Explanations
Silence reigned for a few moment’s after Lena’s statement as the six teenagers in the room collectively held their breath. Karolina’s hand still glowed from the blast she had accidentally shot off at Lena, but she was too stunned by the turn of events to reach for her bracelet. Nico’s hand, small and warm, pressed against the small of her back did nothing to help her nerves either.
“Everybody, breathe.” Kara, Supergirl, spoke up. She threw an apologetic glance in Lena’s direction before turning her full attention to the scared teenagers. Lena looked between Kara and the door, her expression considering. “I promise, I won’t hurt you. I’m here to help.”
“You lied to us.” Alex spoke up. “I knew we couldn’t trust you.”
“I’m sorry you had to find out like this. This isn’t how I wanted to tell you.” Kara sighed. Lena couldn’t tell if she was talking to the kids or Lena herself. “But I didn’t keep this secret to hurt you. Any of you. As much as I believe you guys are innocent, I couldn’t risk telling you my secret only for you to betray us, or worse.” Kara took a hesitant step closer. The kids remained still.
“I knew there was something familiar about you.” Gert said softly. She had remarked to Chase and Molly after they arrived that Kara reminded her of someone. She just couldn’t put her finger on who.
“You guys have every reason to be angry at me, but please know I was only trying to protect you and myself. The more people who know my secret, the more people who my enemies can use to get to me.” Lena thought that statement was directed more at herself rather than the teenagers.
“I’m getting really tired of adults I think I can trust keeping secrets from me.” Nico’s voice sounded, anger and sadness swirling within in equal measure.
“I won’t do it again, I promise.” Kara made an effort to look each of the six teenagers standing in her living room in the eye. “I promise I will do everything in my power to help, however you need me too.”
The Runaways looked at each other for a few tense moments, Kara waiting with bated breath. Alex shook his head, signaling he didn’t think the group should agree but he was overruled by the others. After receiving nods from Molly, Gert, Chase, and Nico, Karolina turned her gaze to Kara.
“Okay.” It wasn’t much, but it was a start. Kara released a breath in the form of a relieved sigh, one crisis averted, before turning to Lena.
Lena took in Kara’s appearance with a thoughtful frown. Although the beam of whatever that was that Karolina had shot out of her hands (Lena had so many questions) exposed the Supergirl suit, Kara still very much looked like the woman Lena had come to care about so much. Her button up shirt, in pieces but still bright, tucked into her pants and accented by the stylish brown belt she wore, her hair halfway pulled up into an intricate bun. Her glasses perched on her nose, the blue eyes behind the glass shining with apprehension. They all painted a picture in stark contrast with the image of Supergirl Lena had in her mind. With flowing curls and a billowing cape.
“Lena?” Kara questioned when the silence continued.
“I want answers.” Lena said, her voice as harsh as she could make it when speaking with Kara.
“Of course.”
“But first,” Lena looked over Kara’s shoulder, “I want to know exactly who they are and why they need your help.”
“I can’t help with that.” Kara glanced over shoulder quickly before looking back at Lena. “I don’t know the full story. Only that they’ve been accused of crimes the didn’t commit.”
Lena nodded at Kara’s words, swiftly moving past her to the group in the living room. Kara turned as the brunette walked by, watching her approach the group.
The Runaways had sat back down after accepting Kara’s promise, Alex still separated from the group just a little bit, and Karolina had reclaimed her bracelet. The television was muted, the news had moved on to a different story, but the kids name occasionally showed up on the ever-changing banner that ran across the bottom of the screen. Lena surveyed them quietly for a moment. Karolina and Nico shared the chair closest to the couch, Nico sitting so close to the blonde she was practically in Karolina’s lap. Molly, Gert and Chase shared the couch, Gert’s leg bouncing with nervous energy until Chase placed a hand on her knee. Molly leaned against Gert’s shoulder. Alex, in the chair furthest from the couch, watched Lena with a critical eye.
“I’m sorry I scared you.” Lena addressed Karolina first, taking a seat on the coffee table.
“I’m sorry I almost shot you.” Karolina returned. “I didn’t, I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.” Nico took her hand.
“I know. You were scared and protecting your friends. It’s okay. No one got hurt.”
“Someone could have.”
“That’s true,” Lena conceded, “but I was just as likely to get hurt walking down the side walk. Statistically speaking, I’m more likely to get run over by an angry cow than anything else.” That pulled a laugh from the group. Kara watched as the kids began to relax again. Lena had that affect on people.
Kara moved closer to the group, standing between the couch and the chair. Lena offered a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. The smile Kara sent back felt forced.
“Will you tell us how you guys ended up here?” Kara asked softly. Gert and Chase shared worried glances, as did Karolina and Nico.
“You don’t have to,” Lena was quick to reassure them
“We are going to keep you guys safe no matter what.”
“It’ll just be easier when we know what we need to keep you safe from.”
“I still don’t think we can trust you.” Alex said, looking to his friends for backup.
“What other option do we have, Wilder?” Chase asked rhetorically.
“We’ll tell you,” Nico said, continuing after Karolina nodded encouragingly, “but it’s a long story.”
This time it was Kara and Lena who shared a glance. “We’ve got nowhere else to be.” Lena spoke for the both of them. Kara moved to sit next to Lena of the coffee table, leaving a good deal of space between them.
“It started a few weeks ago, with our parents annual PRIDE meeting,” Nico began their tale. “We stopped going when our parents had their meetings two years ago, but that night we decided to get together. We ended up in Alex’s dad’s study and found this secret passage to a room beneath the house. Our parents were down there, wearing these long red robes.”
“We weren’t sure what was happening, we couldn’t hear them. There was this dome around them.” Karolina continued. “Then they brought out this girl. I knew her from the Gibb church, I had talked to her earlier that day actually. She was sweet.” Karolina looked down, obviously upset. Nico squeezed her hand. “They made her drink something out of this chalice and then laid her down in this big black box thing.”
“Then there was a bright light and when it faded it was just our parents standing there.” Molly picked up the story. “I couldn’t really see, so I tried to take a picture of them. They saw the flash and almost caught us while we were running out, but we managed to get the door open.”
“We didn’t know for sure that our parents had killed her, but it was the only thing that made sense.” Chase carried on. “After that, we did some digging into our parents secrets and found out that they had pretty much been lying to us for our entire lives. Everything they had, they had because of this guy, Jonah.”
“We don’t know much about him, honestly. Only that he has some sort of fascination with Karolina.” Karolina looked like she wanted to speak up but decided against it and let Nico keep speaking. “We found out that the school they said they were building was just a cover for a giant tunnel they were digging. We tried to fill it in while our parents thought we were at a dance. We tried to push a truck into the hole. Molly has incredible strength, but she falls asleep almost immediately after using it.” Curiously, Nico, Karolina, Gert and Chase blushed at the mention of the dance.
“They caught us. I tried to fight off Jonah, but he was so much stronger than I am.” Karolina said.
“There was a blast, like and EMP went off and they took Karolina back to the Gibb church. We rescued her and were looking for a bus out of the city when our parents turned us in for kidnapping and murder. We stole an unmarked Gibb van and took off as soon as we could. We’d been driving for almost three days when Agent Danvers and Detective Sawyer found us.” Nico finished the bulk of the story.
“And they brought you to the DEO for questioning,” Kara filled in the rest of the story for how the kids ended up in the apartment for Lena’s benefit.
“I though Agent Danvers worked for the FBI?” Chase questioned.
“No, that’s her cover. Technically, the branch she works for doesn’t exist. The Department of Extranormal Operations.”
“Ah, okay,” said Gert, “the alien handling branch.”
“Basically,” Kara shrugged. Gert wasn’t wrong after all.
“And that’s everything?” Lena asked the group at large. Karolina looked up sharply.
“Not quite.”
“Karo?” Nico asked curiously.
“There’s one more thing we know, about Jonah.” Karolina looked directly at Nico. “I wasn’t sure how to tell you guys after everything that happened but,” she took a deep breath, “he’s my father.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Jonah,” Karolina turned her gaze to Gert in response to her question, “he’s my biological father.”
“That why he lights up, too.” Nico whispered, more to herself than the others. Karolina nodded in response. Kara and Lena shared another look.
“Thank you for trusting us with this.” Kara said. “We’ll figure out what they were after, and we’ll put a stop too it.”
“You believe us?” Molly looked stunned and hopeful in equal measure.
“Completely,” Lena assured her. “I promise.” Molly smiled for the first time since Kara had met her. “Kara?” Lena gestured for the blonde to move away from the group.
“I can’t believe these kids have been through so much,” Lena said once she and Kara were in the kitchen area and out of earshot of the kids, “no wonder they were so scared when that story came on.”
“I need to get them out of the city.” Kara said. “The longer they’re here, the more likely they’ll be spotted.”
“Why did you bring them here?” Lena questioned. “As much as I love your loft, this really isn’t the place for six teenagers.”
“Be glad I didn’t bring the dinosaur.” Kara rolled her eyes.
“What?” Lena’s voice rang with shock.
“They didn’t mention the pet dino in their story, did they?”
“No.” Lena shook her head. “No matter, I’m sure I’ll meet it at some point.”
“Her. She’s a girl.”
“Her then,” Lena nodded, “but you didn’t answer my question.”
“The DEO doesn’t have a safehouse big enough to house all of them. We could split them up, but I don’t think they’d be okay with that. Especially Nico, she put up a fight when we separated them for questioning at the DEO.” Kara shrugged. “They were clearly uncomfortable around all the armed agents, so I brought them here until we could work out something better.”
“This is so crazy,” Lena said, “although, I guess, not as crazy as finding out your best friend is secretly a Kryptonian superhero.” There was more bite to her tone than she intended, but she wouldn’t take it back.
“I wanted to tell you.” Kara pointed gestured to her tattered shirt, “not like this but actually tell you.”
“Why didn’t you? I thought you trusted me.” Lena couldn’t keep the hurt from creeping into her voice.
“I do trust you, Lena. There were so many times I almost told you, but I thought you’d hate me if you found out. Not because you’re a Luthor. Please don’t for a second think that I kept this from you because of your family.” Kara looked deeply into Lena’s eyes.
“If not because of that, then why?”
“I didn’t want to lose you.” Kara admitted softly.
“Kara, I’m not going to stop being your friend because of this.” Lena said softly, her eyes softening. No matter how hurt of angry she was, she could never stop caring for Kara.
“That’s not what I mean,” Kara shook her head. “You probably never noticed before, but you gave me a freedom that I’ve never had before. Everyone else in my life sees me in a certain way. As Supergirl, the hero, or Kara Danvers, Alex’s sister, the reporter at CatCo, Cat Grant’s infamous personal assistant.” Kara chuckled slightly. “I didn’t have to be any of those with you. I didn’t have to be the infallible hero or the perfect assistant, or the baby sister. I was just me, as much as could be. I didn’t want to lose that version of you, the one who only saw me and not all the other people I have to be.”
“Kara…” Lena was speechless, only able to whisper her friends name. She swallowed against the lump of emotion that had formed in her throat. Her mind, trying to process all the information she had gained in the last hour since she arrived at Kara’s loft. Her brain was already in overdrive from the wild life the kids had to live through, and Kara’s admission sent her spinning.
“You don’t have to say anything, Lena.” Kara spoke again, mistaking Lena’s shocked silence for the anger she had expected. “I don’t expect you be okay with all of this. I know you’re probably hurt and angry and you have every right to be.”
“I’m not.” Lena finally found her voice. “I’m not angry, Kara. Hurt, yes, but I just need time. To process.” Kara nodded in understanding. “Call Alex, tell her I know place to keep the kids. I’ll call you once it’s set up.” Lena moved to the table to get her purse and jacket before walking to the door. “Thank you, for dinner and everything else.”
“You’re welcome.” Kara offered her a small smile, one Lena returned hesitantly, before the brunette left the loft. Kara closed the door behind her, leaning her forehead against it.
“Kara? You okay?” Kara hadn’t noticed Molly walking up behind her and jumped slightly when she spoke.
“Yeah,” Kara cleared her throat, “of course.” She led Molly back over to the others and settled on the arm of the couch.
“I’m sorry I exposed you like that.” Karolina said once Kara joined them. Kara shrugged.
“It’s okay. She would have found out sooner or later anyway.”
“Still.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Kara smiled reassuringly at her. “It’s been a long day, and no offense but you all look exhausted. Let’s get some rest.”
Karolina rose from her seat to help Kara pass out blankets and pillows for the group. Molly and Gert shared the couch, each with laying with their head on the arm of the couch and their feet in the middle. Chase laid on the floor in between the couch and coffee table, his upper body below Gert’s side of the couch. Alex claimed the floor on the other side of the coffee table. Nico spread a blanket on the floor behind the couch, placing two pillows on the edge, one for her and one for Karolina. Karolina shot her smile and tossed another blanket to Nico for them to cover up with. Kara made sure they were all settled before moving to her own bed.
She pulled the curtain that separated her bed from the rest of the loft closed, offering the kids a little privacy, before changing out of her tattered clothes and into some pajamas. She texted Alex quickly, telling her that Lena had place for them to stay and that she’d explain later. Alex sent back a string of question marks, but Kara just set her phone aside instead of responding. She listened as the kids settled down, soft voices reaching her ears that she made a point to not listen hard enough to tell what they were saying. The voices faded one by one as they drifted off, until Kara remained the only one awake in the loft.