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Mercy

Chapter 21: Part Twenty-One

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Lena sighed in relief as she settled back on the hard hospital mattress, her tubes and needles having been removed, though they left behind a dull ache of where they had been. It had been a hectic twenty-four hours, and she hadn’t seen a friendly face since she woke to Kara looking down at her.

Almost immediately the nurses and doctors had swarmed her room and taken her away for tests and scans and she was thoroughly pleased to see the backs of them. She liked being poked and prodded by strangers as much as the next person, but then she thought of Kara and figured she’d probably beam at them even as they stabbed her with needles. Lena shuddered. She hated needles. It was hard for her, she didn’t remember anything from that morning, when apparently someone had tried to kill her by blowing up her building, but she couldn’t recall it. Nothing but flashes anyway, the gaze from her window, blue and gold and sunshine, and fire.

She’d also heard, though gossip and the nurses, that she’d been in a coma for a little over a week, and that the L-Corp Tower had been destroyed, though Superman and Supergirl had kindly removed the rubble for her. Which was curious-the super’s never seemed to care much about the mess once the ‘bad-guys’’ had been taken care of. She’d shed a tear of relief in knowing that her employees had been evacuated without any casualties, thankful that they were okay. Jess had shown up as soon as Kara had been thrown out, and she’d brought with her one of Lena’s laptops from home, a portable Wi-Fi box, some spare clothes, flowers-to join the admittedly large pile dotting the corner of her room, a new cell phone and SIM, and a whole folder of paper-work-though to be fair she’d been apologetic as she handed it over before she was escorted back out of the hospital.

Lena had asked one of the nurses-a portly no-nonsense woman- to plug both of them in while she was taken for her tests and scans-apparently her survival without a scratch and with some memory loss was hailed as a miracle-as she’d been in a coma for eight days since the towers collapse and they couldn’t figure out why. So now she was showered, thankfully-though having a matronly stranger helping her unresponsive body to the shower had been…an experience- and was wearing her own clothes underneath the unflattering hospital gown-she made a mental note to give Jess a raise or a generous Christmas Bonus- and was ready to catch up on what she’d missed. She didn’t even want to touch the mound of paper-work, and though the doctors had warned her to take it slow, she had a job to do, a rebuild to manage, and a reputation to maintain-but before that a little web surfing couldn’t hurt.

A quick google of her name and she was startled by the hits that came up: Luthor saves employees, CEO sacrifices self to evacuate building, and her favourite, Alien hater shows xenophobia doesn’t extend to humanity (Fox, of course-honestly). There were video’s, blogs, reviews, letters to the editors, social media posts, and all sorts of commentary on the first page alone and she was startled by the thumbnail on the video’s- of her facing off with a white guy in a lab coat- and wondered who had gotten it and how.

The news was very informative; she learnt that one of her employees, former employees, had come to her office and tried to blow the building but she had asked him to spare the lives of her employees. He had agreed and had then blown the building once everyone had been evacuated, how Lena got out she didn’t know.

Her mouse hovered over the link, ‘L-Corp CEO saves employees in ‘leaked’ footage’ and then clicked on it. It was exactly what the title said, a link to a video hosted on CatCo servers and was evidence of her actions, brave or foolish or otherwise. Her throat went tight as she watched herself beg for the lives of her employees- helped by subtitles along the bottom, how considerate- but wished they hadn’t uploaded the footage of her saying she didn’t have anyone, or aligning herself with her last name-but from the comments, most people were in awe of her. It was …humbling to see.

‘Wow! I can’t believe how brave she is! Good on her!’

‘Bloody hell! What a psycho!’ –she didn’t know if that was directed at her or not.

‘Wow, so he tries to kill her and she tries to save him? Okay…’

‘Right, so an employee conveniently decides to blow the place and she evacuates the building and then has a convenient safe-room that somehow survives the plummet, like, ten stories? Sure, Jan.’

Okay, so some of the comments were a little sceptical and disbelieving that it wasn’t just a stunt, but they were drowned out by the others who had rallied in support of her like they never had. She read a lot more articles, catching the image of her fallen building and feeling her breath catch, and caught up on all the news on her and her company since.

A quick check of the stock market and L-Corp was holding steady, even though it showed a great decline (obviously when the building blew up) and then a sudden increase (which must have been when the footage was leaked) the value was still lower than before the accident, but was much higher than she expected. So, that was good news. The bad news was that her entire building had been lost and years of research and planning and design had been destroyed and her employees were now jobless, maybe, unless she could get them back on track.

She opened up her emails to find over a four-hundred of them and sighed, that was just ridiculous. First things first, she needed to contact her lawyers and set up a conference call with Jess so that she could start the rebuilding process. At that thought she reached for the cell-phone resting on her bedside table and brought it close. It was fully charged and had a few numbers programmed in, Jess, her mothers, Kara’s, the lawyers and other important people to herself and L-Corp. She flicked Jess a text first, asking her if she were free to help her and thanking her for her assistance. Then she gently tapped out a message to Kara. She had no idea what to say to the blonde, or how to say it, and instead settled on. ‘Hey. It’s Lena.’

Groaning at her idiocy she tossed the phone down by her leg and lifted them both to help brace her computer. Typing one-handed was difficult, but she would manage. Maybe she should down-load some of that voice-to-text software, but she didn’t really like thinking out loud, and didn’t want anyone else to hear her, so she scratched that idea.

She scrolled through the most important emails and then settled down to reply. Her phone vibrated and she held her lap-top with her cast, noting it had been changed from its previous rainbow glory, and reached for it.

It was Jess, an enthusiastic reply from her loyal assistant and she opened up skype to talk to her, thankful her assistant had the hindsight to add her headphones to the electronics she’d brought over.

Disappointed but not knowing why, she let her cell slip down beside her and continued on with her work. It was a lot to get through, but one of the first things she did was compose a letter to her employees, thanking them for the loyalty to L-Corp and to her-she’d read their social media comments as well as seen interviews- and expressed how touched she was by them rallying around her. She told them that she was in the process of discussing L-Corp’s next moves and while she would be more than willing to give them a reference for their next employment, she hoped they would stay with her. Their wages would be seen to until the next quarter regardless-which, that would be a headache, but she wasn’t a multi-millionaire for nothing and she’d pay them out of her own pocket if necessary- and she’d issue another statement as soon as her lawyers and board had come to a decision. She was heartfelt but to the point, she wasn’t one of those people to beat around the bush, preferring honesty and transparency in her life and business.

Then she discussed business with Jess long into the night, ignoring the nurses when they came past and gently reminded her she should be resting-she’d sniggered and told them she could rest when she was dead. The same woman who appeared to be the nurse in charge of her- the one who plugged in her devices and bathed her-snorted and said she had very nearly had that rest, which had been sobering-not that people hadn’t tried to kill her before, but no one had ever come that close.

Still, the door was closed, and she could see the silhouette of police officers outside, which, she would have to investigate that later, and she continued working well into the night. Her phone was still silent and her eyes were sore and straining to read the black and white text. A quiet knock at the door drew her attention and she glanced up to see Supergirl gently peaking around the corner.

The Super seemed nervous and had a bouquet of flowers in her hand, something you’d buy from a florist for fair price; something not too cheap, but also something not overly expensive.

“Oh, you’re awake! Hi,” she waved the flowers a little, and a petal fell off and glided gently to the floor. The Super was watching it fall, a t twist to her lips and then she wiggled her nose and looked at Lena. Her blue eyes were glowing out of her features, the only colour she could see on her face and she stepped forward into the room, gently easing the door shut behind her. Something about the movement seemed familiar, but she couldn’t place it.

“Hi,” she said again and hesitantly offered her the flowers. “I’ll, uh, I’ll just leave these over here….” She walked over to the corner of the room where the nurses had been kind enough to bring in a table and it was overflowing with flowers of all shapes, sizes, and colours. She was very thankful she didn’t get hay fever or anything, she could almost start her own florist shop with the amount of flowers she’d been given.

“Supergirl,” Lena finally found her voice and straightened a little on the bed, wincing in discomfort. She didn’t like being so vulnerable before the Super, well, anyone really, but someone with supernatural abilities especially. “I suppose I have you to thank for my rescue?” That was one part of her memory that was blank, and the media hadn’t really help out with that, but she did remember having a safe-room, but didn’t remember getting to it, even as the footage showed she had, and she wondered how she had survived the fall. Her engineered room was good, but it wasn’t that good.

“Ahm,” Supergirl ran her fingers through her hair awkwardly. “Actually, no… we don’t know how you survived….only that you did.”

Lena frowned and looked over at the super as she stood awkwardly at the foot of her bed. “Take a seat,” she directed the hero while she thought.

“I don’t-I don’t remember what happened,” Lena said eventually on an exhale. “I remember…James, his face, and… fire… and um, the city?” Her head hurt and she reached up to hold it, knowing as she did that it wouldn’t do anything, but people were stupid that way.

Supergirl sat awkwardly on the visitor chair, her cape over her knees and was toying with the end. “You saved a lot of people, your entire building!” She met Lena’s eyes and then looked down at her hands, uncharacteristically nervous. “It was-it was really brave,” the Super frowned then and shook her head. “No-wait, not that it wasn’t brave,” she elaborated and Lena raised an eyebrow. Something about her was niggling at the back of her mind, but she couldn’t concentrate through her headache. “Because it was! It was really, really brave!” Supergirl hesitated. “It was also really stupid.”

Lena’s eyes narrowed. “And flying an alien spacecraft into orbit isn’t?” She was referring to the incident earlier in the year when a group of aliens had decided to kill the human race when enslaving them wasn’t an option and Supergirl had almost died in flying them into space.

Supergirl’s blue eyes narrowed. “That was to save people.”

“Case in point,” Lena replied and reached for her water. She took a pensive sip. “The Luthor name has killed enough people,” she said bluntly and Supergirl blinked. “I didn’t want it to be responsible for the deaths of more.”

Supergirl met her gaze squarely for a moment and then ran her eyes over her form. “You apparently suffered no additional injuries and your brain scans came back clean. Would you like to tell me why that is?” Her voice was strong and confident, more reassured discussing this than her own admittedly suicidal actions, but she had saved her staff, so there was that.

“Want to explain how you know that?” Lena returned her gaze even and her heart was thumping dangerously as she challenged the alien opposite her. “If I recall correctly-from the few lectures I attended on law- health professionals are not allowed to disclose any personal information to the public or any other party without the permission of the patient, and as I was in a coma, and my medical attorney wouldn’t have allowed it, you must have gotten your information else where. Warrant?”

Supergirl’s lips twitched. “I read it was a year of law.”

“Nine months,” Lena offered and ducked her head into her shoulder. “I had a crush on the lecturer,” then she sighed. “So…warrant?”

Supergirl lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “DEO hack,” she said squarely, meeting Lena’s eye head on.

“Touché,” Lena replied and leant back in her bed. “How was my server accessed? My contractor worked very hard to make it inaccessible, so I’d be very interested to know who and how.”

“Quid pro quo,” the superhero leant back in her chair and folded her arms. She looked impressive, even casually reclining on the hard chair in the dim light.

“Fair enough,” Lena shifted her lap-top, deciding she wasn’t going to be getting any work done tonight. “Though immunity in regard to alleged illegal hacking activities would go both ways,” her voice was tipped with playful poison, a cat toying with a mouse. “My lawyers would be very interested to find the person or persons, or Government Agency?” She emphasised innocently, “Responsible for hacking into my security network.”

“As would the government agency I work with. They were hacked recently, and the code used was similar to the one on your security network.”

“Coincidence, I’m sure,” Lena’s heart was thumping in her chest and a fire was running through her veins. It reminded her of destroying her enemies in the boardroom, only this time it was a woman in blue and red with untameable power she was facing down. How thrilling.

“Doubtful. I know you are good with computers.” The Super winced at the confession and then schooled her features blank. Curious.

“Alright, Supergirl,” Lena sighed and the Super perked up, looking like a summoned puppy. “I’ll tell you how I survived, if you tell me who hacked my servers,” she hesitated and tilted her head to the side. “My contractor would be very interested to know the….breach.”

“Deal. You go first,” Supergirl narrowed her eyes.

Lena ducked her shoulder. “Alright, fine. I don’t know how I survived,” she said and saw the frown flit across the aliens face. “No, really,” she added seeing the sceptical look. “I-when I see the fire,” she tapped her head with her right index finger. “I remember standing inside a room and a door closing in front of me and its hot… so hot. Like, -I spent a summer in Rarotonga once, with a, ah, friend, and one of the things tourists do is they go to the airport and stand behind the aeroplanes as they take off. It’s like being in a furnace. It was like that,” she said, locking eyes with the hero’s. “Hot and warm and burning. Then there’s nothing,” she shook her head and sighed. “I- I don’t remember anything of that day, nothing clear at any case.”

Supergirl was leaning forward, disbelieving. “There must be more to it!”

Abruptly tired she leant her head back on the pillow and closed her eyes. “I don’t remember. Would I lie to you?”

There was a moments silence from the Super and she nodded to herself. “Figured.”

“No, I…believe you…it’s just, you should have died.”

A wave of hurt rolled through her following the statement. “You sound disappointed,” she drawled, too tired to open her eyes.

“No!” The response was a surprise. “No, never!” She flickered an eye open to see the hero on her feet, eyes blazing. “I-we may disagree on some things,” Lena ducked her head a bit in agreement, “but I never want you to die! You are a good person, Lena Luthor. You’re going to help me make more of a difference.”

“Mh,” Lena hummed in response and closed her eye again. It was nice to be defended, even if it was by the self-righteous hero. “So, how was my server hacked? Deal’s a deal.”

The super huffed. “Deals a deal,” she sighed. “A friend of mine from the DEO and one of your people.”

Lena’s eyes flashed open and she turned to look at the super curiously.

Supergirl was smiling, almost fondly. “Michael someone? Your assistant wanted some help to make-uhm, what do you know of the days after the bombing?”

“I read up on it,” Lena said slowly, knowing that the rumours hadn’t held her in pleasant light, at least until the leak of her security video.

“Right, okay. Well your assistant wasn’t allowed to tell people what she knew, that you asked her to evacuate the building,” there was a touch of awe in her tone as she spoke. “So, w-sheeee and Kara Danvers got some friends together and hacked into your network.” The Super lifted a shoulder in shrug. “I don’t know how they did it, you’ll have to ask them.”

“Kara?” Lena leant back again, relaxing into the lumpy bed, a smile on her lips as she closed her eyes. “How sweet.”

Supergirl hovered awkwardly by the bed, she could almost feel her fidget and thought that it was such a human trait.

“If you are able to give me a few days to sort L-Corp out I’ll help you with your,” Lena lifted her left hand it her fingers looked off in the cast as she tried to find the word. “Your social justice crusade.”

Supergirl perked up. “I wanted to like visit schools and stuff…. I mean, I’ve done a little of that, but not like, speaking and stuff…”

“I have been considering it,” Lena said, looking down at her fingers and then looking at the puzzled hero once again. “I know you want to help, but maybe… maybe it would be best if you stayed out of earth’s social affairs.”

Supergirl’s jaw dropped and she looked wounded. “But why? I can help! You thought that I should!”

“My vision of justice is different to yours, Supergirl,” Lena cut in, voice darkening dangerously. “I’d have them punished for their sins, and not just sent to prison or fined or given community service.” She swallowed down her emptions, feeling them rising to the surface and threatening to cloud her judgement. She couldn’t afford a slip. In and out. In and out. Breathe. Focus. Don’t go there. Think of something else.

After a few moments where Supergirl remained quiet and let her gather her composure she tried again. “I am wary of giving someone so much power, when you already have enough…”

“You said I can use my influence to make a difference,” Supergirl said slowly, brow furrowed. “If I- I have that influence anyway… so I may as well use it for good. Isn’t that why you named re-named L-Corp?”

Lena felt her eyes narrow and Supergirl lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I keep up with the news,” she offered in explanation. “You already had the power,” she pointed out in reference to Luthor Corp’s money and influence. “You just wanted to make it good. To make a difference. How is that different?”

“Because I can and will and have been accountable for my actions, Supergirl,” Lena shot back quickly. “You, however, are not. There is no prison that can hold you, no chain that can restrain you, no weapon to hurt you.” She didn’t mention the Kryptonite, knew she didn’t have to.

Kara ducked her head in quiet acknowledgement. “You said I didn’t know what it meant to be weak, to be afraid,” she said quietly and looked at her hands, eyeing the blue material that kept her sleeves down over her palms. “But- I have been afraid, and I’ve been weak and,” her throat bobbed as she swallowed. “I’ve ignored cries for help and I’ve heard and seen the aftermath. I-,” her voice caught.

“I’ve lived on a Campus. I’ve heard some of the things that happen when people have had too much to drink, and, and walk home alone, and I-“ Lena felt her respect for the Super grow. “I have power, you’re right, and maybe I shouldn’t use it. But I can make a difference if I help, and if I go and talk to people-kids especially- and can show them that they can be brave even if they are scared, that they can be strong enough to ask for help, that they can help people, that they can save themselves, then why shouldn’t I? If you changed your mind, then maybe you’re not the woman I thought you were….” Supergirl trailed off uncomfortably after her outburst and Lena swallowed her ire.

“You have no idea what I’ve-” she cut herself off abruptly. In and out. In and out. Her chest ached with her breathing. The Super twitched on the chair and she shot her a glare and she settled back into the seat with her hands raised peacefully.

“I do just want to help, to make a difference,” the Super said quietly after a few repetitions of Lena’s controlled breathing.

Lena sighed, letting her chest empty itself, ignoring the pain. “You’re right, I apologise. I know you’ve been hurt before and I know you’ve been scared, that was… short-sighted of me and I am sorry.”

Supergirl smiled over at her and something about the smile stirred at the back of her mind but she ignored it. “If I go to more schools and talk to the kids about bullying, and speak for refuge shelters, and for like, gay teens, and it helps just one person, makes just one life easier, then wouldn’t it be worth it? I know I can’t stop it all, that pain is a part of nature, but I feel like I’m not trying enough.”

Lena thought for a long moment, a moment so long it stretched into minutes. Was it right to give one person both physical and political power? To give them, to help them, basically, change society? Pain was inevitable, she knew that, but Supergirl was a hero, a champion of justice, and if she stood up, raised her voice, if it changed one life, was it worth basically handing her the power to do as she wished.

“I said I trusted you,” she said eventually and lifted her gaze to the Super’s. She was beaming at the confession, and she had such a pretty smile. It was familiar, somehow, but she didn’t have the brain power to ponder it at the moment. “And I do trust you, for the most part. I trust that you genuinely want to help, to make a difference… but so did Lex.” The Super’s face fell at the mention of her brother and Lena gave her a wry smile. “There are already celebrities and public figures that have lent their support and heft to shelters, to causes, to school programs, and they’re just ordinary humans.”

“With influence,” Supergirl pointed out, pointedly, and it was odd to hear the underlying tone of, it wasn’t jealousy, but it was something else, something Lena couldn’t put her name on, hurt maybe?

“Yes, humans with influence,” Lena added and the Super crossed her arms.

“That’s a bit xenophobic,” she offered mutinously.

“Fact,” the Luthor ducked her head in disagreement. “But I’ll not debate that with you now. I said I’d help you help people, but we’ll do it my way.”

“And what way is that?” And Lena didn’t miss the cautious note to her voice and she smiled over at her. Good, she was wary, that’d make her on guard for manipulation from others.

“You go to these other organisations and you ask them how you can help,” Lena said and watched as the Super listened to her explain how she should go about it. She wouldn’t operate outside of the organisations she was supporting, she would work with them, inside them.

“I do work with a team,” she offered, frowning slightly when Lena again emphasised that she would do as the PR experts for the organisations advised.

“Good, then you know that other people are the best at certain aspects of the team, and you stay out of their way so they can do their jobs.”

“I don’t want to be just a mascot,” Supergirl was frustrated and Lena let her voice soften.

“But you are,” she emphasised quietly. “You are an icon, a symbol for what humanity can hope to be. You, more so than your cousin, are a guide, a guardian of humanity. You’re a teacher, willing to shed light on the truth, but only once humanity as lit the match.” She shook of her terrible attempt at a metaphor- she was a science girl, not an English girl.

“You’re an idea,” Lena said quietly and titled her head to look at the Super. It was hard to tell in the dark, but she may have been blushing. “You will- did your college have a football team?”

Supergirl nodded.

“You’re like the mascot, the pride, the ideal, the driving force behind the passion. Your face is the one on the flags and uniforms, you- you give a connection, a way for the people to connect with what you stand for, your history, your ideals, your-” Lena lifted her hand around as she tried to find the words for what she was thinking, feeling. The Super looked to finally be understanding.

“You might not be the team captain, or a couch, or the star player who wins the games, but you are what the fans will remember, and they will associate you with that team, and all the team is.”

Lena frowned, not sure she should become a motivational speaker any time soon, if her current speech were anything to go by. Her metaphors were surely falling flat.

“Think of Mickey Mouse, or Ronald McDonald, or-or the bald bloody eagle! It doesn’t matter,” Lena shook her head. Thankfully she wasn’t an English student and instead had three science and engineering degrees-Mastery, of course. “The point is the mascot unifies the people, it embodies all the team stands for. That is your purpose here, if you want to help without throwing your weight around. You’ll motivate people to be their own heroes.”

Supergirl blinked. “I could be Mickey Mouse. Can you picture me with ears?” She was smiling as she brought her hands up to her ears and cupped them a little. She looked adorable, not that Lena would ever admit that, and it reminded her of something Kara would do.

“Argh,” Lena leant back on her bed with an exasperated sigh. Her brief moment of English brilliance fading away.

Supergirl smiled at her. “I get it, thank you,” she said softly and Lena nodded tiredly.

Lena shifted on the bed, yawned and reached for her computer again and moved it off her bed and onto the table. She rubbed her eyes and Supergirl rose quickly. “Oh, I forgot. You need to rest,” she said and offered Lena a half smile that seemed familiar. “I’ll, um, give you my number!”

She dug around, so quickly Lena couldn’t see, and then clicked it open. “Um, what’s your new number?” Seeing Lena’s sceptical look she added, “So I can ring you to talk about it…later. Maybe?”

Lena silently handed over her phone, having not had the time yet to memorise the number. Supergirl smiled as she put her number in and then looked up through her lashes. “You aren’t gonna use it to try track me, are you?”

Lena was exhausted, and perhaps that was why she answered so candidly. “Why would I do that?” She asked with a lazy smile. “You seem to be coming to me.”

The hero went still and her eyes widened, maybe in surprise and Lena let her eyes fall closed. “Good night, Supergirl.”

“Night, erm morning, Miss Luthor,” there was a hint of a smile to the hero’s voice and her footsteps faded, the door opening and shutting behind her with a click.

~*~

The day after she awoke from her coma Lena Luthor left National City Hospital A.M.A, and strode from the building with her aviators on amid flashing lights, camera’s and questions being shouted at her. David was waiting with the car, door open and eyes sharp as he scanned the crowd and one of her body guards, a slender, olive-skinned brunette woman who called herself Bella, kept a hand behind her back as she guided Lena through the gathered press to the car.

“Miss Luthor!” David was smiling at her and offered his closed fist for a fist bump and she returned it with a half-smile and ducked into the car. Bella closed the door behind her and moved around to the passenger seat, slipping between the gathered bodies with ease.

“I want to see it,” she said as the doors opened and Bella and David entered the vehicle. The doors closed and the silence inside the vehicle was brief.

She caught David’s dark eyes in the rear-view mirror and he gave her a nod, understanding what she wanted.

“How do you feel about take-out?” He enquired as he checked his mirrors and pulled out of the loading bay, camera-men and photographers jumping out of the way of the vehicle.

“Very strongly,” Lena sighed with her head back on the head-rest.

David listed a few options on the way and she waved her hand. “Choose whatever, David. What do you want?” She asked Bella and the woman turned her gaze from the window.

“I don’t eat junk food,” she said, speaking each word precisely and with the hint of an accent that Lena couldn’t place. She’d been trying since she first hired the woman after she’d had the Kryptonite delivered and was told the hit on her had skyrocketed. She was fluent in about four languages, had some special forces training, was a martial arts expert, and could fly helicopters or planes. She was also an expert marksman. David had helped her with choosing a bodyguard, talking to some of his ex-military buddies about who would do a good job, and had then sat down with the candidates and helped her choose.

Her other bodyguard was called Vince, a tall and well-built blonde who looked like he ought to feature as the pretty-white lead in a blockbuster film, probably in a singlet showing his arms, or maybe (even better) in a pair of board-shorts and coming out of the ocean in slow-motion. A girl could day-dream.

“Fair enough,” Lena shifted her head. “Go where-ever you want, David.”

“Right-o,” David nodded and flicked the radio on to some chart-hit station and let the music fill their silence as they drove. They stopped by the first fast-food outlet on the way and David guided them through the drive-through and ordered, handing over a bunch of bills before handing the take-out back to Lena.

She dove into her burger with relish, silently offering the fries to Bella, who shook her head silently, and David continued driving. She tried to avoid greasy meals with zero health benefits, but sometimes she just craved carbs. She was wiping her hand on a napkin when David pulled to a stop and she took a steadying breath.

Drawing her composure to her she set her features and made sure her glasses were settled and then opened the door. Bella was already looking about her and Lena spared her a glance, knowing she’d keep an eye out for any threats, and got out of the car.

They were parked in a loading zone before one of the storefronts near the fallen tower and Lena couldn’t smother her cry as she took in the crumbled remains of her workplace. L-Corp had been her baby, a way for her to make a difference, a way to take back her family name and legacy, and it was in rubble with police tape surrounding it and a few security guards keeping an eye out.

Pulled forward by a force she couldn’t explain she walked across the concrete, noting it was covered in a weird thick layer of…muck. The security guards paused as she approached and made a move to speak to her but she ignored them, removing her glasses and giving them a look and ducked under the tape and moved towards her building.

It was hard to explain how she felt staring at the broken remains of her hope, and she allowed herself one moment of weakness; a sigh and the closing of her eyes.

“Miss Luthor.” It was Bella and she turned her head in acknowledgement of her speaking. “People are starting to take photos. I’d feel safer if we go you out of here soon.”

She lifted her hand in acknowledgement and heard Bella move away but she couldn’t turn from her broken dreams.

“Miss Luthor,” Bella repeated a few minutes later and Lena sighed and lifted her glasses to her eyes.

Taking a deep breath she turned and started to walk back towards the car. Bella was right; passer-by’s had noticed her arrival and had their phones pointed at her, no doubt ready to sell their footage or pictures to the press and make a quick buck.

The magnitude of what she faced was obvious; the rebuilding of her tower-if that were even possible, and then the rebuilding of all of their hard work, and her employees would need to be taken care of, and the lawyers , and the insurance. She was booked solid for the next few days with meetings and had arranged for a meeting with her staff on the next Wednesday, (it was currently Tuesday afternoon) once she hopefully had some knowledge of their future, she could understand their anxiousness; they had bills to pay, but she hoped her decision to keep them paid until the next quarter eased their burdens for the moment.

There was a camera shoved in her face, over Bella’s arm, and she ignored it as she got to the car. David had the car running and was standing by her open door and guided her inside with a hand on her back as the cameras were shoved in her direction.

“Home please, David,” she instructed tiredly after the door shut. She closed her eyes and allowed the weight of her last name to rest heavily on her shoulders for a moment more, just a moment. The movement of the car jolting from park broke her brief respite and she straightened, accepting the burden of the Luthor crown, after all, what else did she have? Like she’d told James, she didn’t have anything else. Just a heavy crown and a broken kingdom.

Notes:

Who gets a three day weekend? You guys do :p (or Thursday-Sat, depending where you live). I am loving seeing my comments, thanks so much all. Mwah!

 

@WhiteTiger: Are you still around? I'd like to know your thoughts on Kara and Lena's discussion. You brought up some insights on an earlier chapter. I hope this resolves some of the concerns you had :D

@JHeda: No cliffhangers, are you alive? lol

Thank you all for your enthusiasm :D Mwah! Also, anyone else love my final line as much as I do? lol