Whirlwind
Kara looked down at Lena Luthor. The CEO had definitely seen better days. A small trickle of blood was flowing from one corner of her lips and her left knuckle was bruised. Not to mention her clothes. Kara had never seen the well-put together executive in anything less than designer outfits. But now…her shirt was torn and Kara noticed how thin Lena was underneath, her toned body looking fragile rather than strong. Tearing her eyes away slowly, Kara gently shook Lena awake, the CEO letting out a moan as she came-to that turned Kara’s face a hot red.
“Supergirl?” Kara caught a flash of recognition behind Lena’s eyes before the CEO threw up her defenses, her gaze instantly guarded.
Kara offered a hand to help Lena stand, but the CEO’s jaws clenched shut and she pushed herself up quickly, moving away from Kara to the other side of the room where her desk had been overturned in the explosion.
Kara sighed. “Miss Luthor. What happened? Are you ok?”
Dusting off her skirt Lena gave Kara a quick eyebrow raise. “I’m fine Supergirl, as you can see, I can take care of myself.” She waved her hand around her office, clearly indicating the bodies of the unconscious men around her. Her eyes flashed with something Kara couldn’t quiet place and then she said “Unless you came here for something else?”
Kara rubbed her eyebrows, looking at the mess around her. DEO agents were scattered everywhere, and there was glass littering the floor like stardust. She could see Alex interrogating one of the men who had stormed Lena’s office, and J’onn studying the pieces of a bomb. But, despite the mess, Lena had single handedly taken on a room full of vicious robbers and made it look easy.
She clearly doesn’t need me Kara thought, trying to keep the back of her mind from drifting to the idea of a long nights rest and maybe some more pot-stickers.
Still, the DEO had asked Kara to check on Lena and get as much information as possible from her before the media caught wind of what had happened and buried the building in a sea of flashing cameras.
Kara turned her eyes back to Lena, slowly letting them assess the CEO. “You’re hurt.” Kara said at last, her fingers pointing to Lena’s split lip.
Lena rolled her eyes and with a quick swipe wiped away the blood from the corner of her mouth, her red lips slightly swollen from the cut. “Relax, Supergirl, I might not be made of steel but I can still handle myself,” she bit her lower lip, “I get my own coffee in the morning and everything.”
At Kara’s deepening scowl, Lena only laughed softly, the CEO enjoying teasing National City’s favorite hero. “Are you always this eloquent?” she asked with another smirk, green eyes flashing
“Phft—I, well. Yes?” Oh my god. Kara face-palmed at her own stuttering. She could never get her words right around Lena, the other woman was always so composed and witty. Even after blowing half her office to shreds and nearly killing herself in the process, Lena was still more collected than Kara. Resisting the urge to fly away at light speed and bury her face in a pillow, Kara opened her mouth to give some sort of coherent, snappy reply. But, before she got the chance, Alex approached the two of them, her sister’s face a tight mask.
“Lena,” she said slightly inclining her head to the CEO, “I’m afraid Supergirl’s concerns are valid. Those men’s bombs had traces of Element 115 in them…” Alex paused, watching to see if Lena understood. “Element 115 is—“
“Yes. I know. It’s a radioactive isotope that decays at 220 milliseconds per half-life” Lena’s words were calm, she could’ve been reading off the periodic table her voice was so indifferent. “You forget Agent Danvers, I cut my teeth on Nuclear Fission in college.”
“Right. Well then you must know that your little electromagnetic counter bomb activated the subatomic particles and made them spin extremely fast.”
Kara watched Lena. The CEO was looking at Alex closely, her brows arched and a small, concentrated smile played across her lips. Swiveling her head back to Alex, Kara noticed that her sister looked just as interested, her voice picking up speed as she delved deeper into the subject.
Glowering, Kara interrupted them “Can we just cut the science for a minute and tell me what this means.” Not that she cared that Lena and Alex obviously got along. Definitely not that. But Rao, she did not want to sit through a condensed version of Chem 101 with them.
Lena looked up, eyes narrowing a little. “Of course, anything for National City’s favorite hero,” her words slightly barbed. Kara wondered how Lena could do that. How she could take a perfectly fine, normal, good word like hero and somehow make it sound like an insult.
“What your sister was trying to say is that I might have given myself radiation poising,” Lena drawled, leaning back against her desk, letting her legs cross.
Kara gulped. Loudly.
Embarrassed she twisted at super speed to Alex, hoping no one saw the red staining the back of her neck and creeping into her cheeks. “So what does this mean?”
“It means” Alex said, leveling her glance at Lena, “that Ms. Luthor here needs to come back with us and run through a series of tests to make sure her genes haven’t been altered by the radiation.”
“A Luthor with abnormal DNA? That would certainty make the morning papers—as well as your job a lot more interesting” Lena said turning to Kara, expression unreadable
As Supergirl or as a reporter? Kara wondered briefly staring at the other women, wondering just how much Lena knew.
Before anyone could respond, Alex’s eyes flicked over to where one of the robbers was slowly inching his way to the door, and with an eye roll she looked at Kara, “Take Ms. Luthor back to base, I’ll clean up here,” and with that she strode away, boots crunching over broken glass. Kara watched her sister for a second longer, smiling when she saw Alex grab the man’s collar just as he was about to leave the room and twist his arm behind his back without even breaking her stride. Her sister was such a badass sometimes
Lena cleared her throat softly, “Is this really necessary I coul—“
“If Alex says it is: we’re doing it.” We’re doing it? Oh my god Danvers could you sound any more like a twelve year old boy? Kara’s eyes widened, “I mean, not that. Not—um, would you like to fly or walk to back to base?”
Lena’s lips twitched, but she only raised one eyebrow and said “You want me to walk to Washington DC?”
“Why would we—Oh.” Realization dawned on Kara. Lena still thought Alex worked for the FBI, whose headquarters were in America’s capital along with almost every other government acknowledged agency.
“Err, well, we have a base here too.” Smooth Kara, very smooth
“In that case, I think I’ll walk,” Lena threw the remark over her shoulder, the CEO already heading towards the elevator.
Kara used her super-human speed to catch up with her. “Are you sure? I could give you a lift? Its no trouble at all.” Kara heard Lena’s heartbeat skyrocket, and turned to see the CEO nervously straighten her shirt. Of, course, She’s scared. Kara remembered the first time she’d met Lena in the helicopter, and grimaced at her own stupidity in forgetting the CEO’s fear of heights.
“I’m fine.” There was just a hint of an edge in her voice.
“Oh well, ok then,” Kara flinched, her stare glued to her shoes as she tried to decide if her stomach had just dropped to her toes or all the way down to the basement.
They stood in silence for a moment, waiting for the elevator to arrive. Kara Fidgeted with the sleeves of her shirt, daring to dart a look up at Lena after awhile.
The CEO was impassive as always, her face calm and controlled, her hair somehow miraculously in place, her clothes not even that wrinkled…and Oh no. Kara noticed the rip in Lena’s shirt again, this time catching sight of the bra underneath. The hero’s mind whirled into overdrive, should she say something or would that just embarrass Lena? The other woman always dressed so nice, not like Kara noticed or anything, but what if she didn’t like being told she was basically half naked? Kind of like how people get uncomfortable when you say something’s been stuck in their teeth, not that Lena has anything to be ashamed about, I mean obviously, she clearly looks out, and wow, is that a push up bra, or?
As if she could hear the ramble of her thoughts, Lena turned to Supergirl, and even though her voice was low and soft, her lips were pressed in a thin line and her eyes were dark and hard as she said “see something you like?”
“You--” Kara hesitated. “You have a tear in your shirt.”
“Oh.” Lena’s bows knitted together, a frown pulling one corner of her mouth down. “thank you.”
“No problem!” Beaming Kara pulled her cape from her shoulder and in one smooth motion wrapped it around Lena like a bath towel just as the elevator doors pulled open. “That should take care of it!”
Lena shook her head and opened her mouth to say no but before she could do anything Kara rushed, “There’s a driver downstairs, they’ll take you to base, see you there!”
And with that she turned and flew out the window, struggling a little to stay even in the air because it was hard to fly without her cape. She didn’t know why the thought of Lena wearing her cape made her smile so much but it did. With a shrug Supergirl headed back to the DEO, sometimes it was like she just couldn’t think straight around Lena.