When Stars Fall

Kara moaned in pain as she extracted herself from the building she was just sent through and brushed the concrete and debris off of her face and out of her hair. “Guys, Kyle and I are seriously getting our asses kicked. We’re giving as good as we’re getting, but there’s nothing stopping this thing.”

“We are doing damage though, but it’s like it doesn’t care,” M’gann said, her breaths coming fast and heavy.

“It’s only mission is to kill kryptonians, doesn’t matter how much damage it takes,” Kate replied. “Speaking of kryptonians, where is that doofus cousin of yours?”

“Off world doing something with the Justice League I think.”

“Ugh, the Justice League, those guys are so lame,” Lucy finally got ahold of a com and had been part of the running banter the group had during the hole battle.

“Yeah, the other green lanterns in that group are so boring, so glad I passed on that, you guys are way more fun,” Kyle commented. He created a giant tennis racket and swung, hitting Doomsday back into one of the nearby buildings. “I mean, where else can I work on my impeccable form? The JL is so boring.”

“Except for Wonder Woman,” Sara added. “Because I would tap that so hard, like I kinda just want her to tie me up with her lasso and do whatever to me, or make me do whatever, I’m flexible.”

“You do know that I’m still on the coms babe,” Lena said, her voice sounding distracted as she continued to look for a weak point on the monster.

“Like you wouldn’t do Wonder Woman if given the chance,” White Canary retorted.

“God yes, yes I would, though just reminding you to include me in your fantasies babe.”

“Hmm, just made them better, might be just as exciting as my fantasies about Wonder Woman fucking Supergirl while I watched.”

“Hey!” Kara protested. “How did I get in your fantasies?”

“Um, no comment, the wife is scary.”

Kara rolled her eyes and pushed off from the ground again, wobbling a bit in the air as she flew. “Um guys, I hate to tell you this, but my powers are about to give out. If this monster is designed to kill kryptonians, then it’s going to work if we don’t figure something out.”

“Just need you to hold on for just a bit longer Kara,” Lena said.

“Easy for you to say,” Kara grumbled.

“Excuse me, I am trying my best, but this guy is built like a tank, covered in all of this stone armor… That’s it! His outside is hard, but maybe you can get to the inside, that might not be as hardened as the exterior.”

“So you want us to what, blow him up from the inside?” Kate asked. “No actually, that’s not a bad idea. Sara do you still have some of those explosives Cat was using?”

“I’ve got a few.”

“I still have a few as well,” Kate replied. “So what we’re going to do, Green Lantern, Miss Martian, and Crazy Lady will keep Doomsday distracted while White Canary, Supergirl and I will work on delivering a package straight to its stomach.”

“I hope you’re not talking about me when you’re referring to Crazy Lady,” Lucy grumbled.

“We don’t have time to mince words on semantics Lucy, we need a good distraction, and you guy can be distracting.”

Before any of them knew what was happening, a blur of white a red raced past all of them and knocked into Doomsday, sending him reeling backwards again. “Superdog!” Kara yelled out, watching as Krypto landed on the broken asphalt. The dog wagged his tail at the sight of his mistress before letting out a growl when the monster started to get up again. He let out a sonic bark, sending pressurized air towards the beast, knocking him off his feet again.

“Where did he come from?” Sara questioned.

“He was probably helping people evacuate, and came when he knew everyone was safe. He’s a good boy like that.”

“Superdog is the goodest boy and we can lavish praise on him later, now though, now we need to get that monster blown up before Supergirl runs out of sun juice,” Kate ordered.

Supergirl rolled her eyes and flew up to where Kate was perched on the ledge of a building and Sara appeared not too long after, neither of the other heroes asking how she managed to scale the building in such a short time. Kate began taking apart the offered explosives and piecing them together to make a larger explosive, one with enough C4 and other unstable elements to take down an ocean liner. “It’s not an iceberg, but I think it will do,” Kate said when she finished strapping the device together. She looked up at Kara and gave the blonde a sad look. “I know you’re tired sweetie, fighting this thing has taken a lot out of all of us, but do you think you can get close enough to ensure that this gets down his throat and set it off with your heat vision?”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Kara muttered as she looked down to where Miss Martian, Lucy, Green Lantern, and Superdog with running around the creature. Lucy was providing more distance support since she couldn’t move as fast as the other three to dodge the arms striking out at them, but she was annoying it with the armor piercing rounds she was nailing it with.

“You’re sure that this is the only way to get rid of it?” She said, turning her question to the redhead.

“It’s the only thing that we can come up with right now, the best way to stop it without just wearing him down. This part of the city is already wrecked, how much more of the city will he take out before finally wearing down?”

Kara sighed, “And that will just put more people in danger.” Her eyes narrowed as she observed the flailing limbs for a few moments. “Can you manage to get him to stand still and for his arms to stop moving?”

Kate glanced over at Sara who just shrugged and nodded. “We can probably give you a few moments, how much time do you need?” Sara asked.

“As much time as you can give me.”

“Alright, let’s do this Batty.” White Canary ran to the edge of the building and backflipped off of it, arriving safely on the ground a few moments later.

“I hate it when she does that,” Kate grumbled, activating her com. “New plan, we’re going to attempt to tie him up and hold him until Supergirl can directly deliver a stomach full of explosives. Sara, I’ve got some extra titanium cables on my bike, you can grab those.”

“How the fuck do you expect us to be able to hold this thing?” Lucy asked, exasperation obvious in her voice.

“We just have to try, Green Lantern… you just do whatever it is that you do.”

“I will be support, I love how much female empowerment is going on with this group, you all are so inspiring, I think I’m getting in touch with my feminine side.”

“Kyle,” M’gann said. “Shut up.”

Kara flew up with the bomb in her hand and watched as her friends attempted to grab hold of the monster. Sara and Kate lassoed the left arm with the help of the Green Lantern and secured the tether using the surrounding building. Lucy and M’gann handled the other one with superdog, using pure brute force to attempt to stop the monster’s flailing. The blonde waited until Doomsday was nearly still as he struggled against their hold before flying quickly towards his head and shoving the bomb down his throat. Before she could get a safe distance away to use her heat vision on the device, he managed to pull his right arm free and grabbed her.

“Shit,” Kara muttered as he pulled her close and started squeezing. Wincing at the pain of her ribs compressing, Kara focused on the creature’s face and fired her heat vision, using as much strength as she could muster. She screamed out as she melted through rock and flesh, the hand around her squeezing tighter in protest, before the beams finally connected with the bomb lodged deep in his throat. The device detonated, and she went flying back away from the monster in a fiery explosion, her body skidding on the asphalt before slamming into one of the wrecked buildings.

Her vision was fading in and out, and Kara could feel that several of her bones were broken. She couldn’t stop though, she couldn’t stop fighting until she knew that the monster was defeated. She struggled to push herself up on her hands, to look through the blood coursing down her face over towards the source of the explosion. Her arms gave out and her vision faded to black before she could make much out of the wreckage.

“Cat… Cat,” Alex called, trying to get the woman’s attention. “You can let go now, we’re here.”

The older woman peeled her arms away from the redhead’s waist and slowly scrambled off of the death trap. “We are never speaking of this again,” she said, straightening her clothes. “I’m also not getting on that thing again, I will walk home or maybe call my driver.”

“Your driver would come get you in the middle of a city wide crisis like this?”

“My driver is paid rather well to respond to my beck and call at all hours of the day no matter the situation.” Cat hummed a bit, “Though I do see your point. I am not getting on that death trap again.”

“Well, if we do find Lillian here, I will have to call a team in to come get her, so maybe you’ll be able to get a ride back with one of them.”

“Maybe I’ll get dear Katharine’s girlfriend to take me back to the city, so I can have a discussion with her about how to properly occupy her lover’s big mouth.” Alex felt heat flood her face and she looked at the older woman incredulously. “What?” Cat said when she noticed the look on the agent’s face. “Look, if you’re going to be a part of this family, you have to realize that I don’t tiptoe around anything, period. I didn’t get this far in journalism by asking simple questions and making pacifying statements.”

“I think I’ve figured that out these last few months that Kara and I have been dating,” Alex replied distractedly. “You have criticized everything from my clothes to my haircut, so yes I am very much aware that you jump right to the point.”

Cat stared at her daughter-in-law for a few minutes, contemplating her own behavior and the woman that her daughter loves. The woman was quickly loading a few guns and had pulled a spare tactical vest out of the compartment on her bike for Cat to wear, completely focused on her task. “Your mother, Danvers, do you talk to her much?” Cat asked, startling the other woman.

“Uh, I don’t think this is the appropriate time for questions-”

“The city is being destroyed by genetically mutated monsters, when is a better time to talk?”

Alex sighed, knowing it was useless to argue with Cat Grant. “We talk some,” Alex replied slowly. “But we aren’t super close.”

“And have you told her about Kara?”

“I’ve told her that we’re dating, nothing else, and she hasn’t been to National City to meet her yet, she’s still busy doing guest lectures all over the world.” She shrugged a bit, “She was pretty hard on me growing up, so we don’t really talk much.”

“Then you might not be aware, but to a mother, her children, her children’s happiness is extremely important. Often times that is wrapped up in career choices or choices in partners. But, more than seeing her child happy, a mother wants to see her child safe, wants to know that they’re being taking care of, looked after, because whoever that person is, they’re going to take the mother’s place as the most important person in her child’s life. If or when you have your own children, you might understand.” Cat stopped speaking for a minute to think on what she was trying to say. “Kara was… unexpected, I had grown used to the idea of only having sons, sons are different from daughters you see, but she tumbled into my life and… and I guess I’m afraid of losing her, of being replaced. Because of that, I let my… lesser instincts dictate how I have treated you these past few months and I apologize. I couldn’t imagine Kara with anyone else, no one has treated her like you do, and no one has fought for her like you have. You’re everything that I could have ever imagined or wanted for Kara, and Astra agrees with me, even though you do have a terrible taste in shoes.”

“You’ve never seen Kara and I on a date though, like a real date, so how do you know I have a terrible taste in shoes?”

“Alright, fine, once we get done here and get everything sorted out with the city, I will see about CatCo sponsoring a gala in honor of our heroes who helped save the city, both super and ordinary, you can be Kara’s date of course.” Alex stared after Cat flabbergasted as the woman just walked away, snatching one of the guns from the agent’s stash. Cat turned around when the woman wasn’t following her and her brow rose, “Are you coming Agent Danvers, or should I be doing this myself?”

“What kind of crazy family did I get myself involved with,” Alex grumbled as she moved swiftly to get ahead of Cat. “Monster-in-law should’ve been mother-in-lunacy.” She pulled out her gun and motioned for Cat to stay quiet and to stay behind her while they approached the abandoned building. “We’ll have to clear the whole building.”

“Oh no dear, Lillian is a rat, she’ll be in the basement,” the older woman told her.

“We can’t be sure of that Ms. Grant.”

Cat just set her hand on her hips, “We’ll find out when we get down there now won’t we?”

Alex resisted the urge to slap her hand over her face, this woman was impossible. “Just stay behind me Ms. Grant,” she growled out. The door to the basement wasn’t difficult to locate, despite the fact that the building was supposedly built without one. The staircase was dark and rickety, made of wood while the floor and walls around them were pure concrete.

“Over there,” Cat hissed, tugging on Alex’s arm. The redhead followed Cat’s gaze and noticed a bluish glow from a television screen coming from the far room.

“I see it, just stay back.”

The agent rolled her eyes and pressed forward, her gun clutched tightly in her hands. She slowly peaked around the corner and spotted Lillian leaning against a table, her eyes fixated on the TV screens in front of her. “Give it up Luthor,” Alex ordered when she made sure that the woman was alone in the room. “You won’t be getting away with this.”

“Ah, I wondered who would be coming for me, Agent Danvers was it?” Lillian questioned, not looking behind her.

“You know who I am.”

Lillian chuckled and slowly turned around to look at the woman. “Of course, I like to be informed as to who my daughter was spending time with, you were the one that married that creature and continue to be with her despite knowing what she is.”

“Kara is more human than you are, and a better person.”

“Don’t you dare compare me to that creature,” Lillian snarled. “There is nothing human about her, they are all a plague on this world, corrupting it, lording their abilities over us and expecting us to treat them like gods.”

“That argument is getting really old,” Alex replied. “Supergirl has never behaved in such a way, Superman maybe without realizing it, but Supergirl understands the limitations of people, even her own, something you don’t understand.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway, Doomsday will take care of her, even if he has to destroy the entire city.”

Alex gritted her teeth but a chance glance at the screens behind Lillian caused a smirk to spread across her face. “Looks like you overestimated the ability of those creatures you sent after Supergirl.”

“What?!” She whirled around and stared at the screens. Supergirl was in Doomsday’s grasp, but she was firing her heat vision at its head. “No, he has this, he can crush that-” Before Lillian could finish her statement, a large explosion came from inside Doomsday, rattling the buildings and the camera feed. It took a minute for the smoke to clear, but where Doomsday was standing, there was only a smoking crater with a few remnants of flesh and stone. “I can at least take comfort in the fact that that alien took herself out in the process,” Lillian mused, leaning back a displeased but satisfied look on her face.

Alex’s heart was in her throat as her eyes searched the feed, looking for any signs of her superhero girlfriend. She could hear the blood rushing through her ears and her heart pounding an erratic rhythm. Everything froze though when she caught sight of movement several blocks away from the explosion, a slight rustling in the concrete and asphalt. Alex had never wanted to kiss Sara Lance more than she had at that moment when she saw the shorter woman carrying a hurt, but very much alive Supergirl out of the wreckage. “Looks like you were wrong on two counts,” Alex smirked again, training her eyes on the woman again. “Your organization has been brought down, your monsters destroyed, and Supergirl is still alive.”

Lillian’s jaw clenched as she watched before spinning around to face the agent, a gun in her hand. “No matter, I will just leave and start over, I can always replicate the formula my dear Lex was working on, make it better, stronger.”

“You aren’t going to get away Lillian, you’re going to get locked in a dark hole and no one is going to think of you again.”

The woman chuckled, “What, are you going to stop me? What are you going to do? Shoot me? You wouldn’t dare.” Lillian slowly shifted around, trying for the door, her eyes never leaving the younger woman. “If you don’t want to end up with a bullet buried in your head, you’ll let me go, and perhaps we’ll meet again a different day.”

“How do you know I won’t shoot you before you shoot me, save us the trouble of having to deal with you?”

“You’re one of those hero types, you would never shoot to kill, it’s how they’re always so predictable and will eventually lead to their own downfall. It’s been a pleasure Agent Danvers.” Before Alex could make the decision to shoot the older woman, Lillian had turned to run out the door, only to be met by a wooden plank straight to the face.

The woman drops to the ground like a stone and Alex stares at the plank wielding Cat Grant in disbelief. “Oh don’t look at me like that Alexandra,” Cat drawled out. “I’ve been wanting to slam her face in a door for a while now, and this was the best alternative.”

Alex shook her head in disbelief, never underestimate the Grant women.

Alex opened Kara’s apartment door with the spare key on her keyring and softly entered the apartment. “Hey Krypto,” Alex cooed as the large, black dog shuffled over to her and snuffled at her stomach for a moment. “Where’s Kara?”

“She’s out on the balcony sunning herself,” Lena answered. She was sitting on one of the stools that had been pulled up to the kitchen counter and had looked over at Alex when the woman entered. “She’s powerless at the moment, though her healing is up to snuff due to the sun-lamps at my office. She was sick of being there and wanted to come home. I promised Cat there would be someone here with her since she’s like this.”

“I can go if you want to be here instead,” Alex said, gesturing towards the door but Lena shook her head.

“No, no, I’ll go, you should be here, she’s your… whatever, just still not used to sharing my best friend is all.” Lena gathered up her things and started towards the door, but stopped and turned back around to face Alex. “Did you really threaten to shoot my mother?”

“Um, yes? But honestly she had a gun on m-” The redhead was started when Lena threw her arms around her and started sobbing.

“That’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me,” she cried and Alex knew that her face was stuck somewhere between confusion and alarm. “The only thing that could top this would be if you had actually shot her.”

“Uh, maybe next time?”

Lena released Alex and wiped at her face before straightening her clothes. “I’m okay, I’m good, I’ll see you later Alex, take care of my best friend.” She scratched Krypto’s head before she disappeared out of the door, closing it with a thud.

Alex stared at the door blankly for a moment before looking at the dog. “Your mom’s friends are nuts.” Krypto just gently woofed and Alex walked over to the balcony and slid the door open. She was greeted by a vision, a goddess glowing golden from the sun’s rays sleeping soundly on a lounge chair in nothing but a white bikini. Sometimes Alex wonders how this can be her life, a world of aliens, superheroes and flying dogs. How a woman that could touch the stars would want nothing more than to spend an evening in with her, eating potstickers, watching movies, and then making love until both of them were spent and breathless.

When she was spiraling out of control in grad school, she never dreamed that her life would get to this point. Inadvertently though, it’s because she was so out of control that she managed to get where she was. Part of her wonders if she and Kara would’ve found each other anyway, without the past hanging over them, if destiny and fate had a plan for them. She couldn’t imagine a universe where she and Kara wouldn’t be in each other’s lives in some way, the bond was too strong, too great to be denied.

She watched Kara sleeping for another few moments before she leaned over and brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face. “Kara,” Alex whispered, her hand lingering on her cheek. “Kara.” The blonde starts to stir with a grumble and a slight crinkle forms in between her eyebrows. Alex smiled at the sight and leaned down to press a soft kiss to Kara’s lips, smoothing out the crinkle with her left hand.

“Does this make you a prince coming to rescue me?” Kara murmured when she opened her eyes.

“Rescue you from what exactly?”

Kara grimaced as she sat up. “From the evils of this chair apparently, this thing is super uncomfortable when I don’t have my powers, I’m definitely going to have to get a new one.”

“Who would’ve thought, Supergirl, Savior of National City would’ve been brought down by a simple lounge chair,” Alex teased, sitting down on the chair next to Kara.

“You tell anyone and I’ll have to throw you into space.” Kara adopted a serious expression but cracked a grin when Alex nudged her lightly in the ribs. “Did my mother really hit Lillian Luthor in the face with a plank of wood?”

“Yes, and let me tell you that it was hilarious to watch, Lillian’s face was priceless.” The smirk dropped off her face and she ran her hands down Kara’s arms. “How about you? I saw that fight, the explosion, are you okay?”

“Healed, but powerless, so I’m just in danger of normal, everyday things right now,” Kara replied. “I’m fine Alex, rest and some sunshine and I’ll be good to go. No one was seriously hurt, other than Cadmus agents, so for a massive attack, it wasn’t that bad.”

“That bad?” Alex repeated. “I had to watch you being tossed around like a ragdoll before you blew yourself up, I’ve never been so scared in all my life.”

“Alex.” Kara sat up and swung her legs around so that they were facing each other, the blonde’s knees on either side of Alex’s. She cupped the older woman’s cheeks and used her thumbs to wipe away the tears that were falling silently out of her eyes. “I’m okay Alex, I promise. I know I scared you, but I couldn’t let that monster continue to tear apart the city trying to get to me. What if you had gotten hurt? I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you. You might not be able to live without me, but I definitely can’t live without you.”

The redhead placed her hands over Kara’s and pulled them down away from her face, softly kissing the palms as she held onto them. “Let’s just agree that we can’t live without each other, and to be careful in the future.”

“To fight together,” Kara corrected, squeezing Alex’s hands.

“Yes, to fight together.”

Kara scooted over on the lounge as far as she could and Alex wordlessly crawled on the chair with her. Her left arm situated itself behind Kara’s head to allow easier access for her hand to play with Kara’s hair, while the blonde woman held her other hand. “It was an… interesting day,” Kara murmured. “Long day.” The last of the afternoon sun had started sinking below the horizon, bathing the city in a reddish-gold light. “Was it just this morning we were having breakfast together and you were complaining about Krypto?”

“I guess so,” Alex replied, pressing a kiss to Kara’s temple. “Seems like a soap opera day, longer and more dramatic than necessary.”

“Cadmus has been defeated for the most part, and tomorrow the city can start to heal, to rebuild, this is something they have a chance for now, to be better.”

Alex hummed and set her cheek against soft blonde hair, her whirling mind calming with every breath she took. “You know what was going through my mind, during the fight, when everything seemed to be falling apart? I kept thinking that this would be the last of us, that this would be all that we’ve had, and I couldn’t help but feel… dissatisfied.”

Kara pushed off of Alex to sit upright and looked down at the woman. “What do you mean, dissatisfied with us?”

“Yes, I would have been dissatisfied that this is as far as we’ve gotten, that this was the end for us when we could’ve had more, when we could’ve had a love story that legends were based on, that constellations were named after.”

“We already do Alex. It may not mean much to anyone else, but it means everything to me.”

“It means everything to me too,” Alex replied, capturing one of Kara’s hands. “That’s why I want more, we need more.”

“What are you saying?”

“We should get married.” At Kara’s incredulous look, Alex shook her head. “Like a real wedding, engaged, parties, dress shopping, the ceremony, the whole thing, with all of our friends and family.” She reached up and wiped at Kara’s cheeks and the blonde woman realized that she was crying. “I want to have a family with you Kara,” Alex whispered. “I want to be a family with you, and that means being there for everything, good and bad, sickness and health, til death do us part.”

“I want that too,” Kara cried, blinking back the tears. “Both the human wedding and… and a Kryptonian bonding.”

“It’s important to you?”

Kara nodded, “The wedding, that’s for everyone, family, friends, but a bonding ceremony, that’s private, that’s just between the two, and their chosen witnesses. I want that for us, all of it.”

“Then let’s get married, next week, next month, whenever we want, just, something that we do together, a step we take together, with clear heads this time,” Alex answered. She leaned forward to press her forehead against Kara’s.

“If we time it right, we can get married on the same day we did the first time.”

“So is that a yes?”

The blonde barked out a laugh. “Yes, that’s a yes, though on one condition first.”

“Name it.”

“You have to move in with me,” she said. “Tomorrow, the next day, as soon as possible. I don’t want to be parted from you for longer than necessary.”

Alex laced their fingers together and pressed a kiss at where they joined. “Never again, we’re going to be together for the rest of our lives.”

“And we’re going to be happy,” Kara added, placing a kiss on Alex’s shoulder her heart. “We’re going to be complete and happy because we’ll be together, come what may.”

They leaned back against the lounge chair, wrapped up in each others arms, staring out over the city, completely content to just be with each other. Alex chanced a glance up into the sky and in just a second, she saw a shooting star race across the sky, disappearing as quickly as it came. A giggle built up in her throat before escaping, disrupting the quiet of the night.

“What’s so funny?” Kara asked when Alex finally got control of herself.

“I just remembered something that my grandfather always told me about falling stars and I always thought he was pulling my leg, but now I realized that he was telling the truth.”

“About what?”

Alex smiled and placed another kiss on the crown of her head. “That when stars fall, wishes come true.”