If only you were paying attention
Lena and Kara spend the remaining weeks together as often as they could.
Lena always looked forward to the stolen kisses here and there. She held onto every single one like it would be the last. In an ideal world they wouldn’t have to hide, they could live their lives. Unfortunately for them, their lives weren’t normal. As long as Lena was a Luthor and he who shall not be named was still on the rise to power they would never have a normal life. Lena had always known though, that being a Luthor meant that nothing in life would come without a price. Maybe that’s why her family had become Death Eaters to begin with. She tells herself that they didn’t have a choice, that no one could choose to be that evil. For Lena it was a choice, she never wanted to bring terror to anyone the way it had happened in the past. Especially not Kara. She could never betray Kara that way. Even if her life depended on it.
The school year ended far too soon for her liking. She was terrified that If things didn’t go as planned, she would never see Kara again, something she couldn’t even bear to think about.
Lena made sure they went through the plan at least three times just to calm her nerves. She had bid her farewells to Maggie, Alex, Winn and Barry before they left breakfast that morning as everyone left to load their belongings on the carriages that would take them to the train station stop.
Kara had walked Lena back to her dormitory, Alex and Maggie didn’t question it and let them have the time together.
They meant to walk the direction of the Slytherin common room but they found themselves walking out toward the lake. They walked in silence the whole way, when they got far enough and out of the sight of anyone else, Kara took Lena’s hand in hers. They stood hand in hand as they watched the waves crash along the shore. It was calm, all that could be heard was the array of birds that chirped throughout the woods.
“You know this is my favorite place to come with you, it holds some of my favorite memories. We’ve had some of our most emotional times here.” Kara tells her not letting go of her hand and still looking out into the distance.
“This was the place I first opened up to you, I knew then that you were going to be important to me Kara Danvers.”
Kara lets go of her hand and turns to face Lena. She grabs her by the waist and lays her forehead against hers.
“No matter what happens Lena, I need you to know that you are worth so much more than you know. You are worthy of love and friendship, you Lena Luthor, are good.”
Kara leans into Lena and kisses her, not fast or wanting but slow like she wants to commit the taste of Lena to her memory. The difference with this kiss compared to the others is she could taste the salt from both of their tears. Kara wanted to be selfish and tell her that they could just run away and leave the worries of the world behind them. She wants to tell her that every day from here on out she wanted to spend it with Lena. If she could take any worry or fear away from Lena, she would bear that burden for the rest of her life.
But she can’t say the things she really wants to say. Too much was riding on Kara getting this right, too many people’s lives depended on it. So, she said all she could.
“You Lena Luthor are the best thing to ever happen to me, and the day we are together again will be one of the happiest of my life.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Kara had always loved summer; it was a time where she could eat anytime she wanted and lounge around with no worries. This summer however, would prove to be much more stressful than she was used too. After everyone had bid their farewells at the end of the year, Alex and Kara knew that the first thing on their list was to talk to Eliza.
They didn’t even know where to begin, it was the sort of situation that they had done so much on their own and they knew Eliza would be furious that they hadn’t said something sooner.
Eliza was at the train station waiting excitedly to pick them up and Kara felt some relief as she saw the older woman waving at them from across the train station. The ride home was mostly silent, not that Eliza hadn’t asked them a million questions about the year. The Car ride seemed to fly by and before they knew it, they were home.
“Okay, what in the world is going on with you two? Kara I’ve never seen you this quit before. Now spill.” Eliza tells them as she crosses her arms in the doorway as soon as they walk into the house.
“Mom… Kara and I have something we need to talk to you about, but I think we need to sit down for it.” Alex tells Eliza as she guides her to the kitchen table.
“I’ll put on the kettle!” Kara yells out knowing that they could all use some tea.
The tea was ready soon enough and they all took seats at the dining room table. Kara was never one to articulate her thoughts that well, so she left a majority of the talking to Alex.
Alex explained how he had come to know Lena Luthor. Now, Kara had talked about Lena extensively over the Christmas holiday so Eliza wasn’t completely in the dark about that part. She talked about how Lena had been approached by Mike Matthews during the year and what he had told her. They explained that Lena hadn’t thought too much into it but after holiday break Lena had come back acting a little off.
“It was really weird and I didn’t like it!” Kara had cut in.
“Yes, Kara we know, probably because you two had made googly eyes at each other all year.” Alex retorts to which Kara had no reply, just a smile and a blush.
Alex continues with what Lex had told her during the Luthor holiday party and how Lea had been obviously upset about it. The next part Alex talked about she treaded lightly; she knew it wasn’t going to be an easy topic considering they didn’t talk about her dad much. She went into the details Lena had told them about that night of the fire not being an accident and how they had reasons to believe you know who was back. She ended with how Lena had been recruited to feed the Luthor family information on Kara for reasons that hadn't been known until recently.
Eliza didn’t say anything (which Alex and Kara had found alarming) there was no yelling, no long lecture on how unsafe they had been. She was just…quiet.
She simply stared at her mug as she spun the spoon in her tea for what felt like an eternity.
“Girls, I wasn’t honest with you about a lot and I’m terribly sorry about that.”
“About what exactly mom?” Alex asks practically in a whisper.
“Lena is right. I knew that the night Kara’s parents died wasn’t an accident. You have to understand, your father and I had worked with the Order for quite some time and things had gotten much worse around that time. Your father and I had tried to stay out of it for as long as we could, but after Alura had Kara we knew that we had more reasons to join. Kara dear, your parents were very dear friends of ours. We all grew up together, and started families together. Everything was perfect, but then you know who started his rise to power and things started getting dangerous. They had joined the Order first but we held off because we didn’t want to get involved, but eventually we didn’t have a choice. Your parents died protecting you that night. Jeremiah had reason to believe something was going to happen and had gone over to warn them about it… I suppose you know the rest. Your parents and Jeremiah died being heroes and I’m sorry I don’t talk about them enough, but I wanted to protect you girls from the truth.”
Kara had silent tears that fell down her face, she had known since Lena told her what had actually happened to her parents, but here, in this moment it was real. The woman who had raised her was finally telling her the truth and once the words fell out of Eliza’s mouth, they were very real.
“Why did I live?” was all Kara really wanted to know.
“From what I saw your mother had held him off, but we still don’t know why he let you live. After Jeremiah hadn’t come home that night I went over with other members of the Order and that’s where we found you. What happened that night prompted a lot more people to join the Order and ultimately stop the Death Eaters but I can see now that was only a temporary solution.”
Kara and Alex both got up from their seats and went to envelop Eliza in a hug, and all three let out quiet sobs.
“Well girls now you know the truth and we need to figure out a way to stop you know who. I need to call an emergency meeting of the Order; we haven’t had one in so long so I don’t know who’s still around to fight we all lost tough over the years”
“Mom, wait! Lena had said that someone in the Order was the one who had tipped him off back then and they were still here now to give the signal.”
“Oh Alex, we had our suspicions back then and I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t the same person now. But this isn’t something I can do alone so I need to tell the Order, the fact we may know who It is can work to our advantage.”
Eliza left the table and went to call the meeting, leaving Alex and Kara alone at the table.
“Well Kar, how do you feel? Alex asks playfully, pushing Kara off her chair.
“Like some mad man is trying to kill me.” She says as she shrugs her shoulders.
“What a year huh?” Alex laughs as she watches Kara stick her tongue out.
They sat at the table and joked around for a while before they heard some commotion in the living room. Both girls had rushed out of the kitchen to see what had caused the noise and saw none other than Barry Allen standing in their living room.
“Barry?!” Both girls had said in unison. Barry was not alone; he had an older looking man and woman with him who the girls learned were his parents.
“Hi guys!” Barry said as he went to put both girls into a big hug. “It feels like I haven’t seen you in forever” he said with a wink.
Barry’s parents made quick work of joining Eliza in the kitchen for some tea as she filled them in on the situation. What Kara and Alex had gathered, was Barry’s parents had fought alongside their parents back in the Order. They learned that night that a lot of the other students they went to Hogwarts with had parents that had also been in the order, and one by one they made their way into the Danvers living room through the floo network. Barry was the only one to accompany his parents but as the adults started talking more Kara was able to figure out whose parents were who. For the most part, Alex, Barry and Kara stayed off to the side while the adults caught up. Kara made sure that when one kettle was emptied, she would start a new one, it seemed like the adults would need it.
“I want to thank you all for coming. I know it's been a while since I’ve seen some of you but I am tremendously grateful that you answered the call. I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’ve called you here and unfortunately it's unpleasant business.” Eliza started as the other members listened tentatively. “Simple. You know who is back.”
Murmurs started amongst the members as they shared worried looks and whispers with one another.
“How can you be sure? It’s been over 14 years, surely we would know if he was back.” One of the older men had asked, looking skeptical.
“My daughter Kara is in danger and I wouldn’t have called you all here unless I was sure. Let’s be honest here, if you keep up with the Daily Prophet you’ve surely seen the strange string of disappearances, I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
Again no one spoke, just whispered between one another.
“There was also a break in at Gringotts a few weeks ago. It just seems like things are beginning again just as they had all those years ago.” Eliza finished looking around the room. She was right, people had started coming up missing and one of the vaults at Gringotts had mysteriously been emptied. Of course, the public doesn’t know the contents of said vault but these events couldn’t have been accidental.
“If what you say is true then we have much to worry about.” Barry’s father finally cuts in breaking the silence.
“We can’t just start a mass panic over the word of two teenage girls!” A woman that Kara swears she has seen before says.
Eliza hadn’t meant to startle every one but when she smacked her hands against the table shaking everyone’s tea, they knew she was serious. “This is my daughters’ safety we're talking about here. Every single one of you has children of your own. Imagine if it was them? What would you do?”
Barry’s father was quick to interject. “Eliza, I don’t think anyone is questioning Kara’s safety here and we will absolutely help you, we just need to know why after all this time he’s finally come back for her is all.”
It was strange for Kara to hear Barry’s Father to talk about her by name, he clearly knew who she was.
Eliza calmly sat back down in her chair. “It’s no secret, it's still a mystery why Kara survived that night and they didn’t. But we all promised that no matter what happened we would always look out for on another and I’m asking for that know.”
A woman that Kara had never seen before spoke for what seemed liked the first time that night. “Okay, were here. Now tell us what are we going to do? He clearly knows where she is so we won’t have much time before he attacks.”
The rest of the night was spent devising the best plan to keep Kara safe but also not draw too much attention to the fact that the Order was reorganizing. She made sure to keep the fact that Lena had been their source a secret so that whomever was the traitor wouldn’t alert the Luthor’s to the knowledge they had.
When you know who reigned back then the Order had organized as just a small group of Witches and Wizards who came together to try and stop the dark lord. They had lost a lot of members and some had completely disappeared. It was a time for fear and at first only the bravest had come forward to fight. Toward the end many families had joined in an effort to save their children from living in a world like that. Kara was amazed about everything she learned that night. Sure she had heard of the order (even though she thought it was a myth until quite recently) but she never knew just how deep it ran. They had safe houses scattered all across the country and members in every neighborhood. They had decided it would be best for Eliza, Kara and Alex to stay in their house, they feared if they moved into one of the safe houses their cover would be blown. For now, they needed to make it seem like they were continuing to live as they normally did. The group had discussed who they thought was the traitor in the group and Eliza had purposely not invited him.
The plan was simple enough, they would cat enough spells on the house to delay any intruders from entering. Giving Eliza enough time to activate the Order in hopes of stopping whatever plan they had.
It all seemed easy enough, but when the night actually comes, everyone is caught off guard.