Wheels of Time

When Lena finds Kara, she is standing in front of an enormous elk with long majestic antlers slain at her feet, then Lena notices the scruffy older man with a gun pointed towards them, and she jumps back in fear.

"What're you doing out here?" he demands in Russian.

Kara looks to Lena for help.

"Our carriage broke down," Luthor responds in kind.

He nods and lowers his arm. "Do you need a ride?"

"No, we couldn't possibly. If you have some tools that would be a great help, though."

The old man shakes his head, "I don't have tools, but you can find some in town."

Lena nods, she needs to inform Kara of their current predicament. She also needs to fix this situation as soon as possible. As much as Lena does not want to go into Saint Petersburg, it looks like she has no other choice. She sits up front next to the older man as he guides his horse by the reins while Kara gets shoved into the bed with the dead elk only a few inches from her. Lena tries to hide her laughter, at Danvers' disgusted demeanour.

"Are you okay back there?"

Kara may have missed Lena's unbelievably easy laughter, but she isn't amused by being stuck next to a wreaking carcass badly in need of draining, from the leaking blood encroaching her shoes.

"Peachy, just peachy," she mutters.

The older man asks Lena what Kara said, Lena brushes him off before the horses start moving. The carriage hits a bump, and the elk move closer to Kara, she yelps. Lena burst out into a fit of laughter. Sometimes karma works in mysterious ways.

Once they get into the city of Saint Petersburg, the man drops them off on the outskirts. Lena and Kara would have to make their way to a tool supply store on foot. The first thing they recognize is the smell of the city, and the pollution caused by burning coal. A group of men shovel coal into factories; the snow that crunched below their feet was no longer white but yellow, brown, and black.

Kara turns to Lena looking for guidance. "Where too?" The always prepared scientist seems unprepared for such a question. "Did he give you directions?"

"In Russian."

"You spoke Russian."

"Not his dialect."

Kara groans at her insufficient answer. She watches the way the ornate dress trails behind Lena from under her coat. She looks like she belongs in this time but as nothing less than royalty. Even dressed as a commoner, her features are heavenly but sharp in the smog.

"Kara, I need to tell you something," Kara notices the anxiousness present in her old friend's voice.

Before Lena can finish her sentence, a motorized vehicle barrels towards them, Kara acts quickly by yanking her out of the path; their bodies are flush together. Their eyes lock in petrified fear, the stark worry in Kara's light blue eyes adding even more stress to their predicament. 'Why did Kara have to betray her? Why did she ruin what they had, what they were building together?' Moments like this made Lena's heartache. She couldn't be around Kara after everything even years later, the pain is still too fresh. Luthor's biggest mistake was breathing in; Kara’s scent invading her senses. Judging from the look in Kara's eye, she is going through her own mental turmoil. She gives her a once over to make sure she wasn't injured.

"Oh no, I am so sorry!" a nasal voice in Russian breaks their stupor.

Fury overtakes Kara's emotions, in her mind she wants to scream, 'How dare you almost kill my Lena?' but then settles for a more platonic, "You almost killed her!" She gets a better look at the perpetrator, a young man who seems just as shaken as the person he almost killed.

"I'm so sorry. Truly you must let me make up for it. I'm teaching my butler how to drive, you see," he fervently apologizes, soon entrapped by Lena's beauty.

Kara watches him carefully, Lena would have been more into the attention if she had seen that it was getting to Kara. She instead looks to her partner for help, but finally spots the jealousy in her eye and wonders how she should play this, flirt back with him and see what Kara does or get to work? No, Lena admonishes herself, she doesn't care what Kara thinks. The gentleman takes his hat off, and his butler soon follows, approaching the group.

"I'm alright," Lena replied in Russian.

"You could've killed her! Lena, translate."

The young man smiles and, in perfect English, informs her, "You speak English, with a bizarre accent." Kara feels offended at his accusation. "My name is Winslow Yakovlev II or just Winn. The strapping young man behind me is my butler, James Olsen."

He takes Lena's hand without permission to her surprise and her companion's annoyance. Danver's rising irritation of the hand holding devolves in her thoughts. 'Why do I care?... Do I care? More than I'm ever willing to admit.' She knows her feelings for Lena never went away, but she did something horrible, how can she ever be forgiven? The one promise Luthor begged her to keep before they furthered their relationship and she broke it. As far as Kara is concerned, she no longer deserves her, but that doesn't mean that this puny suitor does. 'Fuck him,' Kara thinks.

Danvers has never been subtle, Lena can read her line of thought and she huffs. She didn't come here to make her jealous. She just wants to free her brother and to run away from Kara's entrancing pull. Lena wants to go back to ignoring her problems and this trip was quickly becoming a very complex problem.

"Is everything alright?" This time James interrupts her thoughts.

"Yes, yes," His boss assures him. He turns to Lena again, "Let me take you both for lunch? My treat!"

Kara may be upset, but not when food is involved. She can tolerate this man's blatant gawking at Lena long enough to eat; time travel is hunger-inducing.

"No, that won't be necessary," Lena states firmly. Kara pouts at her, and seriously after this much time apart one would think she could resist that pout, but no it's too cute, too adorable and oh so Kara. Lena also notices Winslow pouting; it's like being stared down by two puppies, so she breaks and agrees. "Oh good lord, fine!" Honestly, she doesn't know what Kara is thinking. One minute she looks ready to kill the audacious driver the next she wants to go to lunch with him.

"Do you have potstickers here?" Kara inquires. Lena realizes her companion's stomach is currently doing all the thinking for her.

The group walks to the vehicle, "Oh, I didn't catch your name?"

"I'm Kara, and this person who is not paying any attention to us is Lena." She references Luthor who admires the authentic car before them.

"She's beautiful, isn't she?" the owner proudly inquires.

"Very," Kara scoffs at Lena's answer. "This a Yakovlev & Freze, right?"

"Yes, ma'am." He puts his hand on the car door. "First-generation petrol engine," they say in unison.
"Yes, you know my father's work?" Winn responds both surprised and intrigued.

"Your father?"

"Yes, he created this vehicle," he thinks for a second, "I've never met a woman interested in motorized vehicles before. What a wonderful surprise."

Kara wants to throw up or throw Winn into a river. It could go either way at this point.

Lena laughs uncomfortably, "Well, I can be rather surprising sometimes."

She and Kara's eyes lock for a second too long, Olsen clears his throat.

"Oh my, James is right we should get going," Yakovlev says from the buggy. They all hop in the cramped vehicle and begin to the Yakovlev manor.

"Thank you," Lena says as they take off.

"It's the least I can do after almost hitting you."

Kara's stomach growls loudly, Lena shakes her head at her. "A girl's gotta eat, Lena."

~~~~~~~~~~

Alex surveys the empty penthouse, her agents scatter as they comb through everything they can find, turning Lena's apartment upside down. To say the agent was pissed was putting it lightly, they knew Lena was here, but somehow she had slipped away.

"Agent Danvers!" one of her agents called from down the corridor. Alex walks over to find a painting on the wall open to show a hidden lab. Of course, Lena had a secret lab, but that didn't explain how she got away.

"Search everything."

Alex hasn't heard from Kara as her calls and text go unanswered. She wonders if her sister had lied about not knowing of her old friend's time in National City. She still harboured great resentment about how Kara left her at Nanoons, and now she dares to reject any further communication? Alex was beginning to get worried, though. That stress only increased with the addition of the current situation of a missing Luthor with a secret lair. Alex concedes and calls her sister again. The phone begins to ring, immediately she hears a phone buzz somewhere in the lab. She lowers her cell, in disbelief and goes in search of the source which leads to a bag of clothes. 'What happened here?' She swipes her sister's cell before any of her agents find it and escapes to find Kara. Evidence was piling up against Kara and she wanted answers.

Alex escapes Lena's flat in a hurry for Kara's apartment in the rent control side of town; she sprints up the five-story walk-up.

"Kara! Kara!" Alex knocks on her door, frantically but there is no answer.

Alex uses her emergency key and bursts into the apartment, searching for any sight of Kara. The bed is made with her sister's teddy bears on it and her clothes on the ground. How Kara manages to be both disciplined and undisciplined at the same time is beyond Alex. Kara isn't in her apartment, she hasn't been answering her phone and now Alex is in panic mode. Her heart races and she hyperventilates on the verge of a panic attack. She can't lose Kara, she's all the family Alex has left save for their mom. Maybe it was her paranoia speaking, but she had an inkling of something terrible happening and she was two steps behind. Alex took a few more breaths to take back control of her emotions. She's a government agent who could track her innocent little sister down. Alex combs through her apartment for any clues as to her sister's whereabouts.

It was midnight by the time Alex left Kara's places with no new information on where Kara could be. She left with her head down, lost in thought on how her day could end like this. Her sister was perhaps missing, Lena Luthor is a fugitive after only being back in Kara's life for less than a second. Alex refused to believe that the two were anything other than coincident; what could Luthor want with her little sister? The fact that her little sister’s phone was found in Lena secret lair only adds to the negative downward spiral on Kara’s whereabouts. Alex decides to go home, there was nothing to be found at Kara’s place. She would do some research and come back in the morning. Maybe, hopefully, Kara would be in her apartment, burning something that could have been delicious. Alex feels a little bit better as she leaves.

~~~~~~~~~~

Lena and Kara sit in a maroon Victorian living room. Lena sits uncomfortably on the sofa while her much more relaxed companion stares down a taxidermy elk.

Kara leans over to her, "Dead elks are following us."

"Don't stare at it if it bothers you so much?"

James comes out carrying a tray of tea for them. When Kara spots the little sandwiches and cakes, she dives right in, pouring herself some tea. Lena looks at her in exasperation, the uncertainty of the day finally getting to her. James leaves the room again as Winn calls him. On the table in the corner, Lena sees a light bulb attached to some wires on a wooden board. She walks over to it like a moth to the flame.

Kara's mouth is stuffed, "What are you doing?"

"You shouldn't talk while you're eating, darling," Lena is too enamoured with the experiment to realize the slip of the term of endearment. Kara stops eating and stares at the back of Lena's head as she starts to tinker with the contraption.

"Lena I don't think he would like that."

"He has the wires attached wrong. I'll be surprised if this thing works."

Kara can hear Winn and James's footsteps getting closer to the room.

"Lena!" she whispers, but it is too late.

Winn walks into the room and immediately sees what Lena is doing. His face is a mixture of shock and audacity, "What are you doing!" Before he can utter another word, Lena flips the switch, and the light bulb flickers on and leaves the creator speechless, "H-how? I've been trying to get that to work all week."

"You had the wires connected wrong."

Winn marvels at her much to Kara's pique. "Are you a scientist?"

"An engineer," Kara sneers in correction.

She isn't jealous, not even a little bit, she just knows Lena's taste and prefers not to watch Winn's sad attempt at courting her. As far as Kara is concerned, she is helping everyone involved not to waste their time. She watches Winn fawn all over Lena asking her questions about annoying things that she knows are plebeian levels to Lena's intelligence. She can't stand it, instead, she turns her attention to something in the house. Lena may have asked her here to steal the eggs, but she never said she couldn't also take from Captain-Simp. Kara stops for a moment to reflect, was she jealous? Lena seems to bring out the possessiveness in her, but why? They weren't friends and haven't been lovers in a decade. Kara groans this is why she moved away from Lena, all her presence did was revert her into being the confused hormone-driven teenager she had once learned to lock away. So, when Winn touches Lena's hand, all Danvers sees is red. If Lena is shocked by the intrusion, she doesn't show it. The sly Luthor looks relieved and smug.

"Lena, can we go?"

She stands, "Yes, we should get going. Thank you for everything."

Winn stands abrupt reaching for Lena's hand again. Kara steps in between them, "Away."

Lena looks at Kara trying to decipher her hostility. "Don't be rude. We need to get some tools?"

"What kind of tools? Are you experimenting on something of your own?" Winn's excitement grows with each sentence.

"Something like that," Lena adds.

"I can help. Yes, it's brilliant. I'll grab my tools, and we'll be on our way."

In unison, Kara, and Lena state, "No!" The latter places her hand on her companion's shoulder and reassures their host, "Don't worry about our simple fix, it's just a carriage."

"Nonsense. We can't have two women out this late gallivanting around."

Lena looks at the time only to realize how late it truly was. They might not be able to make it back to the pod safely on their own. God, she hated history, not because it wasn't fascinating but rather the atrocious human rights violations that persisted to this day. They needed Winn and luckily he was willing to be there for them. Although, how do you say to a man you just met, and you and your friend are time travellers and not get probed for being aliens? Lena is starting to feel the beginning of a massive migraine. They take the carriage out of Saint Petersburg Lena and Kara in the back while their hosts sit in the front.

"Why are we fixing the pod now? We could've ditched these guys and found a hotel," Kara broods.

"No Kara, we have to do it now."

"Why?" Lena fidgets with her fingers, Kara notices as a nervous tic. "What aren't you telling me?"

Luthor bows her head then looks at Winn and James before turning back to her. "Promise to remain calm."

"I'm the oxford definition of calm."

"We're in the wrong year."

First, it is almost as if Kara's brain didn't recognize the words coming out of Lena's mouth. It takes about three seconds for it to click, her eyes go wide and her switches between protesting and keeping a level head. "How wrong?"

"Two years wrong."

A tiny noise escapes Kara. "You can fix it right?"

"I'll try," and that was the straw that broke Kara.

"Try!" Winn and James spin around, looking at them.

'Is everything okay back there?"

Lena masks the nervousness in her voice, "We're fine. Kara's trying to kill a bug." She turns back around, "That was not calm."

"I'm possibly stuck in Imperial Russia, fuck your calm. I can't believe this. I knew this would happen. I knew it."

"How could you possibly know that I would come to you needing help and we would go back in time to Imperial Russia except it would be two years too early?" Lena's voice rises at the end of her rant.

"Have you ever seen a movie about time travel that ended well?"

"Harry Potter," Lena says stubbornly.

"That wasn't about time travel!"

"Hermione had a time turner."

"You're insufferable!"

Winn calls from outside the carriage, "Lena."

Lena doesn't hear him too wrapped up in fighting with Kara.

"I'm insufferable. You're insufferable!"

Winn calls again, "Lena!"

"So original, very Christopher Columbus of you."

"LENA," Winn finally manages to get her attention.

"What!"

"What direction?"

"Oh," Lena sticks her head out the carriage window looking for the markers she memorized earlier. "Further down."

James mushes the horses to continue down the dirt road. Kara is staring out of her window, purposely ignoring her ex-lover. Lena doesn't have that luxury of being as aloof as the woman beside her. Her anxiety eating away at her, she fidgets with her fingers again. Kara peeks at Lena seeing her nerves getting the better of her. She wishes things were easier with Lena, but there is too much history, too many evil deeds done in the name of good. Kara puts her hands on top of Lena's, ceasing her fidgeting immediately. The mad scientist looks at her, searching for something but Kara is firm in resolve. She intertwines their fingers.

"What are we gonna do about-?" Lena looks at Winn and James.

"Why did you allow them to come?"

"He wasn't going to take no for an answer."

"Yes, we just say no."

"You and I both know as women that it doesn't work."

Kara groans, how were they going to get out of this mess that was their current situation. "We could always run."

Lena snaps her head towards her, "What?"

"It will be fully dark by the time we get there. We can run as soon as they stop. High tail it to the pod or hide until they go away."

"Wouldn't that be rude?"

"Yes, very, but then we won't get burnt at the stake for being witches."

~~~~~~~~~~

Alex wakes up and checks her phone to no new messages or calls from Kara. She briskly prepares for another fruitless endeavour of finding her sister. At seven am, it's still too early to call Kara, she thinks. She instead decides to surprise her with breakfast. Alex decides to stop by Nanoons on her way to Kara, picking up her favourite doughnuts on the road. She knocks on Kara's door and waits with her ear to the door. She thinks she hears footsteps.

"Kara, let me in. I have your favourite!" No one answers, but Alex can hear someone on the other side of the door. The sound of glass breaking lets Alex know someone is in there. Alex fishes out her extra key and rushes in to find no one, but something feels off. The broken glass is on the kitchen floor, and watermarks lead into the apartment. Alex puts the box and coffee on the kitchen counter.

"Kara?" Slowly, she pulls out her gun. "Kara, are you in here? This isn't funny?"

The elder Danvers sister walks further into the apartment and a figure slowly moves closer. Alex hears the wooden floor squeak behind her and she turns. The first thing Alex registers is her gun skillfully being taken from her as she is spun around by the intruder. The intruder detaches herself from Alex, taking her weapon and pointing it at Alex. Alex pulls her knife from her boots ready for battle. They face-off, Alex notices the intruder's long black hair, smooth dark skin, beautiful big eyes. The woman looks furious, and Alex can sympathize because she's also quite upset. Who is this woman, and why is she in Kara's apartment.

"What have you done with my sister?"

"I was supposed to take her for coffee but seems she's nowhere to be found?'

"Who are you?"

"I'm Kelly, a friend of Kara's. Judging from your stench of government lackey, I guess you're Alex?"