent us here, anyway.”

“It’s why she doesn’t tease you for calling your wife ‘pet names’,” Allo stage whispers. “Even though she knows it would fit her tough image.”

“It’s not an image,” Jade snaps. She turns her face into the pillow and doesn’t comment on the fact that Kara is still stroking her feather-hair. “I’m tough.”

“The toughest,” Enna agrees, and Kara can tell she genuinely means it, despite what she says next. “Now give Kara back before dinner is ruined.”

“Oops,” Kara pets Jade’s feather-hair one last time before zooming back into the kitchen, even her precious :zhao laughing at her for leaving yet again.

Kara, of course, is distracted by her precious, beautiful :zhao laughing and happy, and once again wants to kiss her, which she should probably hold back on doing since their apartment is very full and she isn’t planning on making it larger until it’s time to eat. Then, she can’t help but think that she and her wife really are going to need a way to block everyone else out every once in a while, and as usual when presented with an interesting problem Kara pauses, her body hovering and touching nothing so she doesn’t have to think about her strength at all, and her brain flies ahead, running through ideas and potential designs and within a few seconds she has a few that may work, and within another second she’s pulled up her mental inventory of what's in the Fortress and is disappointed to find she’s missing some key parts.

Astra, Allo, and Jade all yelling different Kryptonian curses pulls her out of her musings, and Kara turns to see them all clutching their heads. She frowns. “Delayed brain freeze? Wait, no, that’s a human thing, uh… are we… under attack or something?”

My love, Lena says, voice gentle even as Kara feels her mix of amusement and concern, do you remember when you warned me your ‘super thinking’ may give me a headache?

Kara’s eyes widen. “Shit, sorry, I didn’t even mean to, it’s instinct at this point.” She turns to see Enna… mostly fine, though she’s facing Kara and she can feel the girl’s… jealousy?

“I’m not sure if I’m more annoyed that you can think that fast or that you have access to so many pieces of technology from different planets,” Enna grumbles before stiffening, and Kara feels the girl’s shame and… fear. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that, I—“

But even though Kara knows she should probably address those emotions she is far too excited, placing both of her hands on Enna’s shoulders and bouncing up and down. “You think like my :zhao,” Kara says, her excitement so strong it washes away Enna’s negativity and replaces it with shock. “She’s definitely still the queen of the nerds but you could one day challenge her for the crown. And the fact that you were not only able to make out what I was thinking but recognize it even… ohhh the things I could teach you—”

Her wife decides an in-person pinch is warranted, and Kara immediately releases her hold on the still-shocked Enna and scoops a mildly annoyed Lena into her arms. I just took care of the others’ headaches and now you’re bullying the only survivor? Her :zhao asks, grumpy, and Kara blushes and increases the amount of energy she’s sending her as she carries her back to the couch, where Allo is still rubbing her head and Astra gives her a half-hearted glare. Once Lena is settled and Kara is on her way to the kitchen she casually reaches up and catches the pillow Jade lobs at her head.

“Asshole,” Jade says. “And why the fuck was the other Kryptonian also in pain?”

“Language,” Astra replies mildly. “And while I too gained ‘super thinking’ as Kara has dubbed it, Earth’s yellow sun does not grant us powers but rather, hm, enhances them. Things such as flight, heat vision, and x-ray vision are latent under a red sun, but Kara was naturally able to think incredibly quickly even as a child on Krypton. That ability only grew, so it is more akin to ‘super super thinking’, really.”

Kara blinks at her aunt. “That would explain why the one time I tried talking to Clark as quickly as possible he didn’t understand a word of it. His ears could keep up but his brain couldn’t. Interesting.” She frowns. “I probably should have figured that out but he was so annoyed I decided to drop it.” She accidentally remembers just how annoyed he was then, glaring at her so intensely his heat vision activated and she had to sidestep it to keep her clothes from being burnt, and she’s surprised by the anger her wife and aunt feel. “What? I think he actually thought I was teasing him or something, and it’s not like it would have hurt me.” Kara shrugs and goes back to cooking after tossing the pillow in her hand back to the bed. “Also, Enna, my offer to teach you what I know still stands, though it should probably wait til my wife has a lab up and running. I don’t particularly want to run into Clark at the Fortress and Alex stole my tech lab last year and refuses to give it back.”

“Your cousin’s a bully,” Allo declares. “I don’t like him.”

“A wise child,” Astra says, reaching over and plopping the girl onto her lap. “If you ever run into him and he bullies you, just call for me and I shall bully him right back.”

Allo is very pleased by this promise of violence, and all Kara can do is worry about what Ruby will scheme if Astra offers her a free Super mercenary pass as well.

She’d probably get Superman to bully her so she could call it in, Lena thinks, smirking, and Kara senses when Astra decides to give Ruby the same offer once they’re introduced.

“Again,” Jade says, “very glad we did not kill that kid. Kudos to us.”

Enna has not moved since Kara had grabbed her shoulders, and now Kara turns to her, frowning. “Are you… alright? I can tell you’re still feeling shocked but I dunno why?”

The girl finally moves, her hands clutching the wooden utensil she’s holding so tightly it creaks in protest. “Would you really… teach me what you know?”

“Yeah?” Kara says, voice ticking up at the end. “I’m already teaching my wife, though… the Kryptonian science I know is as recent as it gets, since the planet blew up and all, but the science I know from other planets is, uh, a little outdated.” She shrugs and starts getting out the pancake ingredients, and Allo hops off of Astra’s lap and runs over when Kara sends her a quick mental how-to on pancake making (normal, non-murdery pancakes of course).

Enna takes a long moment to move beside her sister, and once she’s sure Allo is capable of cracking the eggs gently enough to not repaint the kitchen with them she turns to Kara, her nerves palpable. “I would greatly appreciate learning from you,” Enna says softly, and when they all feel Kara’s wife’s spike of annoyance Enna turns to her, “and you as well, Lena, um, if you’d be so kind.”

Lena flushes almost as red as the cape she still has wrapped around her shoulders. Sorry, I shouldn’t have felt annoyed at that, I’m… all of my old memories are very fresh right now and I am not used to… not being the smartest person in the room… and yes, Enna, I would love to teach you whatever I’m able.

Enna’s surprise and happiness is so strong its warmth fills them all, and when she goes back to assisting Kara with cooking she’s humming softly to herself. Kara, meanwhile, shoots her wife an incredulous look.

“Baby girl, by the time your lab is open you’ll be caught up with my Kryptonian education, and while I know we’ll both be doing things there it is still very much your lab,” Kara says, pausing only to carefully wipe entirely too much flour off of Allo’s face, the white powder seemingly floating in the air as Kara is now sensing the children with her mind rather than using her x-ray vision. “I’ll teach Enna all I can but you’ll probably be the one with her the most considering I already have two jobs. Neither of which I am dropping,” Kara says, quirking a brow at her aunt when Astra’s thought pops into her head. “I became a reporter because of you, y’know.”

Literally everyone is surprised by that, which Kara finds odd considering three of them met her today. “It’s just, well,” Enna says, and Kara can tell she’s trying her best to be delicate before Jade blurts it out. “I mean, isn’t…?”

“What she’s trying to say,” Jade drawls, “is that even though your cousin is a dick, we assumed you did the whole reporter gig cuz of him. Same with the Super gig.”

Kara puts her hand on the counter and it cracks. Her annoyance fades into confusion, and she frowns down at it. “Already? It usually takes… oh, right, it’s apparently caused by sunlight, I’ve been in the sun bed a lot, fine.” With a sigh, Kara floats up to her smoke detector and presses her fingertips to it. “Reset counter top and increase apartment shield by… mm, 15%.” The smoke detector beeps once and a red light pulses out from it for a solid two minutes. When Kara floats back to the kitchen, the counter is no longer cracked. She taps it and it stays in one piece. “Cool, now… oh.”

Lena is staring daggers at her and Kara suddenly hopes her wife doesn’t somehow develop heat vision. Rude, Lena thinks, and you will be explaining all of that later. As well as anything else you have hidden around here.

Kara squeaks when Enna echoes the sentiment. She has two nerds to appease now, and while the thought excites her, well… she has… a lot, like, a lot a lot, packed into this whole building. It’s going to take awhile to showcase it all.

“Yes, my niece is a super genius, she will show you everything later,” Astra says, waving her hand, and they can all feel that even now she is far, far past being surprised at the random overpowered gizmos Kara creates. “Why in Rao’s name would you become a reporter because of me?” Astra says ‘reporter’ the same way Kara says ‘kale’.

Kara raises both eyebrows at her aunt before using a burst of super speed to grab the spatula from Allo’s hand and using it to catch the three pancakes about to meet the ceiling, setting them back in the pan and moving to stand behind the overeager child. She slips the spatula back into the girl’s hand but keeps her own hand around it as well, teaching Allo to flip the pancakes gently and one at a time.

“This is less fun,” Allo grumbles.

“Do you want ceiling in your pancakes? Because I have had that before, and it is not good. Chocolate chips are much better, trust me,” Kara whispers. She turns her head to the side so she can see her aunt again. “And why are you so confused? My ye…” Her brow crinkles and she feels her aunt’s shock for some reason, but Kara shakes her head and it all falls away. “My favorite adult got sent to the worst prison in the galaxy for trying to get the truth to people, of course I became a reporter. It honestly kind of pisses me off anytime someone assumes I did it because of Clark. Though the Super thing is like 40% because he set the precedent.” Kara turns around when she senses Allo getting ready to flip the pancakes pan and all this time. “Kir chahv, I am not going to let you eat pan-and-ceiling pancakes. If you want to try a new kind of ice cream before bed I suggest making them properly.”

Allo gasps quietly. “Bribery… will work on me, yes.”

Kara pats the girl’s feather-hair and moves over to Enna, who has made the mistake of taste-testing the stew. She gives the poor girl some of the leftover chocolate chips, and Enna eats them immediately. “Who is this for?” She asks, and Kara can feel the pity and fear radiating from her.

“Not you, kir chahv,” Kara say, giving her more chocolate chips, and then sending Allo to share the rest with Jade since the pancakes are done. “It’s for people who can’t eat much, so usually my wife suffers through it— and I suffer with you, baby, don’t pinch me— and tonight at least I’ll try to feed some to Meri since her physical injuries should be healed in about half an hour but she probably won’t wake up until after my :zhao has enough energy to heal her as well. And,” Kara turns to her aunt, one eyebrow arched dangerously, “Aunt Astra can suffer with us if she voices the rude thought she just had about Cat.”

Astra turns her head. “She mispronounces your name on purpose and yet still… flirts with you.” She shakes her head. “I do not see why you respect her, little one.”

“I’m pretty sure the name thing is in case she slips up when I’m in the suit,” Kara muses. “That or she just enjoyed watching me break so many things and struggling to repair or hide them that first year, could go either way. And she’s helped me a lot, with work things and personal things and… the other work things.” Kara is still surprised Cat let her choose any entry-level position in the company, and though neither will admit it she overheard Cat defending her to Snapper a lot her first few weeks as a reporter. Plus all the Supergirl fluff articles that humanized her to everyone, and the advice Cat gave her when she first put on the cape about starting small and working her way up (which was helpful despite her having to start by saving Alex’s plane) and even giving her the last week off to be with her wife. “I owe her a lot,” Kara says softly. She looks at her aunt then, frowning. “She kinda reminds me of you. Minus the flirting, obviously, though she honestly stopped that after the first couple years. She did a lot of overseas reporting in war zones when she was younger, doing her best to get the truth out to try to save lives.”

Astra, of course, chooses to focus on only one part of that: “Exactly, ‘when she was younger’. She is too old for you.”

Enna shakes her head. “Auntie Astra, I cannot believe you willingly chose to have to eat that stew.” Jade and Allo, who had also gotten a muted taste of the stew through their bond with their sister, snicker.

“Technically, we’re around the same age,” Kara says, grabbing another bowl to put stew in. “Phantom Zone time and all.”

Not that any of that matters because you are mine, Lena growls, and Kara can feel her wife remembering Cat’s promise to flirt with Kara again after her Earth wedding.

Kara zooms over to her wife and scoops her into her arms, kissing her cheeks, her forehead, the tip of her nose. “Forever and always, baby girl.” Then she smirks at her aunt. “Don’t worry, Aunt Astra,” Kara says, “my wife…” She pauses, Lena mumbling the age she now knows she is. “Is only thirty-one, I am most definitely a cradle robber.”

“As your sister-in-law said,” Astra says, crossing her arms, “Phantom Zone time does not count.”

“But it counts for being older than me?” Jade demands. When Astra, Kara, and Lena all say yes, Jade tries and fails to toss the empty chocolate chip bag at them, and Lena uses her powers to catch it as it flutters to the floor, shaking it at the teen in admonishment before floating it to the trash.

I’m only cleaning up after you until you’ve had your egg visit, by the way, Lena drawls, raising an eyebrow at the girl. Just because your kidnappers have super speed and telekinesis does not mean you do not have to at least clean up your own messes.

“Understood,” Jade mumbles, and when Kara feels her shame she comes very, very close to pouting at her wife. “She’s right, it’s fine,” Jade mutters, sensing Kara’s worry.

Relax, my love, I’m not about to withhold dessert from someone who’s only had it once so far, Lena thinks, reaching up and scratching lightly at Kara’s scalp. But please keep in mind that you’ve been being blackmailed by Ruby since she was ten, and I’m not about to let that happen with our children as well. When they feel Jade’s determination to learn Ruby’s ways, Lena smirks at her. Jade, a stóirín, who do you think taught her?

Jade mutters one of the lighter Kryptonian curses, now determined to learn Lena’s ways as well, and Enna… has been in their heads long enough now that she wants to roll her eyes despite not having any, which makes Allo laugh.

“Kir chahv,” Astra says, “are we all going to be eating in the living room, or…?”

“Huh? No, just… how many rooms do we need, do you think?” Kara asks, frowning. “Like I can add a dining room, obviously, but bedroom-wise…?”

“I will not be sleeping so I do not need one,” Astra says, crossing her arms and glaring right back when Kara narrows her eyes at her. Kara sighs and turns to the sisters.

“We all shared a room before!” Allo yells. “First cuz the ship was tiiiiiiiny and then cuz the human was mean!”

“I’m staying with the egg,” Jade says, ruffling Allo’s feather-hair with one hand. “Though if Meri’s treatment is done soon I guess I should say I wanna stay near her. She needs at least one of us nearby when she wakes up or she’s gonna freak out.” Jade turns to Enna.

“I… don’t know that I want my own room at the moment,” Enna whispers, and Kara can tell she’s wrapping her arms around herself. “Today did not start off well, Meri isn’t really here…”

Kara can hear Enna’s thoughts, stronger than usual, the girl terrified of what nightmares she’ll have tonight, without Meri around to help calm her, and when she’s done speaking Allo and Jade aren’t much better off. Kara hears her aunt’s heartbeat increase, just the slightest bit, Astra also in on the mental loop by now, and…

“Aunt Astra how long has it been since you slept?” Kara blurts the question before she can continue her previous thought, and her aunt is surprised enough that she thinks of the actual answer. “Six months?” Kara hisses, and her wife’s shock echoes her own. “You’re avoiding having nightmares from the Phantom Zone, aren’t you?”

Astra stiffens and forces her mind to go blank, but when all three children start feeling panicked— something about Astra vanishing since they see with their minds, from what Kara can tell— she stops. “Yes,” she says, voice clipped. “And I certainly will not be sleeping when I am surrounded by psychic children, and that includes the two of you.” The hands gripping her biceps tighten enough that Kara briefly wonders if she’ll manage to tear her battle suit.

Kara and Lena have a brief, private conversation then, where her wife assures her, yes, she is up for playing dream police for everyone, and no, they cannot be that far from her, and Kara tosses a few apartment designs her way before they settle on one. Her wife still cradled in her arms, Kara walks over to her bookcase and stares at a small, metallic cube, giving it a brief command in Kryptonian to awaken.

Red lines appear in the cube and pulse a few times before it unfurls into a very tiny, very round humanoid robot. “How may I assist you?” The robot asks, voice smooth and androgynous. Kara rattles off what she wants at a speed her sister not-so-fondly calls ‘super babble’ and that she’s pretty sure even Astra can’t make sense of. The robot bows at the waist before taking flight, and Kara is very grateful Enna grabs Allo before the girl can try to snatch it out of the air like she immediately wants to.

As usual Kara mostly pays attention to her wife, long used to how her creations work but delighting every time in seeing Lena’s reactions, eyes wide and reflecting the light and her hunger to understand how it works only growing as she watches. This time Kara also tunes in to the others present: Allo practically goes feral when the single bot multiplies into several dozen, Enna is so surprised she almost loses her grip on her little sister when the bots now stationed along the apartment’s perimeter push and the space warps and expands at their whim, Jade is doing her best to remain unimpressed but whispers a very colorful Kryptonian curse when the small bots combine into one enormous bot, and when the enormous bot starts 3D printing nth metal bed frames Astra makes a soft sound of surprise.

It’s all done in a matter of minutes, and the bot shrinks and flies to its position on the shelf, folding back into a cube and going dormant once more. Kara finally pulls her gaze away from her wife’s wide-eyed expression to survey her apartment, which has gone from a small studio to, well, the best shape to describe it Kara can think of is a fidget spinner: a circular space in the center that the front door opens into, and three circular rooms branching off from that, equidistant from one another, two taking up what should be the next door apartments and hallway outside and one extending past where the building should end.

They’re all in the central area now, Kara standing with her wife in her arms, Jade in one of the chairs, and Astra, Enna, and Allo on the couch, which is a few cushions longer than it was before. The coffee table elongated to match, the bookshelf is now curved to fit the wall, and there are a few more plush chairs, backs to the television and facing the couch. The woven rug has also expanded to cover the whole floor under the larger seating area.

The room to the right of the front door is the dining room, a large round table with comfortable chairs in the center and the whole back wall is the kitchen, containing multiple ovens and refrigerators and freezers and two walk-in pantries. The food is already arrayed on the table, in large steaming heaps, empty plates and utensils waiting in front of the chairs.

The room to the left of the door is the bedroom, now with Kara’s usual bed opposite the entryway and six beds arrayed along the round walls, three on each side, all with nth metal frames and thick mattresses, made up with sheets and blankets and pillows that the bot also 3D printed. Each bed sits on a plush rug, has a bedside table and small closet to its left and a door leading to a bathroom to its right. The egg sits in the center of the room, hovering above the old bedroom rug, its occupant still healing inside.

The final room, opposite the front door, is what Kara has dubbed a ‘hobby room’, though currently it consists of a small sitting area to one side, a balcony that Lena insisted she indulge herself with, and a three-foot-tall, oval disc hovering in the center, which Kara’s wife will be fiddling with as soon as possible, because it’s the tech the bot used to 3D print everything.

“Kara,” Enna says, and she can feel the girl’s… curiosity and annoyance? “Why have you been living in your normal apartment this whole time when you could apparently turn it into anything you wanted?”

Kara leads the way to the dining room, her wife still in her arms and echoing Enna’s curiosity. “I just… like my apartment?” Kara’s voice ticks up at the end, her brow crinkled. “And my y… aunt taught me it’s good to appreciate other cultures, especially when in their spaces, so since I’m on Earth, I… try to live appropriately, I guess. For the most part.” She shrugs, and notices Astra watching her intently. “I do cheat when I have to, but I picked an apartment with good sunlight, and I filled it with the best Earth things I could find. This is…” Her nose scrunches up even as she deposits her wife on one of the chairs. “It is nicer, I guess, but… it lacks the charm my actual apartment has, you know?”

“Nope,” Jade says, plopping down across from Lena. “This place is way cooler, you’re just weird. I think the humans have brainwashed you.” There’s no bite to her words, so Kara just sticks her tongue out at her, which gets her a physical pinch from her wife.

“Kir chahv,” Astra says, still watching her with a look Kara can’t read even with their being in a hive mind. “What do you think of this planet, truly?”

Kara blinks and has a sense of déja vu, and she remembers Astra asking her this question many times, on many planets, and… her answer always made her y… aunt… sad for reasons she never understood, first because she somehow said the wrong things and later because even though she was saying the right things her saying them because that’s what she’d been taught to say was somehow wrong.

“I like it,” Kara says, squinting at her and rubbing her forehead absently even as she sits in the chair beside Lena’s. “The tech is sad, and a lot of humans are exceptionally dumb, but there’s a lot of good stuff too, including some of the dumb people, and the food,” Kara sighs happily, thinking now of all her favorite foods and feeling both sad and amused when Enna actually takes mental notes to try them all later.

Astra hums quietly before reaching out and slipping the tie from Kara’s hair, idly carding her hand through the golden curls. She looks between Kara and her wife a few times, and holds up some of the yellow strands, eyes narrowing when Kara doesn’t even flinch, and now Lena… is having a silent conversation with Astra, which Kara elects to ignore.

Allo takes off running and laps the whole apartment six times before collapsing into the chair beside Lena. “I really like this place!” Her shout is much quieter than usual thanks to her still being a bit out of breath, having run at a speed far surpassing a human’s.

Enna sits beside Jade and scrutinizes Kara before nodding to herself. “You appreciate Earth’s culture and the place you’ve made for yourself here, I… kind of get it, I guess. This place is a lot cooler though.”

Astra hums again and tilts Kara’s head up slightly so that she’s meeting her eyes, which now look wary. “Why are there seven beds, kir chahv?”

With Lena’s help, Kara’s mind stays innocently empty of the plan they’ll enact at bedtime, already knowing Astra won’t risk falling asleep despite Lena’s abilities. “Even if you aren’t going to sleep, you may as well have a place to rest if you want, and Ruby at least is going to want to sleep over at some point.”

Kara can tell Astra doesn’t believe her for a second, but her aunt sits down beside her, her hunger and desire to stay with them outweighing her suspicion. That and Kara is pretty sure she wants to… observe her up close some more, which Kara is both fine with and very confused by. They all start eating, then, and Kara thoroughly enjoys getting to relive her first tastes of some of her favorite Earth foods threefold, Allo yelling with delight when something is good enough while Enna hums happily and Jade gleefully rattles off every Kryptonian curse she’s learned thus far.

The girls watch with mild horror as Lena easily eats her portion of stew, Kara blasting what’s left with her heat vision before guzzling it, and then they all turn to Astra, who looks from Kara, to her bowl of stew, to Lena, before setting her spoon down and picking up the bowl, copying Kara’s method and blasting it before chugging it. When she’s done she sets the bowl down and looks at her niece. “I do not know how you have been eating that for so long, nor why you felt the need to force me to, kir chahv.”

“I consider Cat to be both a mentor and a friend,” Kara says, narrowing her eyes at her aunt. “I understand that you may not ever like her, but she is definitely going to hit on you at our Earth wedding so you need to at least be civil.”

Astra flushes and her mouth falls open. “Why in Rao’s name do you think she would… do such a thing?”

She likes strong people, Lena says, grinning. Specifically ones with Kara’s genes, from what we can tell. Though I do need her to flirt with my wife at least once so I can uphold my vow of revenge, as I am greatly looking forward to it. Lena’s smirk is absolutely evil and thankfully she already knows what that does to Kara and shields her mind so the others don’t realize. If you want to get to know her better after that, be my guest.

Astra doesn’t reply, and Kara isn’t sure if she should be grateful for that or worried.

Once all the food is gone, Allo especially enjoying the chocolate chip pancakes she’d made, Kara uses a burst of speed to bring out six bowls of ice cream, this time her wife’s favorite flavor, mint chocolate chip. When dessert is over, Jade leans back in her chair, both hands on her stomach.

“Okay, I’ll admit it, you’re both good kidnappers,” Jade says, lazily dodging Enna when she tries to flick her. “It’s a compliment!”

“You’re being ridiculous,” Enna says. “They saved us, fed us, are healing Meri, and will be healing you shortly. You should behave better.”

Kara tilts her head, feeling the fear behind Enna’s words, and when she looks to her wife, Lena’s brow is crinkled.

Enna, Lena says, we aren’t going to… change our minds, or anything. Her wife bites her lip, fingers tapping the table. I know it’s kind of sudden, and we still need to talk to Meri, but Kara and I truly do want to keep all of you with us.

“Only because you feel guilty,” Enna says quietly, and then slaps her hand over her mouth, but they hear what she thinks next: that that guilt will run out, and when it does, there will be no reason for them to let the sisters stay, especially if they don’t make themselves useful while they have the chance.

Kara’s wife grabs her hand then, and squeezes as hard as she can. No, Lena says. It is true we both… wish we had helped you sooner, and that did factor into our initial decision, but… Lena looks at Kara again, making sure they both agree, before turning back to look at Enna. We’ve both enjoyed having you all here, even if it has only been for a few hours. Enna, we want to teach you what we know and see what you’ll make with it. Kara feels Enna’s shock, which only increases when Lena projects both of their emotions to the girls as strongly as she can. We want to be there when Allo tries all the foods she wants to, and we want to teach her to cook the ones she likes best. Allo’s happiness at this is tempered only by her new knowledge that cooking takes a gentler touch than she wants to use, which makes them all smile. We want to make sure you’re all safe so Jade has the time to find things she enjoys, and Astra at least is looking forward to teaching her how to use some of the weapons Kara made. Jade’s embarrassment at the first thing causes them both to flush, but her excitement at the second washes it away quickly. We want Meri to be healthy and safe and we want to get to know her and all of you better and help you find things you enjoy on this planet.

“All of that, yes,” Kara agrees, grinning. “And more specifically, I want to see what Enna will blow up and what her first original creation will be with Kryptonian tech, I want to see how long it takes Jade and Alex to go from a battle of wills to making us all suffer for introducing them, I want to take Allo to all of my favorite restaurants and let her have entirely too much junk food, and I want to actually get to meet your eldest sister, cuz from what little I’ve seen she’s a badass who loves you three with all that she is, and I can’t wait to get to know her, even if I get the sense that her stubbornness will rival my :zhao’s.”

Lena doesn’t even pinch her for that last part, though Jade decides to do it on her behalf. Allo is making up a song about ‘whatever potstickers are’, and Enna is… so happy the warmth of it makes even Astra smile.

“Alright,” Enna whispers. She takes a deep breath and Kara feels the girl’s acceptance… and amusement. “Though you are right about Meri. I still don’t understand how you won Jade over already, but Meri is going to insist she doesn’t need any help.”

Kara smirks. “Too bad, she isn’t twenty yet so by Krypton’s standards she’s still a child, and thus we will be keeping her.”

“We are not on Krypton anymore, kir chahv,” Astra murmurs, sounding more amused than anything else. “Why should she have to listen to that?”

“Because I said so,” Kara says simply. At everyone’s disbelief, she smirks. “I am quite possibly the strongest being in the multiverse at this point, so even if I can’t use that strength my god complex is well-founded, and thus what I say goes.”

Darling, Lena thinks, exactly how strong are you right now?

Kara purses her lips and looks away, shielding them all from the dull throbbing in her head now. “I… may have run a simulation once to see what would happen if I punched the Earth at full strength…”

“And?” Jade finally asks.

“It put Krypton’s explosion to shame,” Kara admits, frowning. “And then my body exploding put that to shame.” She shudders and ensures she doesn’t recall that particular memory. “I didn’t know about Red K back then or I would have used gold kryptonite to permanently take my powers away. Luckily I do not have some deep dark desire to destroy the Earth, so there’s that.”

“You were infected with red kryptonite two years ago,” Astra says, and Kara can feel her aunt’s concern. “When exactly did you run this simulation, kir chahv?”

“Um… around ten years ago?” Kara asks, rubbing her forehead absently and flinching when her aunt hones in on the motion. “I elected to not look into it any further after that…”

Lena makes a strangled sound. My love, you are running that simulation again as soon as possible. Her wife starts rubbing her temples, and Kara wonders if she’s given her precious :zhao a headache as well. I need to know what I’m working with, preferably on some kind of numerical scale, especially if, as I suspect, I am going to have to find a way to drain all the excess energy stored within you.

“We should probably work on all that after tomorrow’s meeting,” Kara says, frowning. “And do you want me to go to the Fortress first or go into the egg first? They’ll both take about the same amount of time.”

The Fortress since the girls still need checkups, and darling, exactly how many tests do you have the egg running on me that everyone else only needs it for a few hours at most? Lena arches a single eyebrow. I’m not even sick.

“It’s your own fault for using so many different alien DNA’s,” Kara says, waving her hand. “I don’t know how each one affects you, so the egg is running every single test it has for every species it detects in you.”

And you said Alex was overprotective of her family, Lena drawls.

“Eliza let her borrow the egg as one of her engagement gifts,” Kara says, smiling as she remembers just how annoyed Sam and Ruby were. “She had it run every test possible for humans on Ruby and then on Sam, and because I had to base those on Earth technology they take a lot longer than the others. Anytime Sam is ‘overworking herself to the point of exhaustion’ or Ruby ‘so much as seems a little sick’ Alex tells them she’s going to go get the egg and just like that, they’re suddenly willing to rest until they feel better.” Kara stands and uses a burst of speed to gather the dishes and fill the dishwasher, and once it’s running she comes back in, scooping a highly amused Lena into her arms. “She hasn’t told them yet but she’s planning on giving them a checkup every three years like Eliza does her, so soon we’ll be hearing them complain again.”

Kara floats toward the bedroom, her aunt and children following her, and sets her wife on their bed. “Now, everyone pick a bed that is not ours and then get ready to sleep, the bathrooms are stocked with everything you should need.” She watches Allo run and jump onto one of the beds nearest theirs, Enna taking the one beside it.

Jade frowns and turns to Kara. “When are Meri and I swapping?”

After checking with the egg, Kara turns back to Jade. “It will be done healing her in a few minutes, so while you all get ready for bed I’m going to feed her some stew, and when you’re ready either my wife or I can put you in the egg, we both have access.”

Jade points to the bed by Enna’s. “Okay then that’s Meri’s bed for now, and I’ll take one of the empty ones later.”

Actually, Lena says, and Kara feels her wife’s hesitance. Once we’re both in bed Kara can give me a lot more of her energy, so I was planning on starting to heal Meri tonight. She looks over when Kara narrows her eyes at her. I’ll work slowly, my love, I may not have done anything like this before but I am far more aware of how much of my power I can use now. Though… you may need to make a few trips to the sun bed tonight, if you’re willing…

Kara sighs but then grins. “Alright, :zhao, I shall make the arduous journey so that you may heal our child faster,” she drawls, darting over to kiss her wife on the cheek.

“Meri hasn’t agreed to be your child yet,” Enna says, and Kara can feel the girl’s amusement, and underlying worry.

Allo also picks up on it, of course, and turns to Kara, now radiating worry. “You can’t win her over with ice cream or curse words or technology,” the girl says somberly. “I don’t… know that Meri actually likes anything?”

Jade grunts as she sits on the bed across from Allo’s. “Meri was always busy taking care of us, even on our way to this planet.”

“In that case,” Astra says, smiling at Allo, “I believe my niece and her wife may have already won her over whether she knows it or not.” At the girls’ collective confusion, Astra gestures to them. “Meri loves all of you, so if she sees that you want to stay here and that Kara and Lena will be good for you, she will want to stay as well.”

“That… may actually work,” Enna says, surprised. “Though we’ll have to prove all of those things to her, ideally before she takes us all and runs away.”

“I’ve already memorized all four of your heartbeats, so good luck with that,” Kara says happily, once more at the egg. She places her hand on it and it opens, and she has to activate her x-ray vision to make out Meri, the girl’s mind still silent. Kara reaches into the egg and pulls her out, cradling her in her arms, and then turns back around. “Now, everyone please get ready for bed, even you Aunt Astra— I can tell you’ve been living in the woods for far too long— and I am going to go and torture, uh, feed your sister.”

“I don’t think she’s aware enough to taste anything right now,” Enna says, thoughtful. “Which also means we won’t have to taste it through her.” Allo and Jade sigh in relief, and the sisters all head into their personal bathrooms.

Astra gives Kara a half-hearted glare but follows suit, slipping into the bathroom next to the bed nearest the window, and Lena confirms she’s already got her escape planned if need be.

Kara walks over to her wife, Meri still cradled in her arms, and Lena presses her fingertips to the child’s head, face pinched in concentration. After a long moment, she pulls her hand away. I can definitely heal her, though… I have no clue how they managed to inflict psychic damage. My lovely brother, I assume, her wife says, grimacing. It will take a few days for her to… fully wake up, though her consciousness may be able to join your ‘hive mind’ sometime tomorrow.

“I’m sure that will make the meeting go smoothly,” Kara says, pressing her lips together to keep from laughing when she remembers Allo’s entrance. “Now, I’m gonna go heat up some stew and get her to eat as much as she can, and you can get ready for bed.” She leans down and presses a kiss to her wife’s forehead. “I know we had to skip the physical therapy today but that’s probably for the best considering how much you used your powers, and I doubt we’ll do it tomorrow either, but once everyone’s asleep our bathroom should be close enough that I can give you a quick bath before you get started on healing Meri? It’ll be a good way to give you more of my energy first as well.”

Lena nods and stifles a yawn. So long as you’re fine with me being physically asleep the whole time, my love. My body is exhausted and ‘playing dream police’ will be easier if I am also asleep.

“Works for me, baby girl,” Kara says, heading for the dining room. When she reaches the entrance to the bedroom she turns and winks at her wife. “And I took some liberties with our bathroom, just so you know.”

Her wife’s brow crinkles and as Kara ladles some cold stew into a bowl she feels Lena’s surprise hit her. I’m starting to wonder which of us is the sugar baby, her wife says, projecting her view of the bathroom: a wide counter with two sinks and a salon chair, a tall mirror spanning it all, a toilet that she already wants to know the inner workings of because it definitely isn’t from Earth, a wide shower with sliding glass doors in one corner and a large circular bath in the other that can more than accommodate two people.

“I didn’t want you to think I married you for the money,” Kara says easily, zapping the bowl of stew with her heat vision and heading for the living room.

As she settles on the couch, her back against an armrest and Meri in her lap, head resting on Kara’s shoulder, she feels the other girls’ annoyance.

How come our bathrooms aren’t like that? Allo yells. I want a swimming pool tub too!

Jade is in agreement. I’m gonna steal your bath tub sometimes. Then her disgust hits Kara and she almost drops a spoonful of stew on Meri. Until a month passes at least, ugh.

Please make a psychic inhibitor before then, Enna agrees.

What are you two talking about? Allo sounds very suspicious, and Kara carefully does not fill in the blanks, devoting even more of her focus to feeding Meri, who she’s half surprised doesn’t manage to wake up just to smack the spoon away given how her sisters reacted to Enna tasting the stew.

I’m sure if she was capable of tasting it right now she would, Lena muses. You’re lucky I knew my limits, darling, or you would have had a much more difficult time getting me to eat that. And now somehow I’m used to it… She shudders but Kara can tell she’s actually glad since her body has decided it wants stew after all her meals now.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN A MONTH? Allo yells.

Nothing you need to know about, kir chahv, Astra thinks calmly, and Kara can’t help but feel a bit jealous at her aunt using her nickname for someone else, which only makes Astra amused.

Hypocrite, Allo thinks, and Kara can tell she’s smirking. Wait, does this mean everyone but Auntie Astra and Lena are kir chahvs?

Lena is so indignant Kara is pretty sure they all get a flash of her scowling into the mirror around her toothbrush. It translates to ‘little one’, and I am not little.

Mm, yes, your ‘height inferiority complex’, I believe my niece has dubbed it, Astra thinks, and her amusement is so great they all know what’s coming next. I will keep that in mind, kir chahv.

Kara hears her wife hiss aloud and it takes everything she has not to laugh and jostle Meri, the bowl of stew almost gone at this point.

Before Lena can decide how to retaliate, Jade chimes in. Just accept it, the girl drawls, Super auntie is as stubborn as you, and I can already tell you have a soft spot for her so she’s gonna win.

Her wife huffs and as Kara feeds Meri the last of the stew she watches Lena come up with about a dozen plans and then discard them, because she does indeed already like Astra too much to enact anything too mean. Then she lands on one that makes Kara wince, though luckily she’s already rinsed the bowl and is heading back to the bedroom.

Since you were so fond of the stew, Lena decides, your palate is likely as… refined, as Kara’s. And since I will be helping with tomorrow night’s dinner, I will ensure there are plenty of vegetables, kale included, so that our children grow up healthy, of course.

“Why am I being punished?” Kara grumbles, though she’s already accepted her fate and they all know it.

You’re the one who insisted your stalker move in with us, darling, Lena drawls, though Kara can tell her wife is actually happy about that. And you already made her eat the stew so I had to come up with something else.

“And now we all get to suffer,” Jade says, strolling out of the bathroom and shaking her head, water droplets flying from her feather-hair and becoming visible as they do so.

Kara lays Meri on their bed and grimaces at Jade. “She’s been making me eat vegetables for awhile now, actually. Even though I told her I can and have survived on nothing but pizza for months.”

Astra walks in then, of course, and frowns at her niece. “I know we need the calories, kir chahv, but you should at least eat some… less processed foods. This planet having so many fruits and vegetables is a blessing.” She thinks of Krypton then, of barren lands and crops that could only grow because of how far removed they were from the natural vegetation that had died off generations before.

Enna joins them, plopping down on her chosen bed and facing Astra. “People probably should have realized the planet was dying around then.”

Kara sits beside Meri, absently rubbing the girl’s back. “They did, they just didn’t do anything about it.” Her aunt looks at her sharply and she feels everyone’s surprise at that, even Allo’s. “I looked into it after I landed here,” she explains, gaze falling to her hand as she continues to lightly rub Meri’s back. “The phantoms, uh, had me half-convinced it was me who blew up the planet, and I wanted to make sure I hadn’t actually…” She gulps. “Well, anyway,” Kara takes a deep breath, “My father’s brother, Jor-El,” Kara stifles the surge of negative emotions she feels just saying his name, “was the one to bring it to the last council, and he compiled what he’d found and sent the information here, though it was buried deep in the archive.”

Astra can’t hide her surprise or pain at hearing what her niece’s nightmares had been, and she has to take several calming breaths before she speaks. “What did you learn, little one?”

Lena and Allo come in then, Lena sitting on the bed beside Kara and Allo flopping down on the bed’s other side, her head now resting on Meri’s legs. It’s only when her wife leans against her that Kara is able to speak again.

“The council learned our planet was dying a few thousand years ago,” Kara says quietly, devoting nearly all of her focus to regulating her strength now so that she has no room left to feel anything. “Krypton was already the most scientifically advanced planet in the universe, and the same was true of most of its other iterations throughout the multiverse. The first council to learn the planet was dying ignored the information, citing its confidence that either a solution would be found or that the planet could be vacated when the time came.”

Enna hears what Kara only implied. “Did they really think a solution would just… pop up when they didn’t appoint someone to solve the problem?”

“They didn’t even tell anyone,” Kara whispers. “They destroyed the evidence that had been found and everyone who knew erased their own memories of it— it’s something most Kryptonians can do but it’s… very taboo.” For some reason Astra makes a face at this, but Kara doesn’t have the mental capacity to worry about that right now. “The scientist who discovered it only pretended to erase her memory, which is how that information survived for me to find, though… it does make me wonder if similar events happened even earlier than that.”

And the next time it was discovered? Lena asks, her hand squeezing Kara’s knee.

“Three generations later,” Kara says, “though that’s because the one who discovered it before headed a small group within the Science Guild to work on a solution, and they knew what may be asked of them if they revealed their knowledge. They finally told the council when they had a plan they knew would work, and while no one erased their memories this time, it was not made public knowledge and the group was officially ordered to disband. It was a pattern, after that. People would find out, find some new solution, and the council would put a stop to it.”

“Why?” Astra whispers, and they can all feel her fury and heartbreak. “Why would every council do its utmost to let our planet die? To let our people die?”

“That wasn’t in the archive,” Kara says. “None of the sources he sent here understood why.”

Her wife, of course, can tell there’s more. But you do.

Kara continues to rub Meri’s back and leans against her wife, the majority of her focus still on controlling her strength, a dull sort of throbbing in her head already that she does her best to shield everyone from.

“Kir chahv,” Astra’s voice is pleading, her grief all-encompassing.

“They had no choice,” Kara finally says, because it’s her ye— aunt asking, and she can feel her devastation, and she deserves the truth even if it’s taking a lot for Kara to keep her headache from spreading to the others now. “When I was younger I… was more focused on biology than tech and weaponry,” her brow crinkles and she briefly wonders what changed but easily dismisses the thought. “I made several things I probably shouldn’t have, and didn’t even tell ukr about most of them, but Jor-El was as interested in my biology work back then as Aunt Astra was in my weaponry work later. One thing I made… scanned every person in Argo City and noted their DNA. I was mostly focused on the DNA… for some reason,” Kara squints, rubbing her forehead, and Astra narrows her eyes, “but there was a species I didn’t recognize, and Jor-El told me about them.”

She can’t help her own flash of memory, a terrifying creature she had seen when helping Barry Allen awhile back, and… again when saving Alex, or… had she…? It’s too tall and too thin, sharp yet somehow wispy, a bone-white form with black eyes and pointed teeth. She feels everyone in the room flinch even as the creature in her memory hunches over and backs away from her before vanishing.

“What was that?” Allo whispers, her fear rising.

“A time wraith,” Kara says. “They exist to… maintain order, keep time flowing as it should, and will destroy that which threatens it, no matter what it is. And Argo City had dozens of them, all swarming the council building. It didn’t mean anything to me back then, but…” A dull pain is pulsing at the base of Kara’s skull now, but she ignores it because… this much is okay to tell, a thought that falls away even as she continues. “Aunt Astra, do you remember ‘the blood of Rao’?”

Her aunt’s eyes narrow even as she nods. “It was said to be the DNA of the first true Kryptonian, drops of our god Rao’s blood that seeded the planet.” Astra crosses her arms. “It was also highly guarded and even the upper echelon of the Science Guild was forbidden from doing anything with it… punishable by death, kir chahv.”

Kara hums and feels her aunt’s ire rise.

“Ooh so you are a criminal,” Jade says, far too happy with this knowledge. “What did you do?”

“I may… have taken a drop— it wasn’t that hard, Aunt Astra, no one guards anything seriously from a five-year-old— and run some tests on it.” Kara blushes and does not look at anyone, able to feel her aunt’s anger and fear and everyone else’s shock that she was a small child at the time. “Anyway, I showed it to Jor-El,” her brow crinkles, and she has the vague thought that that was her goal all along before again, it falls away, “and he got very excited and ordered me not to tell anyone what I’d done, and leave it to him.”

Kara is silent for a long while, and it’s her wife who finally calls her out on it. My love, even I am not connecting the dots here. What exactly are you saying? Lena taps her knee in question and Kara leans against her a bit more heavily.

“Too many things didn’t make sense— councils forcing our planet to die, time wraiths present in Argo City, Jor-El recognizing the first Kryptonian’s DNA… and other things— Clark being born without the Codex despite Jor-El’s focus on biological perfection, the pieces of technology Jor-El had me bring him a few years before Krypton died, my parents and Jor-El getting into a massive fight the night the world ended.”

Kara finally stops rubbing Meri’s back, both of her hands now curled into fists on her lap, and Lena moves her hand to cover one of Kara’s, their golden bracelets for a moment feeling warmer.

“I had tested Clark’s DNA by then but I hadn’t bothered actually looking at it, and I still remembered the DNA from ‘the blood of Rao’… first I checked Jor-El’s… and then his wife’s, and then… looked at Clark’s again. I could only think of one explanation that made it all fit.” Kara shakes her head and ignores the feeling that there’s something else about those DNA’s she doesn’t want to remember. “When Jor-El saw that ‘the blood of Rao’ was half his DNA, he… married the woman whose DNA would complete the other half and got her pregnant. He must have used the parts I gave him to build a time machine and sent Clark’s DNA to the past, though I don’t know exactly how he ‘seeded Krypton with life’.” Her mind hits a wall and rebounds, and her wondering at how he did that vanishes. “It must have been far earlier than would have been possible, and with far more intelligent life than there ever should have been at that time.”

The throbbing in Kara’s head finally eases, and when Kara drops her mental shield Lena must sense its passing, a prickle of concern filtering through their connection.

“Krypton only existed due to time interference,” Kara whispers, “but by the time the wraiths were aware it had gone too far, already deeply rooted in their own time line in every universe, and they had no choice but to keep the planet around long enough for it to be born in the first place. Most likely, the wraiths had some kind of deal with every council who found out Krypton was dying— do nothing to save your planet and we will let you live until your planet dies naturally.”

“I don’t really get it,” Allo says, head lolling to the side, “and tomorrow night I would please like a bedtime story that does not involve time travel or end with an entire planet dying, thank you.” She hops off their bed and trots over to her own, sprawling across it with a loud sigh. “I still don’t like your cousin, Super Kara.”

“Is that why he has such an ego?” Enna asks. “Because he’s some kind of… Kryptonian demi-god?”

Kara laughs at that. “He would have to know for that to be the case.”

Jade is delighted by this. “You didn’t even tell him? That’s cold, Super kidnapper. Bravo.”

“I don’t have any actual proof,” Kara says, shrugging and feeling far more relaxed with how the girls are taking it. “And if he wants to know he can go dig around in the archive and figure it out himself. Not that he ever will.”

Astra is suddenly in front of her, both hands cupping her face, and to Kara’s surprise she starts speaking in Kryptonian. “Kara Zor-El, what in Rao’s name possessed you to risk your life just to study some ancient relic?” Her aunt’s eyes narrow dangerously. “Did your uncle put you up to it? I never liked that my sister married into the House of El but even I never thought they would endanger a baby for curiosity’s sake.”

Her aunt’s anger is so strong Allo and even Jade are shaking with it, and Kara can tell her wife is being overwhelmed with it as well.

And Kara… really doesn’t see what the big deal is, and that thought shocks everyone in the room but she ignores it, ready for this conversation to be done because her head is starting to hurt again, and since her wife noticed the mental shield last time there’s not much point in hiding the pain anyway. “I thought it would be fun, that’s all,” Kara says, monotone, and Astra freezes.

Her aunt steps back, tilting her head, her dark eyes staring at Kara. “Kir chahv, why did you make your hair blonde?” They all see her memory then: Kara, barely older than a toddler, her hair as brown as her mother’s and aunt’s, and Kara would really rather not remember that, or that when she first became Supergirl she tried and failed to dye her hair brown, the dye not taking to the Kryptonian strands and the blonde her natural color now.

She stands, walking towards the egg, and without really thinking about it or letting herself dwell on her wife and aunt’s confusion at her memory, responds, “I thought it would be fun, is all.” Kara turns to face them when she reaches the egg, and beckons Jade over. “It’s getting late and I’d like to get some sleep before I have to call Jess, so let’s get on with it.”

Jade walks over slowly, stops a few feet from the egg. “What’s going on with you?”

Kara frowns and rubs at her forehead. “Nothing? It’s been a long day, kir chahv. In you go.” She helps Jade into the egg but doesn’t have it close just yet, turns to see her wife and aunt staring at one another, and she knows they’re having a private conversation that she doesn’t want to be privy to.

Kara can feel her wife’s concern growing, and her aunt’s fury feels both old and new, somehow, and the three awake sisters are facing her, and she can feel their worry.

“Super Kara,” Allo says slowly, “did you… did someone brainwash you? When you were a baby?” Kara doesn’t want to respond but she can feel the child’s fear, and for some reason the pain in her head lessens.

“No,” Kara says, the pain lessening again when she feels the girl’s fear only growing. “I promise, little one, the only one who could have brainwashed me back then was me, and if I did it, I had good reason.”

Enna speaks then, and again, the child’s fear lessens the pain in Kara’s head, “And what good reason did you have for making yourself blonde?”

Kara blinks, frowns. “Supergirl is blonde,” she says, her own curiosity at how her childhood self would know of her future moniker already falling away, and her aunt’s fear is so great that Kara sways. “What now?”

Astra is in front of her again, hands cupping her cheeks. “Kara,” her aunt says, “why didn’t you want to go to planets with yellow suns anymore?”

Kara’s brow crinkles, and she’s pretty sure she knows how humans with migraines feel, but everyone around her is afraid and that is what she didn’t want, so she says, “Because I didn’t know what would happen to me if I did, but now I’m here and I’m fine, so it’s okay.”

Her aunt releases her and backs away, and again she’s having a private conversation with her wife, and even though it wasn’t the plan Kara really needs this all to stop so her head will quit hurting, because yes, she did this to herself, and yes, she knows she had good reason, someone…

She squints, tries to remember before realizing she shouldn’t, and she sees a flash of her own memory— she’s small and lying on the floor in a lab, an empty beaker beside her, and her whole body feels like it’s burning and sparking, then her eyes close and she can hear someone running towards the lab… it must be her aunt but that doesn’t make sense… or does it?… and she tries to open her eyes so maybe-her-aunt won’t worry but they won’t stay open, and under the heavy sounds of the far-off footfalls there’s a softer sound, of someone lighter and smaller and much closer to her running away.

Kara blinks and now everyone is staring at her, so she points to Astra and fully abandons the plan to ambush her. “You’re sleeping, here, tonight. My wife can stop nightmares and I will hold you down until the egg’s hum takes effect if I have to.”

To her surprise Astra walks obediently over to her bed and sits down, and she’s still staring at Kara, her brow furrowed. “Kir chahv,” she says, “I will try to sleep if you tell me who you were trying to protect.”

The pain is back and somehow worse, and everyone is feeling it, Kara knows, even Astra is wincing and holding her head, but Kara really does need her aunt to sleep and this is probably the best way, so she squints and thinks and… “I don’t know,” she finally says. “Not-jeju and not-you, and not-ukr, that’s all I know. Now go to sleep, please.”

Astra doesn’t move and neither does anyone else.

“A riddle,” Allo muses. “Someone who is not others, but who you would think is? So a shapeshifter? That could be a lot of different species though, Super Kara.”

Kara hums, turning back towards Jade once she sees her aunt actually lay down, “Two-in-one,” she says idly, ensuring the girl is comfortable in the egg before leaning in and pressing a kiss to her feather-hair. “The hum will put you to sleep soon and my :zhao will keep you from having nightmares, goodnight, kir chahv.”

Jade freezes a moment, but just as the egg is almost closed, “Goodnight, Super kidnapper.”

“ME TOO!” Allo hollers, and Kara goes to the girl’s bed, tucks the blanket around her, and presses a kiss to her feather-hair. “Goodnight, Super Kara,” Allo whispers loudly.

“Goodnight, kir chahv,” Kara whispers equally loudly, and runs her hand over the child’s feather-hair a few times until she feels her settle down.

Kara goes to Enna then, watches her with one eyebrow quirked until the girl lays down, and when she tucks her in, Enna whispers, “Are you really okay?”

“Of course, I made sure of it,” Kara says, and another flash of memory rises: Aunt Astra is watching her from the doorway, and Kara is small still, and she’s preparing something she won’t explain to anyone, and she already knows her aunt will stop her so she pretends she’s going to put it in a machine and then chugs it, and when her aunt is panicked and picks her up she presses both of her small hands to her aunt’s face and is pleased… and later, when her dad comes to her room to wake her, kneeling beside her bed when she feigns sleep, she sits up and presses her hands to his face too and he yelps and backs away, angry red welts where her hands touched, and Kara is even more pleased. Kara blinks back into the present, banishes her own memories, and presses a kiss to Enna’s feather-hair. “Goodnight, kir chahv.”

She turns to her aunt and sees her watching her still, eyes wide, and she can feel her mind racing, and she hasn’t even covered herself up. “Aunt Astra, do I need to tuck you in as well?”

Astra sits up at that and then she’s in front of Kara again, and she places both of her hands on Kara’s shoulders and then presses a kiss to her forehead. “Goodnight, little one.” She hugs her and it kind of reminds Kara of when her aunt had been sent to Fort Rozz, and that thought only makes her hug Kara tighter. “I am not going anywhere, I promise. Khap ukiem rrip, kir chahv.”

“Mm’kay,” Kara mumbles, and she buries her face into the crook of her aunt’s neck for a long moment, focusing on her heartbeat and letting it help her own anxious thoughts subside. When she finally pulls back she kisses her aunt’s cheek. “G’night. Khap ukiem rrip y… Aunt Astra.”

Her aunt goes to bed then, and covers herself up when Kara glares at her, and Kara goes over to her own bed and presses a kiss to Meri’s feather-hair and mumbles a “Goodnight, kir chahv,” that she’s sure the girl will be annoyed by when she’s awake. Then Kara turns to her wife, who’s still sitting on the edge of the bed with her cape clutched tightly around her shoulders and her green eyes trained on Kara, and she can feel her worry and fear and frustration.

My love, Lena thinks, and Kara knows she isn’t going to like whatever comes next. Did you change your cells so they would process sunlight faster?

Kara’s brow furrows and she shakes her head. “Dunno. Maybe, big test batch… not for single consumption.” Everyone’s fear spikes and Kara shifts, uncomfortable, and she rubs her forehead again, squinting through the pain. “Can we not talk about it, please?”

Her wife squares her jaw. For now, she says, and Kara knows this is not the end. But, why didn’t you tell anyone that someone else was there?

Kara stiffens and her own fear fills her then, far greater than what the others had felt before. “Medusa,” she whispers, and when she can tell even her wife and aunt don’t know what that is, she can only feel relief. She picks up her wife then, the cape falling to the bed, and turns to the egg, giving the command that will have it emit a hum that puts everyone but the one who ordered it to sleep, and she stays standing there, cradling her precious :zhao, until long after the hum has faded, everyone but her now asleep.

Only once her wife’s presence slips more fully into her mind does Kara go into their bathroom, setting her wife down in the salon chair and turning the faucet on, pouring in a generous amount of soap. While the tub fills, Kara brushes her teeth and uses the toilet, her focus primarily on the heartbeats in her apartment as she drowns out the mental conversation she can tell they’re all having, convening in a dream and not even trying to block her view of it, hoping she’ll tune in and reveal something else.

The tub full and most of her routine done, Kara undresses herself and then her wife and sinks into the hot, sudsy water with Lena, soaking and shampooing her wife’s hair and then her own before washing her wife’s body slowly and thoroughly, the familiar routine putting her in a near-meditative state, and when she’s done she speeds through washing herself before rinsing Lena’s hair and then her own.

Kara decides to be a bit selfish then, and sits her wife on her lap, her arms around her waist, and presses her face into the crook of her neck. She stays that way for several minutes, still except for her breaths, all of her attention on her :zhao’s heartbeats and the scent of her freshly-cleaned skin. She’d been sending her a lot of her energy the whole time, but now she increases it to the point that she can feel her wife grow the slightest bit warmer.

She finally pulls the plug on the tub and rinses them both one last time with the removable shower head before drying herself and then Lena, and when they’re both adequately moisturized she puts her battle suit back on and puts her favorite pajamas on her wife before combing, drying, and braiding her hair and her own.

Kara carries Lena to bed, laying her in the center. She presses kisses to her cheeks, her forehead, the tip of her nose, whispers, “Khap :zhao rrip, good night, baby girl.” She turns her wife on her side, then, and drapes one of her wife’s arms over Meri’s back before covering Lena with her cape and laying behind her, curling around her as she once again increases the energy she sends her. Kara sets her own mental timer this time, for only an hour and half with how much energy she’s already given her wife today, and falls asleep, resolutely staying in her own dream and not attending the meeting that has now dwindled to Astra, Lena, and Enna, though not much later the meeting ends, Lena now focused on healing Meri.

At some point Allo hops into Kara’s dream and the girl is overjoyed to find Kara flying through space on an enormous slice of pizza that they both slowly eat until only the crust remains, still flying them around planets that Kara points out to the child, telling her their names and quick blurbs about the species that live there and their cultures.

When her mental timer goes off she sends Allo into Jade’s dream, where the girl is fighting an evil robot that looks suspiciously like the one that 3D printed their new apartment furnishings, and Kara awakens and kisses Lena’s cheek, increasing the energy tethering them together as much as she dares before slipping away to the DEO, waving off worried agents and sinking onto the sun bed before falling asleep again with another mental timer set.

Chapter Text

It’s after her second trip to the sun bed that night that Kara returns to her apartment, entering via the new balcony and settling into one of the low chairs in the hobby room’s sitting space, Lena now taking a break from healing Meri to slip more fully into her mind.

At her wife’s behest, Kara pulls her phone out and dials a number, and after what feels like an endless series of prompts allegedly for a small clinic, the line finally rings through, and a smooth female voice answers. “Plumeria Clinic, how may I assist you?”

Kara begins parroting what her wife says, which… “Seriously? What— okay, fine, sorry, uh, I’m calling in regards to your hair growth treatment. I’ve heard it works even… on the most hopeless of cases?” Her wife accidentally thinks of exactly why this is the code, her hope that if Lex did find out he would be too enraged to actually go through with it, and Kara has to muffle a snort of amusement.

The line is silent for a moment, and then, “Alright, can I have your name and age please?”

Jess muted the phone to hide her own snickering, Lena says helpfully. Hm, I can read her mind as easily as Sam and Ruby’s, and she knows it’s Supergirl calling.

“How the fuck does she know— ack, don’t pinch me it’s a valid question. Fine,” Kara sighs and resolves herself to her fate. “My name is… oh for— My name is… Theolbald Thorul… what do you mean I have to say it… oh, sorry, my name is,” Kara’s brow crinkles and she repeats it as her wife insists, “The-ohl-bald… oh ‘the old bald’, I get it… was he even that much older than you, baby girl? Okay fine, Rao she already knows it’s me anyway for some reason— uh, and I am… so old my hair left me for a younger man?” She can feel her wife and even Jess’ amusement now. “Why is this so funny to both of you, did Ruby come up with this?”

The phone is quiet and Kara can feel Jess laughing before she finally unmutes herself, her voice somehow even. “I see, thank you Mr. Thorul. Now, what time would you like to book for your appointment?”

“Uhh tomorrow at 1:30, my wife— hey, Sam is not your wife, you are both… alright, yes, you came up with this five years ago and share a child, but I maintain that I don’t like this.” Kara sighs and ignores her wife and Jess’ amusement, even greater now than it was before. “My wife is most insistent I make an appointment as soon as possible,” Kara grumbles. “Would you both please stop laughing at me this is so rude.” She feels Jess’ surprise, then, but it fades quickly, and Kara’s wife feels similarly.

I set it up so Jess would take over my job of organizing the data Jack was gathering, though I doubt she knows it’s him, Lena says, and while I made it so he couldn’t follow the Luthors directly, she was able to get him to spy on the DEO so she could keep tabs on Sam. She couldn’t watch you that well since your speed dislodged the nanobots, and once you brought me home any bots in your apartment left since I also register as a Luthor. She does, however, know that I have psychic powers at this point, and that we’re married.

“So she saw all of our conversations with…” Kara trails off, a horrible thought occurring to her. “Oh Rao was she spying on Nia too?”

Jess doesn’t manage to mute the phone in time and Kara hears her laughing for a split second, her wife’s amusement spiking.

Yes, she saw the conversation in Nia’s car, Lena finally manages. Which means Jack also saw it, and once he’s had time to process everything at least one of them is going to tell Sam, in the exact way you told Nia. Or show them the video.

Kara makes a choking sound. “Fucking hell, there’s a video? Rao, we have to tell them before the meeting, don’t we?”

Well, darling, her wife drawls, Ruby broke the news of her mothers’ marriage to you so we could always let Jack tell your sister. He’s basically an overgrown child anyway.

Kara groans so loudly she’s surprised no one in the bedroom wakes up, though her wife informs her that everyone currently asleep wants to see the video they’re talking about, because apparently this conversation is more interesting than their dreams.

“What card should I charge this to?” Jess finally asks, and this time Kara can tell she’s barely containing her laughter, even her voice wavering now.

Kara rattles off the coordinates to the room in the DEO with the sun bed, her wife explaining that Jess has the only portal watch she’d made pre-kidnapping, and at her wife’s behest she also gives Jess a list of ‘equipment that needs to be present’, very little of which she can make heads or tails of. “What is any of that for?” Kara grumbles. “Stupid Earth tech.”

Portal watches, image inducers, and what I like to call ‘Jack in a box’, Lena says, her amusement tickling Kara. Well, Jack hates when I call it that, but it is literally a box with his… core bots in it, so.

“Okay that and the portal watches I get but… image inducers?” Kara asks. “And you made fun of me for calling it ‘the egg’.”

Her wife sends her the ghost of a pinch. At least my name makes sense. It’s wearable technology that changes someone’s appearance. I figured it would be a nice option for the girls since it will be hard for them to interact with this world when they’re… invisible.

“Wait,” Kara muses, her fondness for her wife surging, “is that what you were trying to remember when I wrote those articles about aliens having a hard time finding work because of their physical appearance?”

Yes, Lena decides. Though I was not intending it for aliens when I designed it, more… well, there was a movie Ruby made me watch and I found the concept interesting. Her wife blushes in her sleep. I’ll need to make several adjustments before we can mass produce it… and even with the ones for the children we’ll need to… account for the lack of eyes and figure out how to time the blinking.

“We? I have to help?” Kara is whining and once again both her wife and Jess are highly amused, and she’s pretty sure she can feel her aunt’s amusement as well. “I mean I will, but… I just hate Earth tech so much,” she whispers, forlorn.

I’ll do most of the configuring, her wife assures her. Once I have the design down it would be… nice to have you build the rest. And all of the portal watches— those take me a day apiece and we need quite a few.

“Fine, :zhao, I shall suffer for you and our children,” Kara grumbles. “Any other weird codes I need to say?” Her wife says no and Kara is sorely tempted to just hang up, but they both feel that Jess wants to say something. “What’s up?”

“Plumeria Clinic will do its utmost to serve you, Mr. Thorul,” Jess says, ever polite. Then, “Though we have been trying to reach you quite awhile now,” she continues, and Kara feels her ire, “it’s good you’ve finally remembered… to make an appointment. See you tomorrow.” She hangs up and Kara stares at her phone.

“Well,” Kara says after a moment, “you did say they would be pissed when you found them again.” Feeling her wife’s worry and guilt, she zooms into the bedroom and curls around Lena once more. “It’s okay, baby girl,” Kara whispers into soft, dark hair, “we both felt how happy she was, uh, for most of the call.”

She tried to have Jack follow the Luthors to find me, her wife whispers in her mind. But I hard-coded it so he couldn’t, because my brother was paranoid as hell and if he found any nanobots on him… that’s also why they didn’t know about Edge or the girls, because Edge only ever met with Lex in person, and the bots couldn’t find the invisible people who sometimes showed up to punish Edge’s minions. Kara holds her wife closer as her guilt surges. Jess has been anonymously sending coordinates of places with hostages to Sam for years, you should have found them a lot sooner… My love, she didn’t even know you had me until Sam did, the bots stationed here registered a Luthor’s presence and left and didn’t even tell her why.

“You didn’t know,” Kara says softly. “About there being someone as paranoid as Edge, or that you’d be taken like you were. I know you had precautions, but… I’m in your head too, baby girl, and I know you weren’t actually expecting anything like that to happen.” She has to bite back a smile. “You have a god complex too, remember?”

Kara falls asleep then, and when she feels herself being pulled into Astra’s dream, she’s surprised to find her aunt, wife, and children in her childhood living room, Rao washing them all in a comforting red glow. Kara walks over and scoops Lena into her arms, stealing her spot and plopping her in her lap.

I should have done better, Lena says, curling into Kara. Fuck, I’m sorry. I should have—

Whatever she was going to say is cut off when Allo somehow manages to plop down on her lap, Kara now feeling somewhat like a Jenga tower. Jade appears behind her and pinches her for that, and Enna is right beside her, delivering a flick to both Kara and Lena’s heads.

“You sound like Meri,” Allo says, feeling a mixture of fondness and worry.

“She always blamed herself for us getting taken after we landed,” Enna explains, and Kara knows she also wants to flick her unconscious sister at the moment.

“Even though she was also taken,” Jade drawls, “and kept us all safe in the end.”

That’s different, Lena says, even as her arms wrap around Allo to keep her steady. She was taking care of her sisters in a horrible situation, and I failed to stop that situation from happening. I knew my… family, she winces, was hurting people, and I didn’t manage to stop them— fuck, I even let them get me.

Kara growls and tightens her hold on her wife. “You didn’t let them do anything, baby girl, they hurt you just like they hurt everyone else. Quit blaming yourself for things that weren’t your responsibility in the first place.”

Astra is kneeling in front of them now, and her eyes meet Lena’s. “You are not your family’s keeper, kir chahv. You did what you could, and much like my niece you prioritized others’ safety over your own,” she cuts a look at Kara then, who immediately looks away, “but you are here now, and so are they,” she nods to the girls, “and you are all safe. You lost a few battles, but you won the war, and that is what matters.” Astra stands and smooths a hand over Lena’s hair. “You kept your friends and your true family safe, and you saved yourself as well. You were excellent, little one.”

Lena is still for a long moment, and then she takes a shuddering breath and lowers her head, holding Allo closer and hiding her face against the girl’s shoulder. It’s a lot harder to brush off this kind of thing when I can feel everything you’re all feeling, she whispers, and they all see flashes of Sam and Jess and Jack and even Ruby trying to tell Lena similar things— that she didn’t have to pay for her family’s sins, that she could walk away, that she didn’t have to go back, that they didn’t understand why she couldn’t just be happy. Fine, Lena finally thinks, still hiding her face. I did… some good things, and… I am glad I kept my actual family safe… and that… I have this family too now…

Her wife’s embarrassment floods them all, and Kara stands with a grin, her aunt backing away a second before, eliciting a squeak from both Lena and Allo even as Kara easily balances them both. “And I am glad I kidnapped myself such a wonderful family,” she says, pressing a kiss to first Lena’s and then Allo’s heads. “Now, before my lovely wife runs away from us all despite my not having given her nearly enough energy yet, Aunt Astra?”

Astra, sensing exactly what her niece wants, grins and stands as well, and a moment later the room around them fades, and instead of being in Kara’s childhood home they’re in Astra’s ship, stationed far above Krypton, the enormous wraparound window showcasing the red sun shining above the curve of the planet below.

Jade and Enna immediately go to the window, and Allo wriggles until Lena releases her, hopping down and hurrying over to her sisters, pressing herself flat against the window in a way that Astra remembers Kara doing as a toddler, all of them seeing her quick flash of memory as her fondness surges.

Without Allo to hide behind, and wanting to see the view for herself, Lena finally looks up, her face still flushed and eyes shinier than usual, and Kara almost laughs when her aunt shields her mind long enough to actually surprise her wife by darting forward and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“I am glad you and my niece found each other, little one,” Astra says softly in Kryptonian, “And that you have created such a wonderful family for yourselves.” They can both sense her meaning— not just the sisters they’d taken in, but also Alex, Sam, Ruby, and even Jess, Jack, Nia, and Brainy.

Sensing what she wants, Kara puts her wife down and Lena grabs Astra in a hug that takes them both a minute to acclimate to, and when Lena pulls away she’s blushing even more now, but she still meets Astra’s eyes. You’re part of our family too, Aunt Astra. Her ears tip pink when she feels the surge of love and fondness both Kara and Astra feel at that, and she turns, grabbing both of their wrists and dragging them to the window.

“Told ya you have a soft spot for her,” Jade drawls, dodging Enna’s flick. “What, it’s a good thing!”

“Mm, you truly are a miniature version of my niece’s human sister,” Astra muses, reaching over and ruffling Jade’s feather-hair. “We will both teach you many destructive things, kir chahv.”

Jade is very pleased by this, and while Enna and Allo interrogate Astra about what all she’s going to teach them, Kara wraps her arms around Lena from behind, happy when her wife leans back into her, her hands now holding Kara’s arms around her.

“Khap :zhao rrip,” Kara whispers, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “I know we still have a lot to take care of, but we have each other now, and none of us are ever going to let you fight alone again.” She smirks then. “Especially not Sam and Jess— they’re very determined to never lose you again.” Kara nuzzles against her :zhao’s hair as she feels her emotions settle into a kind of happy acceptance. “So, baby girl, was I right? Is Lena an amazing person to be?”

Her wife turns enough to press a kiss to the corner of her mouth. Yes, fine, you were correct. Though we still need to figure out a last name because I am certainly not keeping my current one.

“Oh Rao, we still have to tell Alex and Sam,” Kara remembers, ignoring the girls’ laughter and her aunt’s snickering. “And you’re going to be busy here healing Meri so that means I have to do it… any ideas?”

Asking that was a mistake, because her aunt turns to her with a wicked smirk that Kara kind of thinks she stole from Lena. “Just tell them Lena is your ex-girlfriend, it worked well enough with Nia.” Astra then recalls the entire conversation, the girls and even her precious :zhao laughing all the while, and Kara’s face is as red as her wife’s cape at this point. “I would like to see the video, though, kir chahv, getting to hear it all is not the same as getting to witness it.”

Kara groans and ducks her head, hiding her face against her wife’s shoulder. “I don’t know if Sam or Alex is gonna want to kill me more,” she mutters. “Alex was mad enough I started dating you before you remembered your name and now I hafta tell her that that lasted less than a day, followed by an engagement that lasted less than a day, and now we’re married with four children and my aunt who for some reason doesn’t want the DEO to know she exists.” Astra isn’t quick enough at hiding her thoughts at that, and Kara groans louder. “That was you?”

It’s not exactly a surprise, Lena muses. We already know she’s willing to kill anyone who uses a lethal amount of kryptonite against you, so her killing those who already did, well… I’m fine with it. At Astra’s surprise, she shrugs one shoulder. They tried to kill my wife before I even had the pleasure of meeting her, if you hadn’t taken them out I may have.

Jade is very, very impressed. “Super auntie, you broke into multiple high security prisons and assassinated people, and all the DEO got on you was some blurry camera footage? Nice.”

Enna flicks Astra’s shoulder. “Next time have someone hack their security system, honestly. If you’re going to commit a crime you shouldn’t leave any evidence, much less end up with a ridiculous nickname like ‘kryptonite killer’.”

Kara laughs when her aunt actually feels chastised by that, but Allo reaches out and flicks Enna. “Says the only member of this family who isn’t a criminal yet,” the child says imperiously, and at Enna’s confusion she smirks. “Auntie Astra was on Fort Rozz, Super Kara stole some blood relic or something, Lena made murder pancakes, Meri and Jade were ‘involved in criminal activity’ as they put it, and I ‘attempted to commit murder’.” Allo’s chest puffs up with pride. “Good luck topping that!”

Enna frowns and then turns to Lena. “Please teach me how to hack the DEO so I can erase the evidence of Auntie Astra committing murders.”

The DEO and the prisons, Lena says idly. We’ll have to make sure all of the evidence is scrubbed. And knowing Brainy and Sam they have backups hidden somewhere.

Enna frowns, thoughtful. “Okay that may take longer, but hacking that many places to cover up multiple murders has to be worse than Allo’s attempted murder. She didn’t come close to killing anyone and it was under duress, so my willingly covering up actual crimes is better.” She nods to herself and they feel Allo’s fury.

Kara cuts in before Allo explodes. “First of all, Aunt Astra only went to Fort Rozz because of a rule that shouldn’t have existed, the pancaking incident was self-defense, and everything you all did after landing was under duress, so I really don’t think any of us should count as criminals for that.” Kara winces when her aunt raises her eyebrows at her. “Okay, you are kind of a criminal for the whole breaking into jails and killing people thing, but I think Alex’s fixation on that is mostly just jealously. And I did lava cake a dude, so if that was found out… well, I didn’t leave any evidence.”

“What about the blood relic?” Allo asks, and Kara feels everyone’s focus shift to her.

Kara looks at the child with a frown. “Blood relic?”

“’The blood of Rao’,” Enna says. “That you took a sample of and tested on Krypton.”

Kara blinks at her and when her wife pulls away, looking at her now with narrowed eyes, she barely notices. She raises one hand and rubs at her forehead. “Sorry, kir chahv, I dunno what you’re talking about. Anyway,” she turns to Lena and ignores the worry she can feel radiating from everyone now, “I’ve given you enough energy that you can go back to healing Meri now.”

“You really did brainwash yourself,” Jade says quietly. “Do you even remember what we talked about earlier?”

“She does not,” Astra says, and sighs when Kara squints at her in confusion. “Our minds will not allow us to think of that which we have locked away. What we discussed last night is buried deep within her subconscious, although,” her aunt pauses, narrowing her eyes at her, “Kara could remember if she wanted to… if she deems it necessary. Since she was able to talk about it earlier, the memories are accessible.”

Kara really wants to leave right now, but her wife grabs her hand, gaze still fixed on her even as she speaks to Astra.

There are ways that memories can’t be accessible, then? Lena asks, her worry growing.

“We have two main ways to ‘brainwash’ ourselves, as you put it,” Astra says calmly, her eyes also fixed on Kara. “The first is what we are currently seeing— from what I have heard, a person essentially… saves a copy of themself in their subconscious, and then erases or overwrites whatever memories they choose. The copy blocks any attempts to access the information unless certain pre-set parameters are met.” She pauses, then, brow crinkled. “Though I overheard my sister say once that it is also possible if the person truly wants to remember, which… does seem to be accurate, though how she would know of that…” Astra’s face pinches and she blows out a long breath, pushing away past frustrations from what Kara can tell. “Based on Kara’s earlier thoughts, one of her parameters was ‘no one being afraid’, so our fear allowed her to access a portion of the copy’s memories.”

“And the other way?” Enna asks when Astra stays silent too long.

“The other way,” Astra says, walking over and cupping Kara’s face with one hand. “Makes our memories inaccessible until a kind of… password, happens.” Her thumb strokes Kara’s cheek even as Kara refuses to meet her aunt’s gaze. “That method is typically used when overt time travel is involved— you will not recall your memories until you see the event occur that you forced yourself to forget.”

So if she saw any… time travel shenanigans, Lena thinks, we can’t get to those memories. But everything we talked about last night we just have to… convince her or the… ‘copy’, to show us? Lena bites her lip and Kara is still staring resolutely at no one. I don’t think that’s going to be easy.

Astra shakes her head, finally withdrawing her hand. “We tried many times to find out what happened back then, even before she erased her memories of it. She went from staying silent to simply telling us she ‘thought it would be fun’ and then moving on as if the conversation was over.” Her anger rises and Kara flinches, stepping back, but Astra steps forward, cupping her face with both hands now. “No, no, little one, I am not mad at you,” she whispers in Kryptonian. “You were a child, you did what you thought was right, I am certain. I just… wish you could have trusted us… trusted me.”

Kara meets her eyes then, frowning. “It wasn’t about trust,” she says, “if I had told anyone what happened…” Her brow furrows, the pain her head increasing, and for some reason it feels like two different pains compounding, but her ye… aunt is watching her and she can feel her fear and guilt. “Jor-El would have used something he shouldn’t have,” Kara whispers. “To protect the heir of the House of El.”

Her aunt’s fear surges then, and Kara can hear her thoughts, spiraling as she wonders why a five-year-old child needed protection, what happened to the shapeshifter who somehow got into her home, what exactly a child was terrified would be used. Kara pulls away from them all then, turns her back to the people around her, and gazes out at the red sun. She can feel everyone’s worry lapping at her, and finally she turns but still refuses to look at them.

“I’m going for a swim,” Kara says, and then she dives out of the ship’s window, out of her aunt’s dream and into her own, splashing into a cold ocean and going deeper than she could in real life, until only cold and silence surround her and she feels, for a moment, as if she’s back in the Phantom Zone… or… another place, one that was worse— her head throbs with pain and she drops the thought. Kara can still feel her wife and children and… aunt in her mind, all worried and watching her still, and… it’s much nicer, they’re much nicer than the one who watched her before... Another throb of pain and the thought falls away, and for some reason they’re all even more worried now.

After awhile Lena goes back to healing Meri and her aunt starts showing the girls adventures she took Kara on as a child. Still, Kara stays underwater, letting herself be swept away by ocean currents that couldn’t exist in a real ocean, and when her mental timer goes off she resurfaces, waking dry and warm in her bed, still curled around her wife.

Kara kisses Lena’s cheek and slips away, back to the DEO and the sun bed, and when she falls asleep under the harsh lamps she stays firmly in her own mind. She returns home awhile later, curling up against her wife again, and when she sleeps this time she’s pulled into Allo’s dream, where she is delighted to find a winter wonderland made of ice cream that she and Allo slide down and race upon and devour, and even Enna and Jade, and later Astra and Lena, come by, all of them shaking their heads before joining in. Kara feels far more settled when all of that is done, and this time when she wakes again to head to the DEO she does so reluctantly, pressing several kisses to her wife’s face before finally heading out, her battle suit soft against her skin and the absence of a cape not as odd as it was before.

This time when she settles into the sun bed it’s closer to her usual time to use it, and when Alex and Sam arrive, both sitting in the chairs near the bed, Kara wakes, brow crinkling when she feels their worry.

“Kara,” Alex starts, “why did you use the sun bed three times last night?” Her sister frowns. “What do you need so much energy for that this is your fourth time here in less than nine hours?”

Sam doesn’t say anything but Kara can feel her fear, and so can her wife, who takes a break from healing Meri now to slip more fully into Kara’s mind. They’re worried something happened to one of us, Lena says, and her confusion echoes Kara’s.

“We already told you?” Kara asks, frowning when her sister and sister-in-law only feel more confused. “My :zhao is healing Meri. The egg handled her physical wounds in a few hours but the psychic ones are worse, and it isn’t exactly something my :zhao has done before.”

Alex’s eyes are wide. “When you said Meri was unconscious I thought you meant you had to knock her out like you did… uh, Allo.”

Sam nods, brow furrowed. “I know Lena said she needed to heal her but we just figured you had to be, er, more forceful since she was older and… had some kind of training.”

“The only one we had to knock out was Allo,” Kara says, her hand straying to her stomach as she remembers what happened in the office. “Enna was outside and let us remove the collar when my :zhao showed her we had Allo safe, but… Meri and Jade tried to kill the person controlling them, assuming they’d both die but hoping Enna and Allo would survive.” She pauses, has to calm her breathing, her fear even greater now that she knows the children. “Meri was the distraction, and he activated her collar’s kill mode, but Jade’s collar stopped her from hurting him automatically… she’s already healed now and the egg is doing a checkup, but Meri…”

Sam and Alex’s rage flare. “How slow was this lava caking?” Sam growls.

“Inch by inch,” Kara says coolly.

“Good,” Alex says. Then she frowns. “Was it you or Lena doing it?”

Kara arches a single eyebrow at her sister. “She can’t make me fly, and even I don’t want to stand in lava. I don’t see why you and Cat both think me incapable of murder. It’s kind of rude at this point.”

Your sister is chalking it up to my brainwashing you, Lena says. And despite what Astra says I don’t… entirely disagree.

“Alex,” Kara says, narrowing her eyes. “Ruby isn’t going to like you being mean to my :zhao.” She quirks an eyebrow then. “And that goes double for you, baby girl, I will tattle to our niece on you.”

Rude, Lena says. Also, you just said ‘our niece’, which Sam is fine with but Alex is now suspicious. And unless you want Jack to tell them…

Before Kara can even groan, Sam stands, staring down at her with her arms crossed. “We know it’s Lena now, so why are you still not using her name?”

“Uhhhh I don’t think you’ll like that answer,” Kara mumbles, feeling her wife’s anxiety. Sam just arches a single brow in a move she definitely stole from Lena, and Kara deflates when her wife gives her a reluctant go-ahead. “So, uh, you already know that she couldn’t really… talk, until after Corben…” Kara winces when she feels Sam’s anger and pain at that. “And until then she didn’t remember anything, but after she woke up she… could only remember what happened… after they took her,” Kara pauses, wetting her lips. “At first it was just the science of it all, a few contextual things, but no faces or names. She knew it was her stepmother and half-brother but that’s it.”

“And you still didn’t realize who she was?” Alex blurts.

Kara gives her sister a hard look. “While you may have seen plenty of pictures of her, I only saw one, four years ago, and it was from a bird watching camera at an airport, so no, I did not recognize her.”

Alex scowls at her. “Okay but Lena said she killed Lex and Lillian, and knowing that—“

“We didn’t,” Kara says, ignoring both women’s disbelief. “I knew she killed… five to eight people…” She frowns when her wife does a quick headcount. “Okay, seven, see, I was pretty close. But, they weren’t… recognizable.”

THAT’S WHAT MURDER PANCAKES ARE! Allo yells and Kara slams her hands over her ears. I’m glad Super Kara taught me how to make pancakes and not Lena, the child adds, thoughtful.

“Why are you up this early?” Kara grumbles. “And how much did you see?”

Just the ‘pancaking incident’ itself, Astra says, sounding amused. You only recalled the machinery hammering up and down and the pooling blood. This planet shows children worse things in movies.

“Fair,” Kara says, frowning when she still feels her wife’s shame. “It was self-defense, :zhao, and I maintain that.” She turns back to her sister and sister-in-law then, choosing to ignore their confusion. “We will explain further at the meeting. As for your question: we didn’t know her name until the day you had Lex and Lillian declared missing, though I did figure it out before she saw the news at least.”

Sam collapses back into her chair. “So she did see.”

“She knew you really didn’t want her to see the news so we of course watched it,” Kara says, shrugging when she feels Sam’s annoyance. “Anyway, before that we already knew Ruby knew who she was, and then you and Alex were also trying to hide it from her, so she kind of… freaked out.” Kara purses her lips when she feels Sam’s guilt and her wife’s resulting shame. “You’re both ridiculous,” she says, shaking her head at them. “Anyway, when she calmed down we started thinking about why you were all hiding it: Ruby wanted to see her to be sure, and you two were… invested in her welfare.” She turns her head and smirks at her sister. “It was Alex who gave it away— as my :zhao put it, she was a person to you and Ruby, but to Alex she was her people’s person. And when I wondered who ‘Sam and Ruby’s person’ was, I finally realized.”

Sam pinches Alex and ignores it when Alex scowls at her. “And what does this have to do with you calling her by her name?”

“She still hadn’t remembered anything else, and when I called her ‘Lena’… okay fine, I specifically said ‘I love you, Lena Luthor’.” Kara blushes. “Anyway, she reminded me that she had already told me what she was okay with me calling her, and I chose to respect that. Though I did start thinking of her as ‘Lena’,” Kara adds. “Uh, and when she saw the news she only remembered the rest of the last four years…” Kara’s hand clenches at her battle suit and she winces when she hears the fabric start to tear, her aunt’s surprise hitting her at the realization that Kara can so easily tear Kryptonian fabric. And then her wife and Enna’s surprise hit her when the fabric stitches itself back together. “She really didn’t like being a Luthor then,” Kara mutters, “but when she saw Ruby she remembered everything, and she’s been fine with everyone calling her by her name since. Uh, I didn’t think to ask if I should, so…”

Is it bad that I still prefer you don’t? Lena asks, her embarrassment making Kara flush. I mean, I don’t mind you using my name, especially around others, but… I like… uh, well…

Kara smirks and her wife immediately isolates their connection, just in time for Kara to think, So you like being my wife, my :zhao, my baby girl? Since she can only feel her wife in her mind, Kara lets her love and desire flow through, her smirk growing when she can tell her wife is blushing even in her sleep.

Yes, Lena manages. Fuck, I’m going to have to add a psychic inhibitor to my list since you don’t have the parts to make one… Kara almost laughs when her wife starts weighing the pros and cons of what to make first. Suit, you need a suit first, Lena finally decides. Then I’m making a psychic inhibitor and then I can work on mass-producing image inducers and the egg… mm and if I need a break I’ll upgrade Jack.

“Are you done flirting with your girlfriend now?” Alex drawls, causing Kara to squeak, her wife’s amusement curling around her as she drops the mental barrier.

What were you two doing? Jade asks. Then, Ugh, nevermind, I don’t wanna know.

I second that, Astra thinks.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Kara mutters, rattling off a Kryptonian curse when Enna mentally flicks her. “We’re m— oh I still need to… wait, Sam, are you okay?”

Sam is sitting very still and staring down at her clasped hands, and it isn’t until Kara asks that Alex looks over, placing a hand on her shoulder in concern. “She… didn’t want to be Lena anymore, did she?” Sam finally whispers. She looks up, misty eyes meeting Kara’s. “Does she… wish she didn’t remember now?”

At her wife’s behest, Kara slips off the sun bed and grabs both of Sam’s hands, and the sheer amount of love and happiness Lena sends to Sam takes her breath away. Of course I don’t, you fucking idiot, Lena says, and Kara sees Sam and Alex’s eyes widen, both of them able to hear her wife through their physical contact. You and Ruby are my family, and so is Alex at this point, she sends Alex a mental pinch that elicits a surprised yelp, and they all feel her smirk, and I’m the bad influence you can thank for them pinching you, by the way. I also owe you two shovel talks, once we meet in person.

Alex scowls. “Kara tell your girlfriend to be nice to me.”

“About that…” Kara says, trailing off. “She kinda isn’t—“

Darling please do not tell them the way you told Nia, Lena says, once again projecting her voice to all of them. And everyone is listening, lest you forget.

“Ack, fine. Uh, so…” Kara bites her lip, looking from Sam to Alex and back. “Remember how you were mad I started dating someone who didn’t remember her name?”

“You didn’t,” Alex says, narrowing her eyes, and they all feel Sam’s confusion.

“Didn’t what?” Sam asks, gripping Kara’s hands tighter. “Kara?”

Kara releases one of Sam’s hands and raises her wrist, and sensing what she needs, her wife wakes enough to do the same, both of them doing the motion they always do to clink their bracelets together… and much to everyone but Kara and Astra’s surprise, a soft clink is heard, and the gold of their bracelets appears. “She’s my wife,” Kara says quietly, her sister and sister-in-law’s eyes now glued to her bracelet. “We’re going to have an Earth wedding too, uh, we’re still figuring out last names and all.”

I want to keep ‘Danvers’, Lena says then. Since they are your family but also because Sam and Ruby took the name.

“We hyphenated,” Sam corrects absently. “Kara, how long have you been married to my best friend?”

Mm tomorrow is our one week anniversary, Lena muses.

“And we’ll be celebrating with our four children,” Kara adds. “Assuming Meri is awake by then.”

“And whoever the seventh person is,” Ruby drawls, walking around the corner. When Kara jumps, her niece raises both eyebrows at her. “I’ve been standing here listening the whole time, and you only noticed now?”

Kara blushes. “My head is very busy these days, Rubes, give me a break. I am still acclimating to being a hive mind.”

“Kara Zor-El Danvers,” Alex growls, finally unfrozen. “Did you seriously marry someone you knew for barely two months? And don’t think I don’t know that Kryptonian marriage doesn’t allow for divorce, fucking hell.”

“Language,” Ruby says, waving her hand at her ma. “Anyway, I wanna know who the seventh person is.”

Sam turns to her daughter, frowning. “Ruby Arias-Danvers,” she says, voice low, “how long have you known that your godmothers were married?”

Ruby’s eyes widen. “Uh, they… may have told me when I called to check in…”

Alex is still staring daggers at Kara, who rolls her eyes. “She’s been living in my head the whole time, and I’m pretty close to living in hers, and we both agreed that we’re codependent at this point, so I don’t see what the big deal is. I love her, and she loves me, and…” Kara looks down at the hand still holding Sam’s. “I was scared something like Corben would happen again,” she whispers, “but since Kryptonian marriage is forever, at least… even if something happened to one of us she’d always be my wife.”

Alex softens and a moment later she’s hugging Kara as tightly as she can. “Sorry, I… from what I’ve heard she’s a great person, I just haven’t actually met her yet so I can’t help feeling overprotective.” She pulls away, her hands still clutching Kara’s upper arms. “You’re my little sister so… as long as you’re happy, I’m happy.”

“Yes, good, wonderful,” Ruby says, and Kara can feel her impatience. “Who’s the seventh person?”

Alex looks at her daughter. “You really hate being left out on secrets, huh? Wonder how that feels.”

Ruby flushes but doesn’t look away from Kara. “I didn’t tell my moms you were married yet cuz you both wanted to tell them in person, which… wait, why did you tell them right now?”

At her wife’s behest Kara reaches out her free hand and grabs one of Ruby’s. The people coming to the meeting later already know, Lena tells them all, and her amusement confuses all but Kara, who flushes. Kara told Nia when she had to drive her to the DEO and they saw it then.

“So it was Jess,” Sam whispers. When Alex and Ruby look at her she looks away. “Someone was sending me coordinates of places with hostages. I hoped it was Jess, but even Brainy couldn’t trace it.”

Damn straight, Lena thinks, indignant. I designed all of that tech myself. Even if it is Earth tech it’s the best there is.

“And you get onto me for keeping secrets,” Ruby grumbles before turning back to Kara. “Now, I kept your marriage secret for three days, so I think I should get three hints,” the girl decides, staring Kara down.

Kara rolls her eyes and pulls away from them all, lying back on the sun bed. “Why are you such a secret hoarder, kir chahv?” It isn’t a term Kara has used for Ruby before, as just thinking it made her remember her role in her aunt’s capture, but now… now hearing it and saying it just makes her very, very happy, and… hm, she can feel her aunt blushing, nearly as embarrassed now as her wife was earlier.

“What’s that mean?” Ruby asks, brow furrowed. “And Auntie Lena’s the one who taught me that information is valuable, so you can blame her.”

She isn’t wrong, Lena says. Some hints couldn’t hurt… Aunt Astra?

Mm, I will allow it, Astra decides. Ruby did keep the secret far better than my niece.

“Rude,” Kara mutters. “And it means ‘little one’ in Kryptonian,” she says to Ruby before going back to what her aunt said. “Anyway I was super low on energy then, c’mon.” Her wife rattles off everyone else who knows and she flushes. “Okay Brainy is from the future, that is not my fault, and Cat is the Queen of All Media for a reason.”

Alex makes a strangled sound. “Cat Grant knew you were married before I did? What the fuck, Kara?”

“It sounds like everyone knew before we did,” Sam drawls. “Was this revenge for us eloping? Because, uh…” She trails off, looking away, but Lena already heard her thought.

Oh, Lena thinks, and Kara feels her wife’s sadness. She didn’t want anyone else there because I couldn’t be there. She didn’t want a wedding without me and Jess, and even Jack allegedly being dead played a role.

Kara groans. “Fine, fair enough. But,” she turns to her niece, “I am way too tired to come up with hints, so I am outsourcing it. Anyone got good ones for who the seventh person is?”

Your long-lost murderous aunt Astra from Krypton, a voice drawls, and Kara jumps.

MERI! Three voices yell, excited.

Are you okay? Allo asks, and Kara can tell she’s running to the bed. How come you aren’t waking up?

Lena did say she wouldn’t wake up for a few days, Enna says, also by the bed now, one hand stroking her sister’s feather-hair.

What do you think of our new kidnappers? Jade asks, plopping down by Meri’s feet and very happy to have finally been freed from the egg by Lena. I vote we stay with them, by the way.

“Okay, I’m very glad you’re awake… well, somewhat conscious now,” Kara says, frowning, “but that is not anything like a hint, kir chahv.” Also, why did you say ‘murderous’? Kara adds mentally, her frown deepening. “I mean it isn’t inaccurate, but c’mon.”

Astra’s amusement curls around her then. I figured if Alex was calling Lena your murderous girlfriend then she would call me your murderous aunt, and Meri likely picked up on that. She’s over by the bed too now, Kara can tell, standing back but watching the girls with a smile.

Accurate, Meri says. And I should be okay so long as… Lena continues whatever she is currently doing. As for whether or not we will stay here, I haven’t exactly had time to decide, Jade. They feel her mix of amusement and frustration at that. I’ve apparently only been comatose for a day yet they’ve managed to win you all over, so I suppose you should ask me tomorrow.

“Mm if you aren’t going to fully wake up for awhile then I’m going to feed you more stew,” Kara says, “and that is definitely not going to make you want to stay.”

Just feed her ice cream! Allo says helpfully.

No I kinda wanna see this, Jade thinks. It might wake her up faster.

Neither of you tasted it directly, Enna says, and Kara feels the girl shudder. It was not good. I don’t understand how Lena and Kara eat it.

I agree with Enna, Astra drawls. You will need to find something else to feed her if you wish her to stay, kir chahv.

Lena is too busy checking the state of Meri’s mind now that she’s somewhat awake to say anything, though Kara can feel her wife’s amusement as well now.

Two hands are suddenly on Kara’s face, turning her head so she meets Ruby’s eyes. “Okay, hive mind, focus. I need hints.”

She beat Super kidnapper in a race, Jade offers.

“That is a fact that I’d rather not admit right now, Jade,” Kara grumbles, flushing when she feels her aunt’s amusement. “Next.”

Riddles and hints really weren’t… a thing, on our planet, Enna says, frowning. I know Allo likes solving them, but back home we were all in each other’s heads enough that they simply didn’t exist.

“Enna forfeits because of cultural differences,” Kara says. “Allo?”

Super auntie! Allo hollers excitedly.

“Okay that can be one,” Kara allows.

How is that any different from what I said? Meri asks, and Kara feels her annoyance.

“It leaves more up to interpretation,” Kara says. “Plus I am running out of people.”

Tell her that if your cousin bullies her she can call for me and I will bully him right back, Astra offers, and Kara feels her aunt smirking. Until she knows my name, ‘Super auntie’ will work well enough.

“That is not a hint, that is a promise of violence,” Kara mutters. “But again, I am low on people, so I’ll take it. Any ideas, :zhao?”

Lena pauses her checkup of Meri’s mind long enough to mutter, She called me ‘little one’ and got away with it.

“You actually want me to tell them that?” Kara asks, holding back her laughter when she feels her wife’s annoyance. “No, sorry baby, it’s too late, you offered it as a hint and that makes three.”

“Auntie Kara, hints,” Ruby hisses. “Now.”

She’s bossing Supergirl around, Jade muses. I will say it again, kudos to us for not killing this kid.

Jade! Meri sounds scandalized. We would never kill a child regardless. Though… hm, I do like her.

Kara gently pulls her niece’s hands from her face and sits up in the sun bed, staring at the girl as impatience rolls off her in waves. “Hint one,” she begins, smirking, “she called my wife ‘little one’ and got away with it.”

Sam chokes on nothing and Ruby looks absolutely delighted with this information.

“Hint two,” Kara continues, wincing, “if Clark ever bullies you, call for her and she’ll bully him right back,” she plows on when she feels the Arias-Danvers’ shock at that, “and hint three, and a way to call for her until you’ve been introduced, ‘Super auntie’.”

Kara hops off the bed and ruffles Ruby’s hair, and her niece barely notices, too deep in her own thoughts now that she has her hints.

“And on that note, I am going to go make breakfast— yes, kir chahv, we can have more pancakes… Jade if you want a breakfast pizza you will be helping make it…” Kara narrows her eyes. “Okay, fine, you’re right, Meri is in perfectly fine shape aside from being unconscious so I can make a more flavorful batch of stew. Any other requests?” Kara sighs. “Alright, I am heading to the store and then to go make breakfast. Oh,” she turns to Alex, “do you think people will be freaked out if Supergirl shows up in this suit?”

Alex, Sam, and even Ruby look her over.

“It doesn’t really fit your image,” Sam says carefully.

“Can you at least add a cape?” Alex asks. “If… well, you were on your final backup suit already, but surely one cape had to survive.”

“You kind of look like you’re headed into battle,” Ruby says. “Or! Having a goth phase.”

It is a battle suit, Astra drawls.

I want one too! Allo hollers.

I want to study one, Enna adds, thoughtful. I’m used to being naked all the time at this point, so I don’t know that I want to wear one.

Kara has to hover mid-step before she cracks the floor. “What now?”

Our kind usually wear clothes, Meri says. Allo is young enough that she doesn’t really register our… nudity, which is likely why Lena didn’t notice when she saw her memories.

Kara says a Kryptonian curse that makes Astra blush. “I don’t know why I have no knowledge of your species, but I’m going to need a rundown sooner rather than later.” She turns to Ruby. “Do you want to take a quick flight to your house so I can raid your and your moms’ old clothes?”

Ruby stares at her for a long moment. “Auntie Kara, have you been letting your children run around naked?”

“They’re invisible!” Kara says. “And I assumed their species was one that didn’t wear clothes, but that was apparently incorrect.” She scowls. “We’ll have image inducers for them soon so I can take them clothes shopping then, but for now I am going to raid your closets because none of my clothing survived long enough for me to outgrow it.”

Mm I’m definitely designing your suit to help regulate your intake of sunlight, Lena says. Oh, and see if Ruby knows where your mobile lab is, I’d like to start on your suit sooner rather than later, and the Kryptonian tech will make it easier.

Kara scoops her niece into her arms. “Also, my wife wants my tech lab, so do you know where that is or do I need to poke Alex real quick?”

“Ma keeps it in the den stash,” Ruby says, grinning when Alex gapes. “What? You really aren’t that good at hiding things for a secret agent.” She shakes her head and Alex groans. “Don’t worry, I know where Mom hides everything too. And all the backup hiding spots,” she adds when Sam narrows her eyes. “What do you think I did the first time you finally let me stay home alone?”

Kara takes off then, her niece smirking in her arms and her sister and sister-in-law glowering at her back, and the whole flight to the Arias-Danvers residence is spent with Ruby doing her utmost to join the hive mind, according to Lena. On Kara’s end it’s mostly her niece poking her and staring at her very intently.

Chapter Text

Ruby enjoys raiding her moms’ closet entirely too much, but Lena confirms that the girl only chooses clothes she knows her moms don’t really wear anymore. They fill a box with several outfits that should fit the sisters, Meri and Enna neutral on all of them but Jade excited to get some of Alex’s old clothes and Allo some of Ruby’s, and then Ruby leads the way to the den.

“This spot took me awhile to find, actually, but don’t tell Ma that,” Ruby says. She tugs an armful of books off the bottom shelf of the bookcase and then lays on her stomach, and a moment later she pulls a familiar blue stone out, the diamond shape sparkling in the light. “Why’d she take this from you anyway? It must have been something really bad for her to give up getting any more ‘toys’.”

Kara tosses the rock into the box of clothes and helps her niece to her feet. “I dunno. I was making a new suit for myself and when I showed her the design she took my tech lab.” She frowns when not a single person believes her. “What?”

Kir chahv, her aunt thinks, this suit would not happen to be the one you designed when you were ten, would it?

“I mean I had to make some modifications,” Kara says, waving her hand. “The Fortress didn’t have all the parts I would have needed and this planet is kinda weak so I figured 25% power would be enough.” Her aunt’s shock makes her frown. “What? It was a good design. It would have made it a lot easier to knock out certain opponents.”

Ruby gives her a dubious look. “Aunt Kara, were you going to make a war suit?”

“It wasn’t for war!” Kara crosses her arms. “It…” She thinks of her design then, and her brow crinkles when her wife feels both impressed and concerned and Jade is practically salivating. “Hm, was it a war suit?”

My love, Lena thinks, even a human with a single one of those suits could start and end a third world war. My brother tried to make a war suit and… well I didn’t find it impressive even then but compared to yours it may as well have been made of cardboard. I understand why your sister took your lab now.

“What’s Auntie Lena say?” Ruby asks, quirking a single eyebrow.

Kara blushes. “That it could have started and ended a third world war,” she mumbles, and her niece cackles. “I tried to make it weaker, Rao.”

Her aunt’s amusement tickles her then. Little one, do you know why Krypton and Daxam did not go to war in your lifetime?

Kara’s brow crinkles. “Uh, I do remember my parents worrying we’d go to war with them, but then there was some big party and jeju said you scared them out of it during peace negotiations?”

Actually, you scared them out of it, Astra thinks, and Kara feels her aunt grin. I showed off the prototype of that suit, at only 60% power, and they were suddenly much more willing to negotiate.

Kara should probably be more shocked at that, her wife and children certainly are, but… she’s far too embarrassed. “That was a prototype,” she whispers, covering her face. “It wasn’t meant to be seen yet.” There was still so much she hadn’t gotten working, the left arm’s beam couldn’t even cut cleanly through a mile of nth metal and the right arm’s targeting was inaccurate 7% of the time—

Her spiral is interrupted by her niece’s… smugness? Kara peeks through her fingers to find Ruby grinning at her.

“I knew it,” Ruby declares. “Super auntie is your aunt Astra, isn’t she?”

Kara squeaks and her own shock is echoed by everyone in her mind, even her wife having been too distracted by the war suit to pick up on Ruby’s thoughts in time. “Rubes, how?”

Ruby smirks. “If she called Aunt Lena ‘little one’ and got away with it, she has to be older and part of the family, if she can bully Superman she has to be at least as strong as you, and ‘Super auntie’ was the clincher. I didn’t know for sure til just now though.”

“I… am very bad at keeping secrets now,” Kara mutters. She narrows her eyes when her niece opens her mouth. “Don’t you dare, kir chahv, I am an excellent liar and you know it.”

Ruby tilts her head, considering, and Kara winces when her wife and aunt both mentally pinch her, Jade already cackling and Meri mentally shaking her head. “Okay, fair enough. My moms still don’t know that you take me into space for my birthdays.”

“Aunt Astra why did you pinch me, you did the same with me and I was literally a baby,” Kara mutters.

YOU HAVE A SPACESHIP? Allo yells. Super Kara I wanna fly around the Earth too!

What were you planning to use it for? Enna asks. It looks like it’s designed for long flights but based on what Ruby remembers it can’t leave the Earth’s orbit.

“I ran out of parts,” Kara mutters. “I… oh, actually I don’t really need to do that now, huh.” She frowns. “Well, I still might tinker with it if I can find what I need. Just in case.” Kara doesn’t bother trying to hide what her plan for the ship was, and she feels Astra’s shock so strongly she nearly stumbles.

Ruby is heading back towards the front door, the box of clothes in her arms, and hums happily. “So you were planning a prison break,” the girl says, ignoring when Kara sputters. “What? It wasn’t hard to figure out. Every time we went up you told me about your aunt and how she was in some prison fortress in space or something.” Ruby pauses and turns to Kara, her eyes narrowed. “Wait, she isn’t here because you already went and broke her out, right?”

“I haven’t been gone for a few weeks so no,” Kara says. “She landed when I did, apparently. And don’t tell your moms anything about her until we’ve had time to, uh, clean some things up.” Kara looks around suspiciously when her wife reminds her of something. “And that goes for Jess and— uh, the nanobots, too, if you’re listening.”

It will take me a few days to teach Enna how to hack everywhere we need to, Lena muses, and to find where Sam and Brainy hid the backups. So they only need to keep mum until then.

“Just for a few days,” Kara adds, waving her hand. “Then we can introduce everyone.”

Ruby is frowning. “Aunt Jess is gonna tell my moms about the space trips isn’t she?” She scowls. “And the doll house.”

Oh she definitely is, Lena says, pinching Kara again. She’s been wanting to tell Sam about the space trips for awhile now, and… there may be a few of Jack’s bots trapped in your ship. Also, I want a tour of that ridiculous doll house later.

“She already knew and will tattle, yes. And some of the nanobots got caught by my security system so there’s some kind of footage,” Kara says, sighing. “My wife is also not pleased at the moment. I didn’t even take you that far—“ She cuts off with a yelp when Lena sends her the memory of an icy-cold pinch. “Cheater.”

Kir chahv, Astra says, over her shock enough to speak now, Please tell me you were not actually planning to go back to the Phantom Zone to break me out of Fort Rozz.

“Well it was gonna be a lot easier before Krypton blew up,” Kara mutters. “Once I got here I had to figure out transportation, and remake everything I needed. And I needed to find a few more parts still.”

She feels her aunt’s frustration then, and though Astra tries to hide it there’s also happiness and love at knowing just how far her niece was willing to go for her. What exactly was your plan when you were still on Krypton? Her aunt asks, now feeling amused. Were you going to hide me in your room and hope your parents wouldn’t notice?

Kara rolls her eyes. “I was going to send you to Earth, actually.” Her brow crinkles and she wonders why Earth specifically— a bolt of pain flashing through her skull faster than she can throw up a shield eradicates the rest of the thought and she continues, her wife for some reason sending everyone a quick burst of healing and calm. “They did destroy all the ships like jeju told you but they didn’t do a great job and I already had one half built from all the scrap parts.”

I now understand why so many of your later creations seemed geared for escape, Astra muses, though Kara can tell her aunt is feeling curious about something else and not voicing it. I still do not know how Alura continued smuggling them onto Fort Rozz, though I will say a few of them were far too volatile to use even on a ship that large.

Kara gasps. “That’s why my prototypes kept disappearing. I thought my parents were trying to keep me from breaking you out but they were setting it up so you could break yourself out.” She frowns, tapping the box of clothes with her glasses to store it. “If I’d known that I wouldn’t have hidden all the best ones, sorry about that.” She thinks of a few things then that make even her aunt feel impressed, but before Lena and Enna can start interrogating her Ruby locks the door behind them— after giving Kara a look that makes her wife laugh— and they’re headed back to the DEO.

She drops her niece off on the landing pad and, already dreading the lecture she’s going to get later, refuses to meet Sam or Alex’s eyes, even as she brushes against both of them before leaving Ruby there. Kara zooms to the store, once again checking out with a cart full of food before heading home.

When she lands on the balcony Allo jumps on her immediately, yelling about pancakes and spaceships, and Kara carries the child in one arm as she heads to the kitchen. When Enna comes in, Kara absently brushes a hand over the girl’s feather-hair in greeting, and she helps her put all the food away as Kara idly answers both of the girls’ questions about space travel and ice cream flavors. They head to the bedroom after, Kara with Allo in one arm and the box of clothes in the other, and after depositing both on the empty side of her bed she zooms to the other side, where Jade has fallen sleep beside Meri, and brushes her hand over both of the girls’ feather-hair as well.

Lena is sitting up in bed, one hand resting on Meri’s shoulder and the other now petting Allo’s feather-hair, as the girl had flopped onto her lap as soon as Kara set her down. Kara hovers enough to lean over and kiss her wife’s cheek, and when she lands and turns her aunt is behind her, arms crossed as she scrutinizes her.

“What?” Kara asks, brow crinkling. When she was small she would run at her aunt much like Allo runs at her, but now she’s as tall as Astra, and her arms are crossed so a hug would be a bit awkward… her aunt sighs and steps forward, embracing Kara so tightly it’s hard to breathe for a moment, and when she pulls away Kara feels far more settled even as both her aunt and wife’s worry thrum through her.

“Kir chahv,” Astra says, holding Kara at arm’s length. “Why are you still checking for the shapeshifter?”

Kara squints at her aunt, pain already pulsing at the base of her skull, and shakes her head. “I don’t know what you mean?” She winces when she feels her aunt’s fear, but then Astra pushes it away, leaning forward to kiss Kara’s forehead before releasing her.

It could simply be habit at this point, Lena says, but Kara can tell her wife doesn’t believe whatever it is she’s talking about. She had to break herself of being so tactile when my powers made it… difficult, for me, Lena says, but since I can handle it now and since we’ve, ah, made her remember things recently, it could… be due to that.

Jade groans and sits up. “Yes, Super kidnapper is brainwashed, now can we have breakfast?” Enna flicks her and Meri follows suit mentally. “What? Psychic kidnapper and Super auntie can worry all day, it isn’t gonna change that she doesn’t want to remember. So I say we move this to the kitchen, cuz I want breakfast pizza.”

Kara turns to Jade with both eyebrows raised. “I’m all for that but first, you are putting clothes on. I am not going to subject myself to my sister’s teasing because my children are nudists, thank you very much.”

“I call the leather jacket!” Jade hollers, diving for the box. She yanks it out along with some more of Alex’s old clothes, and a moment later Kara kinda feels like there’s a young, invisible Alex across from her. “Just wait til I have an image inducer,” Jade says, and when Kara sees the girl’s plan to steal teenage Alex’s look entirely for at least one meeting with adult Alex she cackles even as her wife pinches her.

“I have plenty of pictures we can reference,” Kara says gleefully. “I’m actually looking forward to making these image inducers now.” She gets another pinch for that and gives her wife a quick kiss as Allo raids the box, pulling out Ruby’s old Supergirl pajamas with a happy squeal and putting them on quickly. She pulls the short red cape out last and holds it out to Kara, jumping up and down. Kara clips it on with a flourish. “Super Allo appears!” Kara says grandly, happy when even her wife and aunt’s worry fade in the wake of the child’s excitement.

Allo takes off running around the apartment, cape fluttering behind her as she cackles maniacally, and Kara looks to see Enna picking through the clothes that are left, frowning at all of them.

“Do I have to wear something?” Enna asks, and Kara is pretty sure she’s pouting. “Clothes on our planet were a lot softer than this, and also ‘invisible’ as you put it.” She pokes a sweater. “And again, I am used to being naked now.”

Enna, Meri says, Kara is already planning on taking you shopping once the image inducers are ready, and you can find softer clothes that you like then. For now, please at least try to wear something.

Lena watches the girl continue to rifle through the clothes, and after a quick check with Kara she waves her hand, opening the closet and floating Kara’s softest pajama top and pants over, depositing them beside the box. These are a little large for you, but they’re far softer, if you’d like to try them on instead.

Enna slowly pulls the clothes on, and once she’s cuffed the pants and rolled the sleeves up to her elbows she sighs. “This is going to take awhile to get used to.”

“Any clothes in here or the closet you wanna try, Meri?” Kara asks. She dumps the few outfits left in the box onto the bed, separating them by size, and when Meri gives her a mental shrug Kara chooses a high school t-shirt of Sam’s and a pair of Alex’s old sweatpants. Deciding to cheat, Kara taps them with the side of her glasses that stores her suit before slipping the glasses onto Meri’s face and pressing the button, tucking the glasses away once the clothes appear on her.

Alright, Meri thinks then, Enna is correct, this is going to take some time to get used to. And this planet’s clothes are a bit… scratchy. Lena floats another pair of Kara’s pajamas over and with the help of her glasses Meri is quickly changed. Thank you, though I do see why Kara is so happy to have a ‘battle suit’ now.

Jade scoffs, reaching out and catching Allo when she tries to race past. “We’re both fine, you two just need to learn to suffer for the sake of fashion.” She holds her sister above her head, Allo mimicking Kara’s flight pose, before setting her down and putting her hands on her hips in the pose she apparently knows Kara stole from Alex.

Kara shakes her head and turns back to Meri. “I would let you borrow my suit but I need something to wear since all my old suits got, uh, destroyed,” Kara says, grimacing. “Though I am gonna have to salvage a cape at least.” She almost laughs when she feels her wife’s annoyance as she slowly and reluctantly begins to take Kara’s old cape off her shoulders. “Nope, sorry, that one is yours now,” Kara says, pressing a kiss to Lena’s forehead when she feels her relief and shame. “Don’t worry about it, baby girl, I just don’t take back gifts is all.” She grins and heads to her closet. “One of em must be wearable still.” She grabs a small satchel and peers into it. “Hm, hopefully.”

My love, Lena thinks, is that a fucking pocket dimension? She mumbles a Kryptonian curse when four voices singsong ‘language’ at her, Meri apparently happy to join in.

“Uh, yes? I have… a lot of things in storage,” Kara mumbles, gesturing to the bags and purses that litter the bottom of her closet. “Alex tried to borrow a purse once and almost released my baby sun eater.” Her wife and children are not as concerned as they should be by that and Kara is momentarily thankful (which immediately makes Lena suspicious, oops), but her aunt of course knows what it is.

“Kir chahv,” Astra says, slowly walking over to her. “How do you even have one of those? And why would you keep it?” They all see her aunt’s memory then: a whole fleet of Kryptonian ships chasing off a full-grown sun eater that dared to approach Rao, and they followed it long enough that they saw it swallow a small sun in a neighboring system whole.

“Super Kara,” Allo says, trotting over. “Are you gonna take over the Earth?”

“Of course not,” Kara says, scoffing. “Do you have any idea how much work that would be? Just because I… maybe have a few too many world-threatening things, well. I’m not planning on using any of them.”

Darling, Lena says, her concern making Kara frown, please answer your aunt’s questions.

“Clark caught it,” Kara says, her nose wrinkling at the memory. “He wanted to kill it, but… it’s just a baby! A very dangerous baby, yes,” a dull throb pulses through her mind for half a second, “but it didn’t choose to be born a sun eater. So I… made it a little solar system that spawns tiny suns for it to eat.” She turns to her wife, sheepish. “It has plenty of enrichment and I check on it every once in awhile to make sure I’m not feeding it too much. It… doesn’t really enjoy being handled or pet and it kinda nibbles on me… oh I probably taste like sunlight, hm, but it also nibbles on Alex and she’s definitely human… anyway I mostly leave it alone.”

Jade comes over then, poking at the bags. “So how many of these could destroy the Earth if we opened them? Just asking.”

“Only that one… okay maybe don’t touch that one either,” Kara says, grabbing the girl’s hand before she can poke a bright green purse. “It’s probably fine, but…”

Jade backs away and pulls Allo with her, and Kara’s aunt just shakes her head. “Kir chahv, you need to keep things like this in a more secure location. Until your wife moved in you did not even lock your apartment door.”

“The Fortress isn’t secure since Clark has access, and I do have a security system,” Kara grumbles, and she frowns when everyone feels shocked at that. “How irresponsible do you think I am?”

Currently, Meri says, sounding far too amused, I am considering letting us all stay with you solely to keep you from destroying this planet by accident.

Kara turns to the bed and blinks several times. “Y’know what, whatever works, kir chahv. I did almost turn Argo City into a crater on a few occasions so…” She shrugs. “And my security system is just for certain things. If someone came in and stole my television or something it wouldn’t trigger.”

We’re getting a house, Lena thinks then. And I am making you a vault with the highest security I can manage. When Kara frowns at this her wife glares at her. You will use it, my love, and you will have to make a case for anything you do not wish to store there. She smirks. Otherwise I’m telling Sam about the sun eater.

Kara squeaks. “I’m already gonna be in trouble with her later today, that’s not fair!”

Jade flicks her shoulder. “Okay, breakfast, Super kidnapper. We are all clothed now and I need pizza.” She heads for the kitchen, Allo in tow.

“One more thing,” Astra says, walking over to the bed as Kara pulls the least-destroyed cape she has out of the satchel. Astra pulls a black cuff from another hidden pocket and hands it to a very surprised Lena. “My sister smuggled three battle suits onto Fort Rozz, and I would rather give this to you than to my niece’s cousin. Studying it should aid you both in making a new suit for Kara and softer clothes for your pickier children.” She smirks when she feels Meri and Enna’s annoyance at that, but adds mentally that she exclusively wears her own battle suit for a reason, which mollifies them.

They all feel Lena’s slight annoyance then. While I appreciate this, truly, I don’t know that I want anything of Clark Kent’s. She takes the cuff with a funny look on her face. Even if he’s never touched it.

Kara zooms over and takes the cuff from her wife, slipping it on and watching as an identical battle suit takes the place of hers. She slips her first cuff off then and hands it back to Lena, ignoring Astra’s amusement at the whole thing. “There, now you have mine and I have stolen my cousin’s. All is as it should be.” She clips her backup cape to her suit and triggers her glasses so she’s in the pajamas she was last wearing. “Now, I need to go start breakfast before Jade burns the apartment down, because she’s currently on track to be banned from my kitchen like Aunt Astra is.”

“RUDE!” Jade hollers. A moment later, “ENNA CAN YOU COME IN HERE PLEASE?” Enna sighs and heads to the kitchen, and Kara feels her annoyance as she puts out a few small fires, Allo laughing all the while and then coughing when she drops the bag of flour and it poofs out all over her.

Are you certain you want to keep us? Meri asks, and though Kara can feel she’s mostly joking there’s an undercurrent of resignation as well.

Lena looks down at the sleeping girl with narrowed eyes and projects both her and Kara’s emotions at that. Yes, we are certain, a stóirín. She begins stroking Meri’s feather-hair, even longer and softer than Jade’s from what Kara can tell. You were not awake for it, but my wife is quite insistent that by Kryptonian standards even you are still a child, and thus we will be keeping you.

Kara smirks. “You left out that what I say goes cuz my god complex is well-founded, what with being the strongest being ever. Not… that I can use that strength, but still.” She lets Meri poke around her mind for the context and feels the girl’s concern.

You… aren’t planning on taking over or destroying the world, are you? Meri asks, genuinely worried now. From what little I know of you I think you could do either fairly easily, Kara.

Astra comes over then and begins gently pushing Kara towards the kitchen. “If my niece were so inclined, it would have happened when she was infected with red kryptonite. Now, even Enna is struggling to keep Jade in check, so go make breakfast, kir chahv.”

Kara zooms into the kitchen and uses her freeze breath to put out the small fires Jade had started before using her super speed to clean up the mess Allo already made, Enna holding them both still while Kara does so. As she makes breakfast, carefully directing Allo and Jade to do what will cause the least amount of damage, she senses her aunt, wife, and eldest child discussing things that make her head start hurting, so she focuses on making the food instead. Allo very nearly makes ceiling pancakes yet again, and Jade’s breakfast pizza turns out surprisingly well considering she somehow set some of the ingredients on fire before she even put them in the oven.

Everyone but Meri comes into the dining room once the food is done, Kara scooting her wife’s chair so that it touches hers, making sure she’s in physical contact with Lena for the whole meal and sending her plenty of energy all the while. When they’re all finished eating, Jade races to steal the big tub, already knowing she won’t be able to in the evenings, and Kara bundles Allo into the egg for a checkup before feeding Meri a much more flavorful stew that the girl nevertheless does not appreciate.

I need to do something a little… odd, Lena says as Kara lays Meri back on the bed. Her wife bites her lip, looking from Kara to Meri and back, before continuing. I don’t know if it was intentional, but the collar sort of made a… barrier of damage, I suppose, between her conscious and subconscious mind. I can fix it, but it would be best if Meri weren’t… present, for that.

Enna comes over, Astra on her heels. “What does that mean, exactly?” The girl asks, one hand falling to rest on her sister’s shoulder.

You want to put me in Kara’s mind, Meri says, already picking up on what Lena is thinking. Is that… can her mind handle having a whole other mind in it?

Kara idly shields everyone from a pulse of pain flashing through her head at that, though her wife gives her a funny look a moment later. She flops down on the other side of the bed. “I am the base for the hive mind, and I’ve had my wife hanging out in my head for months now, so it’s probably fine.” Her aunt apparently does not agree with this, because she starts smoothing Kara’s hair back and watching Lena warily.

“I know my niece is extremely intelligent,” Astra begins, “but between regulating her strength and having all of us in her mind, are you certain she can handle this?”

Lena pauses a moment before levitating herself over Kara and plopping down between her and Meri, placing a hand on both of their foreheads, her face pinched in concentration. Yes, she decides. Though she’ll likely break… many things, and she’ll need to use less of her super speed. She won’t be able to react in time otherwise.

If it’s just going to be painful, I’ll be fine, Meri tries. I am used to pain by now. Her surprise when everyone is angry at this is palpable, all but her sisters enraged in part at a child saying such a thing. I am an adult, you know.

“Not til you’re twenty,” Kara says, “you’re still a baby right now.”

I am not, Meri thinks, her anger prickling at Kara’s mind. You two aren’t even much older than me.

A fatal mistake, Jade chimes in from the bathroom. Super kidnapper was in the Phantom Zone for over two decades and they only count that time when it comes to being older than us. She no longer seems annoyed by this. Also, when we have a house I want a tub like this.

“Noted,” Kara says. “Now, are we certain we want to do this before today’s meeting? Because if so I reserve the right to tune out when Sam and Alex lecture me for taking my niece on a short outing.”

Into space, Meri corrects. Which humans are not used to. And if you take any of my sisters to space without me present you will regret it, Supergirl or not.

Kara huffs. “I made the ship myself, it’s the safest there is. And we only ran into other people like two times.” She makes the mistake of recalling those instances— one a very drunk traveler who insisted on regaling them with tales even Kara couldn’t make sense of and the other the entirety of Daxam’s survivors, Queen Rhea going from overtly hostile to overly accommodating after Kara had introduced herself. “That was kind of weird,” Kara acknowledges, “but it did let me get rid of Mon-El, and they left once I brought their prince to them that night.”

They were definitely planning on invading Earth, Jade drawls.

“They were very nice,” Kara says. “Which… again, kind of weird.” She shrugs when she feels Astra’s distaste. “I know you and jeju never had anything good to say about Rhea, but she was fine, uh, once I… introduced myself…”

Astra is trying and failing to hide her smile. “Kir chahv, Rhea was there when I demonstrated your war suit, and she was the most afraid when I told them the age and name of its creator. Your suit prevented not one but two wars.”

Super Kara! Allo hollers, asleep in the egg. I wanna go to space and almost get kidnapped too! Her sisters’ annoyance at this makes Kara laugh.

“Ruby was fine,” Kara says. “There is no world in which I’d let her board a Daxamite ship, and again, I made my ship myself. Their entire fleet wouldn’t stand a chance against it.” She turns back to her wife then, electing to ignore when even her aunt is shocked at that. “Now, please put our eldest child in my head so I can tune out my incoming lecture.”

Lena pinches her for that, then pulls her up into a kiss that is… less than chaste, Astra and Enna both turning away and Kara using the opportunity to further deepen the kiss, one hand wound loosely in her wife’s hair. When Lena finally pulls away, both of them flushed, she kisses both of Kara’s cheeks before releasing her, and they resettle on the bed. I can’t exactly kiss my wife when Meri is in her mind, so, Lena says, shrugging one shoulder when Jade declares she chose a very good time to not be in the room. It’s easy enough to isolate our connection for a brief kiss, you know.

“Please make a psychic inhibitor,” Enna repeats. “Or give me the means to.”

Astra makes a noise of agreement. “And a soundproof bedroom for your house, we should all be able to control our own dreams well enough by then.”

Kara’s wife once again isolates their connection, Kara now daydreaming about the house despite her earlier annoyance, and after both a mental and physical pinch Kara blinks back into awareness, Meri now worried for a different reason.

While it would be ideal to wait until after the meeting, Lena thinks, biting her lip, if I do it now, Kara can refuel during the meeting and then return to give me energy which I can use to start healing Meri. If we put it all off until after the meeting… Meri may end up tagging along when Kara returns to work on Monday, which I don’t think would go well.

“Yeah, I don’t need Cat overtly teasing me for breaking things,” Kara mutters, grimacing. She looks at her aunt then. “Especially not when I can hear your commentary the whole time.”

Astra rolls her eyes and sits on the bed beside Kara. “Fine, kir chahv, do what you must. But do not forget that you still have people who will use kryptonite against you soon, and I will kill them if it comes to it.”

“Understood,” Kara mutters. “Mm, baby you will still be able to pilot my body with Meri’s mind also there, right?”

Yes, though if she tries she may also be able to, Lena says. And given that she will be fully in your mind, the cap on your super strength may not apply.

No ‘piloting’ Kara unless I want to accidentally destroy the world, noted, Meri drawls, though they both feel her nerves. Are we sure this is necessary?

It isn’t just pain I am trying to protect you from, Lena admits. Healing the last of the damage may… affect your memories. If I move your ‘self’ elsewhere, we can avoid that. I don’t know how much you’ll forget otherwise.

Kara feels all of the girls’ fear then, followed by Meri’s determination. I’ll be careful, let’s do it.

Lena begins the process of… moving Meri into Kara’s mind, which on Kara’s end just makes her sleepy, enough that as Jade comes out of their bathroom, already back in her leather jacket, Kara’s eyes slip closed and she falls into a dreamless sleep for the first time in awhile.

When Kara awakens it’s to the smell of food, and she can feel that she’s sandwiched between two people, one curled against her side and the other sitting and stroking her hair. She also notices that the part of her brain that usually regulates her movements and strength when she sleeps has switched to simply keeping her still, the constant monitoring of the force she exerts now too much for her to do while resting.

Sorry about that, Meri says, and Kara feels the girl’s presence in her mind, far greater now than it was before, and taking up far more… room, in a way. Mm, Lena was thinking of your mind as a kind of… Earth super computer, and I think she was correct. That you can still function with me here is fascinating.

Kara’s brow crinkles and she opens her eyes blearily. “I am super in many ways, but please no one compare me to an Earth computer ever again, those things are archaic.”

Everyone’s relief floods her then, and Astra smiles down at her as both her and her wife’s amusement curls around her.

If you’re still capable of putting down Earth tech I think you’re fine, darling, Lena thinks, waking and stretching beside her. She gets up enough to lean on one elbow, pressing her other hand to Kara’s forehead, and Kara feels her wife doing a sort of mental inventory. Mm, everything worked as I figured it would. We should be able to put Meri back in her own body tomorrow night.

Kara hums, exhausted both physically and mentally at this point despite her nap. “Mmkay, now why do I smell food?” Her stomach growls then and she feels surprised… no, Meri feels surprised.

Sorry, I just didn’t realize someone could feel that hungry, Meri says. It’s a good thing you enjoy Earth food so much.

“YOU WILL TOO ONCE YOU HAVE ICE CREAM!” Allo yells from the kitchen. “Ooh or once Super Kara has ice cream since you’re in her head?” She gasps quietly. “You’re gonna get to have more junk food than me now, not fair.”

“We made lunch,” Enna says, speaking at a normal volume. “Allo and Jade can be quite helpful when they actually try.”

“Rude,” Jade grumbles, already halfway through a slice of pizza that Kara can for some reason also taste. “Yeah that’s cuz Meri’s in your head— our mental bond works a little differently than your hive mind thing.”

They also made stew at Lena’s insistence, Meri says then. I forbade Enna from taste-testing it.

Kara turns to look at her wife, eyes narrowed. “You’re only gonna eat stew for lunch, aren’t you?”

Lena purses her lips. Moving Meri into your mind took… far too much power, yes. Once I get more energy from you… well, a few times, really, I should be able to eat dinner at least? She smirks at Kara and her aunt then. And I will be helping make dinner, which of course will be very, very nutritious.

Kara groans and slowly sits up, wary of breaking her bed… again. “On that note, I am going to go eat, and… well, good luck to my new taste bud buddies tonight cuz I’m pretty sure vegetables taste worse to me than they do to humans.”

Her wife pinches her for that. I am well aware and have made several adjustments to what we cook so that they taste better to you, my love. Quit trying to turn our children into sugar addicts.

“I’M A SUGAR BABY!” Allo yells, then, “Ow, why’d you flick me? What’s it mean then?”

“Not that,” Jade drawls. “And you have to be an adult first.”

“How does that make sense?” Allo asks, scowling.

“Everyone, come eat before it gets cold!” Enna yells, flicking both of her sisters as she heads to the table.

“Why do I have to feel all of the flicks now?” Kara grumbles as she rolls out of bed, gingerly setting a foot on the floor.

We feel it every time you get pinched, if it’s any consolation, Meri says, her amusement washing away Kara’s annoyance.

Mm, so we all suffer together, Lena muses, smoothing her hand over Meri’s feather-hair one last time before standing alongside Kara. El mayarah.

Kara and Astra both snort at that, and Astra helps Lena, who is even more exhausted than Kara from what she can tell, to the kitchen as Kara carefully follows, still getting a feel for maneuvering with a mental passenger.

“Jor-El would hate to hear his esteemed family motto used that way,” Astra says, grinning.

“Too bad,” Kara says, pushing aside the rush of anger she feels at hearing her uncle’s name… anger that her aunt definitely felt, Astra glancing back at her curiously now… a dull throb of pain in her mind makes the thoughts fall away, even as she elects to stop bothering to shield everyone from her headaches since Lena definitely noticed again… and she isn’t sure she can do it with Meri in her head now anyway. “I’m the only Kryptonian left who even uses it, and everyone here is my family, so if we wanna use it that way we can. It isn’t… inaccurate, honestly.”

They all take their seats at the table, Lena once again leaning against Kara, though this time it isn’t so Kara can send her more energy but rather so Lena doesn’t fall over.

Nia texted to say that she’ll be coming to get you, Lena thinks, slowly eating her stew and ignoring how everyone but Kara watches with horror. And that she had Brainy set up the sun bed room ‘as much like a conference room as possible’.

Kara hums around a bite of surprisingly delicious ‘anything but veggies’ pizza, and Jade glowers at her. “Why is that surprising? I made it.”

That’s why it’s surprising, Meri says, and Kara sleepily dodges the piece of crust thrown at her. Jade, since when do you throw food? Meri is very displeased with this development, and Allo cackles when Jade hurriedly gets up and retrieves the crust, throwing it in the trash.

“I dunno, it just kinda happened,” the girl mutters as she sits back down.

“Probably my fault,” Kara mumbles. “Used to get into food fights with Alex all the time. ‘Cept I’d catch any food she threw and eat it. Too tired right now, try later.”

I’d really rather you didn’t, Lena drawls even as Astra struggles to contain her laughter, all of them now seeing a memory Kara’s aunt has of watching one such food fight, a teenage Kara leaping high in the air to catch a wayward pancake her sister hurled like a frisbee.

The rest of the meal passes far too quickly for Kara’s liking, and she’s only halfway through the tub of ice cream Allo had shoved into her hands ‘so Meri will also like Earth food’ when there’s a knock at the door.

Surprising all of them, Astra zooms out of her chair and into the living room, opening the door before the person can knock a second time, and Kara almost laughs when Nia makes a small ‘eep’ sound, her surprise flooding them all.

“Your dreams do not tell you everything, I see,” Astra muses.

“Um,” Nia says, and Kara hears her gulp. “Are you the bodyguard-stalker?”

“Yes,” Astra says, sounding quite proud of that. “And yes, I will still take care of any who dare to use kryptonite against Kara.” Kir chahv, Astra adds mentally, are you going to come in here or do I need to come get you? She makes her intention clear then— Kara can come in or Astra can come carry her in— and Kara presses a quick kiss to her highly amused wife’s cheek before clambering to her feet and stumbling into the living room, already dreading having to step foot outside of her reinforced apartment.

“I’m here, chill,” Kara mumbles, and accidentally bumps into her aunt hard enough that she almost knocks her over. “Rao, sorry. That’s… not a good sign.”

Nia is no longer gawking at her aunt, and is instead looking at Kara, who can feel her concern. “Holy shit, you’re even worse off than last time.” Her brow furrows as she watches Astra steady Kara, who gives in and leans heavily against her, trusting her aunt far more than her own body at this point. “Any chance your bodyguard-stalker can help me get you into my car?”

“I will be accompanying you as far as the DEO parking entrance,” Astra says. When Nia’s mouth drops open in shock she gives her a wide smile. “Unless of course you want Kara to destroy your car? Her strength is not as controlled as it usually is.”

Sorry again, Meri says, her guilt flooding Kara. If I had only—

“Enough, kir chahv,” Kara mumbles. “I kidnapped you and so I shall care for you, that is that.” She nods to herself. “And this will be… mm, easier once I have sunned. Uh, used the bed. Of the sun. Oh Rao.”

Nia and her aunt are staring at her now and she can feel everyone’s worry. Well, almost everyone.

“Super Kara!” Allo comes running into the living room, the half-full tub of ice cream in her hands. “Can I finish your ice cream?” Kara is long used to sensing the children with her mind, but she briefly sees the scene through Nia’s eyes: a tiny Supergirl pajama suit running in with a tub of ice cream floating with it, and she can’t help but laugh. “I’m taking that as a yes!” Allo says happily, now eating the ice cream as Nia’s shock grows at watching the invisible child eat.

Jess is going to arrive at least fifteen minutes early, Lena says then, and she must be projecting her voice to Nia too because the young woman’s eyes widen. So I suggest you leave now so you can begin to refuel before your lecture.

Kara groans at the reminder. “Space isn’t that far,” she mumbles. She squints down the hallway then and turns to her aunt. “Mm take it back, hallway is too far. Up.” She holds her arms up like she did when she was small and her aunt’s amusement now rivals her concern even as she scoops Kara into her arms. “Thankee.” Nia’s shock at this isn’t even enough to keep Kara awake now that her hunger is satisfied, and her eyes slip closed before they even make it out the door.

She wakes again when Nia pulls over near the DEO and finds herself curled up in the backseat, Astra holding her securely. Kara yawns and her aunt activates her battle suit so that it ripples out, replacing Kara’s pajamas with smooth black fabric and a slightly holey cape. Her aunt makes an annoyed sound, pinching the edge of her cape between two fingers and holding it up to scrutinize one of the larger holes. “Kir chahv, did you fight some kind of… acidic slime alien?”

Kara manages to recall a quick flash of the fight, and it makes her aunt grimace. A snort of amusement from the front passenger seat almost makes her jump, but Meri was luckily expecting that and floods Kara with her own calm contentment. Jade tagged along because we all doubted Nia’s ability to get you into the sun bed, Meri explains.

“Fair ‘nough,” Kara mumbles, frowning when she remembers that her aunt still needs to steer clear of the DEO. “Need to hack em sooner.”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Nia drawls. “Now, what’s the plan, Kara’s instant family?”

“I will be leaving now,” Astra says. “Assuming Kara can… not move long enough for you to park and for Jade to get her out of the car.” She cups Kara’s cheek with one hand and tilts her face so their eyes meet. “Will you be alright, little one?” Astra asks softly in Kryptonian, and it’s… it reminds Kara of when she was little little and her y… aunt was about to leave for some mission or another and Kara was crying and her parents tried to just get Astra to leave but she still checked in with her anyway, and it makes Kara feel warm and fuzzy and like she wants to cling to her ye… aunt even tighter but that would be a bad idea right now so she doesn’t.

“That was sweet, but also the most incoherent ramble I’ve ever heard you have,” Jade muses. “Good luck to us all.”

Kara glowers at the passenger seat, blearily noting that Astra is feeling surprised about something. “Mini Alex,” she grumbles before turning to press her face against her aunt’s shoulder, being extra super careful and ignoring Jade’s snicker at that thought. “I’m okee dokee. Too… hazy to be… claus… claus’phobic right now.” She instinctively shields her next thought then, even from Meri, though she isn’t sure how she manages that: she is actually feeling very claustrophobic but instead of making her try to escape it makes her want to curl up and not move, makes her feel that she can’t move, really, and just moving about slightly feels odd and kind of scary, like her body isn’t hers or she’s never maneuvered it before.

It is disturbingly easy for me to manipulate her emotions at the moment, Meri adds, Kara flushing with the girl’s embarrassment at this. Case in point. So if need be I should be able to calm her down.

“What the hell did you do, Kara?” Nia asks. “I know you’re sending your wife your energy but you’ve been doing that for awhile now.”

Kara squints at her as Astra gently extricates herself and slips out of the car, vanishing to a nearby rooftop to wait for Jade. “Mm she used… too much power… I wasn’t s’posed to but I think I… increased the energy I was sending her… and now here we are again.” She turns and glowers at nothing. “On video, prolly.”

Nia is driving into the DEO parking garage now, and it takes her a moment, but, “Holy shit the nanobot dude got this on video last time too, didn’t he?” She asks, delighted, and Jade and even Astra are laughing now, and Kara can feel her wife laughing too. Kara pouts and her wife sends the ghost of a kiss to her cheek.

I would also like to see the video, Meri admits. Do you think he’ll show us at the meeting we’re headed to or wait for your Earth wedding?

Kara actually whimpers. “Nooo if he shows it at… the wedding then Cat’ll see it… I’m doomed.” Only Meri flooding her with calmness keeps her from banging her head on the seat she’s laying on. “Oops… almost killed your car, sorry.” Nia and Jade both stay silent after that, Meri doing her best to keep her amusement at this from making Kara laugh.

Once the car is parked, Jade hops out and opens the back door, contemplating for a moment before remembering Kara is still more durable than her right now, a thought that makes Kara tense just in time for Jade to yank her out roughly and easily scoop her into her arms. “This is embarrassing,” Kara mumbles, Meri echoing the sentiment.

Do not worry too much, little ones, Astra thinks to them, I will be flying Jade home in much the same manner. Kara feels her aunt’s amusement when Jade feels equally as embarrassed at that, and she does her best to remain still while Nia leads them into the DEO, taking the routes with the least amount of people as possible.

Every person you’ve passed is more focused on the invisible person in the leather jacket than on you, Lena says, her amusement settling Kara’s nerves. Vasquez in particular is now worried your sister somehow turned invisible and changed her outfit in the last ten minutes since she saw her.

They finally make it to the room with the sun bed, which Kara blearily notices has a few more chairs arrayed around it now, and Jade— after a mental flick from both Meri and Enna— gently sets her down as Nia turns the lamps on.

“Okay, I’m out,” Jade says, turning to go.

“Wait,” Kara mumbles, and the girl pauses, turning back. “Nia, poke me please.” Nia raises both her eyebrows but pokes Kara’s cheek, and after staring at her for a moment, Kara nods. “Okee dokee. Have fun on the way down.”

Jade shakes her head. “Oh they’re definitely here,” she mutters before jogging out the door. Kara ignores the concern she can feel from everyone now, instead focusing on Jade as she runs past Alex, Sam, and Ruby and leaps off the landing pad, somersaulting on the way down before slipping into an alley where Astra is waiting.

The Arias-Danvers family stares after her for a long moment before turning and heading straight towards the sun bed room, and when they come in Nia is already looking anywhere but at the door.

“Kara why the hell did my old leather jacket just run past me and somersault off the landing pad?” Alex growls. Then she stops and takes in her sister laying stiffly on the sun bed. “And what the fuck did you do this time?”

“Language,” Ruby says idly. “Can I assume that was Jade?”

“Correct,” Kara mumbles. “Too tired to walk, she’s stronger than Nia.” She turns and squints at Nia. “No offense.”

Nia just sighs. “She jumped off the landing pad— a three story drop— and carried you like you were a baby, none taken.”

Kara winces when Jade and Allo both cackle at that despite Jade currently being carried like a baby a few thousand feet in the air as Astra takes her home. “Rude,” Kara mumbles. “Though accurate.”

Sam sits in the chair nearest the sun bed and crosses her arms. “So should I be blaming you or Lena for your current state of exhaustion?”

Kara, Lena, and Meri all feel guilty then and the ridiculousness of that makes Kara bark out a laugh before slowly relaxing onto the sun bed, the light already making it easier to regulate her strength. “She had to put Meri’s mind in my mind,” Kara says, too tired to try to explain any better than that. “Used a lot of her power, and I… um,” she opens her eyes and squints into the lights. “Wasn’t supposed to but… increased the energy I was sending her. Then had lunch and fell asleep and now I’m here. Wake me up for the lecture… mm, when Jess gets here, I mean.”

Ruby snorts and looks away when both of her moms turn to her. “You’ll find out soon enough,” she mumbles. “I’m the secret hoarder, not the secret sharer. I’ll let Auntie Jess tattle.”

Jess is very much looking forward to tattling, Lena thinks. I left a way for coordinates to be sent to the DEO, not messages with words, and very strict instructions to not risk sending anything else unless it was life or death.

“So she agrees it was perfectly safe,” Kara mumbles, ignoring her wife’s pinch and promptly falling asleep again.

She wakes this time at her wife’s behest, thinking for a moment it’s time for her to head to the sun bed before opening her eyes and realizing she’s already there. Huh.

Jess is about to get here, Meri says. Exactly fifteen minutes early. I like her.

Kara starts to sit up but freezes when Alex stands, putting both hands on her shoulders and pushing until she lays back down. “Jess is coming,” Kara mumbles.

Sam and Ruby both stand then, and Sam gives Kara a funny look. “How exactly is she getting here?”

A portal swirls to life behind them, and Ruby turns with a squeal of excitement just as a woman wearing a purple blouse and black pencil skirt steps through, a very full box in her arms that she barely manages to set down before the thirteen-year-old gets to her, throwing her arms around Jess’ waist before the portal is even closed.

Kara squints at her, thinking for a moment that she seems familiar, but the thought falls away before even Lena can grasp it, too focused on finally seeing Jess again, if only through Kara’s eyes.

“Auntie Jess!” The cry is muffled, Ruby’s face buried in Jess’ shoulder.

“Long time no see, Rubes,” Jess says quietly, turning something on her watch that closes the portal before returning the embrace. “Sorry I missed a few birthdays.”

Sam gets to her then and hugs her as best she can since Ruby refuses to let go, and Lena’s joy and guilt flood Kara’s mind. “Quit feeling so guilty, :zhao, they’re all alive,” Kara says, giving up on sitting with her sister glowering down at her. “Rao, I’m fine, if I’m doomed to be lectured by all of you I at least want to be sitting up.”

“What did you do this time?” Alex asks, crossing her arms.

“Nothing,” Kara says immediately, wincing when Jess’s ire floods her. “Look at that, baby, she’s more pissed at me than she is at you. There’s hope yet.” Jess looks at her then, but instead of the glare she’s expecting the woman just stares at her for a long moment, and through her wife Kara can feel Jess’ emotions changing— the annoyance is still there and somehow stronger, but there’s relief and a kind of longing that… well, it’s probably cuz Jess knows she’ll finally get to speak to Lena through Kara. It’s not like Kara’s ever met the woman before.

Nia and Brainy enter the room then, and Kara tilts her head when she sees Brainy… reach out and flick Jess, who immediately looks away from Kara and glowers at him, though Brainy is already past her and taking a seat at the back of the room. Nia, meanwhile, has honed in on the box of goodies Jess brought.

Jess hears when Nia starts rifling through the box and turns to her with a frown. “What do you think you’re doing, Miss Nal?”

Nia pulls out a black box made of nth metal with a triumphant cry. “You can save your lecture for Kara til after the meeting or everything will be derailed,” Nia says absently, hopping up and heading to Kara. “Now, open this so I can have my moment of glory.”

Kara takes the box and her wife slips more fully into her mind then, taking a moment to navigate Meri’s presence but otherwise feeling comfortable. Kara watches as her hands turn the box upside down, tapping out patterns on each corner before a screen lights up with… “Is that a chess game made solely of single pixels?” Kara asks. “Wait why am I talking out loud?”

Because I need to focus and this will take a few minutes, Lena says. Making the way to unlock things extra tedious is a double-edged sword.

“Fair enough,” Kara says, watching her wife… lose the game in a very specific way, from what she can tell. “And whose idea was this?”

I pegged you as someone hyper competitive, Meri thinks, so the fact that you have to lose the game to open this is unexpected. Jade and Allo both cackle at this, and Kara even feels her aunt’s amusement.

Jack was insistent, Lena mutters, an old annoyance spiking before being washed away with a sort of melancholy. Darling, please warn them that he’ll take a few minutes to, ah, boot up, once he’s summoned.

Kara looks at the mostly confused faces now watching her, Ruby’s eyes glued to the box in her hands as the girl bites her lip, bouncing slightly. “My wife says to warn you all that he’ll take a few minutes to boot up once he’s summoned.” She pauses, cocking her head when her wife sends her the flash of a memory. “Mm based on that it will take about four and a half minutes, and he will look very creepy the whole time.”

Ruby reaches out and pinches her for that. “Don’t be mean to… uh, nevermind.”

Sam and Jess are both looking at Ruby with narrowed eyes. “What do you know?”

“You’ll see,” Ruby says, eyes now glued to the box again. “Though I will admit the way to summon him is… a little creepy.”

“More like awesome,” Nia declares. “And Lena already said I could do it. Though to be fair, Kara breaking a lot of parts makes more sense now.”

Alex turns to Nia. “Is your car still in one piece?”

“Yeah I had help,” Nia says absently, and Ruby rounds on her in an instant. “What?”

“You got to meet her too!” Ruby cries. “That isn’t fair! Do you even know who she is?”

Nia frowns. “Kind of? Not really. Do you?”

Ruby turns to Kara with a scowl. “I know Auntie Lena wants to wait until my birthday and Meri is… in your head or something, but when do I get to meet my new cousins and Super auntie?” She leans forward, almost nose to nose with Kara now. “And how do I join the hive mind?”

Sam yanks Ruby away. “You are not joining the hive mind, Rubes.”

She really, really wants to, Lena thinks, amused. And I can read her, Sam, and Jess’ mind far easier than even Alex’s, though that’s likely due to my having known them all for so long. I won’t be able to test that theory with Jack since he isn’t human any longer.

“Uh, Super auntie needs a few more days,” Kara says, “And so does Meri, but I need to take them all clothes shopping soon… okay, Enna is refusing to go and claiming it’s so Meri has one of them nearby… hm if we get a few image inducers done you can come shopping with us tomorrow and meet Jade and Allo?” Kara’s brow crinkles. “That… can count as our hangout time, right Alex?” Her sister just rolls her eyes and nods. “Good.”

Lena loses the chess game and a cheery male voice with an English accent comes from the box, “Better luck next time, love!” Sam and Jess both freeze, staring as Kara’s hands flip the box again and raise it to eye level.

“Cunt off, motherfucker,” Kara’s body drawls, her wife’s Irish accent thicker than usual, and the box opens with a hiss. Once again in control of her mouth, Kara scowls. “Why in Rao’s name are all of your codes like this, baby girl?”

To piss Lex off if he tried to break them, Lena says flippantly. Now hand ‘Jack in a box’ to Nia, she’s been waiting for this for awhile.

Kara sighs and hands the box off to Nia, who takes it almost reverently. She looks at them all, a haughty expression on her face, and pulls… a beating human heart from the box, eliciting a curse from Alex and Sam, who both grab Ruby and back up. “I shall destroy your happiness,” Nia intones, slowly crushing the heart. “If it is the last thing I do.” The heart crumbles to black dust…

Black dust that swirls and swarms and takes on a human figure, tiny black particles seeping in from who knows where as the shape solidifies, and as it continues to form Kara turns to Nia, shaking her head. “My wife wants me to tell you you would make an excellent evil queen.”

Nia grins, delighted, and gives a grand bow. “Well of course. I will get you all to watch the show at some point,” she adds after, narrowing her eyes at Kara, who shakes her head. “Now, I’m gonna go get him a disgusting snack from the vending machine while we wait for him to form, not that he needs food but apparently he can still taste for some reason?” She heads out while everyone else stares, enraptured as the nanobots settle, a tall man with warm brown skin, curly hair and a carefully trimmed beard now standing there, eyes glowing blue and staring at nothing.

Sam has both of her hands over her mouth and Jess’ hands are clasped tightly in front of her, and both are staring at the man with wide, misty eyes, Ruby still bouncing excitedly. Kara can feel her wife’s guilt even greater now.

“Is that…?” Alex whispers.

“Jack,” Sam whispers, her voice thick. “Lena, how… what…?”

Please tell them that he wants to explain it himself, Lena says softly. Or at least he did last I was able to speak with him. All of his brain power is currently being used to review the last four years’ worth of footage. Kara repeats what her wife said and Jess sinks into a chair.

“It was Jack,” she whispers, now wringing her hands. “The whole time, the surveillance system I was using was Jack.” She doesn’t look away from the man, who’s abnormally still, unbreathing and his eyes glowing blue. Jess makes a sound that’s half laugh and half sob. “The system was named J.A.C.K., I just assumed he had a hand in making it.”

Jack’s head tilts and Ruby runs at him, the blue glow fading into warm brown eyes just in time for him to catch the girl in a hug. “Sorry for the wait, love,” Jack says, grinning down at her. “But I was watching the whole time, and can I just say our darling Lena raised you into a delightful terror.”

“Damn straight,” Ruby says through her sniffles. “I missed you, Uncle Jack.”

“I… didn’t really miss you, wasn’t capable of it,” Jack muses. “But now that I can think again I am very glad to see you.” He presses a kiss to the top of Ruby’s head. “Last I was aware you weren’t even ten, and now you’re nearly fourteen.” His sadness at this laps at Kara, and she comes very close to breaking the sun bed when Lena’s sadness and grief echo it. Then he grins down at the now-crying girl. “Time flies when you’re on a secret mission, Ruby, no need for tears.” Jack looks up at his audience then, giving them a sheepish smile. “Uh, Sam, Jess, hello loves… I’m alive, by the way.”

“Jack,” Sam says carefully, “what the fuck?”

Chapter Text

Nia saunters in and tosses a candy bar to Jack, who catches it easily, one hand still on Ruby’s back and his eyes barely leaving Sam and Jess. “Thank you kindly, Nia, though I don’t know how you could call anything with chocolate ‘disgusting’.” He takes a bite of the candy bar without even unwrapping it.

“That’s why I called it disgusting,” Nia drawls, plopping down in her chair.

Please tell him that if he keeps that up I will take away his ability to taste things when I upgrade him, Lena says, and Kara laughs and repeats what her wife said, eliciting a frown from Jack.

“Really, Lena, that’s too cruel,” Jack says easily, continuing to eat the candy bar wrapper and all. “The wrapper doesn’t bother me now so this is simply more efficient. It even creates less waste since there’s no trash left over… I am doing this for the planet.”

I wanna try, Allo says, and Kara, along with everyone else in her mind, grimaces. What? Maybe the wrapper would taste good to me!

“It won’t,” Kara promises. “I did that once— wrappers taste gross.”

“You also did that with bananas,” Alex drawls, shaking her head. “For a year.”

Kara flushes. “You told me that’s how they were supposed to be eaten!”

“Only after I saw you take a bite out of an orange like it was an apple,” Alex counters. She frowns, considering. “Knowing you now I’m kind of surprised I survived our prank war.”

I did have to intervene a few times, Astra admits, eliciting an indignant squeak from Kara. You did not understand how fragile humans were yet, kir chahv.

Kara’s flush deepens. “You should probably thank Super auntie later,” she mutters.

Before Alex can respond, her brow already furrowed and Ruby shooting Kara a startled look, Sam steps forward, gaze still focused on Jack. “Lena, Jack, I don’t care which, someone better explain this,” she gestures toward Jack, “right now.”

Jess still hasn’t moved from her seat, though now her hands are clenched tightly in her lap as she gazes at Jack.

Kara frowns, looking at the people in the room. She can feel their minds so it’s probably okay, but since they’re about to discuss some things that she wants everyone to actually be present for… she hops off the bed and zips around at less than half her usual speed, carefully tapping everyone’s foreheads before slipping back onto the sun bed.

Everyone is looking at her now, but it’s Nia who speaks first. “Why did I get tapped, you already had me poke you earlier?”

“It doesn’t count if you leave the room or if she’s fallen asleep,” Alex says, waving her hand. “Though I’m used to Kara’s weird habit being more subtle by now.” She sits down and raises her eyebrows when everyone then turns to her. “What? I can’t explain it, she never told me. Ask Lena.”

Kara’s wife briefly takes control then. “That is a subject for a later meeting once we have more… information,” her body says carefully, and rolls its eyes. “My love, we will be figuring this out with or without your help, and you will be attending that meeting as well. Now,” her body turns to Jack and arches a single eyebrow. “Are you going to explain yourself or do you want me to?”

Jack sighs and Kara blinks back into her own body, the pain in her head already receding. Ruby finally releases Jack and sits by Alex, Sam now the only other person standing as Jack gives them all a brilliant grin.

“First off, hello loves, Jack Spheer at your service,” he says, giving a small bow. “Since not everyone here knows me, I’ll begin by saying I am a dear friend of Lena’s,” he pauses, grinning, when Kara’s hand raises and flips him off, “see, she loves me. And of course a dear friend of Sam and Jess, assuming they don’t kill me after this—“

“We’ll see,” Sam says coolly. “Considering you let us think you were dead. For five years.” She crosses her arms and stares him down, and he flinches.

“And he’s my uncle Jack and no one will be killing him,” Ruby says, rolling her eyes. “If… that’s even possible at this point.”

“Anything can be destroyed, love,” Jack says absently. “Even one so amazing as myself,” he adds, shooting an annoyed look at Kara. “I am very fancy,” he insists when Kara rolls her eyes. He frowns. “Even if you did keep brushing me off thinking I was bugs.”

“I made fancier nanobots when I was five,” Kara drawls. Her brow crinkles and she wonders why she made nanobots at all, but the thought falls away. “And my wife wants to upgrade you for a reason.”

“Lena helped make me in the first place,” Jack says, turning back to Sam and deciding to drop the topic of upgrades, according to Kara’s wife. “Anyhow, these,” he holds his hand up and it turns to a black mist of nanobots before reforming, “were the project Lena and I were working on when she was called back to LuthorCorp. She foolishly chose to go— oh you can mentally pinch me too, that’s fascinating— and left me all by my lonesome.” He swoons dramatically before shooting her a wink. “Unluckily for me, I chose to bring in a new partner to help complete our nanobot project, and once it was ready she sort of… egged me into experimenting on myself, one could say.”

Kara, still lying down, scowls. “Experimenting on yourself is stupid,” she declares. “Unless it’s under duress, then it’s necessary.” She’s thinking of Lena then, but also… a dull pain in her mind stops the thought.

You experimented on yourself three times, little one, Astra drawls, her annoyance prickling at them all. When Kara is confused at that she feels her aunt sigh. You made yourself a natural blonde, potentially changed how your cells process yellow sunlight, and made it so your touch harms a shapeshifter.

Kara’s hand goes to her forehead and she squints up into the lights of the sun bed, the pain so bad she can feel Meri doing her best to not share it with her sisters. She almost blurts a denial but an old indignation rises, years of annoyance compounding, and instead she says, “I experimented on myself once back then, and it was under duress, and it worked.”

We never saw Kara’s memory of when she made her hair blonde, Lena thinks, her worry feeling jagged against Kara’s already aching mind, and we only saw the moments after her biology was changed… the only one we know for certain she did fully of her own will was when she made it so her touch would affect the shapeshifter. Her wife and aunt’s fear surge so strongly then that Kara shakes with it.

So you think the shapeshifter was responsible for the first two? Meri manages, her presence in Kara’s mind curling into itself from the pain in her head. Kara is also curling into herself now, clutching her head as tightly as she dares, the pain splitting through her skull and only worsening the more everyone talks about this.

Kara hears her aunt growl a Kryptonian curse that her father would be proud of. Zor-El checked the work and assured us it was hers— though he couldn’t make sense of what she did to her cells. We never considered the fact that it may have been forced upon her. Astra’s anger flares. Who would do that to a child?

The discussion in her mind is cut short when Alex puts a hand to her forehead. “Are you solar flaring?” Her sister asks, her concern palpable. She pulls Kara into a sitting position, checking her eyes now. “It’s that or you’re getting a sun headache from the lamps, which I didn’t know was possible.”

“There’s no such thing as a sun headache,” Kara mutters, the pain fading to a dull throb as the voices in her mind quiet.

Alex frowns and continues giving Kara a quick checkup, and the physical contact sends them all her memory: a teenage Kara sitting on the roof, staring directly into the yellow sun high above and squinting, rubbing her temples and looking exactly like a human with a headache.

I never saw her doing that, Astra says, her fear fading into mild annoyance. But most likely she was trying and failing to remember the reason behind her fear over going to a planet with a yellow sun… or even why she was planning to ‘send me to Earth’ since she ended up here herself… and the Danvers assumed it was a headache brought on by staring into the sun for too long.

Alex finishes her assessment and stands back, still watching Kara warily. “You seem fine, but even though I’d rather you lay down it might be best for you to stay sitting up so you don’t look into the lamps any more.”

“Fine,” Kara mumbles, rubbing her forehead as the last of the pain fades. When she looks at the others in the room she frowns. “Right, sorry to interrupt, please continue.”

Jack narrows his eyes at her. “Mhm, nothing suspicious about all of that at all. What was it Lena told Sam about not keeping her in the dark anymore?”

“Later meeting,” Kara mumbles at her wife’s behest. “Continue before Jess kills you.”

Jack glances at Jess, who is still sitting frozen in her chair and watching him expressionlessly, and he starts pacing. “My new partner was brilliant, impeccable work history, but sadly failed to include that she was a psychopath on her resume.” He shakes his head. “I don’t actually remember anything that happened after I injected myself and became like this, but according to Lena…” Jack stops pacing and turns to face Sam and Jess, hands shoved in his jeans pockets and a sheepish look on his face. “My wonderful business partner attempted to erase the part of me that was, well, me, and sent me as a nanobot swarm to go kill her old coworkers as some sort of revenge. Luckily for everyone but her, Lena had hidden a few lines of code in the nanobots’ base programming that would activate ‘should anyone attempt to use them for ill’, and instead of going on a murder spree I went to Lena’s apartment, showed her footage of my partner inputting the commands, and then deactivated.”

Kara falls back in her own mind once more as her wife takes control, narrowing her eyes at Jack. “I can hear your thoughts as well now, and no, I was not expecting you to become some sort of ‘evil overlord’,” her body says, scoffing. “It was merely a precaution for if someone stole the technology or for when we got around to mass-producing it.” She raises one shoulder in a shrug. “On my end of things, I left to go be a mole in my family’s company and a few months later a swarm of nanobots showed up, took on Jack’s form, and then deactivated after showing me the assassination orders they were given.”

Are all Earth families this fucking weird? Jade asks happily. Also, does he count as a weapon and if so can I try destroying some things with him?

Kara’s body raises a single eyebrow. “Language, a stóirín, and no, I believe this family is uniquely bizarre. Also, Jack counts as a person, not a weapon, and you will not be using him for any kind of target practice.” She sighs when she feels Jade’s disappointment. “I don’t make weapons anymore but I have a few old ones I made as a teenager that you can play with if you want to try out ‘Earth weapons’, though Kara’s are far superior.” She recalls a few of the more impressive ones then and feels Jade’s excitement and Astra’s surprise.

Perhaps I should not be glad you and my niece found each other, Astra thinks, her amusement causing Kara’s body to narrow its eyes suspiciously. This planet does not stand a chance against just one of you, let alone both of you.

Ruby crosses her arms. “Who just stole my nickname?”

Only Meri and Jade so far, Allo thinks, pouting. I wanna be Lena’s ‘a stóirín’ too!

Kara’s body makes a small sound of surprise, and Kara feels her wife’s… embarrassment and happiness. “Ah, I didn’t even realize, apologies, a stóirín,” she says to Allo, before smirking at Ruby. “And if you want to ‘join the hive mind’ you’ll have to get used to sharing, a stóirín.” She laughs when Sam and Alex choke on nothing, Ruby now grinning. “And as for what ‘Super auntie’ just said… neither I nor Kara wish to rule or destroy the Earth, so if you would all kindly quit implying we do that would be much appreciated,” Kara’s body drawls, and Kara notices Brainy and Jess glance at each other, and she’s pretty sure they’re trying not to laugh. “Honestly, I’m already planning on liquidating LuthorCorp— do you truly believe I want the responsibility of leading an entire planet?”

Sam makes a strangled sound at that, Jess doesn’t seem even slightly surprised, and Jack grins. “Oh, bravo, love, can I assume your wife finally convinced you?”

“She did point out that they already stole four years from me when she sensed my indecision on whether I should try to rehabilitate the company or scrap it,” Kara’s body says, smiling. “And since there’s no way in hell I’m keeping the last name anyway, I may as well make my own company. I already have a name picked out. Ah, as long as it isn’t disrespectful,” she adds, frowning.

I’m all for it, Kara says when Lena thinks of the name. I already told you, baby girl, I trust you with all that I am and all that I have.

You two are sickeningly in love, Jade says, and Kara feels when Enna flicks her. Again, not a bad thing. It’s kinda refreshing considering where we spent our first years here.

Agreed, Meri thinks. Though I do agree with Enna—

“I will make a psychic inhibitor once I’ve made Kara a new suit,” Kara’s body drawls. “As if we would do anything with children present.” She glares at Alex. “I can’t hear your thoughts right now, dear sister-in-law, but as the only one here who’s ‘seen’ me in any capacity please get your mind out of the gutter, we haven’t done anything yet.”

Alex gulps, flushing, and both Sam and Ruby pinch her. “Hey! There is no proof I was committing thought crimes,” she hisses. “Though… I would like to see the egg’s in-depth readouts later.”

“Kara will bring them to you in a few days,” Kara’s body says, sighing. “I still have several hours left, apparently, and a few people still need checkups.” She narrows her eyes when Kara’s nervousness rises. “Including Kara. I will have ‘Super auntie’ force you into it if I must, my love.” She softens when Kara manages to feel claustrophobic at the mere thought of it, her recent memories of being in Nia’s car not helping. “You’ll be unconscious and I can pull you into someone else’s dream if I need to.” Kara relaxes enough at that that her body nods. “Good, now, as for Jack…” She frowns, fingers tapping lightly on her thigh. “I managed to doctor some footage to get his partner arrested for killing him,” she rolls her eyes when Sam mutters a quiet ‘I knew it’, “and much like everyone else I did assume he was dead at first.”

Jack makes a wounded sound, putting hand to his chest. “Ouch, love, that hurts.”

Kara’s body arches an eyebrow at him. “You were effectively dead. It took months for me to get the bots back online and find your ‘self’ within them, though that’s mostly because I could only work on that at night. I still don’t know if this is actually you or just… a digitized version of your consciousness. I have no way to tell.”

You do now, Astra thinks, and when even Kara feels surprised her aunt frowns. Mm, I suppose my niece never had cause to learn of it. The multiverse has many… confusing species, who may or may not count as ‘alive’, so our people found a way to check. Since you made your bracelets the traditional way…

Kara’s body stills, head cocking to the side as Astra tells her what to do, and Kara feels Lena’s fear and hope now that she has a concrete way of knowing whether or not the Jack that stands before them is truly Jack. She nods as Astra finishes and beckons him closer.

Jack walks over, steps a bit clumsy now that he isn’t pacing manically, and stops before her, matching her frown. “What’s wrong, love?”

“I have a way to tell now,” Kara’s body says softly. “If… you’re Jack or… a memory of him.” She runs her fingers along the gold of Kara’s bracelet nervously. “It only takes a moment, but… I’ll leave it up to you.”

Jack looks behind him, first to a wide-eyed Ruby, then to Sam, standing rigid, and finally to Jess, who gives him the smallest of nods, her mouth in a tense line. He turns back and gives Kara’s body a wide grin. “Do your worst, Lena.”

Kara’s body takes a shuddering breath before raising the hand with the gold bracelet and holding it so it rests against Jack’s forehead. She speaks in Kryptonian, voice somber, “With flame of Rao, for life we seek,” Kara’s body says, and for some reason the phrase causes a dull throb of pain in Kara’s mind, “Crown this soul, in fire’s wreath.”

As soon as the last word is spoken the bracelet emits a golden glow, warming her wrist, and the glow turns to red flames that coalesce, turning into a tiny ball of fire that breaks away. The flame slowly floats around Jack’s head, before drifting in lazy swirls around the rest of his body, pausing at his feet before rising once more and vanishing into his chest. A red light shines through him then, darting from his shoulders to his knees and then zooming up into his head, where it finally stills. The ball of fire rises out of him, and for a brief moment it spreads around his head in a crown of flames before reforming and sinking back into the bracelet.

When Kara sees the wreath of flames over Jack’s head she almost remembers something but a flash of pain so intense her body flinches steals it away.

She really doesn’t want to remember whatever that was, Enna says, and Kara has no clue what the girl is talking about, or why she can feel her clutching her head.

“So am I a king now?” Jack asks, tone light despite the nervous twitch of his hands in his pockets. “And shall I rule over hearts, clubs, spades, or diamonds?”

“Still just a Jack,” Kara’s body murmurs, and Kara feels her wife and aunt deciding to discuss something later. Then she lunges forward and engulfs him in a hug. “Our Jack, of course.” When she pulls away, her eyes are misty. “Rao’s flame can sense souls— it’s a little more magic than science so it’s out of my expertise, but you’re still you.”

Jack presses a kiss to her cheek, the scratchiness of his beard a very strange sensation for Kara despite her wife’s familiarity with the gesture, before pulling away just in time to turn and catch Ruby, who wraps him in a fierce hug.

“I knew it! I mean, I didn’t know it, but,” she pulls away, smiling and crying once again, “no AI could act like you, even with all your memories.”

“I’m not sure if I should be insulted or flattered, love, so I’ll choose the latter,” Jack says easily, bending enough to press a kiss to the girl’s forehead. He barely manages to react in time when Sam grabs him in a hug next. “Ope, does this mean you won’t be killing me anytime soon?”

“I’m still pissed, and waiting for an explanation on why I’m only finding out now,” Sam says, squeezing him one more time before stepping back, “but no, I will not be bribing my sister-in-law with potstickers to kill you.”

Kara feels Allo gasp. Super Kara would you kill for potstickers? When Kara doesn’t immediately deny it the girl nods. I will save this knowledge for later.

Who do you want to kill, you’re twelve, Jade says, flicking her sister’s head.

You never know, Enna thinks mildly. It could come in handy.

Again, Meri thinks, are you two sure you want to keep us? This time the question is entirely light-hearted, even as she mentally flicks all of her sisters.

“My wife will not be an assassin paid in potstickers,” Kara’s body drawls, “and yes, you all know far too much now so you’ve no choice but to stay with us. Consider it a hostage situation. You as well, ‘Super auntie’.”

I am actually an adult and thus can choose to leave, Astra thinks calmly. When Kara’s fear spikes at that she sighs. Not that I will, kir chahv. I am quite attached to all of you by now, both figuratively and… mentally.

Hive mind for the win, Kara thinks happily. Also, you’ve been, uh, ‘zoning out’ for a minute, baby. I see why Cat could tell so easily now.

Kara’s body blinks rapidly as Lena refocuses on the people physically around her, and Kara almost laughs when her wife jumps, startled at how close Ruby has gotten.

Their niece is staring at her with narrowed eyes, arms crossed and barely a foot away. “I will figure out how to get in there,” she mutters. “I may be human but so was Auntie Lena… at first.”

Alex pinches Ruby for once, eliciting a scowl from the girl. “You are not joining my sister’s hive mind, Rubes. Give it up.”

Before Ruby can start arguing, both of her moms now glaring at her, Jess speaks up. “Why did you decide to stay ‘dead’, Jack?” She asks quietly. “Lena and even Ruby knew, so… I know you were spying on the Luthors, but why not at least tell us?” She frowns down at her lap. “Tell me?”

Jack shoves his hands in his pockets and scuffs his foot on the floor. “It was Lena’s idea for me to gather evidence on Lex and Lillian,” he starts, voice also quiet. “The plan was for the bots to stick to their minions and find the whole network. I can self-replicate, albeit slowly, so we figured eventually, as each minion interacted with the others, we’d find them all. Lex and Lillian are… ah, were, experts at keeping their hands clean, so if we removed their network in one fell swoop we hoped they would be desperate enough to do something we could prove.”

Huh, you made the same plan even without your memories, Kara muses. Though using a swarm of nanobots seems a lot easier than scanning their minds one by one.

Kara’s body speaks then. “When Jack is spread that thin he can’t really… think,” she says carefully. “Only follow pre-set commands. I programmed him to find the minions but to stay clear of the Luthors, myself included, because my brother was extremely paranoid and regularly checked himself for surveillance devices. If he had found a single nanobot he would have been able to trace it back to me, and I couldn’t risk that.” Kara’s fingers tap on her thigh. “We didn’t think it would take more than a year,” she says softly. “Just one more year, to take out all of their people— Jack finding those in the country and me tracing those elsewhere while organizing all the data he gathered. We would expose them all to the proper authorities, then get proof on Lex and Lillian, and then I… we, would finally be free.”

She pauses, taking a deep breath, and looks around at everyone assembled before letting her gaze fall to her lap.

“It was our choice to not tell you that first year, but the four years I was gone… he couldn’t make any decisions.” Kara’s hand moves to her stomach, gripping the fabric of the battle suit. “Without me to summon him the only ways he could reform were if I died or if he registered that all of the network had been found… the man Kara ‘lava caked’ never met with any of the minions in person, and the bots couldn’t find the girls because they were invisible, so them alone…”

“Lena didn’t reveal much of anything to Eve,” Jack says then, glaring at no one. “But it was enough to tip Lex off when she took the information to him.” He loses control of himself for a moment, disintegrating into a black cloud before reforming. “If he’d waited a day to act Lena would have known it was coming— Eve told him in his office in LuthorCorp which I could watch from the hall, but…”

“They took me that night,” Kara’s body says evenly, her posture stiffening. “I had enough time to trigger my phone to send Jess the ‘bug out’ text, and that was it. I had given her a suitcase with a portal watch and a computer that could access Jack’s system— with the approval of a small group of nanobots programmed to recognize Jess and if she was abnormally stressed— and a way to send the DEO the coordinates of the worst places like I had been doing, just in case, but I wasn’t expecting to actually be caught, much less… be taken captive.” She can’t help but smile when Kara reminds her of something. “As my wife keeps reminding me, I too have a god complex.”

“Lena making it so I couldn’t follow anyone with Luthor DNA was one of the rules of her allowing me to spy on them,” Jack says tersely, frowning at her now. “I didn’t like it, but I also didn’t think they would… take her. Still, since I knew I wouldn’t be able to help if they tried anything, I wanted to minimize the risk by staying dead. As far as Lex and Lillian knew, our project died with me, Sam and Ruby didn’t exist, and the only person potentially on Lena’s side was her secretary.” He looks to Jess then, and gives her a sad smile. “You of all people had to think I was dead, lest you accidentally reveal something. I know you wouldn’t do so intentionally, love,” he adds when Jess’ face darkens. “But Lex was keeping a closer eye on me than I let anyone know, and he knew we were… close. If you weren’t appropriately aggrieved at my death, he would have suspected something.”

“They only told me cuz I… wasn’t doing well,” Ruby says quietly, looking at the floor now. “I was mad at Auntie Lena for not staying with Uncle Jack since his new partner had killed him, and…” She looks at her mom, biting her lip. “I know you knew something was off, but I kinda… quit eating, after awhile. I passed out when Aunt Lena was babysitting me and ended up… uh, telling her everything. Very loudly, and uh, rudely. So she summoned Uncle Jack to show me he was… as okay as he could be, and I think that’s when her ‘healthy eating’ kick started, sorry Aunt Kara.” Ruby grimaces at Kara and lets out a small ‘oof’ when Sam engulfs her in hug. “I’m okay now, Mom, promise.”

When Sam releases her Alex grabs her next, and Ruby has to remind her ma that breathing is even more necessary than eating so Alex will loosen her hold. She finally escapes her ma’s hug only to be hugged by Jess then, and Ruby once again assures everyone she is fine.

Lena slips out of Kara’s body and Ruby sighs but accepts Kara’s hug as well, Kara being extra super careful and everyone in her mind wisely staying quiet as she hugs her niece to her, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head before pulling away. “Khap ukiem rrip, kir chahv,” Kara whispers, and when they feel the Ruby’s confusion her wife mentally sends her a quick translation.

As soon as Kara releases Ruby she feels Allo’s annoyance. Where’s my ukiem? I mean I have known you for almost two whole days, Super Kara, and you offered Lena ukiem around then, I heard one of you thinking about it earlier. When she feels her sisters’ nervousness, Allo mentally flicks them all. She said we’re her children now and her and Lena both said they’re keeping us a bajillion times, and we all know Auntie Astra has decided ‘the hive mind leads to far faster bonding’, Allo says, mimicking Astra quite well, so I want my ukiem with my goodnight kiss from now on, thank you. She pauses. And everyone else does too, including Jade, I can tell, so don’t let them fool you, Super Kara.

Kara is still a little in shock at all that, but her wife immediately feels a spike of jealously that she fails to hide in time.

And, Allo adds, shaking her head now, I want ukiem and ‘a stóirín’ and a goodnight kiss from Lena too, obviously. She smirks. This may be a hostage situation, Lena, but I get to make the demands sometimes, especially if you’re gonna make me eat kale tonight. And! Auntie Astra is telling tonight’s bedtime story, cuz I don’t trust Lena or Super Kara to not tell a sad one.

As you wish, kir chahv, Astra says, and Kara feels her aunt’s happiness. Now, do my nieces agree to Allo’s demands?

Kara sputters but finally nods, and she feels her wife nod as well, both feeling a mixture of surprise, joy, and embarrassment at the whole thing.

Good, Allo says. Now, I wanna see what Jess does cuz she’s been feeling… ‘conflicted’, as Meri puts it.

Kara tunes back in to the room around her just in time for Jess to walk up to Jack, grab the lapels of his shirt and pull him down into a kiss that quickly has Alex covering Ruby’s eyes and Meri blocking Allo and Enna’s view. When she pulls away Allo immediately starts looking again, much to Jade’s amusement.

“’We were close’ my ass,” Jess growls. “Once those two get Earth-married,” she continues, gesturing at Kara, “and the damn evil minions are gone, you are going to get re-established as being alive, and you are going to marry me, is that clear?”

Jack blinks at her several times before nodding, mouth slightly agape. He turns to Kara then, a glazed look still in his eyes. “Lena, I may have undersold some things, and I seem to have become affianced?”

Kara smirks. “My wife says you’ve always been a bit oblivious about relationships, and congratulations to both of you. She’s feeling very guilty about the only ways for you to reform being her death, ‘all evil minions found’ or ‘summoned via crushing a heart’… and she wants me to let everyone know that your summoning method was your design and not hers.” Her smirk widens. “Also, that once she’s upgraded you your processing power should increase enough for you to ‘think even while being spread so thin’, because I have firmly swayed her to the side of ‘Earth tech sucks’, you are welcome.”

“Understood,” Jack says after a moment, nodding. “And not to worry, loves, I’m not currently spying on the evil minions, but my bots are still attached to them all and will reawaken once I return to them.”

“Now that Jack is back from the dead,” Jess says, rounding on Kara, her arms crossed and eyes narrowed. “I’d like to know what happened after I had to flee the country. I already know that Director Arias-Danvers called in your favor with the President to get her position here so she could use the DEO to look for you, since this was one of the few organizations the Luthors didn’t have control of, but I would like to know what happened after they took you.”

Everyone is staring at Kara now, and she can feel their focus— Sam, Jess, Jack, and Brainy are especially… curious and already angry on Lena’s behalf, and Ruby has both hands curled into fists at her sides.

Lena is so nervous at all of this that Meri has to flood Kara with calm to keep her from ripping her battle suit, the hand clenched over her stomach relaxing just enough that the fabric strains instead of tearing. I vote you go first, darling, her wife thinks, and Kara can feel her pulling her cape more snugly around herself. Please.

“I’m up, then,” Kara says, forcing herself to release some of the tension in her body. She increases the amount of energy she’s sending her baby girl, and the effect on herself is immediate, her hand falling idly to her lap and her shoulders slumping. She gives Sam a sheepish grin. “So, first off, she was at the evil lair,” Kara says, wincing when she feels Sam and even Alex’s annoyance.

“We kinda figured,” her sister drawls. “Based on the time line and that first memory she showed me being in a desert.”

Ah, Lena says. I was far too angry at Alex to consider that back then. Sorry, my love.

“It’s fine,” Kara says idly. “Anyway, after I turned my comm off I followed the sound of electricity and then voices and found a lead-lined, underground bunker with a miles-long tunnel leading to it, and I was very hungry by then so I opted to just break in.” She frowns when she feels even Sam and Alex are surprised at this. “What?”

“It was still intact when you got there?” Sam hisses.

Brainy mutters a Kryptonian curse that Kara’s children and wife quickly memorize. “That is why I could not figure out what destroyed it. It was neither a weapon nor a self-destruct system— it was Supergirl.”

“I am excellent at lying and I leave no evidence,” Kara says primly, “unlike some people.” She mentally pinches her aunt, whose only response is an eyeroll that Kara nevertheless feels. “And before you ask, Alex, it’s your fault I didn’t turn my comm back on right away. You always complain about how loud it is when I break stuff, as if I somehow don’t know that when I’m the one physically there and with super hearing.” She shakes her head when Alex scowls, but at least she doesn’t argue the point. “I was kind of in a hurry and the place was not-quite-soundproof— excellent work, by the way, :zhao— so I broke into the tunnel near the entrance to the bunker so I wouldn’t accidentally pancake any humans.” Kara smirks when her wife blushes at that and Allo, Jade, and even Astra cackle.

“Pancakes again,” Nia says, brow furrowed.

Ruby glances at Nia before narrowing her eyes at Kara. “Why do I feel like I’m missing out on a joke?”

“Because you are,” Kara says happily and her niece glowers at her. “As soon as I stepped into the tunnel a ridiculous amount of booby traps triggered, and a few had kryptonite but not enough to slow me down much.” She shrugs when both her sister and aunt feel enraged at this. “I’m fine, chill. I still couldn’t hear the people inside very well, especially with how noisy destroying all the traps was, but… mm, do I have to tell them or can I skip this part?” Kara asks, biting her lip. When Sam glares at her she shrugs. “They’re all dead now, and them saying rude shit doesn’t really matter… it’s just gonna piss us all off.” She pauses, sighs. “Fine, you’re right, baby, it gives… context for what I chose to do.”

Kara glares down at her hands for a long moment before Sam, Ruby, Jess, Jack, and even Brainy’s impatience gets her to look up.

“First I heard someone alerting them Supergirl was there,” Kara begins, clenching her jaw. “Then… ugh, it was apparently Eve who said… ‘no, wait, if you release it from containment’.” She very carefully does not curl her hands into fists, wary of using too much strength even for that. “And Lillian interrupted her, saying… oh fuck these people,” Kara mutters. “She told her to be quiet and that ‘it’s not as if she has the capacity to rebel at this point’.” Meri once again has to flood Kara with calm when every single person in the room realizes exactly what all of that means, their pain and fury battering at Kara’s mind.

Alex and Jack have to grab Sam before she can punch the nearest wall, and Jess looks ready to murder someone. Brainy is completely still, his hands gripping his knees so tightly his knuckles are bleached white and his face expressionless, Nia’s dream energy has manifested in agitated spikes and swirls, and Ruby…

Ruby is staring at Kara like her world is ending, and Lena slips into Kara’s body again, jumping off the sun bed and scooping the girl up in a hug. “I’m okay, a stóirín, I’m safe, everything is alright,” Kara’s body says softly, and when Ruby grabs onto her battle suit the fabric actually strains under her grip, which gives both Kara and her aunt pause, but the girls are still reeling from everyone’s emotions and even Lena doesn’t notice, too focused on comforting Ruby.

“They hurt you,” Ruby whispers, shaking with fear and fury. “They hurt you so bad you don’t even want me to see you and I was doing my best to not think about that but…” Her grip on the suit tightens and this time even Lena notices when the fabric tears slightly. “I hate them,” the child hisses. “They took you from me and they hurt you and I hate them.”

Kara’s body sits back on the sun bed, Ruby now on her lap. “It’s okay to hate them,” she says quietly, rubbing a hand soothingly along her niece’s back. “I do too, and so does Kara and… everyone else here. But I’m okay now, a stóirín, and you need to calm down. Breathe with me.” Kara’s body guides the child through breathing exercises, gaze locked with hers, and even Allo is now wondering what’s going on, the skin around Ruby’s eyes holding a slight glow until she calms.

For a reason she doesn’t know, her head already pounding dully, Kara reaches out with her own mind, checking the others in the room, and when she finds that none of them noticed anything amiss she feels overwhelming relief, which only causes her wife’s worry to increase.

Aunt Astra, Lena thinks, is Ruby…?

She has to be, Astra says. Though if Kara’s egg ran tests on her… I do not know how it didn’t discover it. We need to search the archive.

Kara highly doubts they’ll find anything there, though why she thinks that she doesn’t know, and her focus is no longer on Ruby but on Sam, watching her closely even as the others discuss things.

Okay, Jade says, I’m now glad we didn’t try to kill this kid for a new reason.

If she is a Kryptonian we would be very dead right now, Meri agrees.

It’s Allo who brings it up, oddly, everyone but Kara still focused on Ruby. If she’s like Super Kara and Super auntie, Allo thinks, both excited and annoyed by this, then I probably wouldn’t have been able to kill her mom after all, even without Lena helping stop me.

Kara’s body looks at Sam as well then, eyes narrowed, but Sam is focused entirely on Ruby now, her hand idly flexing at her side as she forces herself to calm down.

Lena reaches for Kara mentally, and for a reason she can’t explain, a strange desperation filling her, Kara tells her, We can’t tell her mother, if they— The pain in her mind is too great for her to continue, and Kara doesn’t have the mental capacity to shield them all as she usually does, not with Meri in her mind too, so she lets the thoughts fall away, her wife still idly soothing the child in their lap.

Lena, Astra thinks slowly, I understand why you do not wish Ruby to see you quite yet, but it may be in everyone’s best interest for you and my niece to take her for now. Both to run tests and to… help her not accidentally kill anyone. Astra pauses, and Kara feels her aunt’s nerves heighten. Our powers are usually accessible from infancy under a yellow sun, I know Kara’s were, however… I heard Clark’s did not appear until puberty. The case may be the same for Ruby for some reason. Sam… I do not understand.

Kara’s body looks at Sam, frowning slightly, and then Brainy’s Legion ring makes the smallest sound, vibrating on his finger, and both she and Brainy look down at it. Brainy’s eyes widen and he reaches up, discreetly tapping his temple twice before brushing a lock of hair behind his ear. Lena reaches out with her mind, and they all hear Brainy’s thought.

DO NOT TELL THE DIRECTOR ANYTHING, he thinks, and search the archive for— he rattles off an index number that Astra and Lena memorize, but Kara can’t even hear, a lightning bolt of pain in her skull drowning it out, an ocean of guilt following. A moment later it’s all gone, and Kara is once again focused on everything else Brainy said. When Kara’s brow crinkles, he gives them a wan smile. I am from the future, if you recall.

If Brainy is intervening it’s life or death, Kara thinks, relieved for reasons she cannot explain. I know you promised Sam, but…

I trust him, my love, and you as well, Lena says softly, though Kara has no clue why she was included in that. She gets the sense her wife is worried for a few reasons now, and even Astra seems more agitated for some reason. Lena turns her focus back to the present, Ruby breathing slowly on her lap, hands loose on the already-fixed fabric of the battle suit.

“I’ve changed my mind,” Kara’s body says calmly, carding a hand through their niece’s hair. “I will be kidnapping Ruby after all.”

Sam doesn’t even look surprised at this, and Kara’s wife absently tells her she’s done this before, but Ruby and Alex both gawk at her. “You— you,” Alex sputters indignantly.

“I— I,” Kara’s body drawls before softening. “I am her godmother, Alex. One of them, at least. This isn’t the first time I’ve decided to steal Ruby away.” She looks at Sam then, smirking. “You had her all to yourself the last four years, so I should get to have her for at least a week, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Fine,” Sam says, waving her hand. “But please do not add her to your hive mind— she already knows too many secrets.” She narrows her eyes then. “And I know your children aren’t in any kind of school right now, but Ruby will be attending her classes and doing her homework, is that understood?” Sam is looking more at her daughter than at Kara, and the girl nods mutely, still very much in shock.

“I… really get to come see you?” Ruby whispers.

“Yes,” Kara’s body says, pressing a kiss to Ruby’s forehead. “Though Kara is going to take you home first to get whatever you need for the week. And… I suppose…” She sighs. “I can drop you off in person once the week is up, so long as your mother promises not to punch a wall when she sees me.” Kara’s body grins then. “And so long as your other mother promises not to punch me for stealing her beloved daughter away.” Sam shakes her head but promises, and after a pinch Alex mutters a promise as well.

“Wait,” Alex says, frowning. “What about this ‘seventh person’? Is it safe for Ruby to be around them?”

Ruby makes a small sound of outrage. “Super auntie is perfectly safe!” When Alex raises both eyebrows at her she smiles. “I already know who she is, and there’s no way Auntie Kara or Auntie Lena would let me come over if it wasn’t safe for me.” Then she scowls. “Trust me, I tried to sneak into Auntie Kara’s apartment once when she had a really interesting fugitive she was hiding from you, and I got teleported into my bedroom somehow.”

Told you I had a security system, Kara singsongs. With some recently added anti-snooping settings. Her wife and aunt are somewhat mollified by this, though Allo is already wondering where she’ll be teleported to if she snoops somewhere she shouldn’t.

“I assure you our niece will be perfectly safe,” Kara’s body says, then… “What exactly does she know about her cousins?”

“That Meri and Jade were told to kill me but refused, so Allo was sent to kill my mom,” Ruby says easily, shrugging when both of her parents gawk at her. “You two need to learn to talk quieter, even when you think I’m asleep.” She remembers a bit of the conversation then, and Kara is surprised not only that she can see it since her wife is still piloting her body, but also that Ruby was indeed in bed, nearly asleep, when she tuned into the whispered conversation happening in her parents’ room. She hadn’t even though it odd at the time, already used to how well she had been able to hear lately.

Sam sighs and drops her head into her hand, and Alex groans.

We perhaps should have paid more attention during her check-in calls, Lena thinks, her guilt prickling at Kara’s mind. That she hasn’t even noticed certain things herself means the changes have been gradual and happening for awhile.

Again, I really like this kid, Jade declares. I am fine with adding her to the hive mind, though since she’s apparently Kryptonian I don’t know that we’ll have much of a choice.

Alex is going to kill me, Kara thinks, not having thought of that particular thing yet. Aunt Astra, please give her a pass for murdering me for this. Kara is genuinely worried now, as she has seen her sister’s usual overprotective nature drastically increase since she met Ruby, somehow increasing even further when the girl started calling her ‘Ma’.

Kir chahv, Astra drawls, your sister will not kill you. Probably. She shrugs mentally. If she attempts to I will do my utmost to gently restrain her.

“Are we also invited to Ruby’s homecoming, or is it just the lovely family you’ve married into?” Jack drawls. “I may have eyes everywhere, loves, but even I haven’t seen Lena in nearly four years thanks to that pesky little anti-Luthor protocol she programmed into me.”

Kara’s body rolls its eyes. “We can make it a game night if you want, just be advised that everyone in this family cheats… though we have yet to figure out how Alex does.” She raises both eyebrows at Alex, who immediately looks away. “Nia and Brainy are invited as well, of course. I’d like to see their cheating in person, honestly.” She grins when Nia squeaks and Brainy flushes. “And friendly reminder, Samantha,” Kara’s body adds with a wicked smirk, “I am the one who taught you and Ruby morse code.” Sam mutters a quiet curse and Alex just shakes her head, apparently unsurprised at how her wife and daughter cheat, which makes Kara wonder once again exactly how her sister must be cheating.

Chapter Text

Everyone needs a few minutes to ruminate on their cheating strategies at the upcoming game night, but eventually Jess claps her hands together quietly. “Alright, now that that’s settled, back to the ‘evil lair’, please, Supergirl.”

Lena slips away and Kara is back in control of her body, her niece now leaning against her tiredly and, from what Kara can feel of her mind, quite enjoying the warmth of both Kara and the sun bed’s lamps. I think all the power she just used exhausted her, Kara thinks, recalling her own issues at a similar age. She was trembling the whole time, and that’s even more tiring with super strength.

She refocuses on the earlier conversation then, one hand now carefully rubbing Ruby’s back. “Lex said the thing about how he should have programmed the stupid watch himself,” Kara says, electing to pick up where she left off, “which I later told Sam in… an attempt at honesty. I was trying to tell her what I could without indicating my :zhao was there… though considering Sam already knew who made the watch, that failed.” Her brow crinkles. “The interior of the lair was also lead-lined, so I just sped toward the voices I could hear, but… well… a, uh, mental scream and the pain that came with it kind of… stopped me.”

Sam’s hands are clenched again, and Jess’s are fisted in her lap. Jack glowers at the wall behind Kara’s head, parts of his body turning to nanobots briefly before reforming. Nia and Alex both wince, and Brainy is again expressionless, both hands tightly gripping his knees. Ruby, thankfully, is calm, content with the knowledge she’ll see Lena soon and feeling warm and sleepy on Kara’s lap. That Kara doesn’t even need her wife to tell her this is a good indication that Jade’s earlier point was correct, which Kara does her best not to think about.

“Then there was the sound of some huge piece of machinery being ripped from its moorings and… smashing into the floor, uh, repeatedly. And I heard… some things that sounded a lot like bones being broken and some, uh, wet sounds…” Kara grimaces, very glad her niece is too drowsy to pay what she’s saying much mind. Sam has a feral grin at this point, Jack’s grin is even wider, Brainy has a slightly manic look in his eyes, and everyone else looks perfectly happy with this development. “It took me awhile to be able to move— the scream didn’t stop and she was also… projecting the compounded pain she’d felt over the years, but… eventually I managed to get up and head towards it all.”

Kara is quiet for a moment, focusing on her wife’s heartbeat back in their apartment and breathing slowly to calm herself, still carefully rubbing their niece’s back all the while.

“She wasn’t… in good shape— baby girl I am not saying that, quit being mean to my beautiful wife,” Kara growls, squinting and threatening to regale Lena and all of their mental eavesdroppers with every new time she’d thought her wife was beautiful since the last time she’d done so. She grins when she feels Lena blush, her aunt now beside her and carding a hand through her hair as Lena had Ruby’s earlier, Astra feeling her own annoyance at how Lena had described her condition. “Good, and thank you, ‘Super auntie’.”

Sam hums. “I don’t know who ‘Super auntie’ is yet, but based on that I think I like her.”

“Damn straight,” Ruby mumbles, curling further into Kara. “Ma’s gonna like her too. Or… try to fight her. Then she’ll like her.” She yawns, one hand latching onto the battle suit again. “I… did not get enough sleep last night. Too excited,” she mumbles. Kara hears the thought she doesn’t voice: that everything was too loud as usual, and she hasn’t slept well in awhile.

Remind me to get my old ‘earrings’ out for her tonight, Kara thinks idly, her wife and Enna already wanting to see what exactly those are. She readjusts so her niece is more comfortable and looks at Alex, giving her a small smile. “I didn’t really know what to do when I finally got to the… main lab in the lair. She was standing and moving her hands up and down, and a ways away the piece of machinery was moving in time with her, and all I could really make out was a pool of blood spreading from where it was hitting.” She pauses when her wife reminds her of something. “Oh, and a cracked watch laying nearby, which I did not know was a portal watch at the time. Anyway, I have been referring to this as the ‘pancaking incident’, which my wife has also started doing.”

Nia groans. “That stupid text I had to send makes more sense now,” she mutters. “You turned cakes of any kind into a euphemism for murder.” Then, “Holy fuck, does that mean I ordered an assassination?” Kara feels Nia’s excitement at this. “Nice.”

“I get the joke now,” Ruby mumbles so quietly even Kara barely hears her. When Allo happily screams ‘MURDER PANCAKES’ in Kara’s mind, Ruby flinches, startled, and only Lena intentionally humming a lullaby in the girl’s mind calms her enough that she doesn’t react further or question it.

Jess is staring at Kara, her brow furrowed. “And how exactly did you handle this situation, Supergirl?”

She’s assuming you knocked me out somehow, Lena thinks, amused. And is already planning her revenge.

Kara sputters. “Jess! I do not resolve every situation with violence!” Then she blushes as red as the cape currently wrapped around her also-blushing wife. “I, uh, kind of acted on instinct…” She looks away now, not even willing to look at her sister. “Like I told Sam and Alex, my body… knew that it could help her, and wanted to keep her close, and uh… I sort of… came up behind her and… hugged her.” She whispers the last words, her blush now reaching her ears. “Which did work, for the record.”

Well that’s nicer than how I was stopped, Allo thinks mildly. I got slammed onto the floor. And then adopted, so I’m fine with it I guess. I want hugs too though.

That was me, Lena thinks, and Kara feels Allo sprawl on the couch so her head is in Lena’s lap again, her wife now petting the girl’s feather-hair. Sorry, a stóirín, I was as gentle as I could be. And I have done that to Ruby several times, if it’s any consolation.

Allo is delighted by this information, and Jade once again resolves herself to learn Lena’s ways. Enna starts wondering if she should learn martial arts since Lena did, and in Kara’s mind Meri resigns herself to sparring with at least one of her sisters, sighing mentally when both Allo and Jade bristle at that. All three of them, then.

“Well,” Jack drawls, grinning when Kara sheepishly looks at him. “I see how you wooed our lovely Lena. And here I wasted my time filling her lab space with flowers.”

“She says that you almost contaminated her samples with that stunt,” Kara mumbles. She finally looks at her sister, who just shakes her head at her, a small smile on her face, and when she looks at Sam the woman is staring at her, mouth agape. “Again, it was effective,” Kara says defensively. “The scream stopped immediately and when she calmed down all the way I picked her up and got her out of there, and… once I got her to let go of me I went back and got all the hard drives I could find before destroying the place and calling you again.”

You should warn them about the cape, Jade drawls, dodging Enna’s flick. What, I tried to pick it up once when she was sleeping to see what the big deal was and she damn near growled at me.

Jade, Meri says, sending her sister a mental flick. Don’t forget who got those collars off, and who is using far too much of her power to heal me.

Lena’s embarrassment surges, but after a moment she reluctantly agrees with Jade. Please do not tell Jack this used to be your childhood blanket or he will tease me to no end once he’s sure I’m alright, she adds, already resigned to her fate.

Kara growls at that. “If he teases you I’ll throw him into the sun, and since he’s nanobots I can actually do that for at least some of him.” Jack gasps and takes a small step back, and Lena, highly amused now, tells Kara he’d like to know what thought crime he committed. She scowls at him. “You haven’t, yet. My wife was… very sensitive to sunlight at first,” Kara starts, gritting her teeth, “And I have— well, had, it’s definitely hers now— a cape made of Kryptonian fabric. I put it over her when I took her outside and she’s… kept it close by ever since.”

“That’s what happened to your old baby blanket,” Alex mutters, yelping when Lena sends her a mental pinch. “What did I do?”

“So Lena… has a safety blanket now,” Jack says, failing to hide his grin. This time Sam pinches Alex, and Jess reaches up and grabs Jack by the ear, yanking his head down and refusing to release him until he promises to drop it. “Okay, okay, fine, I won’t say anything,” Jack grumbles. “What’s some teasing between friends?”

“Again,” Kara says, glowering at him. “You, me, a date with the sun. Alternatively, I will upgrade you, and I really will take away your ability to taste… among other things.” She darts a significant glance just below Jack’s waistline, and Sam and Nia snort so loudly Kara almost jumps.

Jess is very tempted to ask what you’re punishing her for, Lena says, amused. Ah, now she’s remembering the phone call and upcoming lecture and has elected to stay silent.

Jack’s panic hits Kara and he holds both hands up in surrender. “Fine, loves, I’ll be polite. I do reserve the right to still give both you and Lena hell for… non-captivity related things, of course.” At Kara’s shrug he sighs with relief. “Good, I don’t know that I can change my nature, charming as I am.”

That’s cold as fuck, Super kidnapper, Jade says cheerfully. Enna and Meri agree.

What is? Allo asks, her confusion tickling at Kara’s mind. Then, Well, it would be bad to not taste ice cream, is that it?

Something like that, Astra muses, and Kara feels her aunt reach over to ruffle Allo’s feather-hair. Stay innocent as long as you can, kir chahv.

I don’t think that will last much longer between Auntie Kara and Auntie Lena, a voice that sounds suspiciously like their niece says then. Kara glances down to see Ruby’s eyes closed, the girl breathing evenly but with the tiniest of smirks on her face.

Welcome to the hive mind, kid! Jade yells, already cackling.

You’re barely three years older than me, Ruby says mildly. Nice to meet you too, kid, she adds, amused when Jade gasps in outrage.

You’re both kids and Ruby’s mothers are going to murder me, Kara says. Slowly. Her niece just laughs, somehow already knowing how to do so mentally, and Kara sighs aloud. Electing to ignore that her niece has managed to do the thing her mothers explicitly forbade her doing, Kara goes back to upholding her part of the meeting, though she is dreading both Alex and Sam’s reaction to what she’s about to say.

“I am very used to the DEO taking people away when I bring them in, and I honestly wasn’t sure if she was… human, at first— why do you humans always get insulted by that, I am literally an alien— and I…” Kara trails off, staring down at her niece’s sleeping face for a moment. “With what I’d seen and heard, there was no way I was going to risk her being locked up or experimented on more…” Her wife sends her Sam’s annoyance and Kara raises her head, glaring at her. “I know who she is to you now, but at the time she was someone who had been hurt a lot, had weird powers, and who had just killed a handful of people. I trust you and Alex with my life, but… I couldn’t trust you with hers. So… I lied to you and I kept her, and…” Kara squares her jaw. “Considering her physical state and how sensitive her powers were, and that my energy is what’s healing her, I’d do it again. Not for as long, but…”

Sam stares at her and her hands slowly unclench. “Fine,” she finally says, and surges forward, hugging Kara as best she can over her sleeping daughter. “Thank you, Kara,” she whispers, “Even though I kind of want to kill you… you saved her, and kept her safe… so thank you.” Sam’s appreciation and love flood Kara then, and she also feels how proud Ruby is of her mom, the girl remembering how rough those few months had been, Sam desperately searching for the suddenly-vanished Luthors after yet another dead end.

Sam pulls away finally, teary brown eyes meeting Kara’s. “Also, Lena, I love you, but fuck you,” she says, voice thick with tears. “I know you did everything you could after they took you, and I know your rules kept us all safe, but you were gone for four goddamn years, and Jess and Jack were gone too, and even though I was technically a single mom until I married Alex that’s not true and we all know it, and you left me alone with a terrified, grieving child and I was also terrified and grieving and fuck you.”

Sam is crying now, her grip on Kara’s shoulders tight but not inhumanly so, a thought that makes Ruby curious despite her own sadness, and the love and grief Kara can feel coming from Sam make her own chest ache.

Lena slips into Kara’s body again, her emotions echoing Sam’s, and she pulls Sam into another hug, both of them bowing their heads over Ruby and crying now. “I’m sorry,” Kara’s body whispers. “I should have had an escape plan, or— or something, I just…” She hugs Sam as tightly as she dares. “I love you, and Ruby, and Jess and Jack, and I’m so sorry I was gone for so long, that we all were, and… that it took me so long to remember.”

“It’s not your fault,” Sam whispers, “I know that, I just… fuck.” She hugs her as tightly as she can, and both Kara and Astra pay attention, but it’s still normal human strength, a thought that now is making Ruby suspicious. “You were all suddenly gone and Ruby… god, Lena, she was devastated, and so was I, and… all I could do was try to find you and it took so fucking long.”

What’s going on? Ruby asks. When everyone is silent, her annoyance spikes. Auntie Kara? Why do you all keep… assessing my mom’s strength?

We’ll explain once you get to the apartment, Kara finally says. Brainy’s orders, she adds, and Ruby’s annoyance vanishes, replaced with fear.

Shit, she says quietly.

LANGUAGE! All four girls holler. At Ruby’s confusion, Allo explains. We only use Kryptonian curse words— they’re more fun!

I knew the hive mind would be a treasure trove, Ruby says happily. Teach me all you know, you too Auntie Astra.

While her children and aunt dutifully distract Ruby from everything that’s currently happening, Kara watches her wife, only now able to talk again through her tears. “Never again,” she promises. “You’re all my family, and we protect each other… el mayarah, stronger together.” Kara feels Sam wince slightly at that, and as Kara’s body pulls away she feels Lena’s pang of guilt, followed by determination. “Whatever comes,” she vows, one hand raising to cup Sam’s cheek, “we’ll protect each other. I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”

Sam gulps. “Okay. Also, having this conversation with Kara is kinda weird,” she mumbles, pulling back and swiping at her cheeks. “Not that I’m gonna freak out on you next week or… break into your apartment or anything… though I have considered it many times…” Sam sniffles. “Ruby needs you right now and you can… probably only handle one overly emotional Arias-Danvers in person so… I can wait one more week.”

“Thank you,” Kara’s body whispers, and when Kara reminds her wife of something she huffs in amusement. “Also, since you thanked her for saving me, Kara is insisting I tell you a few things she didn’t get to yet— I used my telekinesis to loosen panels in the evil lair to lessen its soundproofing, and I programmed the portal watch Lex forced me to make so that it would ‘malfunction’ if the lair’s intruder alarm was triggered… alright, my love, but that’s jumping ahead quite a bit,” she smiles, wiping at her eyes with one hand while the other goes back to rubbing Ruby’s back. “And she wants me to remind you that I saved her from Corben, so yes, Kara saved me, but I’ve also saved both her and myself.”

“Damn straight,” Sam says softly. “I already know my best friend is a badass, Kara, but thanks for the reminder.”

How come you didn’t have your own portal watch? Enna asks then. Surely that would have made escaping easier.

Kara’s body takes a shuddering breath. “Me having a portal watch wouldn’t have done any good. Lex… was not only paranoid but very controlling,” she says quietly, the hand rubbing their niece’s back momentarily stilling. “I was mostly free from it in college and when I was working with Jack, and I managed to keep Sam and Ruby hidden from him, but… when I came back to LuthorCorp he already had an apartment ready for me, and there were cameras in every room. I managed to at least get rid of the cameras in the bedroom and bathroom with only… minor consequences, and luckily I did so before Jack came to me.” She begins rubbing Ruby’s back again, not willing to look at even Sam right now and glad she can’t currently feel everyone’s emotions, only experiencing Kara and Enna’s rage at the moment, the others in her mind still distracting their niece. “I have many inventions and designs I never wanted Lex or Lillian to get their hands on, and the portal watch was one of them. If I had tried to carry or even hide one in an accessible place, it would have been found, confiscated, and then used by them.”

“He did have you make one though,” Sam says finally. “Why…?”

“There came a point where I had to give him something, and that was the… lowest risk item that I figured he would accept,” Kara’s body says carefully. Lena manages to isolate her connection to Kara (and Meri) just as the flash of memory comes: Lex standing over her a year after she was taken underground, his experiments on her and her new powers just beginning, and a sudden fixation on getting her to reveal something, anything, Lena’s powers letting her know that it was his way of proving to himself he’d broken her.

It takes a fair amount of effort on Lena’s part to keep Kara from accidentally taking control of her body then, Meri also too angry to calm her now, and when Kara realizes she stops immediately, falling back and ashamed she made her wife exert more power to keep her from doing something that could have hurt herself or their niece.

“It’s alright, my love, I knew it was coming,” Kara’s body murmurs. She looks at Sam then, frowning when she sees both of her hands curled into fists. “I’m fine now, and that’s what matters.” When she glances at the others she frowns. “I can’t read your minds at the moment but you’re all looking quite murderous, and I can assure you the hive mind I have inadvertently created has that covered. Should I need any assassinations in the near future I have at least two people willing to do it— Jade, Meri, you are not on that list you are both children.”

Potsticker assassin, Allo stage whispers, everyone tuning back in now. Mm, Auntie Astra, how should Lena pay you for murder?

All of you may have what my niece has dubbed a ‘Super mercenary pass’, Astra muses. So Lena needs pay me nothing. I suggest you use it wisely, whether for bullying Kara’s cousin or an assassination.

Kara’s body rolls its eyes even as everyone in her mind feels a violent kind of glee. “’Super auntie’, everyone in the hive mind is a child aside from you, my wife, and myself, please do not offer them assassination services.” She raises one eyebrow imperiously. “Or Superman-bullying services, honestly, I still haven’t figured out how to deal with him yet.” Kara’s body then glares at Alex. “Again, she is safe to have around the children, just not… anyone who threatens any of us or whose name happens to be Clark Kent.”

“Ruby was right,” Alex decides. “I’m gonna fight her, and then I’ll like her.”

Nia barks out a laugh at that, apparently having already dreamed something related to it, but when everyone looks at her, Alex glaring suspiciously, she waves her hand. “Uh, nothing, you’ll see soon enough.”

Called it, Ruby says happily. Ma wants to check her strength to make sure she can keep her promises. Don’t worry Auntie Astra, I’m pretty sure you’re stronger than Auntie Kara.

Stronger no, but more powerful, yes, Astra corrects, and Kara feels her aunt sigh when a dull throb echoes through her head. All is well, kir chahv, go back to focusing on your wife. When Ruby’s curiosity once again spikes, Astra sends her a mental head shake. Not now, little one, or you too will experience a so-called ‘sun headache’.

Her niece’s curiosity vanishes at that and Kara takes her aunt’s advice and focuses back on her precious :zhao.

Kara’s body sighs. “So be it, but you will lose, and I will be watching.” She smirks when Alex scowls. “Now, a few more things to note so we can wrap this meeting up and I can once again play energy vampire— darling, it’s not self-deprecating, it’s a fact and I desperately need a nap at this point…” She sighs. “Alright, a few of us need naps, and I already put Enna in the egg, so her checkup will be done by dinner time.”

“I’ll let Mom know you’ll be keeping the egg awhile,” Alex says, wincing. “And that you’re married and have four children now. Also that you haven’t been calling her I assume because your wife doesn’t want yet another person’s emotions in her head.”

Kara’s body flushes but nods. “Thank you, Alex, and… sorry in advance, but please tell her to… give us more time before showing up. I have… many things to acclimate to, and I’ve just added one more.” She drops a kiss to Ruby’s head when she feels the girl’s annoyance. “Who is of course worth it, a stóirín.”

Ruby mumbles incoherently, still half-asleep as far as most people in the room know, and she preens when everyone in the hive mind feels impressed at her acting skills, her pride only growing when Kara, Lena, and even Astra feel mildly concerned at how well she keeps her secrets.

I’mma learn a lot from you, Allo thinks happily.

Happy to be of service, Allo, Ruby replies easily. And I’m very glad you failed to kill my mom.

Me too, but I don’t think my knife would have done much after all, Allo says, frowning. Then, Oops, ignore that til you get here.

…I’m some kind of alien, aren’t I? Ruby asks with a sigh, and Kara sees a bit of memory then, Ruby only a few days ago, home alone and hearing a car backfiring nowhere nearby, so startled she rips the textbook she’s reading in two. No one answer that, I don’t want to accidentally wake up.

A stóirín, Lena thinks, and Kara feels her wife’s frustration. Why didn’t you tell someone?

You all have a lot going on right now, Ruby mumbles. I was gonna tell my moms eventually. Though since Brainy doesn’t seem to want people to know it may… be good I didn’t?

Mm, you are far too much like my niece and her wife, Astra muses. Though since Lena helped raise you, I suppose she can have most of the blame.

Thanks, Lena drawls, Kara already cackling.

“Earth to Lena or Kara or whoever else can control my little sister’s body,” Alex drawls. When Sam pinches her she just shrugs. “What? Ruby needs to nap in a proper bed… Kara where is my daughter going to sleep?”

Kara’s body blinks rapidly before focusing on Alex. “We already have a bed for her, though it’s mostly because Kara likes symmetry and we needed beds for everyone else… and yes, it’s one bedroom at the moment because I need proximity to play dream police and everyone in this family, including those in this room, has far too much trauma.” Kara’s body sighs. “Now, the first thing you all need to know: I gave myself these powers, not Lillian or Lex.”

When no one is particularly surprised by this, Kara is flooded with relief so strong her body, still being piloted by her wife, sags a bit. Still, her wife feels nervous, and when Kara realizes what she’s going to say next she can’t help but ask her if it’s necessary.

“I would… prefer they know,” Kara’s body says softly. “I can’t exactly hide the scars, my love… and that one is… very noticeable, especially if a shirt is too thin.” She winces, everyone’s eyes now on her, and Alex reaches out and grabs one of Sam’s wrists, Jack following suit once he notices. “Part of why I didn’t have an escape plan in place for myself is that I never expected to be taken— meaning both that I didn’t expect to be caught and that… if I was caught, I assumed they would just kill me.” She swallows, once again gazing down at their niece’s sleeping face. “They were initially going to do to me… what they did to Corben.” Kara’s free hand raises, rubbing at her chest, and back in the apartment Lena’s is doing the same, feeling the upraised scar tissue. “I cobbled together a plan that would appeal to Lex— a way he could personally beat Superman with his mind, with me being the prototype. He was on board, but Lillian… wasn’t, and when she knew Lex would be gone awhile she… began the procedure.”

Auntie Lena, Ruby thinks, her terror flooding them all. Are you really okay?

They didn’t get far, a stóirín, I’ll be fine, I promise, Lena says softly, now using Kara’s body to cradle Ruby with both arms, the hand on her back switching to carding through her hair.

“Alex,” Sam says, her voice trembling.

“I didn’t know that,” Alex says quickly. “She… showed me her body, and I saw the scar, but… she still has her heart… I think.”

“I do,” Kara’s body says, nodding. “Lex arrived and threw a fit, and Lillian caved fairly quickly. The scar is a bit… grisly, though.” She plows on. “I was mostly left to my own devices after that, albeit heavily supervised, and they provided me with all of the alien DNA and mineral samples I needed.” Kara’s body takes a deep breath and slowly blows it out. “Including samples I now know came from Meri, Jade, Enna, and Allo. It was their DNA that helped… make everything else work. I turned myself into an anti-Kryptonian weapon using the blood of captive children, and it only took me a year,” she drawls, lips flattened in a facsimile of a smile.

Kara growls when she feels her wife’s guilt and shame, but before she can do more than flood her :zhao with her love, all four girls send Lena a mental flick.

Enough, Meri says. You and Kara saved us, so consider the… blood debt, repaid.

Agreed, Enna drawls. Though you still have to teach me everything you know. That’s the price of keeping me in a hostage situation, she adds, her amusement tickling Kara’s mind.

I’m fine with it, psychic kidnapper, Jade drawls. I did almost burn your apartment down… a few times.

I didn’t like the needles, Allo muses, but Super Kara doesn’t like needles either, so… The girl shrugs. I’m glad we helped you make a hive mind, it’s fun.

Auntie Lena, Ruby says, if you keep feeling guilty about this then your children are going to be able to blackmail you as easily as I blackmail Auntie Kara.

Kir chahv, Astra says softly when Lena is quiet, let the past be the past, and do not be your own phantom. Your guilt need not haunt you and your new family.

Kara should of course chime in with something serious, but she finds herself following Ruby’s tactic, feeling that her wife is doing her utmost to tune them all out, determined to wallow in the emotions she believes she deserves. After mentally poking Lena to ensure she has her full attention, she says happily, The girls helped create your powers, so they’re your ‘power parents’, much like I am Livewire’s— do you think we should adopt her too?

Kara’s body groans. “For fuck’s sake, Kara, are you really bringing that up again?” Lena’s guilt and shame vanish, frustration in their wake.

Well it got you to react, so I think it was successful, Kara muses. Should we ask—

“You are not going to have Livewire’s DNA tested,” Kara’s body mutters. “Knowing you we’d have to break her out of prison and adopt her too and she actually is both a criminal and an adult.” She narrows her eyes when two of the girls protest at this. “Crimes under duress do not count, and Meri and Jade aren’t adults yet since Kara is the base of the hive mind and we are thus going by Kryptonian standards. Ergo, you are both neither adults nor criminals, and once Kara and I have our Earth wedding, we will adopt you. I can make the paperwork up easy enough.”

“Lena,” Sam interrupts, eyes narrowed. “Please tell me your children and ‘Super auntie’ talked some sense into you… before whatever the fuck Kara said.”

Kara’s body freezes, and once again everyone floods Lena with a deluge of positive emotions, but this time she doesn’t have her defenses up and feels them all. She trembles for a moment before sighing, her head gently coming to rest atop Ruby’s. “Fine,” she mumbles. “But you’re all cheating by making me feel how you’re feeling and you know it.”

“So it takes a hive mind to finally get through to you,” Jack muses. “I… did not see that coming, love, but whatever works, I suppose.”

“You said it took one year, what about the last three?” Jess asks, apparently determined to keep them on track, and Kara idly wishes her luck for that monumental undertaking, a thought that earns her a pinch from both her wife and niece.

Brainy makes an annoyed sound in the back of his throat, and everyone turns to him. He flushes but still meets Kara’s eyes, looking… a bit sulky, honestly. “Even in the future it is understood that no one can read a Kryptonian’s mind, yet… Supergirl’s wife… only took a single year to disprove that, and none of you realize how amazing that is.”

Jess turns to Brainy with a smirk. “Do you remember what I said back when I asked you to hang onto something for me?” As Brainy freezes, eyes going impossibly wide, Jess turns to everyone else. “Uh, it’s nothing important, I just… needed his help with something… before today’s meeting…” She looks away but before anyone can question that Brainy is sputtering.

“There is, I would have, that,” Brainy stops and mutters a Kryptonian curse that’s actually obscene for once, and Kara can tell her wife is very tempted to read both Brainy and Jess’ minds right now, the first still clearly shocked and the other trying very hard not to laugh. “Even so,” Brainy finally manages, fully pouting now, “I do not understand how… Supergirl’s wife managed to do such a thing in so short a time.”

“It’s Lena,” Sam says, like that’s all the explanation there needs to be, and oddly, Brainy sighs, slumping.

“True,” he mutters.

Now Sam is watching him with a frown. “Brainy, did you… know where Lena was this whole time?” Her fists are clenched again, and Kara gets the feeling it isn’t a wall she wants to punch right now.

Brainy immediately holds his hands up in surrender. “You asked me about ‘Lena Luthor’ when I first arrived, and I told you the truth. Aside from… certain people, I only know matters of public record, and in the future there is no record of a person named ‘Lena Luthor’.”

“But?” Jess asks, also watching Brainy now. He glares at her and she smirks, and Kara can tell her wife again wishes she was reading everyone’s minds right now.

They’re both hiding something, Ruby decides. I of all people know when someone has a secret, and whatever they’re not telling us is definitely juicy. They can all tell Ruby desperately wants Lena to question them both, but…

I don’t think it’s… wise to demand answers from someone from the future, Enna mumbles. He may have needed Jess to help with something, or he may be helping her with something personal, or… well, he’ll tell everyone if we need to know… probably.

Ruby is very annoyed when everyone agrees with this, though now Lena is a bit worried and Kara… is surprised her aunt is fine with trusting Brainy so much, which prompts Astra to mutter that though she’s never met the man he did help her with something awhile back, and now Kara wants to interrogate all of them, much to Ruby’s delight.

“But,” Brainy says slowly, looking back to Sam, “I do know of the woman who marries Supergirl. I had no way of knowing she was the Lena for whom you were searching. Granted, there were no records of her existence prior to her marriage.” He looks away then. “I refuse to say anymore lest I change something.”

I did say you were going to change the world, Kara muses. It seems I was correct.

Damn straight, Ruby says, her pride filling them all.

Kara’s body blushes and she finally raises her head fully, giving Brainy a half-hearted glare before sighing and continuing to card her hand through Ruby’s hair. “I’m planning on erasing any evidence ‘Lena Luthor’ ever existed,” she admits. When Sam and Jack look horrified she sighs. “Relax, this has been my plan for awhile— it’s why I used to take down any pictures that ended up online. I don’t want to… stop being me, I just don’t want to be connected to the Luthors anymore.”

I’m still keeping all my old pictures of you, Ruby thinks, worried. They’re mine, Auntie Lena, you can’t have them.

You may keep the pictures, a stóirín, Lena thinks, smiling. I want to be free of the Luthors, not my real family. Kara feels their niece’s surprise when Lena sends the ghost of a kiss to her forehead.

Lena, me too! But I’m actually with you right now so— oh, Allo says quietly, settling immediately when Kara’s wife leans down and kisses her forehead. I got the first in-person kiss of the ‘a stóirín’ club, she whispers, and much to Kara’s surprise Ruby isn’t annoyed, all of them feeling Allo’s bright, golden happiness filling them.

I wanna go home, Kara can’t help but think, and when Ruby echoes the sentiment, eager to finally see Lena, her wife blushes.

Let’s get this wrapped up then, Lena thinks as she refocuses on the room around them, and Kara can tell that while her wife loves seeing her family again, the topics of this meeting are… well, she’ll be glad to move on as well. “The first year I… experimented on myself,” Kara’s body begins, “and once they knew it had worked… Lex and Lillian took over the experimenting.” She clenches her jaw a moment, once again focusing on Ruby. “I am weakened by kryptonite, albeit not nearly as much as Kara, so once they realized the extent of the powers I had given myself I was kept… securely contained.” She gives Sam a wan smile. “I can’t say it was worth it, but I did break both of Lex’s arms… accidentally, unfortunately. If I’d had better control over my new powers I may have been able to escape on my own, but…” She lowers her head, once again resting it on Ruby’s. “Sorry,” Kara’s body whispers.

This time both Sam and Jess hug her, one on each side and all of them very careful not to squish or jostle Ruby.

“You’re back now,” Jess says, “and you U-Hauled a whole goddamn family, and none of us are letting anything happen to you again.” She pulls away enough to narrow her eyes at her. “Whether you like it or not.”

“Agreed,” Sam says, sniffling. “I know we haven’t actually seen you yet but metaphorically speaking I am never letting you out of my sight again. If you thought I was a helicopter parent to Ruby before, just you wait, Lena. I’m going to put Alex’s over-protectiveness to shame.” She ignores when Alex grumbles at that.

Jack walks up to them, and since there’s no room left in the hug he places a hand on both Sam and Jess’ shoulders, smiling widely. “And once you delete that pesky anti-Luthor protocol, love, I will literally never let you out of my sight again, and I am not joking.” His smile drops. “I just had to deal with watching you get taken, watching Sam and Ruby and Jess search and grieve for you for four years, watching Sam slowly realize Supergirl had you, and watching the often bleak conversations you had with them via Supergirl, all in the span of a few minutes, only to finally be myself again and realize I did nothing to help you and my darling niece is now a teenager.”

Kara’s body looks at Jack and grimaces. “If it’s any consolation I had to relive the four years when I finally remembered them, and it was much longer and more painful that when I finally remembered the entire lifetime before that.”

Jack growls. “That is not a consolation, Lena, that is further motivation for me to track your every goddamn movement for the rest of our lives, which I recognize is a tad creepy but here we are.”

She laughs then, pulling away from the hug so she can wrap her arms around Ruby lest she jostle her too much. “Jack, I know Kara is the ‘base’ of the hive mind since I hang out in her head so much… well, that and she is smarter than me so she has more ‘room’ so to speak… but may I remind you that my powers are what created the hive mind? I have many people now tracking everything I do and vice versa, and most of them are children.” Kara’s body grins. “I’ll delete your anti-Luthor protocol at game night if Jess brings her laptop, alright?” Her nose wrinkles. “If you try to watch me in the bathroom or bedroom I’m adding it back though.”

“I’m not your insane brother,” Jack drawls. “Nor am I a voyeur— why did you pinch me? Oh, right, there are children watching, my bad, loves.” He brightens. “Will you be bringing your invisible children to game night? I’m fairly certain I’ve been trying to find them for at least three years, I may as well get to meet them.”

“And the potentially-murderous seventh person,” Alex adds. “Since she’s living with my child this week, I will be meeting her sooner rather than later.”

I wanna see how Alex cheats! Allo hollers. And I wanna find a way for us to cheat too!

We’re a hive mind, Enna says. We’re already cheating.

Can we even play any games like this? Jade asks. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for cheating, but unless we’re one big team this is gonna give me a disadvantage.

What they’re trying to say, Meri says, her amusement tickling Kara, is that yes, we would enjoy coming to game night. Even if we don’t know how any of us are going to play games at this point. Nor… have we ever played any Earth games.

What about you, Auntie Astra? Ruby asks. You need to come so someone can finally beat Auntie Kara at Uno!

Mm, if Lena and Enna have erased certain footage by then, I suppose I can stop by, Astra muses. They all feel Ruby’s confusion and Astra smirks. Kir chahv, have you noticed your mothers’ search for a certain ‘kryptonite killer’, as Alex has dubbed it?

Ruby mentally squeals so loudly Kara nearly seizes control of her body to cover her ears, and then she laughs when Allo resolves to yell more quietly herself from now on. That was you? Ma is definitely gonna wanna fight you, she’s so mad you got to do what Mom wouldn’t let her. The girl’s thoughts race a moment before settling, and she pokes Kara’s mind. When we go get my stuff for the week we need to raid Ma’s kitchen stash, she has backups for that case hidden there.

“They are all happy to come, yes,” Kara’s body says evenly, Lena electing to ignore how willing their niece is to cover up a crime. “Though by then I will ideally have image inducers for the girls, so should they choose to they don’t have to be invisible.”

“Okay,” Nia says, “but for the record, even when invisible, Allo eating ice cream in Ruby’s old Supergirl pajamas was adorable, and Jade jumping off the landing pad in Alex’s leather jacket from her teen years was hilarious.”

“Agreed,” Brainy says mildly. “Had Nia warned me of it, I would have made sure to take a picture of the Assistant Director’s face to preserve the moment.”

Jack turns to him with a grin. “Oh, Brainy, I have it saved already. There’s also a very lovely conversation Supergirl had with Nia… though you know,” he says, tapping a finger to his chin. “I do believe I’ll steal whoever’s idea it was to wait and show it at your Earth wedding.” He gives Kara an absolutely evil grin. “I have it on good authority that Cat Grant will be there, and will enjoy it immensely.”

“Is Miss Grant actually coming?” Nia blurts. A moment later she looks delighted. “Holy fuck, I thought that was a dream-dream. Ohhhh this is gonna be good.” The look in her eyes makes Kara nervous. “May I give you a suggestion?” Nia’s smile is sickly-sweet.

Kara’s body sighs. “If you must, assuming it won’t… break the space-time continuum or summon time wraiths.”

Nia smirks so widely Kara briefly wonders if her face will stay that way. “Make sure your ‘Super auntie’ has a psychic inhibitor and a soundproof room when you build your ridiculous house.”

I do not like what that implies, Astra says, her unease nettling Kara’s mind. I elect we ignore your half-Naltorian friend. This advice is coming from her human half.

Auntie Astra, Jade says, and Kara feels her smirk. Are you and Cat Grant gonna hook up at your niece’s wedding?

No, Astra growls.

What’s ‘hook up’ mean? Allo asks.

Kissing, Ruby replies. And… things we don’t wanna see. Or experience psychically.

Is that why Jade is only gonna steal Super Kara and Lena’s bathtub for the next month? Allo muses. Is ‘hooking up’, uh, ‘strenuous activity’?

Twenty-nine days now, Jade corrects. I’m keeping count, ugh.

Are you still glad you joined the hive mind, Ruby? Meri asks, her amusement at everyone’s discomfort now flooding them all.

As long as someone makes several psychic inhibitors, Ruby decides. If I joined this easy then my mom will too, and maybe even my ma at some point, and it’s been bad enough trying not to hear them lately… wait, is my hearing also alien? What am I? Uh, don’t answer that til we leave, if it’s too weird I may wake up.

“Enough,” Kara’s body says, scowling at Nia. “I see why Kara says you’re evil. And I will be making psychic inhibitors for everyone, as well as several spares, so please calm down.” She arches a single eyebrow dangerously. “’Super auntie’, I suggest you abandon your plan to go hide in the woods now, as Kara has already assured you that she or I will track you down, and from how Ruby reacted to Nia having met you already, well, she blackmails my wife a little too easily so you will be back by nightfall.”

Damn straight, Ruby says. I have heard way too many crazy stories about you, Auntie Astra, I will be meeting you today.

They weren’t crazy stories, Kara says, indignant.

Auntie Kara, Ruby thinks slowly. Auntie Astra took you to dozens of planets by the time you were three, and you were almost eaten on all of them.

She did get eaten once, Astra says grudgingly, abandoning her plan to flee in the face of Ruby’s determination, as best Kara can tell. Luckily it was a planet with a yellow sun. Which apparently did have civilizations in the past, we just didn’t know since the… very large creatures there ate all of the ruins. As Kara discovered.

“Maybe you aren’t safe to have around the children,” Kara’s body mutters. When she notices Alex go rigid she sighs. “Not like that.” Unless you have a ship…

I do not, and trust me, my sister lectured me for three hours straight after that, Astra says, sighing. I had to take Kara to more mundane planets for awhile.

JEJU KNEW? Kara screeches, so embarrassed her body flushes. HOW?

Kir chahv, Astra says slowly, you ‘hid’ all of your souvenirs in a safe she gave you. How would she not know?

Kara’s body shakes with laughter again while Kara is still reeling, deciding that no, her mother apparently couldn’t be trusted after all. Ruby and Jade immediately start teasing her, Allo is very carefully making a mental note to never accept a safe from Lena or Super Kara, and Enna is astounded someone as intelligent as Kara never realized and then starts worrying she herself may have blind spots as well. Meri is highly amused at all of this, and Kara snaps out of her spiral and feels, suddenly, like her eldest child is a little too similar to Cat what with how much amusement she derives from Kara’s predicaments.

“Is it going to be this difficult to have a conversation with you in person?” Jess asks, sounding more curious than annoyed.

“Currently no one has anything else to do,” Kara’s body muses, not saying aloud that as the hive mind continues to grow it may be worse, though that thought makes Kara both excited and worried. “So we’ll see. As for what we’re going to do moving forward…” Her fingers tap lightly on Ruby’s back. “Jack, how many minions do you think are left to find?”

Jack stills, his eyes glowing blue for a moment. “No clue, love. I have a few thousand under surveillance right now, but figuring out which gaps overlap…”

“I’ve been organizing it,” Jess says, frowning, “but finding out exactly how many missing pieces there are… I have yet to manage.”

Kara can do it, Astra says. Once… Meri is back in her own mind. And ideally with you isolating your connection so we do not all get a ‘brain freeze’ again. The sisters flinch and Ruby is curious. My niece could already think incredibly quickly on Krypton, but the yellow sun here has increased that ability exponentially. Being psychically linked to someone thinking that fast is… akin to a human trying to hold onto the outside of a bullet train, I suppose.

…I kinda wanna try, Ruby thinks. We could turn that into an IQ test. ‘How long can you handle Supergirl super thinking?’

Super super thinking, Enna drawls. According to Auntie Astra.

My love? Lena asks.

I’ll need to see literally everything you both gathered on them, Kara says. And I refuse to read and watch it in real time, so I’ll have to port it all to Kryptonian tech so I can do it quickly… I should be able to do it if I take Jack’s ‘heart’ to the Fortress for a few hours, it can’t be that different from when I wanted to ‘super binge watch’ Earth shows to learn about the culture.

Kara watches her wife’s thoughts for a moment, Lena running through all the urgent things they need to do: finish healing Meri, search the archive, teach Ruby to use her powers, have Kara review Jack’s footage… and Kara is going back to work soon…

Kara’s body nods. “Alright, I should be able to put Meri back in her own body tomorrow night as long as Kara uses the sun bed every few hours today and tonight, sorry darling, and you’re taking Jade and Allo shopping tomorrow… Kara does have work Monday but afterwards she can take Jack’s heart to the Fortress of Solitude and find all of the gaps then.” And run the simulation for your strength, Lena adds. Tuesday we’ll search the archive, I have a feeling it will… take a lot out of you, my love, and we need to start taking out their network sooner rather than later since so many have kryptonite and the leaders are officially missing now.

Astra quietly fills Ruby in on why Kara needs to run a simulation on her own strength, and Kara tries to tune them out when her head starts throbbing, Astra then having to fill Ruby in on that as well… which makes the throbbing worse.

Jack makes a sound of disbelief. “Lena, there’s five years’ worth of footage, and you gathered decades of ‘paper trails’ last I knew. I know I just processed quite a lot in a few minutes, but I’m a nanobot man, and I prioritized footage of you all. There’s no way a normal person can look through everything both you and I have gathered in a single evening, much less make sense of it enough to figure out what we’re still missing based only on the lack of information.”

Kara’s body smirks. “Really, Jack, do you think I would ever marry anyone ‘normal’?” She goes back to rubbing Ruby’s back. “I wasn’t exaggerating when I had Kara tell Sam, Ruby, and Alex just how intelligent she is. I actually may have underestimated it. She’s going to… upload your data to Kryptonian tech so she can see it all as quickly as she wants, and I will isolate our connection for the duration so no one else has to try parsing her ‘super super thinking’ in real time.” She frowns, thoughtful. “I… may actually get a headache from this, which does annoy me.”

“Lena, love, you deserve the world,” Jack begins, then rolls his eyes at the look on her face. “I’m not implying you should take over the Earth, calm down. I just want to say, in all seriousness, that it is highly unfair that a genius with powers has apparently married a super genius with super powers.” He pouts. “How is Jess supposed to settle for me now?”

“You’re ridiculous,” Jess mutters, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. “And I have no choice, obviously, everyone else here is taken.”

Kara sees a flash of her wife’s memory, then, of Jess going out of her way to flirt with anyone her friends so much as showed an interest in and then trotting over to them and happily reporting the person is obviously a jerk and dragging them off somewhere else, and Sam must be thinking about that as well because she immediately winds her arm around Alex’s waist, glaring at Jess all the while.

“Alex is mine,” Sam says, smirking when her wife blushes. She leans in and whispers to her then, at a volume Kara’s body can easily make out, “And we’ll be home alone tonight.” Alex’s blush reaches her ears.

Kara and Ruby both grimace at that, but Jess just smiles, and Kara’s body smirks. “Are you done flirting, Samantha? I do have super hearing right now, you know.”

Sam rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, it’s your fault for kidnapping my child when you already have four children and a mysterious ‘Super auntie’ living with you.” She sobers then, a slight frown on her face. “So are we just supposed to… do nothing until Kara can review your data?”

Jess reaches out and pinches Sam, hard, eliciting a surprised yelp. “Considering that the last things you did led to Corben nearly killing them and someone putting a hit out on Ruby and then you, yes, Director Arias-Danvers, we are going to do nothing.” She shakes her head when Sam flushes. “I know you were desperate since the Luthors suddenly vanished, but the first thing especially was a stupid move and you know it. What possessed you to send a message on one of their private channels saying the DEO had captured them I will never know.”

Sam looks like she wants to fight back but then she sighs. “You’re right. I didn’t know they had a fucking kryptonite man though.”

Jess nods and turns to Kara then. “Now, what I am going to call you?”

Kara’s body frowns. “What… do you mean?”

“You’re going to open a company of your own at some point,” Jess says calmly, “And I of course am going to be working there, partly to keep an eye on you and partly because I have a glaring four year gap on my resume.” She folds her hands in front of herself. “’Dr. Luthor’ is obviously out at this point, and I doubt your wife will remain ‘Miss Danvers’, so once your Earth wedding is done, what will your names be?” She has a small smile on her face already, and Kara idly notes Brainy shaking his head.

I haven’t figured that out yet, Kara grumbles. I still think ‘Lena Danvers’ sounds off, and I want it to be both of ours, but ‘Kara Zor-El Kieran-Danvers’ is way too many last names.

Auntie Kara, Ruby drawls, this isn’t that hard. You don’t like how patriarchal Krypton was so just hyphenate your family name with Auntie Lena’s, and since your new last name stole your middle names put Danvers there instead. Duh.

Is it weird to say I really like this kid when she can hear me now? Jade muses. Even if she did call me a kid, which was both rude and inaccurate.

It’s fine, I know I’m excellent, Ruby says easily. And I know you can’t give me credit right now, but by the wedding I will be bragging about naming two geniuses to both of my moms, and Auntie Jess and Uncle Jack.

Both Lena and Kara are absolutely smitten with Ruby’s idea, and Kara’s body hugs their niece closer, giving everyone a brilliant smile. “Kara and Lena Danvers Kieran-El,” she says confidently. Sam and Alex gasp quietly, though no one else seems surprised by them both having ‘Danvers’ in their name, even though the two who are had already been told Lena wanted to. She meets Jess’ eyes. “So if you continue to insist on addressing me formally, ‘Dr. Kieran-El’ will do.”

The House of Kieran-El, Astra thinks softly, and Kara feels her aunt smiling. An excellent name, little ones.

Jess bows her head. “Of course, Dr. Kieran-El.” She looks up, eyes shiny and a soft smile on her face. “And what company will I be working at in the future, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Kara’s body gives one of her wife’s signature smirks. “El Corp,” she says. “Earth’s tech industry isn’t going to know what hit it.” She glances at Brainy then, and sees him watching with bright eyes and a proud smile, his Legion ring glinting on his finger.

Chapter Text

"Damn straight,” Jess says quietly. “Now, as we all know that Dr. Kieran-El ‘piloting’ her wife’s body is exhausting and she still needs to heal her child, I suggest we adjourn this meeting.” She scrutinizes Kara and nods to herself, apparently able to tell when Lena slips away. “Supergirl,” Jess says, taking a small step closer, “can I assume you will be back to use the sun bed shortly?”

She wants to lecture you still, Lena tells Kara, but first she wants you to bring Ruby here and give me an energy boost. Jess has also decided that when you are in trouble, which she already knows will be often, she is going to call you ‘Supergirl’, as full-naming you when you share most of my name is ‘unprofessional’.

Kara sighs. “I’ll be back in around an hour,” she mutters. “Though I… probably won’t be coherent for at least fifteen minutes after that. Not that I wanna be for this.”

Sam and Alex are watching her with matching suspicious expressions. “Kara,” her sister starts, “what did you do that Sam’s friend is going to lecture you?”

“I maintain it was perfectly normal,” Kara says, scowling.

Knowing how often Auntie Astra took you places she shouldn’t have I’m kind of surprised the worst that happened was us stopping an alien invasion somehow, Ruby muses.

Lena hums. Tell Jess to only give you a level one lecture, as there are extenuating circumstances, also known as ‘a very bad influence from a young age’ and ‘complete confidence in your own work’.

Kara’s brow crinkles. “Baby girl why have you given her lectures a level system?”

Auntie Jess lectured Auntie Lena all the time, Ruby says happily, all of them feeling Lena’s embarrassment at this. To work less, eat more, drink less, take ‘more time for herself’ which was code for spending time with me and Mom, et cetera.

“So you are a workaholic,” Kara says, nodding and ignoring the pinch she gets for that. She looks at Jess. “My wife said to tell you to only give me a ‘level one lecture’ due to extenuating circumstances.”

“Which are?” Jess asks, arching a single eyebrow and crossing her arms.

“A very bad influence from a young age and complete confidence in my own work, neither of which I agree with,” Kara says, frowning. “My aunt was a very good influence, and I am well aware of all the flaws in my creations.”

Thank you, kir chahv, Astra thinks, but I am fairly certain the many times I unintentionally endangered you are a large part of why the Codex never gave me a child. Her sadness and… guilt, that feels twofold for some reason… floods them all, but Kara’s rage drowns it out, so all encompassing it makes everyone feeling it shake, even the child asleep in her arms.

A lightning bolt of pain strikes her mind, so strong she feels it down to her toes, but still Kara manages to mutter in Kryptonian, “That was his fault, not yours,” and she remembers a flash of Jor-El, smirking proudly and not even looking at her, focused on the computer he’s sitting in front of while he works on… something, and for an instant she feels a tidal wave of negative emotions so strong she can’t breathe before it all falls away. Her aunt’s sadness turns to shock and then anger, but the whole conversation is already gone from Kara’s mind along with the emotions she’d felt back then, and when she blinks blearily back into the room around her, her sister is standing in front of her, arms crossed and a dangerous look on her face, and Sam is behind her, rubbing her forehead and scowling.

Alex growls. “Kara Zor-El Danvers— Kara Danvers Kieran-El, whatever— tell me that does not mean what I think it means.”

Your sister also knows of your aunt, it seems, Lena muses, sending a wave of healing calm to everyone for some reason. Though she didn’t know you had a spaceship.

Auntie Kara, I think we should escape now, Ruby thinks, worried. Ma really isn’t going to like this, and I don’t wanna end up grounded when I’m finally gonna see Auntie Lena again. And meet Auntie Astra. And have just joined your hive mind, which she also will not like. And am some kind of alien which Brainy doesn’t want anyone knowing for some reason.

Kara stands, still cradling Ruby, and carefully sidesteps Alex. “Ya know, you were right, Ruby really does need to rest in a real bed,” Kara mumbles, “so I’m… just gonna take her to get her things real quick and then head home… and give my wife, who is…” Her brow crinkles. “In bed? When— you actually let someone other than me carry you to bed, okay, you really do need energy.” Kara mutters a Kryptonian curse and heads for the door. “You can all lecture me when I get back.”

She pauses in the doorway at her wife’s behest and blinks in surprise when her glasses float out of her hidden pocket and drift down to the box on the floor she had completely forgotten about, storing it with a tap before slipping back into her pocket.

“Okay fair,” Kara says. “Your powers have grown stronger, but you have also used them far too much and I could have picked it up on the way back… mhm, which I will do with Jack’s heart, understood.”

As she leaves, her sister says, “Kara I swear to god if you took my daughter somewhere that something tried to eat her—“

“My ship can’t leave Earth’s orbit yet, relax,” Kara drawls, turning enough to side-eye her sister. Then she grins. “Though we did apparently stop an alien invasion, so—“ She uses a slight burst of speed to make it to the end of the hall, everyone in the room’s shock and then anger so strong it hits her without her wife passing it on.

Why did you make it worse for yourself? Jade asks.

I thought it would be funny, Kara says easily, taking off and heading for the Arias-Danvers residence. I was correct.

You’re getting a level two lecture now, Lena tells her. Jack’s bots couldn’t make anything out from wherever your ship locked them up, and Jess is even more pissed. She’s also very good at ensuring you can’t tune her out, so good luck, darling.

“I kinda think it would have been worse for the whole planet if I didn’t take Ruby to space,” Kara mutters. “A Daxamite invasion of Earth would have been annoying to stop.”

The children all begin debating how exactly Kara would have stopped the invasion, Ruby delighted to finally find out why Kara merely introducing herself had made the alien queen change her attitude so drastically, and Lena occasionally chimes in, but Astra is oddly silent. Even when they get to Ruby’s house, the girl waking and sleepily shoving everything she’ll need (as well as a flash drive that was hidden in the bottom of a box of healthy cereal) into a few bags that Kara stores in her glasses, her aunt doesn’t say a word, shielding her mind as she ruminates on something.

Ruby falls asleep again on the flight to Kara’s, now back to learning Kryptonian curses from her cousins in exchange for junk food recommendations. When Kara lands on the balcony of her apartment her niece barely has time to wake up enough to slip out of her arms before Allo leaps on Kara, still in her Supergirl pajamas.

“Super Kara!” Allo cries, and this time Kara catches her in a hug, swinging her around a moment before setting her down and pressing a kiss to her forehead. Allo grabs Ruby then, giving her a cautious hug and stepping back. “Nice to meet you, Super Ruby!”

“Super?” Ruby mumbles, wiping at her eyes. “Why— eep!”

Jade picks her up, barely noticing when Kara smooths a hand over her feather-hair. “I can lift you easily, so you’re a kid!” She sets her down and puts her hands on her hips. “And I am an adult.” Enna walks up behind her and flicks her head. “Hey! Super kidnapper may be older than me by several decades, but compared to Ruby I am still not a kid.”

“Sorry about her,” Enna says, holding out her hand and then shaking Ruby’s very formally, releasing her hand just as Kara reaches out and smooths a hand over her feather-hair. “Though you did want to join the hive mind, so I suppose it was your choice to be stuck with her too.”

“Rude,” Jade says mildly, flicking Enna as she turns to head back into the bedroom, sending Ruby a quick explanation that she’d paused her egg checkup to greet her in person.

I would come greet you as well, Meri thinks then, but I am quite literally not in my body at the moment.

Astra walks in, and Kara’s brow crinkles when she sees her stormy expression, but then her aunt looks at her and sighs, and a moment later she’s hugging Kara as hard as she can. “There is much to do still, kir chahv, but I would like to talk to you later, if that is alright.”

“Mm’kay,” Kara mumbles, and for a reason she can’t explain she buries her face in the crook of Astra’s neck for a moment, feeling a little bit like… something has changed, but she doesn’t know what. She pulls away, blinking the fog from her mind, and turns to see Ruby looking at Astra with wide eyes.

“You even look badass,” Ruby says, scanning Astra from head to toe. “And I see where Aunt Kara’s goth suit came from.”

“They are Kryptonian battle suits, little one,” Astra says, looking Ruby up and down now. “And depending on how quickly you learn to regulate your super strength, you may need to borrow one.”

Kara knows Ruby was about to ask to see Lena, but at that she stills, her mind going so quiet that the sisters reach out to make sure she’s still there.

Ruby looks from Astra to Allo to Kara, her frown deepening. “Why do you all keep using the word ‘super’ when it’s pretty much Aunt Kara’s trademark at this point?”

Kara and Astra glance at each other, and surprisingly her aunt steps forward, kneeling in front of Ruby and giving her a small smile. “We do not know the specifics yet, kir chahv, but we believe you are Kryptonian, and possibly your mother as well.”

“I know you’re here somehow, but I thought Auntie Kara and Clark were the only Kryptonians sent to Earth,” Ruby whispers, and they all wince when a lightning bolt of pain once again flashes through Kara’s mind. “Shit,” Ruby hisses, hand grabbing her forehead.

Language, Lena says idly, sending them all a healing calmness. Aunt Astra already told you about Kara brainwashing herself in regards to her strength, but it seems she’s locked something to do with all of this away as well.

Kara’s head starts throbbing and she rubs at it idly. “I know you want to see your other godmother,” she says to Ruby, completely ignoring the conversation happening, “but I think it would be best if I went and gave her some energy first while Aunt Astra teaches you to control your strength. You should pick it up quickly between how smart you are and her being able to mentally share with you how it works.”

We’ll figure it out on Tuesday, Lena adds, sighing mentally. Though I suspect it will be… painful in many ways.

Ruby squints at Kara but slowly nods, and Kara drops a quick kiss to the top of her head before zooming into the bedroom. She smooths a hand over Meri’s feather-hair and lays down on her wife’s other side, pressing a lingering kiss to her cheek and curling around her. As Kara dozes, channeling as much energy into her wife as she dares, they both turn their focus to the minds in the living room, Astra giving Ruby the same lessons she had a toddler Kara on controlling her powers, though this time she’s able to share her own experience psychically as well.

The lesson lasts nearly forty minutes, Astra intent on ensuring Ruby won’t harm anyone unintentionally and Ruby determined to both prove herself and be able to actually hug Lena after four long years of missing her. They break surprisingly few things in Kara’s opinion, though both Lena and Enna are more intent on how easily Kara fixes those things when they’re done, waking long enough to mutter a quick command in Kryptonian that causes what everyone had thought was a normal book tucked onto the bookshelf to fly off, pages fluttering out and swirling over to each broken item and melting onto them, fixing them instantly.

“Why didn’t you use that for the ice cream bowl?” Enna asks.

Mm, I broke that bowl too many times, Kara answers, already dozing again. Everything has a unique amount of times it can be fixed like this. Dunno why, probably magic.

Ruby takes a deep breath and slowly blows it out, electing to ignore all of that. “Okay, I would please like to see Auntie Lena now.” She pauses, and they see her remembering a time her mom punched a wall. “Though I think maybe Auntie Astra should… hug-restrain me just in case, since you’ve all made it clear she… ‘isn’t in good shape’ and I… may get a little upset at first.”

Kara hugs her wife closer when she feels her pang of guilt. “Don’t,” she mumbles, blearily opening her eyes. “Their fault, not yours, baby girl.” She slowly sits up, helping her wife to as well. “Cape?” Lena blushes but nods, and Kara gently moves her to the edge of the bed, the cape around her shoulders now.

Ruby, her wife thinks, you can come in, and I promise, though I may not look it… I am okay. And, ah, I should be able to… physically talk in a week or so. She clutches the cape tighter around her shoulders as Kara steps away.

Ruby walks in but stops in the doorway, her eyes squeezed shut and her hands fisted at her sides. It isn’t until Astra enters behind her, kneeling and securely wrapping her arms around her, that the girl finally opens her eyes, immediately honing in on Lena.

She stares for several minutes, heart hammering and breaths coming quickly, and though her fists ball tighter she merely trembles in Astra’s grasp, letting the emotions wash through her. Joy, anger, love, hatred, longing, pain… flashes of old memories, Lena healthy and smiling, no scars on her hands and her bones not nearly so prominent…

Kara’s wife sends their niece her love, then, and her joy at seeing her, her happiness for where she currently is and who she’s currently with, and Ruby slowly lets the warmth of those emotions drive out the cold of her own. Finally she sighs, sagging, and when Astra releases her she slowly walks toward the bed, steps unsure and hesitant.

I trust you, a stóirín, Lena thinks, releasing her death grip on the cape and standing. She makes it two steps before Ruby gently crashes into her, wrapping her arms around her in a hug they can all feel her carefully adjusting the strength of, and Lena embraces her as well, both of them now wrapped in the cape. All is well, Lena whispers, Ruby now quietly sobbing, I’m safe, and so are you. Her joy and satisfaction surge and she raises one hand, beginning to card it through their niece’s hair as she mentally hums a familiar lullaby.

Kara watches her wife and niece for a long while, both still tightly embracing and even Lena crying now, swaying slightly in tune with her humming. When she notices her wife starting to strain, just the tiniest bit, having used far too much of her powers, she walks over, Ruby stepping back as she gets there.

“Sorry,” Ruby mumbles, scrubbing at her cheeks. “I shouldn’t have made her stand so long.” She sniffles, and Lena immediately pulls her into another hug, kissing the crown of her head.

You did nothing wrong, a stóirín, she says softly, smoothing the girl’s hair back. She grins. My lovely wife has simply learned to be overprotective from your second mother.

Ruby snorts. “Are you gonna sleep more, or…?”

Kara scoops her wife into her arms, using the contact to funnel one more rush of energy into her, and Lena presses a kiss to her cheek.

I need to continue healing Meri, Lena says, Kara already taking her back towards the bed. We can talk more at dinner tonight, and though this next week… will be busy, we’ll have plenty of time together, a stóirín. She sighs when Kara sets her down, rolling her onto her side and draping her arm over Meri before tucking her cape around her. My love, I am not that bad off.

“It’s more for me right now,” Kara mumbles, mind a bit foggy. “I dunno why, something Brainy said… I think… I’m gonna have to remember something bad.” She leans down, pressing several kisses to her wife’s face before standing again, one hand rubbing her forehead. “Something really, really bad,” she whispers.

“Kir chahv,” Astra says, and when Kara looks at her, still standing in the doorway and staring at her with a frown, Kara is flooded with so much guilt and grief she nearly falls to her knees.

“I am sorry,” Kara says in Kryptonian, tears slipping down her cheeks, and for some reason she sees three tiny crowns of flame in her mind. “I tried to protect them,” she whispers, and her aunt is cupping her cheeks now, gazing at her with worried blue eyes.

“Protect who, little one?” Astra asks quietly, thumbs wiping her tears.

But Kara doesn’t know, her whole mind feeling hazy now despite the pain throbbing through it, all she knows is… “I made the best choice I could, and you are going to hate me for it.” The certainty of that drives out all of the other emotions, and she smiles when she feels Astra’s shock. “It is okay, I will understand. I knew even then, because I chose to be selfish.” Another glimpse of a memory, but all it is is Kara, tiny and brown-haired, kneeling in a lab and staring at her own reflection in shiny silver metal, eyes red-rimmed and face stony, her hands fisted on the floor in front of her. “I did what I had to, and I do not regret it.”

Kara pulls away from her yeyu then, looking at nothing as everything falls away, and when she blinks she frowns, wondering why her face is damp and why her aunt and the others are all frozen and staring at her. She wipes at her cheeks absently, and ignoring the shock and fear of everyone around her, she takes off for the DEO and the lecture that awaits, idly wondering how much worse a level two lecture is than a level one lecture.

“What the fuck?” Ruby whispers, and though Kara knows the others heard it as well, no one admonishes her for it.

“Those flames were the same as Jack’s,” Enna says softly. “She was checking if… three people were truly ‘alive’?” Kara doesn’t bother wondering about that.

Aunt Astra, how old was she in that memory? Her wife asks, and Kara has no clue what she’s talking about.

“Four, five-years-old at the most,” her aunt whispers, her anger and fear prickling uncomfortably at Kara’s mind. “She… her hair was not yet blonde, and that happened about halfway through her fifth year. That memory was likely…” She trails off, takes a shuddering breath. “I was away for eight months, starting before Kara turned five, and my sister never would tell me what happened, but when I returned… Kara had locked away so many of her memories… it was as if she was a different person.” Astra’s voice breaks and Kara has no clue what she’s talking about, but she also feels… pride, at what her ye— aunt just said, and when her family feels that emotion their concern increases.

“It felt different from the memories with the shapeshifter,” Allo says softly, and again, Kara doesn’t know what she’s talking about, touching down on the DEO landing pad now. “In the shapeshifter memories, baby Super Kara felt… angry. In that one she just felt… so sad.” She whimpers, and Kara can tell Jade is hugging her now, and Kara really wants to know what they’re talking about that’s making her family so upset but…

She also doesn’t, not yet… not ever, really. But I will have to, she thinks then, and though she knows the thought is her own, it’s in Kryptonian, and it sounds… much younger. I hate him, a muttered thought much like the last, I will kill him, but I cannot yet… She slumps onto the sun bed, her eyes falling closed, and she wonders who ‘he’ is that her younger self would have such thoughts. As she drifts off, she thinks she hears the quiet gurgle of a baby.

While she sleeps, restless for once even with her wife’s help, she thinks she feels a hand smooth her hair back from her face, and someone who sounds a lot like Brainy whispers in her ear in Kryptonian, “You saved them then, and you will again.” She rests easier after that, though she can feel her family’s confusion rippling through her.

Kara awakens nearly an hour later, sitting up in the sun bed and sighing when she sees who all awaits her: Alex, Sam, Jess, and Jack. “Brainy and Nia didn’t want to see the show?” Kara asks lightly.

“They’re helping calm down an over-excited and literally explosive teenager at the moment,” Sam drawls. “So, everyone tells me you’ve been taking our child into space?”

Kara winces. “Only for her birthdays?”

“Since when?” Alex asks.

“Uhh well Sam started sending Supergirl to babysit when Ruby was still ten, and you started sending Kara to babysit shortly after her eleventh birthday, so when she called me out on it immediately I decided to bribe her since I didn’t think you could legally have an eleven-year-old sign an NDA.” Kara gives them a small smile. “I thought the doll house I gave her would be fun but she didn’t seem impressed, so…”

You didn’t show me how to use it, Ruby grumbles. And then you had some kind of idea and I wanted to see what it was.

Oh, Kara, Meri thinks. You were kidnapping her before she was even your niece?

Impressive, Jade says. The audacity of both Super kidnapper and Ruby, I mean.

How’d you know? Allo asks Ruby.

Glasses and a ponytail aren’t a disguise, Ruby drawls. I’m still surprised they had to tell my mom. I know she already knew Superman’s identity by then.

Mm, Kara thinks, I’m pretty sure he revealed that to her by being equally unhelpful in both of his guises.

Asshole, Lena says idly, recalling Kara’s memory of her first ever conversation with Sam. I probably should have told her who he was so she wouldn’t have wasted her time.

I like your cousin even less now, kir chahv, Astra muses. I did not know that was possible, but he managed to abandon not only you but a future member of my family as well. She sighs when Lena is immediately confused and Kara bites back a laugh when her aunt zips over and kisses her wife’s forehead. I mean you, obviously, little one.

Kara nearly flushes with her wife’s embarrassment even as Lena murmurs a quiet thanks, not even bothering to pick a fight over Astra calling her ‘little one’.

Sam huffs out a breath. “Kara Danvers Kieran-El, are you telling me my daughter not only knew who you were before I did, but also that neither of you bothered telling anyone for two years?”

“You were very adamant that she not know. She only told you because watching you come up with excuses for me got painful after awhile,” Kara says, biting her lip to keep from laughing at her sister and sister-in-law’s stormy expressions. “I still can’t believe you told her I picked up a job at a zoo.”

“That one really was a bit of a reach, love,” Jack says, grinning at Sam when she reaches out and pinches him. “So, what does Lena think of this?”

Initially I was pissed, her wife says. But now I’m just glad Ruby wasn’t eaten by anything. Overall she was far safer than you were as a child. She sends Astra a mental pinch.

“She was mad at first, but now she’s fine with it since Ruby was never almost eaten by anything,” Kara surmises. At everyone but Alex’s wide-eyed looks, she rolls her eyes. “She’s comparing it to my trips with Aunt Astra— I was only actually swallowed once… also I got a really cool souvenir from it.”

Your father tried to study the medallion you found in that creature’s stomach and it turned his hair purple for a month, Astra says, amusement curling around Kara. It was hilarious, and he never touched it again.

“That’s what…?” Kara pauses, frowning. “Hm, okay that does explain why it…” She barely manages to stop from thinking of a few things then, and when she feels everyone’s confusion she purses her lips. “Nothing, nevermind.”

I don’t think that had to do with any brainwashing? Enna says.

“I can have some secrets,” Kara mumbles. She is many things, but she is not someone who breaks her promises… mm, though that thought now has everyone worried, oops.

Sam sighs. “Alright, and the alien invasion?”

“Can I assume you remember Mon-El?” Kara asks. Everyone’s faces immediately darken. “Yeah, so turns out he was a prince, and uh, the suit I was gonna make that caused Alex to take my tech lab was apparently a war suit.” She blushes. “I built a more powerful one on Krypton and it was… shown off at a peace negotiation with Daxam, so when I introduced myself to Mon-El’s mother she elected to not invade Earth and politely asked after her son, who I very happily returned to her after dropping Ruby back home.”

Alex pinches the nerve between her eyebrows. “Kara, was my daughter almost kidnapped by a war-mongering alien queen?”

“Allo said something similar,” Kara says, frowning. “Why do you all think I’m so incompetent? I would never let Ruby board a Daxamite ship.” She scoffs. “And I made my ship myself, so she was perfectly safe.”

Jack is watching her now, head tilted. “How large was this potential invading force?”

Like two thousand ships, Ruby drawls, all at least three times larger than ours.

Kara rolls her eyes. “It was only 1,863 ships, and them being larger than mine just makes them easier targets.” She leans back, kicking her legs idly and wondering why even her aunt is feeling shock. “Again, I made my ship myself. Just because I don’t have the parts for long distance space travel yet doesn’t mean a fleet that small would be a problem.”

Kir chahv, Astra thinks, what kind of ship did you make? When Kara does a quick runthrough of the features she’s proudest of, her aunt feels quite proud as well. I take it back, little one, it is not this planet that does not stand a chance against you but rather this universe, at the least.

My love, Lena thinks then, what the fuck were you planning to do with that? It has a cannon that could destroy three planets in one shot, it can teleport short distances, and you even gave it a ‘berserker’ mode with plasma cutters.

Kara frowns. “I just thought it would be fun to build. Why is everyone so surprised?”

I know you both claim you aren’t planning world domination, Meri says, entirely serious, but I’m beginning to think Kara is going to do it by accident and not even realize.

Kara barks out a laugh, though her wife isn’t so amused. “Oh c’mon, baby girl, I would definitely realize if I accidentally took over the Earth. Hmm, though if that did happen I think I would hand it over to you, I’m really not a fan of having to… lead people. Sam could do it, too, though, she’s good at that kinda thing.” For some reason saying that causes a weak bolt of lightning through her skull, and she blithely ignores that.

Sam growls and glares at her. “No fucking thank you, Kara, I do not want to lead a whole goddamn planet,” she hisses. She winces and ignores everyone’s surprise at her annoyance, though Kara for some reason feels guilty for suggesting it, even as she has to physically bite her lip to keep from muttering about them all having roles to play and order needing to be maintained. The urge is gone a moment later, and Kara can feel everyone in her mind’s curiosity now, though at what she doesn’t know. She refocuses as Sam runs a hand through her hair. “I thought Lena’s genius was scary, and here I’ve been having a super genius run around and punch people.”

“That is also good for appeasing my anger issues,” Kara says, “though I have no clue why I have them.” Her hand reaches up and yanks at her hair, which she hasn’t been tying back nearly as much lately, and she frowns at it, long having broken that habit.

It’s the shapeshifter’s fault, Jade decides. Whoever they are, whatever they did, they created a blonde monster.

“Rude, and I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Kara says mildly. She hums and idly thinks that it’s really Jor-El’s fault, always has been always will be, but the blonde hair certainly didn’t help matters, and then the thought falls away even as everyone’s confusion increases. “Now, on with the lecture, Jess, you’ve been oddly silent and I want to go back home soon.”

Jess walks forward, dark eyes assessing Kara. “If you had to choose between saving your wife and saving Ruby, who would you let die?”