Chapter Text
Lena woke up in love, and did not know what to do about it .
Kara was already awake when her body became aware of noise, humming to herself as she splashed water on her face from the porcelain bedside bowl. When Lena moved, she came closer and knelt, pressing her lips to Lena’s forehead, tender and quick. “Good morning.”
The lean arch of her golden body was lit all around by sunlight from the window and it clutched at Lena’s heart like a vise.
“Good morning.” Lena’s voice was croaky with overuse from the night before and she cleared her throat before attempting again. “Where are you off to?”
“We got thoroughly distracted last night,” Kara reminded her, one eyebrow cheekily higher than the other. “But I didn’t forget about your breakthrough on Lex’s cypher. I want to get cracking on that as soon as possible.”
“Oh. Right.” Of course, Kara would want to finish her case and be done with this whole affair. After all, she’d gotten what she wanted. Lena’s heart curled miserably into her chest and shut the door of her ribcage with a rattling thud. “Of course.”
“Are you alright?” Unnervingly perceptive as ever, the alpha zeroed in immediately on her discomfort. Damn her. “I have a feeling we have some things from last night we have yet to resolve…”
Her fingers dawdled meaningfully on the bed by Lena’s knees.
Once again, the omega was loath to be honest, despite the warmth in those devastating blue eyes. She could hardly say the words, anyhow. What, just stumble out with it?
‘I’m sorry, but as it happens, I’ve fallen in love with you and don’t wish to be impregnated for pity’s sake alone.’
‘Hello husband dear, would you mind ever so much if we clung to these vows we made at a hasty hour with metaphorical guns to our heads? Oh, not for long- just the rest of our lives. It would mean the world!’
She shook her head, almost violently.
“I’m just tired.” She repeated the lie from last night, as easy as slipping on an old shoe. Her mouth even found the will to smile softly at the alpha’s investigative look. “As I keep reminding you, we did overexert ourselves last night.”
“And we can do so again.” Kara promised, leaning in to catch Lena’s lips with a fierce and tempting kiss, enough to make her cunt weep and her heart throb fretfully in its self-imposed cage. “Any time you wish.”
Her whistling back departed after leaving Lena breathless and overwrought, once again. It was almost becoming the alpha’s main skill, and one she was finding harder and harder to counter as the days at Oxford House had gone on and on. Being without Kara…now that was a skill she had yet to master.
Lena rolled, contemplating the elaborate patterns stamped into the tin ceiling and knew her mother had been finally right about one thing– this foolish charade would, in fact, be her downfall.
The kitchen was an absolute disaster from the night before, plates stacked in the sink and empty wine bottles everywhere, and Lena found Kara in the midst of cleaning it, still whistling to herself like a bright golden canary. Her shirtsleeves were splashed with water and her collar was askew, but she was beautiful, all the same. Her scent filled the room in riotous welcome as Lena came to take a cup of tea from her damp fingers.
“Effie really left in a hurry.” Kara said, by way of greeting, merrily scrubbing a plate. “I think she was hoping to avoid overhearing anything.”
“I did tell her to go. It’s my fault.” She made a grab for the plate. “Let me clean my own mess.”
“Lena, you are brilliant at many things but absolutely hopeless in this kitchen.” Kara blithely dodged her efforts and planted a kiss on her forehead as easily as if she’d been doing it all her life. “Let me handle this and you lend your skills to that cypher. I’ll bring you breakfast.”
Feeling both strangely soothed and shoved aside, Lena found her notes from the Lawrence library and spread them out in the drawing room, leaving rings with her cup as she moved from page to page. By the time Kara arrived with an overflowing plate of pancakes, eggs, and sausage, she had begun to work through the first letters, laboriously translating what had undoubtedly been as easy as schoolwork for her brilliant brother. She did not feel brilliant at much of anything and told Kara as much as she set the plate down heavily.
“But you’re already halfway through the alphabet!” Kara leaned over her scribbles, interested. She raised her head back up to twitch an eyebrow at Lena. “You’re too hard on yourself. Come now, eat your breakfast.”
“This cannot all be my breakfast.” Lena protested, as the alpha insistently pushed the plate in front of her. “I do not recall suddenly transforming into two to three extra people.”
“You need your strength. Lots of work to do.” Kara sat down beside her and speared a whole pancake with her fork, folding it into her mouth. “And besides,” she said, muffled. “I’ll help.”
“Don’t do that, you’ll choke.” Lena said, throaty with affection, and found herself wiping away a dab of syrup from the alpha’s chewing cheek.
“Always looking out for my well-being.” Kara murmured, lashes low and eyes too close, and Lena was once again transported back to their bedroom. The effect was only slightly marred by the scent of maple and sausage.
“Well.” She cleared her throat. “Someone has to.”
There was a strangeness between them now. Something warm and yet tense. Lena was no dunce, she knew something would have shifted after the steam heat of the last night’s activities dissipated into morning fog, but she would have never anticipated how unsettling it was to look over and find Kara staring at her with her chin pillowed in her hand.
“What?” She asked, finally.
“Nothing.” Kara had the grace to flush. “You look lovely this morning, that’s all.”
“You-” Lena leaned over and stole a sausage from the alpha’s still fork. “- are being quite the distraction this morning. Either help me with this code or this mammoth breakfast, but cease your mooning or I’ll chase you out of here with a broom.”
Kara saluted with her empty fork. “Yes ma’am.”
That didn’t help either, but at least the simmering mood in the room turned into pleasant puzzling as they bent their heads together over the code.
Gradually the remains of the breakfast grew cold, but neither of them moved to clear the table. The contents of the code were too engaging, as was the company. The strange circle with the ‘Y’ contained within it was only the first part of the key- Lex had worked backwards, then forwards, and his code was as devilishly unpleasant as his trickster mind.
It did help to have company. Kara, as it turned out, was much more savvy than she initially let on, and her quickness to learn was breathtaking. Lena could see how easily she’d turned from a nameless pickpocket to the apple of her Pinkerton family’s eye. Kara had an endless capacity for knowledge and she didn’t hesitate to accept criticism or blink her eye at being told what to do. There were very few people, let alone alphas, who would be willing to learn like this.
And, alarmingly, it only made Lena love her more.
The morning light moved from the head of the table to the floor as they worked. Finally, by noon, Lena stretched and rolled her shoulders. She pushed away from the table and motioned for Kara to take her place.
“There. I think that’s it. Test it.”
“You’ve done it?” Kara blinked, and moved over. Her lips moved as she read. “Lena, this is it, you’ve done it!”
“I said to test it. Don’t be so hasty until we know for sure. ” She rubbed the small of her back and waited, heart in her teeth.
Kara was as quick a reader as she was at study. She compared the code carefully to their notes, and then again to Lena’s cramped, hasty scrawl. After a moment, she raised her eyes and nodded.
“It works. You’ve done it.”
Lena sagged, holding onto the edge of a chair. “Tell me what it says.”
“He’s not in a Moroccan prison.” Kara raised the paper and pointed at the words. “He’s in Gotham.”
A dizzy thumping had taken over her heart. She raised a hand to her chest. “Gotham? You’re sure?”
“Gotham.” Kara confirmed, with a sidelong apologetic glance. “It seems the Falcones are involved in this mess. Your brother makes….unsavory friendships, it would seem.”
“He’s an unsavory type himself. That doesn’t surprise me. What does surprise me is that he would be so stupid as to allow the Falcones to pay his gambling debts.” Lena found the chair again and sat down, the world still rushing before her eyes. She massaged her temple. “Foolish, cocksure idiot.”
“I’m sorry, Lena.” And she was, of course. The hand that dropped onto Lena’s shoulderblades with a heavy warmth was as chagrined as it was soothing. “But you realize…”
“That he’s much closer than we thought?” Lena couldn’t help but bite the words out. “That he would not, by any circumstances, allow the Falcones any leverage if he didn’t think he would have our fortune imminently?”
“Yes.” The hand stopped massaging her back, guiltily. “I suppose all of those things are true.”
“Kara.” Lena put her head in her hands, unable to even think anymore. “What are we going to do?”
“I know someone.” Kara told her, somewhat uncertainly. “A contact at the Pinkertons. It’s possible she could help us get to the Falcones.”
“And why would she do that?” Lena asked. “Isn’t it against protocol to assist one crime family in their affairs with another?”
“You’re not a criminal.” Kara told her, so firmly that Lena looked up at her in surprise. For a moment, that glorious blue gaze was all that Lena could see. And then she looked away.
“And besides, she’s my sister.”
***
After that revelation, Kara had spirited them off into a Hansom headed to a secret location, refusing to explain much more along the way. Lena had tried every tactic available to her, but to no avail. All Kara would say was that her sister - Alexandra, known to all as Alex, and wasn’t that a funny coincidence - had joined the Pinkertons with their father, and was just as affected by his sudden departure as had been Kara.
“She’s not….overly fond of Luthors.” Kara confessed, quiet in the dark of the cab. “She didn’t want me to take this assignment. We fought.”
“Oh. Lovely.” Lena swallowed, and fidgeted with her gloves. “Shall we start with you telling her all about how I forced you into marriage at midnight or shall I?”
“Don’t be silly.” Kara’s hand folded over her own, sturdy and calm. “Alex knows I can’t be forced into anything. You’ll see.”
Lena’s heart turned over in her chest like a wounded animal and she nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
The cab rattled along a side road that was as unfamiliar as it was everyday. Children ran past, chasing a ball, followed by a barking mongrel dog. The grocer was outside sweeping past the rows of produce on display, and he hardly looked up as the cab rumbled by. When it stopped, it was in front of a plain brown building in a row of plain brown buildings, nondescript and nonthreatening. They got out. The cab went on.
Kara held her hand out, and Lena, holding her breath, ascended the stairs.
Kara’s sister turned out to be a tall, no-nonsense alpha with a short crop of hair and a frown on her face as soon as she saw Lena over Kara’s shoulder in their hug. Her ‘office’ was a neat, dark apartment that appeared to contain only a desk and a kitchen, with a thin light flickering from the gaslamp in the hall. There was a stack of papers on the table and a gun hung from a holster on the chair.
“Where have you been? Who is this?” Alex asked, by way of greeting. “You know you’re two weeks late for your check-in report?”
“I know.” Kara hunched her shoulders and all at once she was several inches smaller, somehow once again the servile servant that Lena had seen that first night. “I have a good excuse this time, though.”
She drew back and offered Lena with one arm. “Alex, this is my wife. Lena Luthor.”
Alex’s eyes moved from Lena, to Kara and back again. She drew in a long breath through her nose. “Oh, you’d better have a good excuse for this.”
Lena interjected, finally, as Kara cringed, rubbing her neck. “Perhaps I should explain…”
The whole story came out then in pieces over the small table. Alex did not offer them refreshments, not that Lena expected any, but she also did not reach for her gun, which was more than Lena did expect. It was a strained thing, to explain to Kara’s sister her marriage predicament and then the choosing process, but somehow, with Kara’s hand on the small of her back, it became easier. And when Kara told Alex with glowing praise how she had cracked the cypher, it was hard not to feel the tenderness radiate through her whole body.
Finally when it was done, Alex uncrossed her arms from her chest and sighed. “Well, you’ve done stupider things in your life, I suppose. I should have known you were no match for a damsel in distress.”
That was not a ringing endorsement but at least it was not overt hostility.
“Believe me, Lena is no damsel.” Kara said, fondly, and shot Lena a look that made her heart twist and thump.
“I suppose I should offer you some tea, since you’re now my sister in law.” Alex pushed herself up from the table. “I’m fresh out of sugar and cream, however.”
“That’ll be fine. Thank you.” Lena ignored how Kara’s smile glowed as she looked between them. “I appreciate the gesture.”
Alex lit the gas to blue flame and set the kettle down on it, leaning over the counter. “Quite the predicament you’ve got me in, sister.”
“I know.” Kara stood up, hovering between her sister and Lena. “I know, Alex, but you must know something about the movements of the Falcones. You’ve been on Gotham for over a year.”
“I have. And I do.” Alex set down two cups. “But that doesn’t make what you’re proposing any easier. The contacts I have in Gotham are too deeply entangled to risk them if the Falcones catch wise. And I can’t make a move like that myself without contacting my handlers at the fed.”
She turned to Lena. “And I suppose you know that the government would jump at the chance to take in a Luthor- any Luthor- for questioning right about now.”
Lena understood instantly. “I do.”
“What are you saying?” Kara’s face flamed hotly and she put herself in between Alex and Lena. “You would arrest her?”
“I wouldn’t.” Alex put her hands up, pacifying. “But I can’t say the same for our colleagues. They’ve been chomping at the bit for any insight into Lex.”
“Then don’t tell them.” Kara said, simply, as if it were the easiest thing in the world. “Just give us your Gotham contacts.”
“Kara, you know I can’t do that.” Alex gave her a sharp look. “That’s against protocol.”
“Fuck your protocol.” Kara flung her arm out, pointing behind her. “That’s my wife.”
Behind them, the kettle on the stove began to whistle.
Lena’s heart swelled and shook the bars of its cage, howling inside her chest. Heat flushed her face and she stood up, putting a hand on Kara's tensed arm. Instinctively her omega pheromones pumped out soothing signals as she petted the incensed alpha.
“Kara, darling, please. Maybe this is for the best.”
The alpha turned two wounded blue eyes to her and she explained, stroking further up on the curl of her bicep.
“I’ll go with Alex willingly and let them arrest me. I can give them the cypher, and perhaps they’ll be able to bring Lex in. Either way, we can give up this silly charade and you can go back to your life.”
The pull of sadness was on her lips but she smiled, anyway, trying to do her best to convince Kara this was a good choice. “We never had much of a chance at this, anyhow.”
Alex watched them, eyes unreadable as she turned the flame down under the kettle.
“No.” Kara was already shaking her head, insistent. She turned to Lena and cupped her face. “No, don’t be ridiculous. You can’t. They’ll just bungle the whole thing. We can still find a way.”
“You are far too noble and much too kind, but you’ve done enough for me.” Lena leaned into Kara’s touch briefly, and then stepped back. “You and I both knew this always had to end, someday.”
“Lena, I -” Kara started, desperation on her eyes and lips, when Alex held a hand up, interrupting them.
“Enough.” Alex insisted, firmly, finally coming in from the kitchen. “Stop. Look, there might be a way.”
At Kara’s perked up expression, she added: “But it’s also incredibly dangerous and very much against protocol, and you two would be risking your lives–”
“Tell me.” Kara said, without a trace of hesitation. “I’ll do it.”
“You’re going to have to go on the run.” Alex crossed to the table and removed the gun from its holster, checking the barrel before returning it to the holster and handing the whole rig to Kara. “Here. Take this. I’ll give you as many rounds as I have. Do you have money?”
“No -” Kara started to say.
“We can get as much as we need.” Lena finished for her, nodding when Kara looked in askance.
“‘We’?” Kara questioned, quietly. Lena only glared at her, and she finally shook her head. “Okay, fine.”
“Good, get money. Then take a fast train to Gotham, because you two are going to be hunted.” She looked at Kara. “If I alert the agency you’ve gone rogue and headed west with the Luthor heiress, I’d say you’ll have about two days before they figure they’ve gone the wrong direction. By then, you need to have captured Lex, or they’ll take you both in. Do you understand?”
“Why are you flagging us?” Kara holstered the gun. It lay against the side of her rib cage. “We’d make a better run for it without company.”
“Because you’re gonna need those Gotham contacts, and I told you, I can’t get to them without the government knowing. So I’m gonna tell them you stole them from my office.” Alex lifted a paper from her neat stack and slid it into Kara’s fingers. “Which you did, just now.”
“Clever.” Lena marveled at how quickly the elder Danvers alpha had cobbled together a plan. “Very clever. The cab driver knows we came here, but I suspect you know a back way out and a back way in to make it look as if you were never here, don’t you?”
Alex nodded. “You don’t miss a trick, do you? I can see why my sister wanted to marry you.”
She turned to Kara before Lena could process or protest that, and gave her a brief, gripping hug.
“Good luck, stupid. I hope your wife is able to keep you both alive long enough to use those contacts. And if you’re caught, you never saw me.”
“Not for a minute.” Kara nodded, and squeezed back. “Thank you Alex. I won’t forget this.”
“Neither will I.” Her sister snorted. “Now go.”
***