Earth 40

When Kara finished her day at CatCo, she passed by L-Corp to pick up Lena and fly with her to the DEO facilities, because Lena had a meeting with Alex.
"Since you came too, Kara," Alex said as she greeted them, "show me what you can do, I'm curious."
Kara frowned, not understanding. Lena smiled.
"I came to practice self-defense with Alex," she explained.
"Oh," Kara replied.
"Let's go to the special room," Alex said, walking in front of them. They followed her.
Kara knew that room or at least its exact copy in her own world. Its walls emitted a eighteen percent kryptonite radiation, enough to deprive her of her powers without injuring her. When the three of them were inside, Alex triggered the mechanism and a green light illuminated the place. Kara felt slightly faint, and shook her head to recover.
"Ready?" Alex asked, adopting an attack stance.
"Always," Kara answered. Lena sat down on a bench next to the wall and stared unblinkingly at the agile movements of both Danvers.
Alex tried to surprise Kara, but the Kryptonian managed to stop almost all of her attacks. At one point, she was about to knock Alex down, but ultimately couldn’t, the agent was faster and managed to block her.
After a few minutes of exchanging punches, they both looked at each other panting from the effort.
"I see your sister taught you well," Alex joked. She didn’t expect anything less.
"Of course, relying on strength without technique is not much use," Kara said proudly.
"Your sister said that, right?”
“Yes.”
"I also gave my sister the same advice."
"Do you think I could fight like that someday?" Lena asked excitedly, "I'm impressed.”
"You'll need time, but certainly your eagerness isn’t lacking," Alex said with a smile.
"Well, I don’t want to disturb you, I'm going to see Winn.”
"You don’t have to go, Kara; you can work out on your own while we go on about our training," Alex said. Lena twisted her lips, not quite convinced with her suggestion.
"Of course," she replied mechanically.
"Okay, I'll be around..."
Alex and Lena started with their training. The agent contained herself quite a bit, since Lena's level was much lower than Kara's. The Kryptonian retreated to the wall, while she thought what to do. She spent some time looking at them. She admired Lena's commitment to every stroke and movement, no doubt interested in improving. But she was beginning to admire her body even more, and that was not good. Lena wore a black top, gray sweatpants, and sneakers. The tight clothing on her body wasn’t helping, and the continued movements of a certain part of her anatomy did not help either. Kara cleared her throat to focus and forced her blue eyes away from them.
"What's the matter with me? I look like a hormonal teenager," she reprimanded herself internally.
She positioned herself with her hands and feet on the floor and began doing pushups. It was a good way to block Lena Luthor from her sight. The problem was that now another person was losing focus.
She tried, but she could not help it. When Lena realized that Kara was doing something, curiosity took over, and she turned to face her. She regretted it immediately.
"Oh God..." she whispered as memories of her Kara moving above her came to mind with full force. She did not see Alex's punch coming.
"Too slow!" Alex chided. Lena turned her attention back to her teacher; the pain had somehow brought her back to her senses.
Kara got bored of doing pushups and got up, just in time to see how the sensual figure of Lena moved around while trying to dodge Alex's punches. Her dark hair was gathered in an elegant ponytail and she was sweating.
"Will I ever see my Lena like this?” Kara thought, “Perhaps under better circumstances,” she smiled foolishly.
When she came down from her reverie, she walked to a horizontal bar. Taking impulse, she grabbed it with her hands and began to exercise her arms using the weight of her whole body.
Lena fell back into temptation and looked up at her again. Her green eyes filled with Kara, her movements, her arms tensing, her biceps contracting and relaxing... And then she began choking a little, and then pain erupted in both her arm and leg.
"What's the matter with you today, Lena? You're a bit off," Alex exclaimed after Lena lost focus. She did not want to hurt her.
"Having the exact copy of my girlfriend working out is not exactly the best thing to have in front of me when I’m trying to focus," she thought.
“I'm sorry, today is not my day," she lied, rubbing with her hand where she was in pain.
"Well, let's leave it here," Alex announced, "Maggie's going to start her rehab and I want to be with her."
"Very well," Lena said, catching her breath.
“See you tonight?” Alex asked, raising her eyebrows. Lena looked at her unconvinced. Kara had left the bar and looked at both of them without understanding a word.
"I don’t know..."
“Cheer up, Lena, it will be good for you, it will for all of us," Alex insisted.
"Sorry, what are you talking about?" Said Kara, tired of not knowing what they were referring to.
"Let’s hang out at the usual bar tonight, to relax a little," Alex explained.
"I feel like it," Kara admitted. Lena looked at her.
"All right, I'll see you all tonight," she finally said. She did it for Kara. She was not sure she would enjoy it.
Alex said goodbye to them and left the room, not without first disconnecting the radiation. Kara felt her powers return to her and took a deep breath with her eyes closed in relief.
"Feel like yourself again?" Lena asked.
“Yes.” They exchanged a smile.
"I'm going to the locker room to change and I'll be right out."
"I'll go with you," Kara said matter-of-factly.
"Okay, but don’t even think about using your X-ray vision," Lena teased as she wiped the sweat from her face with a small towel. Kara's cheeks reddened.
“Of course not! Besides, the walls of the DEO are lined with lead; I couldn’t even if I wanted to."
"Tanhk God then!" Lena laughed. Kara looked at her in surprise. Did Lena think she wanted to see her naked body through her clothes? She did not want that, of course not. Lena noticed Kara's dilemma.
"Just kidding, sorry, it's just... Your reactions are so familiar," she confessed, "They bring back memories, beautiful ones.
Fifteen minutes later, Kara and Lena visited Winn to discuss the Extrapolator’s repair status.
"So you recovered all the pieces," said Winn, "Bad thing is, some of them are broken.”
"Can you fix it?" Kara asked with concern.
“Hope so.”
"Thanks Winn. Let's meet Alex and Maggie before we leave."
They were a few feet away to reach the door to the room where Maggie went to rehab, when the cries reached them. They hurried up and entered.
"But you'll never be the same again, Maggie, you won’t be able to work again!"
"Alex, stop it!” Cried Maggie, on her crutches, "I am alive because of you, we all are!"
"But look at you!"
"The doctors say there's hope I'll walk again for myself!" Maggie insisted.
"And you believe them? They looked at us with pitying eyes!” Alex sobbed.
Kara looked at Lena in silence, as if asking what they could do to stop the argument, but Lena just shook her head. It was obvious that this was not the first fight Lena had ever witnessed with these two. But Kara could not sit idly by.
"Alex, Maggie..." Her voice made them both stop and turn their attention to the newcomers.
"Don’t interfere, Kara, this has nothing to do with you," Alex said in a low voice.
But Kara completely ignored her and walked over to her.
“Alex...” Kara took her by the shoulders and forced her to look at her, “I see that no matter where we are, you will always be the same, taking responsibility for everything and everyone, and blaming yourself for mistakes that you didn’t made... You saved Maggie’s life, and Lena's too, there's nothing for you to regret.”
"Yes there is: I could not save my sister and now Lena's life fucked up... And Maggie...Her career in the police department is over, we all know these things but nobody seems to want to say them out loud," she snapped.
Alex released herself from Kara's hold, gave Lena a regretful look as she passed her and left the room. Maggie came up with her crutches and put her hand on Kara's shoulder to dissuade her from following her.
"Leave her alone for a while," the detective suggested, "She needs to calm down."
"She shouldn’t carry all that guilt," Kara said in affliction. “It’s going to be the end of her.”
"We don’t know how to help her," intervened Lena, "If only we saw some progress with Kara, something that would give her hope...”
"Something that gave us all hope," Maggie added.
Kara sighed. She hated feeling so helpless, but that was how she felt now. She could not free Alex from her guilt, or cure Kara-40 for Lena to become happy again, or heal Maggie's leg to get her job back...Why was everything so complicated?
XXXXXX

Although Kara thought that there would be no nightly hangout for the group due to what happened at the DEO, Alex did not cancel the meeting. Lena told her that she had talked to Maggie and that things had calmed down. Kara was glad, though she knew the problem was still lingering there.
Lena came out into the living room wearing a white blouse and a black pencil skirt that really suited her. Her hair was fell loose over her shoulders. Kara awkwardly got up from the sofa as soon as she saw her. She had opted for a pair blue jeans and a checkered shirt.
"You look great," she admitted, reaching for her glasses.
"Thanks, Kara, you don’t look bad yourself." She winked at her and Kara smiled widely.
“Yeah, right.”
While flying, Kara admitted to herself that she already loved that perfume that the two Lenas shared. She also wished she could fly very soon with the Lena of her world. She would seek an excuse to do so if necessary.
"Why didn’t you want to come to the bar?" Kara asked as she landed and released Lena from her arms.
"The last time we came here...My girlfriend didn’t behave too well," she whispered, looking away. "She flirted with other people in front of me.”
"How could she do such a thing?" Kara cried indignantly.
"We shouldn’t have come then, Kara was no longer well, and I knew that, I noticed it that afternoon at home when...When we made love." Kara stopped looking at her, uncomfortable, feeling that she was invading her privacy, but Lena continued talking. “She was selfish and demanding with me; she even suggested that we didn’t use the bracelets...”
"Oh Rao..." Kara exclaimed scandalized.
"I could handle it, nothing happened, but...She was no longer my Kara and here, at the bar... She really showed us all up, she was about to start a fight. Luckily, we got her out in time.”
"Now I understand your hesitance, we still have time to leave," Kara offered.
"Don’t worry, I'm fine, I want to be with everyone," she said with a soft smile.
"Okay, so let's go." Kara held out her hand and Lena took it gratefully.
The alien bar was exactly like that of her world, and Kara experienced a familiar feeling as she walked through the door. The group greeted them from a table, receiving Lena with special cheerfulness. Alex and Maggie had ordered beers, Mon-El and Lucy were sitting very close together, Winn and Susan Vasquez seemed to be engaged in some technological discussion and J'onn and M'gann chatted and shared smiles at some distance from each other.
“All good?” Kara asked Alex softly so no one else could hear her.
"Yes, it’s all right. Thank you for trying to help, Kara," the agent thanked her. Kara answered with a smile.
After a little chat, a song that Kara loved, “That's my Girl” by Fifth Harmony, started and it didn’t take her two seconds to get up.
"We have to dance!" She exclaimed, taking Lena's hand.
"Kara, wait..."
Lena's cup slipped out of her hand, but Maggie was quick and picked it up before it fell off the table. She winked at them.
"Everything’s under control, have fun," she said.
Kara moved with ease and accuracy, singing at the top of her lungs some parts of the song. At first Lena felt intimidated, she could not dance like the lucky Kryptonian girls, but Kara's dazzling smile took away all the fears and embarrassment and she began to move to the rhythm of the music, forgetting where she was and the people that were around. When Kara realized it, she showed even more enthusiasm. They were having so much fun. Kara kept singing and dancing and Lena was laughed at her exaggerated movements. Alex didn’t take her eyes off them.
"You're not so bad dancing!" Kara cried over the music.
“Don’t make fun of me!” Lena answered with a blush on her cheeks. She went to give her a playful thwack, but Kara noticed it and quickly turned away from her, only to surprise her from behind.
"I mean it, you move very well," she whispered in her ear, causing her to shudder.
Lena turned quickly to face her, and found those damn blue eyes, and her perfect smile, a smile that faded as Kara plunged deeper and deeper into Lena's deep green eyes.
Why couldn’t her be her girlfriend, her Kara? She wanted her so badly, she wanted to dance and laugh with her so much...Lena's mind was not alone in evaluating impossible ideas. Kara could not take her eyes off her, to the point that she no longer knew in which Earth was or which Lena was looking at her in that special way. Fortunately, someone witnessed the situation and intervened in time.
"Kara, come over and have a beer with us!" Alex shouted so she could be heard.
Kara looked at Alex and then back at Lena. She was a little out of place.
"Go with them," Lena agreed. "I'll stay with Winn and Vasquez. I think they're talking about something I can get into," she teased, touching her arm.
"Okay." Kara touched her glasses, smiling, and went to the table.
Winn and Vasquez immediately welcomed Lena, who started laughing at their ideas.
"Lena needed this," Alex said. "I have not seen her laugh like this in a long time.”
"You're really a godsend, Kara of Earth-38," Maggie added, clinking her beer against Kara's.
"I'm glad to be of help," said the Kryptonian.
Then she took a sip from her bottle and looked around the group. She frowned when she saw J'onn kiss M'gann on the cheek, even Winn and Vasquez seemed to be particularly well off.
"J'onn and M'gann...?" Kara asked.
"They're together," Alex said, "They haven’t been long, but I think they'll do very well."
"And Winn and– Vasquez?" She stammered.
"Yes, I also think there is something, or that it’ll soon be. But Susan is very reserved, she hasn’t told me anything, and Winn... Well, he’s Winn, he seems to like almost all girls, even if he doesn’t dare to ask out any of them.”
"Do you remember when he tried to ask Lucy for a date?" Maggie pointed out.
"It's true, that was fun: it took him all day to bring it up to her, the poor thing.”
Kara watched them talk, it was so nice. Would it be like that to go out with her sister and Maggie in her own world?
"It seems that everyone on this Earth is a couple," she said amusedly. They both focused on her. "What?"
"Who are you with on your Earth?" Alex asked suddenly. Kara almost choked on her drink.
“What?” She managed to answer.
“Who are you going out with? Are you married?"
"No, no, I'm not married!" Alex raised her eyebrows, urging her to keep talking, "And I'm not seeing anyone."
"Why, is there not anyone around?" Maggie added.
"Well...Just before my trip to Earth-1, Mon-El kissed me.”
“Mon-El?! He just doesn’t go with you. He needs a woman more...”
"More what?" Kara asked annoyed. Maggie looked at her girlfriend.
"More like Lucy," Alex replied, "Stricter, sterner, more intense, more passionate...”
"Do I have to worry?" Maggie asked, looking up at her girlfriend with raised eyebrows. Alex laughed.
"Not at all," Alex replied, kissing her on the lips next.
"I'm very passionate," Kara complained. “I have a lot of passion inside!”
"Of course," Alex said without believing her. "Then you're interested in the Mon-El of your world?”
"Actually, his kiss caught me by surprise and I didn’t feel butterflies or anything. I mean, no. He's handsome and fun...But no, I do not feel anything but friendship for him. Although he kissed me when he was a little sick, and I think he does not even remember. Better for the both of us.”
"So...You don’t have anyone special in your world...Interesting," Alex said.
"Why ‘interesting’?" Kara asked uneasily.
"Oh, nothing," Alex answered just before glancing sideways at Lena, who was now dancing and chatting with Mon-El, Lucy, Winn, and Vasquez. “But don’t get...Earths…Mixed up, please.”
"I try not to," Kara said. She had understood Alex's advice perfectly.
XXXXXX

When they opened the door of their apartment, Maggie asked Alex to help her get to bed, because she was exhausted. Alex smiled at Maggie's face; she could not deny her anything if she looked at her like that and lifted her into her arms carefully.
But in the middle of the hall, Maggie stopped being still. She reached for Alex's neck and kissed her repeatedly, causing her to stop, her breathing a little labored.
"I thought you were exhausted," whispered Alex.
"I set you up, Danvers.”
"Maybe I fell for it because I wanted to."
"Sure..." she purred into her neck between kisses.
"Okay, let's go to bed this instant," Alex said, resuming her steps toward the bedroom.
XXXXXX

Another couple also came to the place where they slept, but they weren’t kissing; they didn’t even share a room.
"I had a good time tonight. Thank you, Kara.”
"There’s no need for that, I had a lot of fun too," she said, smiling.
"I'm going to change my clothes," Lena announced.
"Okay," Kara answered, sitting down on the couch.
Lena approached mirror and began unbuttoning her blouse. She smiled sadly at her own reflection. How different that night would end if the woman in the living room was her girlfriend.
"If you were my Kara, you would come in here and take off my blouse with urgency..." she muttered.
She still wore the garment over her body though wide open, when the sound of something breaking caught her attention. Instinctively, she ran into the living room, where she found a shattered glass figure lying at Kara's feet, whose face was red as a tomato.
“I'm sorry, it slipped from my hands!” She exclaimed hurriedly.
It didn’t take three for Lena seconds to figure out what had happened.
"Did you hear what I said?" She asked in embarrassment, closing her blouse with her hands.
"Yes, I'm sorry, I...I was waiting for you, but I don’t know, I sometimes pay attention to...To make sure everything is fine, I... I didn’t want to hear you, I'm sorry..." Kara spoke hastily, avoiding Lena's green eyes.
"Don’t apologize, please; it's okay," Lena said quickly.
They spent at least two minutes in which neither spoke nor were able to look the other in the face. Lena sighed; it seemed ridiculous to continue that much longer.
"I should keep those thoughts in my head. I don’t want you to feel guilty, Kara, you didn’t do anything wrong," Lena assured her.
The Kryptonian lifted her head at last and looked at her with her blue eyes, now calmer and less red.
"Of course," said Kara, "I’ll try to not pay so much attention when we’re here. If something serious happened, I'd probably hear it without any effort.” Her eyes focused on the clothes Lena wore. “Go change, I'm sorry I interrupted you," she added with a soft smile.
When Lena returned to the dressing room, Kara asked her about something that made her very curious, so as to keep other things from her mind.
"Why do you train with Alex?"
"To learn to defend myself."
"I thought that being Supergirl's girlfriend that was not much needed.”
"I thought the same, I was so used to Supergirl protecting me that I didn’t realize it until after losing her.”
“What?” Kara asked.
"That Supergirl cannot be with me at all hours, and I must know how to defend myself. I know how to use a gun, courtesy of my father. He used to say that a girl should have her resources, but I want to learn to defend myself without weapons as well.”
"You seem very convinced, as if you had experienced that necessity.”
"I did..." She smiled sadly. “They tried to kidnap me shortly after Kara became ill.”
The menaces of the radical group cease to arrive, and they all played the same "end your relationship with Supergirl or you will regret it" message. But Lena always faced them and ended up ignoring them, even when Kara stopped being herself and thus lost her protection.
Sadly, they fulfilled their threats, and one night, several men came to the door of the building where Lena lived: they had followed her when she left her work at L-Corp. Although her bodyguard tried to confront them, there were too many and they soon overpowered them. Hadn’t Alex and Maggie decided to visit her that night, those people would have achieved their purpose.
Alex spotted the man on the floor and turned to Maggie.
"Call an ambulance!" She exclaimed and hurried off.
She fought those men and managed to free Lena, although her aggressors fled.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine.”
"If anything happened to you, Kara wouldn’t forgive me," Alex had said.
"If you hadn’t come…”
"And that's how I realized that I could not rely solely on Supergirl and my bodyguard," Lena explained. "I'm a potential target, and I must know how to defend myself, so I asked Alex for help.”
"Now that I'm here, they won’t hurt you again," Kara said with determination.
"Thank you...But you cannot be my shadow either, Kara," she said with a smile, "Good night."
"Good evening, Lena.
How strange it all was. Kara promised to protect her from all evil, but she did not know that the greatest harm Lena could suffer at that moment was to have her so close yet not be able to touch her. Because if she did, it would not be her Kara who would react to her kisses and caresses. They needed her on Earth-40, and not only did she help directly with the public, she also made her smile again more than once. But the price Lena had to pay every day and night for having her there was high.
Kara also did not get into bed too happy. Everything that had happened during the day had made her want to see her Lena again. But in order to do that, the Extrapolator needed to be repaired. She sat up on the mattress and opened the first drawer of the coffee table. She took out a small white flower that she kept from the bouquet of plumerias she cut for Lena on that night and cradled it delicately in her hands.
"I hope to see you again very soon...I need to," she whispered.