Chapter Text
William stopped the car in front of an old warehouse and Lena couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that crept down her spine. She hadn’t been able to get a signal the entire drive, and while they had driven through nearly a hundred miles of Californian desert, it seemed unrealistic to think that she wouldn’t have picked up a single bar or a snippet of gas station wifi as they passed. She could only imagine the expression of utter heartbreak that would probably be weighing on Kara’s beautiful features right now. Her stomach turned at the thought. All she wanted to do was get back to her, tell her how she felt, and kiss her pain away.
But now they had a mission.
William let her take the lead as they approached the compound. It was an imposing place, large and dirty and in desperate need of a power wash. It seemed both too desolate to be headquarters for Leviathan, and yet was the perfect cover. No one would suspect the organisation charged with bringing down the CIA would set up shop somewhere where you ran the risk of catching tetanus.
Keeping tight to the wall, she took note of the security cameras and motioned to William, putting her index and middle fingers to her eyes and then to the cameras. He nodded. They’d be going in hot. Their presence wasn’t likely to go unnoticed.
Arriving at the door, she glanced down at the keypad and pulled out her phone and a few tools, attaching some leads to the wiring inside the device.
“Just give me 20 seconds for the program to run,” she muttered, hooking the leads up to her phone and pressing the ‘Run’ button. “Are you sure about this place?”
William stood beside her, gun drawn, watching her back for unfriendlies. “NSA picked up the Director’s signal. This is his broadcast point. If we’re right, Lena, then Leviathan’s most senior operative is behind this door.”
Her phone chimed and she heard a thunk as the lock slid out of it’s catch. Exchanging a glance with William, she put her tools in her pocket, drew her gun, and pulled the door open, ready to see what they were up against.
William followed behind her, gun trained on her back. The warehouse was cold and empty, no sign of any Leviathan agents at all, let alone the Director. Lena made her way down a set of metal steps that led to a lower level and froze at the bottom. A clanging of metal -- perhaps a heavy metal door -- rang out and echoed through the vacant building. Turning back to see how William wanted to proceed, she found the staircase behind her empty. William was gone.
That uneasy feeling that had been with her since he had shown up at her suite grew larger, looming over her. Something was not right. She activated the emergency beacon on her watch. Hopefully the signal would get out and someone would find her.
***
Kara tore through the doors of the Nerd Herd, shoes squeaking on the tile as she came to a stop and stood on tiptoes to try and find Hank.
“Hey buddy!” Winn came bounding up to her with a big smile. She brushed him aside as she continued her search for Hank. Hank was who she needed right now.
“Hey Winn, where’s Hank?”
“Dunno, haven’t seen him,” Winn replied, matching her stride as she quickly walked through the aisles. “But hey! I’ve been thinking about this whole ‘unofficial member of Operation Danvers’ thing? I think I’d like to make it official!”
Kara pushed past him, peering over the racks of video games in her search. “You know what buddy, I’m kinda in the middle of something--”
“Spy-ish?” He finished, cantering by her side, nearly bouncing up and down in his excitement. “I know! So let me help you! I wanna be part of the team!”
Kara threw her head back in frustration and groaned. “Okay fine! Help me find Henshaw and you’re part of the team!”
Winn’s face split into a shocked grin. “You mean I can actually be a part of Operation Danvers?!”
Kara shushed him. This was already a mistake. “Not so loud!”
“Right, right. Sorry! It’s just great news because I can be your second in command slash personal assistant! Batman needs Alfred, Bond needs Q, Batwoman needs Luke, and you?” He ran in front of her and stopped, puffing out his chest. “You need me!”
Kara breathed in deeply, trying to calm her temper. “Winn, right now I need Hank.”
Winn nodded. “Well, per my excellent peripheral vision -- which is a very valuable spy skill, by the way--”
Kara rolled her eyes and nodded quickly.
“--I can tell you that one Hank Henshaw is now exiting the restroom.”
Kara whipped her head toward the bathrooms, and sure enough, there was Hank, the door closing after him. “Thanks buddy!”
She turned to walk away and Winn grabbed her arm. “So wait! Is it official? Am I a part of the team? Am I spy now?”
“Yes! You’re a spy! Gotta go!” She pulled her arm out of his clammy grip and sprinted across the store to Hank.
“Hank! Hank, listen I need your help! Lena killed William’s wife and Leviathan told him about it and now he’s kidnapped her and I don’t know where they are! You have to help me!”
Hank shook his head quickly, as if trying to wrap his brain around everything Kara had just spilled out to him. “Hold on, back up. Luthor killed Dey’s wife?!”
“It was five years ago! It was her Red Test! Lena didn’t know, Haley didn’t know, but William -- he knows. And now he and Lena have disappeared on some mission and they’re off the grid. They can’t be raised on comms, they’re just gone!”
Hank looked around to make sure there was no one listening and muttered softly, “Kara, I’m not an agent anymore, you shouldn’t be telling me any of this.”
Kara’s heart beat frantically in her chest. “But you know what to do, Hank! Right? Haley told me to just sit tight, but you and I both know I can’t do that!”
A bleeping noise emanating from her phone brought them out of their argument and Kara glanced down at it.
Lena.
“Lena just activated her emergency locator. She’s in trouble!”
She stared desperately into Hank’s stoic face. He said nothing, seemingly unmoved by the events unfolding in front of him. Shoving him in the chest, she gritted her teeth as tears began to fill her vivid blue eyes.
“Come on, man!! You know how I feel about her!!”
Growling softly, he grabbed a pen out of his pocket protector and her hand and began to write on her palm. “Call this number. Request tactical support. You’ll be forwarded to a Colonel Sanders. Don’t make fun of his name. Tell him you want air, armour, everything.”
Kara nodded quickly. When he finished writing, she pulled him into a rare hug (rare for him, anyway). “Thank you, Hank.”
He growled at the affection being literally thrust on him. “Just go get Luthor.”
***
Raising her gun, Lena headed deep into the labyrinth-like building, expecting to find rogue agents at every turn, but finding nothing.
As she approached an empty clearing, a voice made her hair stand up on her neck. It was a woman’s voice. She couldn’t quite make out what she was saying. As she drew closer, the woman’s voice grew louder.
“Happy birthday!” A giggle. “Okay it’s my turn! Give me the camera!”
Stepping out from behind a pillar, she was met, not with a woman, but with a large screen and video equipment. Furrowing her brow she stepped closer, staring in shock at the woman on the screen. Lowering her gun, she watched the scene play out in front of her. The woman looked so familiar. Blonde hair, bright blue eyes, always with a hint of a smile on her lips. Where did she know her from?
The tape played on. “I love you.” The woman blew a kiss to the camera.
Lena wracked her brain. Who was this woman? Certainly she knew her from somewhere. If she could just remember then…
“Oh my God.” Just as recognition dawned on her, the screen changed to a dark street, partially lit by streetlights. A gunshot, the shooter turning to reveal herself, the woman falling, then the video began playing all over again.
This was...this was her. This was her Red Test. Why the hell would they have this? Why would they play it for her?
A shuffle from behind her caught her attention and found William advancing on her with his gun drawn.
“William?”
The man said nothing, just kept moving slowly toward her, never lowering his weapon.
“William, what the hell is going on?” Her voice trembled in a way that betrayed her confusion and unease.
Finally, he lowered his gun, taking in the screens behind her.
“What is this?” Lena asked frantically. “This is my Red Test! Why would they have the surveillance footage of my first kill?!”
William holstered his gun and stepped toward her, speaking quietly. “Just take a breath.”
“This is the worst moment of my life, up there on that monitor,” Lena continued, turning back to the screen, her chest heaving with anxiety and bursting with pain that had long been locked away.
“Mine too,” came a soft voice behind her.
Lena whipped her head back toward him, face screwed up in confusion. “What? Why? Who is she?”
William swallowed, eyes fixed firmly on the screen. “Evelyn Dey. Eve. My wife.”
***
Kara thought perhaps it should have taken longer to arrange for a full tactical assault in the middle of the desert, but little more than an hour later, she was breaching the facility with a full-scale TAC team at her back.
As they stopped outside the door, Kara reiterated their rules of engagement.
“One more time, just so we’re clear, we have to reacquire Agent Luthor. Nothing can happen to her. Do I make myself clear?”
The agents answered in simultaneous affirmation and Kara nodded, gripping her walkie talkie.
“This is Team Leader. Is everything set?”
The different factions began chiming in.
“Air is go.”
“Mechanised is go.”
“Tactical is go.”
“Airbourne is go.”
Kara took a deep breath and co*cked her tranq gun.
“Alright boys, let’s do this.”
***
Lena felt the ground shift beneath her as she staggered backward. All of the oxygen in the room seemed to have been sucked out. Her vision blurred around the edges as the implications of those words rained down upon her.
“I--I killed your wife?” She gasped out, breaths coming too quickly as she tried to get some air into her lungs.
William shook his head, stepping forward. “They used you. They manipulated you. You had no idea that Leviathan was behind this.”
Lena backed further away from him, bumping into a desk. “William, I killed your wife!”
“This isn’t your fault,” he replied, stepping closer to her.
Lena felt herself collapse back against the solidity of the metal table behind her. “I thought I was a good spy,” she sobbed out, eyes wide and wet with panic, the weight of her entire career being based on a lie hitting her full force in the chest.
William closed the distance between them, pulling her into his arms. “Hey, this isn’t your fault,” he offered softly. “It’s okay.”
***
Yanking open the door, Kara followed two agents into the facility and began to do a sweep. With the numbers of men Hank’s contact had provided, they were able to sweep the building in minutes, locating William and Lena.
Kara patted the lead agent to get his attention. “I’m going in first,” she said, stepping toward the metal stairs. “You guys hang back.”
“Roger that,” he replied, and motioned for the TAC team to hold their positions.
Carefully, Kara drew her gun and took a set of stairs that led to a catwalk overlooking the clearing where Lena and William had been spotted. Here she would have a good vantage point to determine what was happening.
Stepping into the middle of the platform, she looked down and her heart dropped. The screen was playing Lena’s Red Test, but William didn’t seem to be angry. Instead he was...holding her?
Relief flooded her body at seeing Lena safe and alive, but something tickled at the back of her mind, and it wasn’t just seeing the two of them in each other’s arms again.
Why was he okay with this? Why was he comforting her? Why had he pulled her into a mission without telling their superiors and disabled comms? This was all very fishy.
“Quadrant 4 is secure!” A garbled voice called out over her radio and echoing out into the silent metal building. Lena and William pulled apart, searching for the source of the noise.
“Kara?” Lena called in disbelief.
Kara swallowed and shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. This was so stupid. Lena was fine. She wasn’t in trouble. She had tried to play hero and now she was looking like an idiot. She raised a hand to wave at her dumbly. “Hi.”
Lena’s face contorted in confusion and she opened her mouth to speak again when a crash from above their heads brought glass raining down on the pair, as the tactical team dropped down from the roof, rappelling down to stand in front of the pair, guns trained on William.
“Get on the ground now!”
Kara stared at the scene in horror. Oh god.
“What’s happening in there?” Came a garbled voice from her radio. “Is the target secure?”
Kara quickly grabbed her walkie and muttered into it. “This is Team Leader. Cancel air support, cancel tactical...oh! And the tank! The tank! Cancel the tank!”
Lena just stared up at her in shock. Kara gulped. She was in for it now.
***
“Who the hell gave you the authority to call in a full tactical assault?” Haley yelled from the monitor. Kara stood in The Tower, taking her verbal flaying like a champ. “I don’t know what to do with you, but I can see now that you’re not ready for Rome!”
“But--but General,” she pleaded, “It was Lena! Come on, I had to--”
“Do you want to see the bill for your rescue mission?! It’s longer than my copy of Atlas Shrugged!”
Kara felt a flame light in her chest. This wasn’t entirely fair! Haley had thought William had gone AWOL too! And at least she’d found them, which is more than she could say for the NSA!
“Look, you and I both thought the worst! That--that William had gone rogue! That he was going to--”
“Kill Lena?” William finished as he and Lena stepped into the command center.
Kara hung her head. “William, Lena, listen, I just--”
“You thought I’d betray my country,” William finished for her again. She had no response. He was absolutely right. She had thought the worst. She opened and closed her mouth several times before William stepped around her to speak to the General directly.
“General, Kara’s actions were those of a true spy.”
Kara whipped her head around to stare at him in shock. The last thing she expected was for him to defend her.
“She was looking out for her partner and the Agency. I would have done the same myself,” he finished, crossing his arms. “...Well, maybe without the stealth bombers, but to each their own.” He smirked at the pair as Kara and Lena stood watching him in awe.
Kara turned to Lena to see that she was wearing the same dumbfounded expression as her. That helped a bit, honestly. It was nice to know that she wasn’t the only one who thought that the world had gone topsy-turvy.
“You doing okay?” She whispered to the agent.
“Yeah, I’m fine, thank you,” Lena replied awkwardly. Then her head popped up and she turned to Kara, eyes bright and smile soft. “Thank you for saving me. I appreciated the tank.”
Kara dropped her gaze to the floor. So stupid. She actually thought that she was going to save Lena and that they would be together. Instead she had had to witness William being some paragon of virtue, holding the woman that had killed his wife, showing how amazing of a person he was, she’d embarrassed herself in front of Lena, and she had pissed off Haley to boot.
“General, do we have any idea how they got Lena’s records?” William asked, leaning back to sit on the edge of the table. “Any clue as to who ordered her Red Test?”
Haley shook her head grimly. “I’m afraid Olivia Marsdin took that secret to her grave.”
“Well then what do we do now, General?” Kara asked.
“We disband the team,” Haley replied immediately. “Surely you can’t operate as an effective unit with this history.”
Kara and Lena exchanged alarmed glances. Disband the team??
“General, if I may,” William began, “this isn’t the first time Leviathan has used one of our own against us.” He stood up and held his chin up. “I want to make sure it’s the last.”
Haley stared at him in disbelief. “You’re saying you can still work with Agent Luthor?”
“I can,” he replied sternly. “We both want the same thing: to capture the Director and take down Leviathan.”
He turned to look at Lena, his eyes full of fire, but with a softness saved just for her. It made Kara want to scratch her eyes out for having to witness it.
“Are you with me? Can we still be a team?”
Lena paused for a moment, thinking, and Kara could only imagine the thoughts flying through her head. She’d have to work side by side with William, knowing that she killed his wife, knowing that she had been used by a nefarious organisation and that she had unknowingly ruined his life.
“Yes,” she replied softly.
William nodded curtly and turned back to the monitor.
“Well, the team’s all back together then,” Kara muttered softly. “Greeeeat…”
***
Kara closed her door quietly and sat on her bed, opening her laptop. Something was off about William but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. No one could be that okay with working with the person who killed their wife, not even him. There had to be something going on under the surface.
Opening her SAT-LINK to General Haley, she took a deep breath as the call connected. Seeing it was her, Haley sighed and pulled off her glasses.
“What is it, Kara?” She asked tiredly.
“General, if I could speak freely--”
“That’s not a good idea,” Haley interrupted in irritation.
Okay, so she was still mad about the whole TAC team situation. Not ideal, but this was too important.
“As the titular member of Operation Danvers, I think it’s crazy to be putting William back into the field so soon. He just found out that Lena killed his wife, okay?! The guy has got to be an emotional trainwreck right now! Nobody can control their feelings that well!”
Haley pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed in exasperation. “Kara, what you are seeing in Dey is an absolute professional. Something you are not. That’s why I’m moving them out of National City.”
Kara’s heart stuttered to a halt. The walls of her bedroom seemed to be drawing closer, boxing her in. She took several deep breaths and swallowed.
“Moving who out of National City?” She asked quietly, terrified of the answer.
“Luthor and Dey,” Haley confirmed sternly. “I’m proceeding with my original plan. They’ll head up our Leviathan taskforce in Washington.”
Kara felt the blood drain from her face. Lena was going to be leaving. With William. Without her.
“And--and what about me?”
“You’ll stay there in National City until I can figure out what to do with you.”
Haley signed off, leaving Kara sitting on her bed, cross-legged on the quilt with a massive lump in her throat and the sudden desire to get very, very drunk.
***
It was several hours later and the sullen numbness and depression that came with mulling over sad thoughts while drunk had set in. The screen of her television sat flickering on the menu of her Rockband game. Alex was working a double shift in the E.R. and Kelly was volunteering at the Crisis Centre, so she’d had the entire apartment to herself to belt out sad sappy love songs into the tiny microphone while she drank straight from the bottle of Johnny Walker Black that Alex kept around the house.
She’d settled down onto the couch, finally opting for a glass around an hour ago and just let her thoughts swirl around her. Lena was leaving. Lena was leaving and she would never have the chance to be with her. She didn’t even know if Lena had planned on showing up to the station the other night. Everything was spinning out of her control and she thought that perhaps she had never felt so small in her life.
The front door opened and she shrunk down into the couch. She didn’t want Alex or Kelly to see her like this. Alex would reprimand her for not pushing harder, for giving up, and Kelly would use her understanding therapist voice and it would all just culminate in her sobbing into their shirts for the rest of the night.
“Hey hey hey!”
She quit shrinking as far into the couch. It was only Winn. He’d certainly seen her this low before. He wouldn’t judge.
She stared at the ground, her glass of whiskey pressed to her temple. The cool glass felt like a balm on her flushed skin. She watched his shoes enter her peripheral vision.
“Whoa, what the heck is going on here?” He dropped his bag to the floor and took in the mostly empty bottle and the plastic Rockband guitar on the couch next to her. “Oh no. Are you mixing gaming with whiskey again?”
Kara closed her eyes. “She’s leaving, man.” Her words came out slurred and slushy on her tongue. “Leaving with the other guy.”
Her voice trembled and broke and she downed the rest of her glass to give her throat something to do besides close up around the lump there.
“Nope. This cannot happen,” Winn said shaking his head. “We’re not doing this.”
“I thought I sshtood a chance,” she continued, her mouth warping around the syllables. She slammed the glass down on the table and reached for the bottle.
“No!” Winn shouted, grabbing the bottle with both hands. Kara tugged, confused as to why it was not coming closer. (She was very drunk.) Looking up, she saw Winn’s determined face a few inches from hers. She gripped the bottle with a second hand and gritted her teeth, pulling it towards her.
Winn dug his heels into the living room floor, using his meager body weight to pull it back from her. “No buddy!”
“Leggo!”
“No!”
“Gimme it!”
“Listen to me, you’re on the precipice of emotional ruin here!”
“I’m already over the edge!”
“No you’re not! Pretty soon you’re going to start quoting liberally from the works of John Hughes and sobbing to Taylor Swift and then things are gonna go dark. Things are gonna go really dark! And I’m not gonna let that happen!”
“Winn, hand over the bottle!”
“Never!”
He gritted his teeth, and with one final tug, he yanked the bottle away from her.
Kara felt her anger flare inside her and she unintentionally began to flash. She gasped at the sensation on her whiskey-soaked brain as it ended.
“Oh yes you will.”
Winn jutted out his chin and hid the bottle behind his back.
“Make me.”
Boy was that the wrong thing to say.
***
Kara had stayed up all night, first finishing the bottle of whiskey, then ordering a frankly absurd amount of pizza and potstickers (hey, she was hurting!), and finally breaking in the new day with an entire carton of double brownie fudge ice cream.
Sunlight misted in through the tiny slats in the closed blinds and she surveyed the dust motes swirling in their light as she sang along to ‘My Tears Ricochet’ playing on her record player. The little plastic Rockband guitar lay in her lap as she sat slumped against the wall of her living room.
“I hope you’re happy,” came Winn’s voice from the middle of the living room floor. Kara snuck a lackadaisical peek at him. He was still laying in the exact same position she’d left him in last night when she had flashed. He was no spy and it had only taken her a minute to knock him on his ass and hogtie him using every video game controller and power cord that she had.
Her thoughts drifted away from her distressed friend and back to Lena. Happy? No. No, happy was something she was not.
“‘She said she couldn’t be with someone who didn’t believe in her. Well, I believed in her. I just didn’t believe in me,’” she quoted, as her Folklore album continued to play in the background.
“Dude!” Winn called from the floor. “You are misquoting the line and you are ruining Pretty In Pink for me! Now just stop it! Put the cap back on the bottle and let’s forget that this night ever happened, okay? I’m really good at that! I’ve forgotten entire years, man!”
Kara opted to ignore him, staring off into the distance and thinking about Lena. She was pitiful, she knew it. This was no way to behave. This was no way to treat her friend. But she was heartbroken. She loved Lena in a way that defied logic. There was just something about the agent that held her heart in an iron grip. Every time that Kara thought it was over and Lena was gone, they found their way back to each other like fate was taking a direct hand in their lives. Or like they were twin flames -- their atoms reaching out across space and time to be near the other.
The front door opened and a soft lilting voice called out into the room.
“What is going on here?!”
Kara’s eyes slowly widened as she co*cked her head toward the door. What was she doing here? Wasn’t she supposed to be on a plane to D.C.?
“Hey Lena,” Winn replied from his spot on the floor. “Kara’s in a...a bit of a low spot.”
Lena searched the room for the blonde and found her slumped against the wall in a t-shirt and boxers, a tiny fake guitar in her lap. She looked terrible, and yet Lena’s heart couldn’t help but try to burst out of her chest, desperate to reach her, to smooth away the crinkle in her brow, to kiss away the dark circles that hung like half moons under her crystal blue eyes.
“Uh, yeah, I can see that,” she replied softly, lifting the hem of her skirt and pulling a knife from her thigh sheath. She made quick work of cutting the power cords off of Winn as he spoke.
“She found out that you’re leaving with William. She’s also eaten an entire carton of double brownie fudge ice cream, which is only concerning when you factor in the large consumption of whiskey.”
He stretched out his limbs and climbed to his feet, thanking her.
Lena stood up and looked over at Kara, who was avoiding her eyes.
“Winn, can you give us a minute, please?”
He nodded to her and then walked towards Kara’s bedroom, pausing to give her a hard look. “I forgive you,” he said pointedly. He stopped at the record player and lifted the needle, stopping “This Is Me Trying” from playing.
“Great, now I hate this album,” he muttered, leaving the room.
Lena walked softly over to Kara, tucking her pencil skirt under her legs and sitting down next to her, legs tucked to the side. Kara watched as she tucked a raven lock behind her ear and felt intense shame come over her. She didn’t want Lena to see her like this. She felt so stupid.
“Look, I...I know what I look like. The ice cream sobered me up pretty good.”
Lena smiled softly and chuckled. “Kara, it’s okay --”
“No, it isn’t,” she replied, eyes fixed on the ground, and Lena watched as her chin began to tremble. “I thought I could save you. I thought William was bad and I was gonna save you and we were gonna be together.” She exhaled with a trembling breath. “But that didn’t happen,” she finished quietly.
Lena nodded in understanding. “Well...William’s a good spy.”
Kara threw her head back so hard it smacked the wall and she rolled her eyes. “I get it, okay?! I think everybody gets it! William’s amazing and you two are gonna go run off together and save the world and that’s...that’s great news for the world.” She paused, trying to contain the sob that threatened to wrench its way out of her throat as her lip wobbled and tears pricked her eyes. “But earlier on in my….drunken haze,” her voice broke the way she was trying not to let it and she wanted the ground to swallow her up. “I realised that I hadn’t asked you a question -- a really important question -- that I’d like to ask you now, if that’s okay. Just once. Just for the record.”
She waited for Lena to say no, to say that she didn’t want to talk about personal things, to be cold and closed off like she had been since Prague, but those things never came. Lena just sat quietly, thoughtful concern in her eyes, a crease in her brow, waiting for the question that danced on Kara’s tongue.
Kara looked up into her eyes, fixing her with the most piercing, earnest stare she could manage in the fog that still clung to the edges of her mind.
“Lena, do you love me?”
Lena’s mouth dropped open and it didn’t take superpowers to hear the way her breath hitched. Her eyes were wide and unreadable and when she didn’t answer right away, Kara knew what the answer was.
That was it then. No more crying about it. Lena had made her choice and Kara would just have to learn to live with it. Swallowing the sobs that threatened to wrack her body, she huffed out a laugh.
“Wow, I’m--I’m in my underwear! I’m sitting in my underwear holding a plastic guitar.”
Lena still hadn’t spoken but she was staring at Kara with an intensity that she couldn’t read.
“There’s a very good chance I’m making a complete fool of myself,” she continued with a self-deprecating chuckle.
“Yes,” came Lena’s soft lilt, barely more than a whisper.
Kara nodded. “I should probably go put some clothes on--”
“No, Kara,” Lena replied with a soft insistence. Kara looked up at her in confusion. Lena smiled, eyes softer than the blonde had ever seen them. “Yes.”
Time stood absolutely still. Her pulse was no longer marking its passage. There was nothing else in the world but the lovely woman in front of her and the soft words she had just spoken. A gunfight could have broken out in her living room and she would not have noticed. This had to be an alcohol-induced hallucination.
“Wh--uh, what?” She asked intelligently.
Lena smiled, her blue-green eyes glinting in the morning sun that had coaxed its way through the blinds. “Kara, I fell for you a long, long time ago. Sometime after you fixed my phone and before you started disabling bombs using computer viruses, so yes!” She breathed out a nervous laugh. “Yes.”
Kara stared at her in awe, a disbelieving laugh escaping from her lips as tears welled up in her eyes.
Lena watched a tear slide down her cheek and slid across the floor to sit closer to her, cupping her face in her hand and kissing the tear away. She felt the blonde’s breath stutter out against her skin, as if she couldn’t quite believe this was real.
Lena kissed her cheek, then the corner of her mouth and finally landed on her lips, soft and a little chapped, probably from dehydration from all the whiskey. It was perfect, regardless. Slow, lazy, then hard, enveloping, with Kara gripping the back of her neck like she was scared Lena would float away if she didn’t hold on. Lena pulled back, resting her forehead on Kara’s and basking in the saccharine heat of her breath ghosting across her lips.
Tilting her head back down for another kiss, she felt Kara pull back suddenly. She was afraid she had done something wrong for a moment until Kara spoke.
“Wait, what about my Red Test?”
Lena shook her head with a smile. “Hank told me. He told me that he killed the mole and that you couldn’t do it, and it was the best news I’d ever heard because it means that you haven’t changed -- you’re still Kara.”
She leaned forward again, gently colliding with Kara’s body as she pulled their foreheads back together.
“You’re still my Kara,” she breathed into her skin.
Kara felt the tears squeeze out of her eyes and slide down her cheeks, where they were pressed into Lena’s as the agent pulled her into another gentle kiss. They kissed until their smiles got too big to allow more than just a press of teeth and faces together and then, finally, they pulled apart. Lena giggled and wiped away the traces of red lipstick smeared across Kara’s face.
Kara took a deep breath, a serenity overtaking her in the wake of this new revelation.
“I, uh, I promise that I will be totally cleaned up by tomorrow,” she chuckled.
“Well, you don’t have time,” Lena replied, rising to her feet. “We have a mission. William found Leviathan headquarters. It’s a three-man op and you’re our third,” she finished with a grin, reaching out a hand to help her up.
A squeak of shoes on hardwood came as Winn skidded to a stop in front of them. “Mission?! No problem!”
Lena looked at him in confusion. “Winn, what are you doing?”
Winn put his hands on his hips and smiled. “Right, where are my manners? We haven’t actually met professionally. Winn Schott, agent of the CIA and assistant to one Kara Danvers.”
Kara rolled her eyes and shot Lena an exasperated look before Winn grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the kitchen.
“Let’s get to work, little lady! There is a mission and you are needed! Let’s get you some coffee!”
Lena watched them walk away with a smile on her lips. They’d figure out the details later. Finally, finally, everything was out there and they both knew where the other stood. They both knew what they wanted.
It was a start.
***
Kara kept sneaking furtive glances between William and Lena. That little niggle in her brain about his emotional stability kept poking her over and over again. What if he found out that she and Lena were back together? Would that send him over the edge? Could he even be trusted in the first place?
Lena didn’t seem to be having the same troubled thoughts as her. She spun the cylinder down on her carabiner with ease, seemingly unaffected by all that had gone down between the three of them.
Of course she appears unaffected, Kara thought to herself. Lena was a first class spy. Nothing ruffled her feathers. Her on the other hand...her feathers were a mess.
Her fingers shook as she tightened the leads to her ropes and locked the carabiner in place. Leaning forward a smidgeon, she looked down the elevator shaft that they would soon be rappelling down. The ground shook beneath her. God, she hated heights.
“You okay, Kara?” William asked as he readied his equipment.
“What, who, me? Yeah--yeah I’m great. Totally cool. Ready to go. Everything is totally normal.” She glanced over at Lena who was checking over her leads one more time, the ghost of a smile on her face. It quickly vanished as she turned back to William.
“Alright,” he began, “the Director has his own private elevator. You two are going to rappel down to it. When the Director leaves, grab him, and I’ll pull you back up.”
Kara swallowed harshly and nodded. “Cool, yeah, great.”
William gave her an odd look and walked away to gain access to the lift’s controls.
Kara watched him leave and then slid over to Lena, her voice barely above a whisper. “Do you think he knows about us?”
“Shh,” Lena shushed, their faces only an inch apart. Kara watched as her eyes flicked down to her lips and instinctively licked them. As if sensing the danger in their proximity, Lena took a step back, putting a little more space between them.
“I’m just saying,” she whispered. Lena just shook her head slightly.
“Okay, ready?” William called as he approached. He stopped in front of Kara, putting a strong hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about the warehouse or Haley, Kara. I trust you completely.”
Kara tried to give him a smile, but she was fairly certain it came out more like a grimace. “Right.”
It wasn't her trustworthiness she was worried about.
A minute later and she and Lena were rappelling down the elevator shaft, with William watching from above. Even with all the craziness going on and her fear of heights, Kara took a moment to appreciate the freefall. It felt a bit like flying.
They landed with a thud on top of the Director’s private elevator.
“Okay, we’re in,” Lena spoke into comms as they undid the ropes cradling them.
“Hey! Psst!” Kara whisper-shouted. Lena gave her a confused look and she muted their comms so that William couldn’t hear whatever their conversation was going to be about.
“What’s the matter?” She asked as she undid her carabiners and shackles.
“Um. I have a concern about William,” she began quietly. “While he, yes, is a very good spy, emotionally? The guy is swiss cheese, okay?”
Lena rolled her eyes with an amused smile. “Kara, William is one step closer to capturing the Director and I’m sure that is all he is thinking about. So don’t even worry, okay?”
***
William stood up at the top of the elevator shaft, tapping into the wiring for the lift.
“Alright Lena, I’m accessing the elevator’s controls,” he said into comms.
A whirring noise caught his attention, and he looked up to see a surveillance camera turning to face him. They were blown. Company would be arriving soon--
No sooner than the thought sprung into his mind than two Leviathan agents burst into the control room.
“Gentlemen,” he said calmly, glancing between them where his gun lay in his toolbag. The first agent followed his eye and stepped forward to retrieve it just as William struck.
A punch to the face, a kick to the knee. The first agent went down and he reached down to grab his pistol just as the second agent attacked, shoving him back toward the elevator shaft. The agent slammed his hand with the pistol against the concrete wall, causing him to fire indiscriminately into the shaft.
The first agent climbed to his feet to help his colleague and succeeded in kicking the gun away from him. William shoved the pair back, landing a roundhouse kick to one’s head and then kicking the second in the chest, where he fell against the wall, hitting his head.
He reached down and grabbed the gun where it had fallen and holstered it. “Sorry about that, guys,” he said into his comms. “A little Leviathan company.”
Then he went back to work on the controls.
***
“Alright Lena, I’m accessing the elevator’s controls,” William’s voice came crackling through their comms.
“I don’t know, Lena. I just get this feeling like there’s more going on there. Either he’s barely holding it together or he’s burying it way down and neither of those is a good option for someone facing stress out in the field, right?”
Lena turned to face her, the bemusem*nt clear in her eyes. “Kara, do you think maybe you’re just feeling guilty and projecting?”
Well that was certainly a good question. Yes, she did feel a little guilty that they were essentially planning to undermine the CIA’s plan for the two of them, and then on top of that, that she was going to steal Lena from right under William’s nose. Although, Lena had killed his wife, so how could there ever be any kind of future there anyway?
“I just think that--”
Gunshots rang out down the elevator shaft and the pair dropped to their bellies and pressed themselves against the wall.
“See?! See?! I told you! He knows! HE KNOWS!” Kara yelled hysterically, squeezing her eyes shut.
“William, are you okay?!” Lena shouted into her comms.
“He’s having a mental break! WE’RE FISH IN A BARREL DOWN HERE!”
Lena rolled her eyes and called for William again. No more gunshots sounded, and she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
A moment later, his voice crackled in through their earpieces, “Sorry about that guys. A little Leviathan company.”
Lena smirked and swung her head to give Kara a pointed look. “See? I told you he wasn’t trying to kill us.”
Kara had the good sense to look sheepish.
“Alright, I’m opening the hatch,” said William, followed by a click to their right as the hatch to the lift box opened.
They dropped into the car and Kara pulled out her tranq pistol, checking the clip and co*cking it. She saw Lena glance down at it and was quick to reassure her.
“Oh don’t worry, it’s a tranq gun.”
Lena nodded. “Okay fine, just sell that it’s real.”
“Right, of course. Ruthless spy,” she said, setting her face into the most menacing expression she could muster.
Lena suppressed a snort, turning her attention back to the doors.
Kara turned to her quickly. “Wait, you’re gonna take care of most of that, though, right?”
Lena shot her an amused smile, eyes dancing with mirth.
“Lena, the internal security system is detecting something moving toward the elevator.”
Lena straightened, lifting her pistol. “Looks like the Director is coming in early.”
Kara readied herself, her heart pounding in her chest. “Time to meet our bad guy.”
They moved so that they were standing against the front wall of the elevator, on either side of the doors, so that they were out of sight. A tall, thin blonde man stepped into the lift and Kara flashed.
Tommy Elliot was the man’s name. Once a major name in defense contracting, he had gotten into private military contracts where he began recruiting former spies and soldiers for Leviathan.
Kara shook her head to clear it as the man turned around and caught sight of their guns pointed at his face.
His mouth dropped open slightly.
“One word and you’re dead,” Lena growled as the doors slid shut. The car made no movement since no button had been pressed.
“Now this is brazen,” he muttered.
Kara glanced over at Lena. “That was--that was four words…”
“Kidnapping me in my own lift...impressive,” he continued. “But there’s absolutely no chance you’ll get the Cipher.”
Kara and Lena exchanged surprised glances.
“Did he just say ‘Cipher’?” William asked through comms.
“Yeah,” Lena breathed.
“What are you talking about?” Kara asked suspiciously.
“Don’t play dumb, you’re better than that,” he chastised. “We’ve been building our own Intersect for a year, you know that.”
“Of course,” Dey chimed in, “the Cipher is the Intersect’s core processor.”
“Fine, so it’s here then. So where exactly is it?” Lena asked menacingly.
“You won’t get five feet from this door,” Elliot taunted. “My security will be on you in seconds.”
Lena smirked. “Well, that’s not going to work. Either we get the Cipher, or…” She gestured with her gun in an ‘you’ll die’ kind of way.
“Pull out your communicator,” Kara interjected quickly.
The Director turned to her, his face schooled into a look of innocence. “What communicator?”
Kara shot him an unamused look and then turned to Lena, who stepped forward, pressing the barrel of her pistol into his forehead.
“Oh, you mean this communicator?” He asked, slowly pulling the special Leviathan-made device out of his pocket.
“Yeah, that communicator,” Kara replied wryly. “Call your assistant. Your secretary, whoever. Call him or her, tell them to bring the Cipher to you, here.”
“And put it on speaker,” Lena added. “You give them one warning, and I’m gonna--”
“Yeah, I know the drill,” he cut in with annoyance.
After dialing the call, they waited as his assistant brought the Cipher to the elevator. Kara and Lena retook their places on either side of the lift doors and waited for them to slide open.
“Sir, you asked for this,” Denise the assistant said, handing him the device. “Also, I spoke with Operative Six, they’ll proceed with the coup in fifteen minutes. The Spanish Ambassador called back with the ransom offer, he wants to close by end of day tomorrow at the latest.”
“Thank you, Denise,” Elliot replied calmly. “And please text me when the plane lands in Barcelona. ” He slightly emphasised the word and pronounced it like ‘Barthelona’, which Kara found pretentious and stupid.
Suddenly, Lena reached out and yanked the secretary inside the doors, just before they closed.
Kara stared at her in confusion.
“Barcelona,” she explained, “it’s a code.”
“Oh really??” Kara replied in exasperation. “What are we supposed to do with her now?”
“Well, personally I’d shoot her,” Elliot replied with a smirk. “Decisions, decisions…”
Lena shot him a glare. “William, we’re ready here, what’s going on up there.”
“Just need a few more seconds,” he replied.
“Well, we don’t have seconds--”
The lift doors slid open and a Leviathan agent stepped up to the door. “Sorry sir, but one of our guys heard something strange in the elevator shaft.”
Tommy raised his eyebrows and then glanced pointedly up at the open hatch in the ceiling of the car. The agent’s face darkened as he made to step inside.
Kara grabbed the back of his shirt and shoved him forward.
“Hi, welcome to the party,” she said dryly as the doors closed. She turned to Lena. “This is getting ridiculous.”
“I’ve got it, here we go!” William said, just as the lift juddered up into motion.
The five of them stood in silence for a moment before the Director spoke again. “You know it’s over, right?”
Lena furrowed her brow. “What?”
He grinned. “This was a trap. For you.”
The secretary and the Leviathan agent whipped their guns out quickly, pointing them at the pair.
“Okay, nobody move or we can all die here today,” Lena growled.
“You can all die here. Personally, I have dinner reservations,” he taunted.
Lena stepped forward, ignoring the guns trained on her. “Look at me,” she said, stepping right into his personal space. “Do I look like an amateur?”
“No,” the Director replied honestly. “You don’t. But your partner here is a very different story,” he continued, turning to Kara. “Not much of a spy, are you?”
Kara burned with anger, embarrassment, and defiance. “I am a spy.”
“Really?” Elliot taunted. “With a tranq pistol? What, was a real gun too dangerous for you?”
The lift juddered to a halt then and Lena looked around in confusion.
The doors slid open and three Leviathan agents stood outside the door, guns pointed into the car at the pair.
“Put it down,” Elliot ordered. Lena’s eyes burned with rage, but she knew when she was outnumbered. “I’m sorry, Kara,” she said, laying down her gun.
Kara went to put hers down when a shot rang out, followed by two more. She covered her head with her hands and she and Lena retreated to their spots on either side of the doors.
William appeared around the corner, taking out the last two agents on either side of the Director. He advanced on the man, the one who had ordered his wife’s death, his gun pointed directly at his face.
“William,” the man breathed out nervously. “Still upset about your wife? You should really learn to get over that, or--or take it out on Agent Luthor here! She’s the one that pulled the trigger.”
William glanced at Lena out of the corner of his eye, but kept his weapon trained on Elliot.
“Go,” he ordered, “take the service elevator to the fifth floor, then the north stairwell. I’ll get the Cipher and meet you back at the Tower.”
Kara immediately stepped out of lift, but Lena hesitated. “William, we’re not going to leave you here--”
“Lena, go. Please.”
The agent paused for another moment, looking at the Director, knowing exactly what was about to happen, then she stepped out of the car, letting the doors drift closed behind her. She grabbed Kara’s arm and pulled her down the hallway.
BANG!
A gunshot echoed down the cavernous hallway and Kara stopped short, staring back at the elevator in shock.
“Did he just…”
Lena just gave her a solemn look. Kara nodded, swallowing hard and forcing her feet to move down the hallway again.
“You know what? I think you’re right. I think maybe we should wait to tell him about us.”
***
Inside the elevator, William lowered his gun, surveying the three bodies on the ground.
The Director began to stir, followed by the two agents at his side. Elliot climbed to his feet, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
“Good work, William. I think they bought it.”
William smirked, holstering his gun. “Of course they did.”
***
General Haley looked furious as she dressed William down from the monitor.
“You weren’t supposed to eliminate the Director, Dey! This was not a Red Op!!”
Kara watched William nod, then turned back to the surveillance footage of William’s fight with the Leviathan agents while she and Lena had been in the elevator shaft.
“I did what I had to get my team out,” he replied sternly.
“Wow! What a kick!” Kara shouted suddenly, attention still on the surveillance footage. “Where did we get this footage? This is awesome!”
“I tapped into the building’s security footage,” William replied, turning to gather some files from the table.
“Well that’s a heck of a roundhouse, buddy,” Kara said in an awestruck tone, clapping him on the back. “General, I do think it’s worth noting that we would all be dead if it were not for William, so…”
William and Lena looked at her in surprise. But Kara felt it was only fair. William had stuck up for her on multiple occasions. It was only right that she do the same for her. Plus, she had clearly been wrong about him. He had saved their lives, after all.
“General, there is still the issue of the Cipher,” Lena began. “The Director said that Leviathan was making a new Intersect and--”
“Relax,” Haley cut in. “My team analysed their Cipher and found a number of problems in the design. Obviously Leviathan wasn’t as far along as they thought.”
William spoke up from his place hunched over at the table, sifting through the many files and folders in front of him. He picked up one page in particular as he said, “Looks like the Cipher’s components were fabricated in France.”
“Yes,” Haley agreed. “I need you and Lena to follow this trail to Paris. We believe Leviathan’s design facility is there.”
“We can be in the air in an hour,” he replied, nodding. He left the command center to begin prep for the mission.
“E-Excuse me, General,” Kara started, raising a finger. “What about me?”
“Sorry Kara,” General Haley replied dryly. “You’re not ready.” The screen cut to black as she signed off.
Kara’s shoulders hunched in defeat. Lena moved closer to her, tangling their fingers together in comfort.
Kara sighed. “We are never gonna get our chance to be together, are we?”
Lena smiled softly, her eyes sparkling. “Don’t worry. Once I get back, it’s all going to happen. You and me.”
She leaned up onto her tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to Kara’s lips.
Pulling back, she took in the crinkle between the blonde’s shimmering blue eyes and sighed. “Don’t worry. It’s all going to work out.”
She pressed another kiss to her lips, firm this time.
“Just one more mission.”
Kara watched her leave the command center and then headed home, feeling lighter than she had in months.
Just one more mission.
***
Kara walked through the door and couldn’t stop herself grinning from ear to ear. Everything was on the right track. Lena was in love with her and was willing to do whatever it took to be with her. William wasn’t bad, so Lena was safe on her mission. And even if General Haley was still pissed at her, she knew the stern woman would come around. Maybe William would even stick up for her and help get her off the bench!
“Hey hey! Look at you!” Winn called out, pausing his video game. Ever since Kara had told him the truth, he had become a staple of the Danvers-Olsen household, even more so than before she became the Intersect. He was as much a part of the apartment as her couch or the refrigerator, always happy to wait until she arrived home to tell him about what cool awesome spy thing had happened. And if nothing had happened? Well then they just watched sci-fi and played video games. She loved having her best friend back in her life again.
“I take it you and Lena are official?” He asked, resuming his game. “And the other guy is out of the way?”
Kara grabbed a bottle of kombucha from the fridge and cracked the lid. She had originally turned her nose up at the stuff, but Lena liked it, so she had begun keeping it around the house and eventually it grew on her. Drinking it now was like having a bit of her lover here with her.
“Well, actually, Lena and William are on their way to Paris. General Haley doesn’t think I’m ready to be out in the field. But other than that, everything’s fine!”
Winn looked up in shock, pausing his game again. “What?! How is everything fine? Kara, I quit the Nerd Herd so I could join you in the field.”
Kara nearly dropped her bottle as her eyes flew wide with horror. “You did WHAT?!”
“You said I was a part of your team!” Winn explained, rising from the couch and joining her in the kitchen. “You said you would speak to Haley about me. Did you speak to Haley about me?”
Kara sucked her lips into her mouth and frowned apologetically.
Winn nodded resignedly. “Of course you didn’t. Why would you. I’m not a spy. I’m an idiot.”
“No!” Kara exclaimed, setting her bottle on the counter. “No, you’re not an idiot.”
“No, I am! I quit a managerial position in a down economy!”
Kara sighed, closing her eyes. “Look, I’m sorry buddy. I’m gonna talk to Haley, and then Lena’s gonna come back into town, and then I will prove that we are both field-ready!”
Winn sighed, shaking his head. “Kara, are you kidding me? None of that is gonna happen, okay? Listen to me, William is gonna get Lena. And then you’re gonna go willy-nilly, tie me up again, and drink yourself into Guitar Hero oblivion.”
Kara shook her head. “It’s not like that, buddy. It’s real this time. Lena and I...everything’s all out on the table. And, look, I may have said some unfortunate things about Dey, but the truth is, the guy is exactly what he seems! He’s a hero!”
Winn smiled condescendingly, grabbing the bottle of whiskey that Kara had replaced. “Aw, that’s nice. Good for him. You know what else he is? A stud! And 99 times out of 10, that guy gets the girl, okay? We’re done here!”
“Aw come on, buddy, don’t be like that,” she called after him as he walked back into the living room, sitting down on the couch again. He just shook his head, pouring himself a glass of whiskey.
An idea popped into her head and she brightened, grabbing her laptop out of her bag. “Okay, I’ve got something that will cheer you up. I know how much you love martial arts.”
She plopped down on the couch next to him, opening her laptop. “I’m not supposed to show anyone this, but it was just so awesome that I had to make a copy. You’re gonna love this.”
She waited for the screen to load and then opened the video of William taking down the Leviathan agents.
“This is from the mission. This is William saving our butts from the Leviathan agents. Watch this! Watch for the roundhouse!” She popped her lips as his kick landed. “Boom!”
Winn shook his head in confusion, his brow furrowed. “No...we have a problem.”
“What?” Kara asked, looking between him and the screen.
He took the laptop from her, rewinding the video and slowing it down. “Look at this,” he said, pressing play. “He pulls that punch.”
He fast forwarded and paused it at the roundhouse kick. “And his roundhouse? It doesn’t even land.”
He turned the screen back to Kara, who could see now, looking at the paused video, that there was a clear gap between William’s foot and the rogue agent’s head.
“Wh--but he shot people, Winn!” This couldn’t be fake. If it was fake then…
“Did you see blood? Eviscera? Brain matter? Kara, did you see brain matter?!”
Kara rifled through her memories of that hallway after William had come to rescue them. Come to think of it, she couldn’t remember seeing anything…
Winn took her silence as confirmation. “Okay, listen dude, I’ve seen every Hong Kong fight film ever made. I direct your attention to the Sonny Chiba poster in my bedroom. Okay? I am the expert when it comes to this stuff! You have to trust me. I can spot a fake action sequence from a mile away! And that’s what we have here.”
Kara could feel the room spinning, her heart racing. This couldn’t be happening.
“But if--if the fight was staged...then that means that William is working with Leviathan...and Lena is with him!”
***
Kara flew down the highway in her Nerd Herder as Winn tried to calm her from the passenger seat. None of his calming words or gestures had any effect on her as she thought of the danger that Lena was in.
This was Lena. The woman that she loved. The woman that had just confessed that she loved her too. They were going to be together! This couldn’t be happening!
Panic roiled inside her, rising like a tidal wave, threatening to carry her under. The only thing that kept her above the noise was the pure unadulterated rage at Dey. The knowledge of what she would do to him if he hurt her.
The pair skidded into the command center of The Tower, with Kara quickly opening up a SAT-LINK to General Haley.
“I’m uploading the fight footage to General Haley’s home computer now,” she informed Winn as she waited for the call to connect.
The screen bleeped as a sleepy-looking General Haley answered the call, clearly woken from a deep slumber.
“Report, Kara?” She sighed out blearily.
“General! I’m so sorry about the hour, but we just figured something out -- something very important! Agent Dey is working with Leviathan!”
Haley’s nostrils flared as she rolled her eyes in frustration. “Kara, how many times do we have to do this?”
Kara could feel the panic rising. She had to believe her!
“Wait, General, please! Before, I was right for the wrong reasons! But this time, I’m right for the right reasons! And--and this time I have proof!”
She gestured for Winn to move into the frame. He stepped into the spot next to her and waved to the camera. “Hi there!”
Haley went red, like she was on the verge of spontaneous combustion.
“What is he doing there?!” She shouted angrily.
Winn gulped. “Uh, well, first of all, sir -- ma’am! -- is it sir? -- what am I doing?” He gave Kara a pleading look.
“Just talk!” She shouted at him.
“Right,” he said, pink in the face as he turned back to the camera, “first I just want to say thank you for this opportunity--”
“Stop!” Haley exclaimed. “What are you doing there?!”
“Me?” Winn asked dumbly. “I’m with her,” he replied, pointing to Kara. “I’m on Kara’s team.”
“Oh no,” Haley replied with a mirthless laugh, “no you’re not, because Kara isn’t even on her own team anymore! I want both of you out of The Tower in five minutes! Kara, you are suspended! ”
“No!” Kara exclaimed as the screen went black. “No, General!”
She quickly typed her commands into the computer, trying to connect another call, but Haley appeared to be ignoring her.
“Dammit! She’s blocking my calls!”
“Well, ok…” Winn began, breathing out a sigh. “My time as a spy was pretty exciting…albeit a bit brief…”
Kara turned to him, jaw set, eyes ablaze. “You’re still a spy.”
Winn chuckled mirthlessly. “Oh yeah? How do you figure that one, dude?”
“Because right now I need a team, and you’re all I’ve got buddy, okay? CIA or no CIA, we need to save Lena...just the two of us.”
Winn grinned, eyes dancing, then he dropped his voice low, doing his best Yoda impression.
“No...there is another!”
***
“So now they’re in Paris -- Lena and William -- and this time for real he is working with Leviathan!”
The pair stood in Hank’s apartment as he made himself some coffee, disgruntled at the late night interruption.
“Now, I know--I know you can’t help me anymore. I know all that,” she continued breathlessly. “But Lena’s gonna die without us! I can’t do this alone!”
Hank sighed, pouring coffee into his mug. “And I can’t help you anymore. I’m not a spy.”
“But you ARE a spy! You’re the ultimate spy!” Kara yelled, slapping the wall next to her head in frustration.
Hank shook his head, training his gaze on the floor in front of him.
“Was,” Winn spoke up. “Was, Kara. But the man’s been Nerd Herded.”
He stepped up to Hank, his short stature barely making it up to the former agent’s broad chest.
“You’ve deluded yourself into thinking that the Nerd Herd is your life. Well, wake up Hank! Okay?! ‘Cause we need you to get on this plane! Kara needs you to get on this plane! And if not, hey that’s cool, you know, you can just find yourself on Nia and Brainy’s crew hanging out in Cadmus Creek!” He spat the words with such disdain that Kara winced.
“I know this because I was that guy,” he continued. “But Kara and Lena, and you Hank, you showed me that I could be so much more -- that I’m meant for something. To be a spy! So what about you? What do you have left in the tank? What do you wanna be when you grow u--”
A low growl escaped from Hank and then Winn found himself pinned against the wall by a large, well muscled arm. “Winn, go to my closet and get me my suit. The black one.”
Kara and Winn grinned. With Hank onboard, they had a team and a fighting chance!
***
Hank grunted next to her in the middle seat of the commercial airline they flew on. Suspension meant no CIA jet for her and no first class tickets. They were doing this old school and on a budget.
Kara had all of William’s files spread out on hers and his tray tables as she combed through them, looking for any sign of where he would take Lena.
“I hacked into William's file. This is everything I could find on him,” she explained to Hank, as he shoved the head of the person next to him off his shoulder. “I can’t believe this is happening. I mean, she could be dead, Hank!”
Hank shoved the man’s head off of his shoulder where it had slumped down again. “Just focus on the mission, will ya?”
Kara nodded, opening the file. She took out the first page and immediately began to flash.
“What is it? Did you just flash?” Hank asked curiously.
“Yeah, but...it’s a mission from ten years ago! It has nothing to do with Lena! I could flash on everything in here and we’d still be at square one and have nothing! I’m stuck in the air and there’s nothing I can do right now--”
Hank watched as the panic rose in her, saw the way her shoulders began rising and falling faster, heard the way her voice grew steadily higher and louder, and reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder to calm her.
“Kara, focus,” he began calmly, keeping his voice quiet and even. He’d learned a thing or two from Luthor on how to deal with Kara when she got like this. “Forget about the Intersect, forget about being a spy. Before all of that, you were smart. You’re gonna take all of this intel and you’re gonna figure out where Lena is. It’s what you have to do.”
Kara breathed in and out, looking down at the files. She nodded, opening the one on top, before turning back to Hank.
“Thanks.”
He nodded curtly and went back to shoving his seatmate’s head off of him.
She gave a faint smile and then went back to her files.
“Okay Lena, where are you,” she whispered.
***
Lena and William slowly traversed their way through the city toward the area where Leviathan’s design facility was supposedly located. Tonight was just recon, finding the location, scouting it, and reporting any actionable intel. They walked arm in arm down the street. If anyone saw them, they would just appear to be two lovers on a late night stroll in the moonlight.
They turned down a street lit by lamplight and Lena began to get the strangest feeling of deja vu. A singular quiet street in Paris shouldn’t be that memorable, and yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d been there before. They passed a sign that read Cedez le Passage and a memory flashed. That sounded so familiar.
A shopfront. (A memory of a reflection.)
A cobblestone alley to the right. (A dropped bracelet.)
A cold clamminess filled her palms and she dropped William’s arm, walking forward, looking around at the street that held her most unpleasant memory.
“Something is off,” she breathed.
“What is it?” William asked from where he stood behind her.
This was...this was the place where she had killed his wife. Why would Leviathan’s design facility be here of all places?!
It wouldn’t. Which meant…
“Why did you bring me here?” She asked, turning to face her partner suspiciously.
“What do you mean?” He replied innocently.
She pulled her pistol out of her pocket and co*cked it, raising it to chest level. “You led me here,” she replied, her breaths coming quicker. “Come on, this is where I shot her. Is this some kind of a trap?!”
She watched as his face changed, from that look of innocence to something far more angry and sinister.
“Lena...you killed my wife. Did you really think that I’d be okay with that?”
A pain in her shoulder barely registered as she tried to make sense of what was happening.
“But you said that--”
“I told you a lot of things to get you here,” he cut her off, stepping forward, a manic gleam in his eyes.
Her arms suddenly felt like lead, too heavy to stay up, and she slowly let the gun lower. A haziness filled her vision and she frowned as she struggled to stay in the moment.
“The gun’s getting heavier, isn’t it?” He asked softly, as she turned her head to look at the place where the pain had registered in her shoulder.
A dart stuck out of her coat and the pistol fell out of her hand, clinking on the cobblestones as it landed.
Footsteps fell behind her and she turned as a tall blonde man approached, pausing to pick up her fallen weapon.
“You know, you can hurt someone with this,” said Tommy Elliot with a taunting grin.
He turned to William. “There’s a cafe around the corner. Let’s sit down, discuss the details.”
Lena’s mouth hung open, drool puddling behind her lips as she stumbled. Two strong arms caught her, holding her up.
“Just relax,” William whispered into her ear. “It’s all over now.”
He helped carry her the short distance to the cafe before dumping her into the chair across the little table from him. “The drug is a special toxin,” he explained. “It won’t kill you. It simply immobilises your nervous system.” He sat down across from her, leaning forward. “I want you to see what’s gonna happen next. I need you to understand why I’m doing this.”
Lena sat silently across from him, not that she could speak even if she wanted to. She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, could basically just breathe and blink. The most basic of functions. Saliva slipped down her chin, unable to be swallowed. William grabbed a napkin from the table and gently wiped it away.
She wanted to recoil from him, but couldn’t. She’d rather drool down her body or piss herself than to be touched by him again. She was Kara’s and Kara’s alone.
Kara.
She would probably never see her again. At least the blonde knew how she felt about her finally. She couldn’t be bothered to listen to whatever he and the Director were speaking about. She was too busy holding the image of her own little ray of sunshine in her heart, and kicking herself for running away for so long. If only she could have been stronger, less afraid. She and Kara could have had months together, not hours.
“So, Lena, I see you’ve met my newest agent.”
At the mention of her name, she filtered back into the conversation.
“You must be wondering why. Well, I offered Mr. Dey here not only the chance to avenge his wife’s death, but to destroy the very institution that ordered her murder: your precious CIA.”
A waiter came over to bring them coffee that someone must have ordered, and the conversation lulled while they waited for him to leave.
“The CIA believed,” Elliot continued, “that Eve had been turned by us. Your boss, Olivia Marsdin, assigned you to kill her. You did what you were told.”
“I’m going to send a message to the CIA that they betrayed the wrong man,” Dey cut in, eyes full of fire.
“Very well put, William,” Elliot commended, sipping his coffee.
“They need to know what they did to me. They need to feel the pain that I felt. ...And that is why I have to kill you.”
If Lena had been able to move or react, her heart might have come to a halt. As it was, with the drug in her system, it kept beating away. Did it know that it only had a finite number of them left?
“On that note,” the Director interjected, “do you have it with you?”
William nodded, reaching into his bag to pull out the Cipher and a file.
“The report inside details the issues with your Cipher. The technical data should help your scientists complete the new Intersect.”
“Thank you, William,” Elliot replied brightly. “We’ll be in touch. Do you need us to…?” He made a throat slitting gesture and then pointed to Lena.
“No,” he replied firmly, his voice echoing in Lena’s drugged state. “I want to show her the river. It’s beautiful at night.”
The Director nodded, rising from his chair. “Goodnight then, William.” He patted him gently on the back before turning his gaze to Lena.
“Goodbye, Lena.”
And then he was gone, and all that was left was William’s hazy figure in her purview.
“It’s time to go,” he murmured, gathering his bag as another figure -- maybe the waiter? -- came out and stood behind him. The metallic click of a pistol co*cking caught her attention. She’d know that sound anywhere.
Forcing her gaze upward, she took in long blonde curls pulled back into a bun, a few loose strands framing a beautiful face.
Kara.
She stood stoically behind William, pistol pointed at the back of his head.
At the sound of the bullet chambering, William froze in his movements, an impressed look on his face.
“How did you find me?”
“I read your file,” Kara’s voice echoed in Lena’s ears. God, what a lovely sound it was, even as she heard the tremble in it. “I read Eve’s. Every mission you’ve ever been on, every paper you wrote at West Point, every travel report. You come here once a year in memory of your wife’s death. It made morbid sense that you’d want Lena to see it too.”
“Smart, very smart,” William praised, staring at Lena, his eyes unfocused.
“You’re under arrest,” Kara gritted out, “now stand up.”
William tilted his head. “Less smart, Kara. You should pull the trigger now -- kill me.”
Kara looked quickly up at Lena, then back down. “I wouldn’t do that.”
Mortal shells began firing in the distance, followed by calls from military squads.
“I see you brought Hank,” he said with a grin.
“Oh yes I did,” she replied firmly. “And he’s currently taking care of your new Director.”
“And you’ve got me?” William asked, the barest hint of a taunt in his voice.
“Stand. Up. ” Kara ordered through gritted teeth.
“I guess the gun was his idea? Good.”
He rose slowly from his chair then, fast as lightning, brought his elbow back and smashed it into the hand holding her gun, knocking it out of her grasp. He threw a punch at her cheek, shoving her into the side of the cafe.
Kara quickly flashed, downloading her hand to hand combat skills.
He grabbed a knife from the table and struck, attempting to drive the blade into her chest. Kara grabbed his wrist, forcing his arm down and driving the heel of her hand up into his nose.
William fell away, doubled over, holding his face, but rallied quickly, slamming his shoulder bodily into her frame, forcing her back against the building.
He wedged his hand up to her throat, and though it was too awkward of a position to squeeze, he began to press on her windpipe with all of his might.
Kara searched desperately for a solution and saw a fork hanging off the edge of the table.
Better than nothing, she thought, bringing her foot down on the handle, flipping it into the air.
Catching it, she went to drive it into his neck, but he removed the hand on her throat, catching her wrist mid-swing.
Now they each had one hand holding a utensil and one hand holding the others’ wrist. William held the advantage, being stronger, having the knife, and with her back literally to the wall. He shoved her back against the cafe as he pressed the knife toward her throat.
Thinking quickly, Kara stabbed his wrist with the fork, forcing his hands down away from her throat and towards--
Lena.
She had been so caught up in the fight, she had nearly forgotten the agent sitting quietly next to them as they battled. Panic rose in her chest as William’s knife inched closer and closer to Lena’s pale skin.
“No, no, no!” She struggled out, as she pulled his hands away with all her might.
William, taking advantage of her emotional distraction, brought his elbow up, cracking her in the temple.
She fell to the ground, temporarily stunned, as he grabbed Lena and pulled a pistol out of his coat.
“No! No, William, please! Don’t do this!” Her heart pounded and she blinked quickly as she tried to flash. He had her. He had Lena. Bile rose in her throat as the Intersect refused to operate.
“You can’t flash, can you?” William taunted, pulling Lena closer to him, her back to his front, sticking the gun into her side. “Those pesky emotions. They’ll get you into trouble.”
Kara tried to control her breathing, tried to get herself in line, tried to make the panic go away, but she couldn’t. It overwhelmed her, pulling her under as William pulled Lena’s limp body back with him.
“Now just stay here,” he ordered. “I don’t want to hurt you. None of this is your fault. I haven’t told them your secret. But if you follow me, I’ll kill you.”
He dragged Lena off, keeping the gun pressed into her side.
“Lena!” She shouted, her voice broken and gravelly. She searched the plaza for some kind of solution, and her gaze fell on the pistol she dropped. Grabbing it, she rose to her feet.
This was Lena. She would save her. Whatever it took.
***
Lena's mind wandered in her drug-induced haze back to Kara as William carried her to the bridge overlooking the Seine and pushed her up against the ledge, forcing her to look down at the water, black and shimmering in the moonlight.
“The drug will dull the pain,” he whispered into her ear. “You won’t feel a thing.”
Lena felt her breath rush out of her as the edges of her vision swam. This was it then. She tried to do something, anything, to save herself, but her limbs were beyond her control. She was barely clinging to consciousness at this point.
“Stop!” A voice shouted from further down the bridge. She felt William step back away from her. She stayed in her position, slung over the edge of the bridge.
He lifted his gun as he turned to Kara. “I warned you.”
Kara stood panting, pointing her pistol at him. “Please,” she gasped out desperately, “it doesn’t have to be like this. This isn’t you, William. You can’t do this!”
He had been a good man before he had learned the truth. Maybe if she could just get through to him, he could be that man again. She slowly lowered her gun as a sign of good faith. She watched as he stood still, his own gun lowering the smallest amount.
Then a shadow crossed his face and he raised his pistol with a smirk. “No Kara, I can do this. You can’t.”
He pointed his gun at her and, with the reflexes of years of video gaming, she reacted, raising her own.
Three shots rang out, hitting him squarely in the chest. Blood sprayed from the wounds and he stumbled backwards, dropping his gun and falling back against the ledge next to Lena.
Kara’s eyes widened in horror as she looked down at the gun in her hands. She’d killed him. She’d...killed William. Her breaths began to come more quickly, her lower lip trembling.
A strange sound caught her ear and she looked up to see William falling over the side of the bridge. She darted forward to try to catch him, but when she saw him grab Lena’s wrist -- in an attempt to pull her over with him or catch himself, she wasn’t sure -- she began to sprint as fast as her long legs would take her.
“Lena!” Her scream echoed off the water and historic city around her. Reaching her love, she wrapped one arm around her body, holding her back from going over the side, and used the other to pull Lena’s arm back up, trying to rid herself of the traitorous man dangling from her wrist.
William looked up at her with a glazed, haunted expression that chilled her to the bone, his grip on Lena’s arm loosening with every second that passed. Blood spurted out of his chest suddenly and he let go, falling into the cold depths below. Kara stood there staring as the river carried his body away, until the only sounds she could hear was the water lapping and her and Lena’s labored breathing.
Coming back to herself, she turned Lena over in her arms. The agent was unconscious. Kara clung to her, pulling her tight against her chest and burying her face into her hair, tears cascading down her cheeks and getting lost in raven locks.
She’d almost lost her. And she couldn’t help but wonder, after what she had done tonight, if she might still.
***
Hank lit a cigar and pulled up a SAT-LINK call with General Haley, a smug grin fixed to his face as he puffed out a cloud of blue smoke.
Haley sighed upon seeing him. “We’ve been over this, Hank. You no longer work for me. Unless there’s a sale at the Nerd Herd, we have nothing to talk about.”
Hank took his time to speak, taking another drag from his cigar and blowing the smoke out before pulling the tranquilised figure of Tommy Elliot against his side so that he was in the frame.
“Well then, I guess you don’t want to talk about my little friend here, hmm? The Director of Leviathan?”
Haley slowly removed her glasses in shock. Elliot snored against his chest before Hank shoved him away again.
“What do you want for him,” Haley asked with a sigh.
“Well,” Hank began, a smug grin plastered on his face, “a full reinstatement. My old rank back. A new bonsai tree. And a request you’re...probably not going to like.”
***
Winn left his manager’s office with his head down. He’d had to beg for his old job back in the wake of Kara’s suspension. At least he could return at his old rate of pay! He wasn’t starting over completely. He tried to see the silver lining in all things.
His phone rang and he answered without looking at the caller ID. “Yo!”
“Is this Winslow Schott, Jr.?”
“Yeah, who dis?” He asked absentmindedly.
“This is General Haley, of the NSA. I am calling to say,” there was a pause, followed by a long suffering sigh, “that you are officially a member of Operation Danvers.”
Winn’s eyes shot open wide and he spun around in a circle in the middle of the store. “You’re not kidding me, are you? This isn’t some sort of mean prank or something, is it?”
“No, we don’t do pranks,” she replied tiredly. “You can thank Colonel Henshaw.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back, I gotta go quit my job, hold on a second!”
“DON’T...do that,” Haley ordered sternly, trying to control her temper. “Your cover is the Nerd Herd.”
“Right! Right, that’s perfect! That’s what I’m good at! Aye-aye, Captain!”
“General. It’s General.”
“Of course,” said Winn excitedly, “General! Thank you, sir. Ma’am! I will not let you down--”
The line clicked as Haley hung up.
“Hello?”
***
Kara sat by the window of their suite, typing up her mission report. She stopped to take a sip of coffee and glanced out the window. The Eiffel Tower sat in the distance and she couldn’t help the smile that spread across her lips, even as anxious as she was.
She was finally in Paris, and with Lena, no less. They hadn’t gotten here the way she had hoped they would, but nevertheless, they were here together.
Lena had been in and out of consciousness all night as the drug wore off, but as the first rays of morning light glinted off of the glazed windows, she heard the agent stirring in a much more sentient manner than she had been.
“Hey,” she greeted softly, bringing her laptop over to the bed and sitting down beside her. “How you feeling?” She moved a few strands of hair out of Lena’s face and the agent sat up slowly, still a little groggy.
“What happened,” she asked, her voice rough from sleep.
Kara hesitated. This was the moment she was afraid of -- telling Lena that she had been the one to kill William. How would she react? Would she push her away again? She opted for vagueness.
“Everything’s okay now.”
Lena looked around the room, her eyes watching without seeing, and Kara knew she was searching her memories about what happened, hazy as they might be.
“But what about William?”
A lump formed in Kara’s throat and she did her best to swallow it down as she answered.
“He’s dead,” she replied, her voice too thick. She lowered it to a whisper and croaked out, “I’m sorry.”
Lena sat pensively for a moment, just thinking. “God, we--there was a--” She shut her eyes, trying to remember. “There was a cafe and...um...and then a bridge. And he tried to kill me and then…” Her eyes flew open wide and they shimmered in the morning sun as tears appeared in the corners. “Oh my God, you shot him.”
“I couldn’t let him hurt you, Lena,” she pleaded, her own eyes welling up out of fear. “Trust me, I did what I had to do. But--but I’m still the same person -- I’m still your Kara, I promise.”
Lena said nothing, just stared at her, her lips opened slightly. Her eyes didn’t hold anger or fear or any other emotion that Kara could easily read, and she waited in trepidation for her lover’s verdict.
“You saved me,” Lena whispered, eyes widening like emerald orbs.
Kara searched her features for a hint of what she was thinking, unsure of where they stood. She opened and closed her mouth, not sure what she could even say in this moment to fix things -- or if things even needed to be fixed.
And then Lena surged forward, pulling her face down and pressing a hot kiss to her lips. Desperate and hungry, her hands gripped the sides of Kara’s face as her tongue slipped in between the blonde’s lips, and Kara thought maybe she was dreaming as she tasted Lena’s tongue on her own.
Drawing back slightly, Kara stared at her in disbelief and relief all rolled into one, then she grabbed Lena’s face and pulled her back to lips, slotting them together passionately.
Finally, finally, finally, they were together and alone and--
*bleep, bleep, bleep*
Kara’s laptop rang out, indicating an incoming call from General Haley. The pair pulled apart quickly as she appeared on the screen.
“Kara, Lena, excellent work! I’ve consulted with Colonel Henshaw and he brought me up to speed. I’ll expect a full report when you get back to National City.”
Kara exchanged a quick mischievous glance with Lena before turning back to the screen.
“Uh, actually General, I think we’re going to need a few more days in Paris.”
Haley shook her head. “No, I want you back here ASAP. We have a new mission.”
Kara and Lena exchanged frowns as Haley continued.
“Last night, a team of Peruvian assassins broke into the--”
She stopped as Lena turned the computer screen to face away from them.
“Agent Danvers? Agent Luthor? I’ve lost contact! Get them back immediately!”
Lena slammed the laptop closed and arched her eyebrow at Kara, with a seductive smirk on her lips.
Kara smiled and sighed. “I don’t know how--”
Lena’s eyes were nearly black when she cut her off with a finger to her lips and that same dark smirk.
“Will you just shut up and kiss me?”
And Kara dove forward, crashing their lips together as she yanked the covers back so hard her laptop flew off the bed and crashed to the floor.
Who cared? She could buy another laptop. She could buy a thousand laptops. Nothing mattered in this moment but the way that Lena was wrapping her legs around her pulling their hips together. Nothing mattered but the shallow breaths and the small moans that the agent let out as Kara peppered her neck with kisses and licks, nips and bites.
Nothing mattered but the way Lena shuddered and moaned as Kara sucked a nipple into her mouth, while she caressed her other breast in her open palm.
Nothing mattered but the musky slickness that coated Lena’s inner thighs as Kara licked up all of her juices and drove into her with two fingers, curling them and pressing into her wet center.
Nothing mattered but the way Lena shook apart as she came, grinding down into Kara’s hand and grasping at her back, as if she was terrified that Kara might decide to leave before she finished.
Nothing mattered but the way Lena gazed into her eyes, her own blue-green ones full of tears, lips trembling as she whispered, “I love you, Kara.”
They took turns taking each other apart and putting each other back together until the sun was well past risen. Not even Leviathan could have pulled them from between the sheets as they made up for every second lost over the past nine months.
And when they were finally spent, too tired and too sensitive to keep going, the only thing that mattered to Kara was the way Lena smiled sleepily against her bare chest when she whispered, “I love you, Lena.”
***
