#sjlt

“Well hurry up,” Alex hissed, thrusting the clothing into her arms. She had already thrown a baggy NC Women’s Basketball hoodie over the top of her uniform. The hem hung low enough on her slim frame to cover her utility belt, the pants and boots nondescript enough to pass at a quick glance for normal clothing.

Lena had already switched out her heels for flats; her jacket shoved into the duffle bag Alex had containing articles of clothing for just this occasion. Her dress shirt hung open, revealing a t-shirt Kara would swear had originally hung in her closet. The sleeves were rolled to her elbows and a pair of sunglasses rested on the woman’s head.

“Not a word from either of you,” she hissed. They were going to be upset at her, she knew it. Well, she was upset at them!

“Why would we say…” Lena trailed off as the Kryptonian exited the hidden corner they had ducked into in order to change.

They hadn’t given her a hair-tie or a pair of Kara’s glasses.

“Not a word,” Kara hissed again, taking their elbows and beginning to drag them towards an exit. “Not a single word.”

“H-how?” Alex was sputtering. Oh…her head hurt.

They waited until they were far enough away from the building before cracking.

“Explain, now!” Alex demanded, rubbing her temples.

“Yes, please do.” Lena’s eyes were dark with her anger.

“No,” Kara shook her head. “No. Neither of you get to be angry about this. You,” she pointed at Alex, “chose to forget in order to protect me. And You,” she turned to Lena. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve tried to tell you? And every single time something comes up and interrupts us!” Kara shook her head. “It’s not as if I actually tried all that hard to hide it from you in the first place!”

“I need to sit down,” Alex collapsed on the nearest bench. Her head hurt as the memories realigned themselves. They had never thought of a situation where Kara would need to change in front her or where Alex might need to offer Supergirl alternate apparel.

“When?” Lena demanded. “When did you-” She cut herself off. “You flew me to the DEO out of costume. You flew on the bus to my office.” She joined Alex on the bench. “What the fuck Kara?”

Kara sighed. “I liked being just Kara with you, so I was selfish.”

“It’s not entirely her fault,” Alex muttered. “Since she got here we’ve all told her not to tell anyone and stay hidden.”

“Does everyone else know?” Lena was furious, which was better than hurt.

“Normally, yes,” Kara admitted, “but I didn’t tell most of them.”

Alex snorted. “Most people figure it out.”

“Two,” Kara muttered, nudging her sister just hard enough to be felt. “Two people figured it out. I told Winn, Nia, and Lucy when I absolutely had to. We still don’t know-”

“Ms. Grant knows Kara,” Alex side-eyed Lena. “Honestly, my money was on you already knowing and not saying anything. You really didn’t know?”

“No,” but she should have. She looked at Kara. “Is there anything else you’ve been hiding from me?”

Kara gulped, eyes widening. Lena’s eyes narrowed. Alex watched them, not entirely certain if she should duck for cover or find popcorn.

“Um…maybe?” Kara squeaked out. This was not how any of this was supposed to go. It was supposed to be romantic and private.

“Well?”

Kara felt her mind go blank. Not knowing what else to do, she darted forward and pressed a fast kiss to Lena’s lips.

“Ihaveagiantcrushonyouandhaveforareallylongtimeandpleasedon’thateme!”

Lena blinked. Alex blinked. Kara remained frozen in place.

Slowly, Alex scooted away from the CEO. Nothing on her person would harm Kara, but getting weapons away from the possibly volatile CEO was a good idea.

Lena blinked again, her mind trying to parse out what Kara had just said. This wasn’t happening.

Her crush was not on the Girl of Steel.

Her crush had not just admitted to having feelings for her in the midst of a crisis.

Except this was her life and both those things were very much true.

Kara scrunched in on herself, certain she had just lost not just a friend but someone she cared deeply for. Losing Lena would be like losing Alex, and that was something Kara had thought would never happen. No one had ever been as important to her as her sister, until the green-eyed CEO had entered her life.

She had come very close to losing both of them far too many times in the last two years for her to ever make lite of such an occurrence or to be lack in their safety.

Alex watched the train wreck happening in front of her and had no idea what to do about it. On one hand, they had been lying to Lena (with…somewhat…good intentions (and both women’s safety) in mind) since almost the moment they met. The woman had every right to be angry at them. On the other hand, Kara was her sister and ever well-honed instinct Alex had as an older sibling said to side with and support the blonde.

The issue was that Lena Luthor had been wiggling her way into Alex’s well-guarded heart as another little sister. She was discovering that she wanted to support both of them and didn’t know how to do that without hurting one or both of them.

Lena wanted to feel furious. Kara had been lying to her face, treating her almost two completely separate ways their entire friendship. Only, well, it would take an idiot to think that knowing Kara was Supergirl wouldn’t put a target on someone’s back. How many times had Kara nearly lost Alex just in the two and a half years she had known the pair? Fuck, she had just watched as Alex’s mind was returned to normal from having the memories of Kara as Supergirl hidden away. To protect Kara, Lena knew it was a choice she would have made as well.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” Lena finally forced out. She would deal with the Supergirl part first, the feelings thing later.

“Yes,” Kara answered without hesitation. Telling Lena had always been on her mind. No matter what anyone else said or even what the other woman had admitted to doing or planning to do, Kara knew deep in the very core of her being that Lena Luthor was a good, trustworthy person.

The Kryptonian took a deep breath, forcing herself to look at the woman she was in love with and face the consequences of her decisions. “Yes, I was always going to tell you.”

Any grand speech she might have mustered up in that moment was ruined by the arrival of several guards and rouge agents. Their shouting broke the moment and the trio of women ran off.

“I’ve got her, you get them,” Alex told her, tugging Lena onto the bike she had stashed earlier. “Hold on!” She jammed the extra helmet on her (hopefully) friend’s head before revving the engine and taking them past the people searching for them.

Lena yelped, barely getting the second needed to readjust the helmet properly before Alex took off. She wrapped her arms around the elder Danvers’ sister and held on for dear life.

“One of you is going to be the death of me,” she muttered, glad that this wasn’t the sister with super-hearing.

Alex smirked, deciding not the let the brilliant CEO know that the helmets were linked with a wireless headset so driver and passenger could speak to each other.

She felt the same way about both of them more often than not.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&

It was several hours later when they managed to regroup in the safe house Lena had arranged earlier for them. Alex, not wanting to be stuck in the middle again, took her share of the food and told them to find her when they worked things out. She had decided that she and the CEO would hash their own shit out after they had.

Kara nodded, hugging her sister tightly before allowing the older woman to leave her sight. Even then, she waited until she was certain Alex was settled in another room before turning to Lena.

“I don’t know what to say,” she admitted into the silence.

“You lied to me,” Lena stated softly. “You told me to my face that you trusted me, that you believed in me.”

“That wasn’t a lie!” Kara snapped. “I do trust you, and I do believe in you. Not telling you my biggest secret had nothing to do with either of those two things.” She deflated, sinking into the chair across from Lena. “You are the one person in my life that always wants to have just Kara around, no matter how odd I can be. Everyone else, even Alex sometimes, tends to see Supergirl first. You always chose me over her.”

“You’re two sides of the same person,” Lena said it evenly, not judging. It was a thing she could relate to, being seen as just Lena and not another Luthor.

“It doesn’t feel that way sometimes,” Kara murmured, consuming several potstickers in a way that would have had a human choking. “I stand by what I said earlier. I knew it was selfish, but I did it anyway, and I did try to tell you. So many times…and then every time we were interrupted by some kind of emergency or assassination plot.” She met Lena’s eyes, part of her wilting inside to see the blank gaze focused on her. “I could have handled the kryptonite better, but not even I’m immune to fear and kryptonite terrifies me.”

“You had James search my office.”

“Anyone else would have had to document it,” Kara defended. Considering how much access Lillian and Lex both had (despite Lena’s constant search and destroy tactics for those weak points) to any information at all, Lena was willing to give her that.

“When you first tried being my friend, was it to keep watch over the youngest Luthor?”

“No!” Kara shook her head. “And if anyone had even suggested it, I wouldn’t have done it. That’s…that’s…” English failed her and she said something in Kryptonian that didn’t have a real translation. The best she could come up with when later asked, was ‘a crime against the bond between hearts’.

“So when you said that earlier, that…”

“It’s the truth,” Kara said softly, “it took me awhile to figure it out, between Alex coming out and everything that is always going on around us. Humans are so strange when it comes to this, I still don’t understand it.” She swallowed, throat suddenly tight. “I am in love with you, Lena Luthor, and I have absolutely no idea what to do with that.”

Lena had no idea what to do with it either, and she said as much. They settled into tense quiet.

The CEO wanted to be angry, she really did, but holding her back was the fact that they were in the middle of an already volatile situation where they needed to work together. They couldn’t afford to begin fighting amongst themselves.

Not when they were facing her brother and his little pet project that her…oh. Well…Kara didn’t have the corner market on keeping things secret.

“We’ll talk about this more after we deal with Lex.” Lena dropped into the silence. “For now, we can’t lose focus.” She swallowed tightly. “But no more secrets, alright?”

“Right, no more secrets.” Kara readily agreed.

&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&

The final battle between them and Lex Luthor was a mess. Lena hacked the computers and got the system under control, the gun in her holster heavy at her side. She knew what she would need to do if her brother managed to escape.

Sure enough, she found herself in the exact situation.

Lex stood across from her, taunting her with Lena’s inability to actually use the gun she had aimed at him.

She pulled the trigger. Lena would never forget the sound the bullet made when it impacted into Lex’s chest.

He looked down, stunned at the spreading patch of blood. He touched it, laughing as he fell to his knees.

“So ready to defend someone who’s lying to you Little Sister.” With a snap of his fingers, the screens around them shifted to show images and videos of Kara switching between herself and Supergirl.

Almost on reflex, Lena squeezed the trigger again. Lex fell to the ground, still snickering as his life began to fade away.

With a calm she wasn’t certain how she kept, Lena approached the nearest console and tapped the sequence needed to erase everything. Some of it had to be images of Red Daughter, put together by Lex to undermine Lena’s belief in Kara.

“I…still…win,” Lex rasped out. “Th…they’ll…n-never…trust you.”

Lena turned to him. “That’s where you’re wrong brother,” she knelt so she could look him in the eye. “I already knew.” She smirked at him. “She told me herself.” She chuckled this time. “It’s over.”

She stood up, dusting off her pants.

“You lose.”

She walked out of the room.

Alex was waiting for her, armed and ready to burst inside. Once she saw Lena, she relaxed a little.

“You okay?”

“I don’t know.” Lena admitted after a moment. Her hands were shaking. Alex holstered her weapon and gently eased Lena’s out of the other woman’s hands before it was dropped. Safety clicked on, Alex shoved it into a spare holster before wrapping an arm around the smaller woman.

She didn’t need to look into the other room to know that Lex Luthor was dead or need to ask what Lena had done. She was just glad that it was her and not Kara who had gone after Lena in this moment.

“Come on, I’ll call it in.”

“Going to arrest me for murder Agent Danvers?” Lena tried to joke, but she was seconds away from breaking down. She had just shot her brother. She had just managed to do to him what he had been trying to do to her for the last three years.

“What murder?” Alex asked her, calmer than Lena expected her to be. “It wasn’t murder Lena,” she said softly, “it wasn’t. It doesn’t even need to be you who pulled the trigger if it helps. No one has to know unless you want them to.”

That offer was what broke her. Alex was willing to take the blame from Lex’s sycophants and any heat from her superiors in order to protect Lena. Alex merely tightened her hold and led Lena out of the building, barking orders into her com-unit for the agents with her to secure the building and anything inside it.

Was this what Kara spoke of, when she described Alex as the best big sister? That feeling of knowing someone cared enough about you, loved you enough to take on your sins as their own?

What of Lex Luthor? Lena heard the sharp voice one of the other commanders over the unit. She thought it might have been J’onn, but she wasn’t certain.

“Dead, confirmed.” Alex replied, voice steady. “Ms. Luthor is in my custody and unharmed.”

Take her home Director Danvers, that was definitely J’onn. We’ll debrief with her in the morning.

“Yes Sir,” Alex replied.

“Alex! Lena!” Supergirl landed, harder than she meant to if the cracks in the ground were any indication. “Are you both alright?”

Kara bore the signs of a hard fought battle: dust and debris in her hair, rents in the fabric of her suit, the edge of her cape was singed in places and there was an actual hole near one corner, scrapes and a few cuts that had yet to heal.

“Shaken but fine Supergirl,” Alex assured her. “Report?”

“Battle’s over, DEO agents and NCPD are finishing the cleanup.” Kara straightened up, brushing some dust off her shoulder. “I came to see if you needed any help here.”

The all clear was given just then. The trio watched as a stretcher carrying a black body bag was brought out and loaded into a black van. Several of the agents nodded to Alex before climbing into the back. Alex gave the information that the body is in-route.

“I’m taking Lena home, meet us there?” Alex muted her com-unit before she spoke. She might have her memories back, but not everyone did just yet. She and J’onn would need to work on that.

Kara nodded, giving them one last look over before launching back into the sky.

“So where, exactly, are you taking me?”

“If mom had her way, Midvale,” Alex said without a trace of sarcasm, “since we’re still needed for the moment, Kara’s. Unless you want-”

“Kara’s is fine,” Lena said, not wanting to even contemplate returning to her apartment or office. She needed to call Jess and have her…she needed to rehire Jess as her PA. Before that, she would get the cleaning crews for both places to do a deep clean and techs in to do a sweep of anything her brother may have left behind.

It would be just like him to leave something behind just in case.

“Good,” Alex led her to the same motorcycle from before. This time, she gave the younger woman enough time to get the helmet on herself. “And don’t think I’m kidding about mom. As soon as she’s been given the all clear, she plans to come here. So is Sam.”

“What?” Lena stared at her, not knowing what to do with that information.

Alex made certain her com-unit was off before she said the next words. Kara really hadn’t been exaggerating things when it came to Lena believing other people cared about her.

“You’re family Lena, and when Family hurts we come together.” She stared directly into Lena’s eyes, visor still up. “If you hadn’t taken Lex out, I would have. No one hurts my family.”

Yea, Lena thought as she hastily closed the visor to hide her tears, this is what it felt like to have a sibling who actually cared about you.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&

“Girls!” Eliza engulfed all three of them into one giant hug upon her arrival. Sam and Ruby were the next to get that treatment, as were the others there to greet the Danvers matriarch. Even J’onn got his own hug.

Things were still rocky, but nowhere near as bad as they could have been if Lex’s last ditch attempt had actually worked. Lena leaned against Kara, allowing the alien woman’s warmth to seep into her.

If anything, some of them were closer than ever.

Kara’s arm came up and wrapped around Lena’s shoulders. She laughed at something Alex said, returning it with her own comment that sent Alex blushing and causing Sam to laugh before tugging the redhead into a kiss.

Nia barged in, tugging Brainy in behind her. “We have the games! Did you know they have a Batman version of Monopoly?”

“I did,” J’onn took the stack of games from the exuberant young woman. “Food first,” he admonished all of them.

“Humans first!” Ruby called out, heading towards the first pizza box. “Ew, this one is Aunt Lena’s. It has kale on it.”

Several of the others laughed at her disgusted look, but the teenager dutifully handed over the box to the CEO and jumped right back into the fray before the larger appetites could consume everything.

Lena accepted the box of pizza, smiling at the sight of her family and friends being silly as the food was distributed and spots were found to sit in.

“You okay?” Kara asked softly, taking the plate Alex had made up for her.

“Yeah,” Lena said after a moment. “I am. Partners?”