Chapter Text
“Matthews! What was that?! What route did I call!” Kara hears Coach Carr scream at her teammate as she herself is hefted off the ground by the linesman that just took her down to the ground. Hard.
“You called a slant, Coach”
“And what did you run?”
There’s a small pause as Kara walks over to prepare to run the drill again. She avoids looking at Coach Carr’s undoubtedly red face.
“I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, MATTHEWS.”
“I ran corner, Coach.”
Kara chances a look over to see Coach Carr relax, as if calmed by the admission.
“That’s right. You ran a corner. And what does that mean for your quarterback who’s getting blitzed?”
“She’s gonna get sacked,” Mike Matthews says to the ground.
“Not ‘gonna’,” Carr says as he grabs the facemask to make eye contact with his player, “she did get sacked. If you get a blitz called on your QB, you cut the route off. You gotta help ‘em out and keep the play alive, kid.”
“Yes, Coach,” Mike says as Coach Carr lets go of the facemask and claps him on the shoulder pad.
“Alright! Set up! We run it again! QB scramble, live action, on one.”
Kara steps up behind her center already on the line of scrimmage and checks to make sure her line is in place.
“Set!” Her center drops to position. “Green 23!” she checks the two defensive lineman across from her and the defensive back across from Mike, “Green 23! Hut!”
The ball is snapped and her center locks in on one of the linemen.
The other barrels in on the left. She rolls to the right, dancing away from the defender, both hands snug on the ball.
Kara sights Mike angling away from his defender, setting the defensive back on his heels.
There’s a small opening, hands are up, and Kara releases the ball quickly into the small pocket available.
She doesn’t see if Mike catches the ball. Instead she sees the ground rushing toward her face as the defensive lineman wraps her legs up, guiding her to the ground. She hears a whistle blow, signaling the end of the play, and rolls away to see Mike coming up with the ball safely in his hands.
A smile spreads across Kara’s face as she’s picked up off the ground again. She chances a glance at Coach Carr to see that his scowl is just a smidge smaller.
“Nice hands, Mike,” Kara calls out as he tosses the ball back to her.
“Again!” Coach Carr hollers from the sideline, though markedly less gruff. “QB scramble, live action, on two.”
Kara walks up to the line again.
“Set!”
____
“Five minute water break, then we go into live action full offense on Danvers,” Head Coach Grant calls out to her team.
Kara pulls her helmet off and puffs out her cheeks as she squeegees the sweat from her eyebrow. She slowly makes her way to the bench, helmet dangling from her fingers. The fingers of her other hand absently play with the the new hole ripped in her practice jersey as she searches the sideline for her practice bag.
“Ay, KD!,” calls out over her shoulder. Kara turns, momentarily distracted from her half-hearted scan of the team gear haphazardly strewn along the side of the field. She sees James Olson trotting over with a dopey smile on his face, “Looking good on the field today. Passes are hitting their mark.”
“Yeah, well. The boys are keeping the pocket clear for me. Lots of time on my hands,” she gives up on her pointless search and, instead, turns to the team bottles sitting on the lone bleacher next to the track.
“You picked a good day to have a lot of time on your hands,” James grins, picking up a water bottle of his own and throwing his head back to take a swig, “See that guy up in the bleachers?”
When Kara goes to look, James gives her a shove on the shoulder, “I’m pretty sure he’s from Metropolis University. Recruiting for the Bulldogs.”
Kara spots a middle-aged man with an unfortunate goatee and a shiny forehead looking down onto the field, arms crossed. There’s another man with graying hair and oversized sunglasses sitting next to him, enthusiastically talking into his ear. The Moustachio Man doesn’t look very interested with what Sunglasses Guy has to say. In fact, he seems more focused on Coach Grant pacing up and down the ten yard line, talking to her assistant coaches. Kara blows out a puff of air and turns back to James, taking her own gulp of water, “He doesn’t look very impressed.”
James moves in and lowers his voice, “Well, you’ve been throwing pretty well. How about we pull a draw when we run full offense?”
Kara grins and raises her shoulder in a shrug, “Might pull it off.”
James breaks into an easy smile and offers her a fist to bump, “Alright, alright.”
She bumps her fist against his as her eyes skip back up to the recruiter and his henchman. He’s probably another coach come from on-high to see the ‘girlie quarterback’ in action - cynically waiting in the stands for her to get picked off or get snapped in two.
She turns from the bleachers to see the cheerleading squad spilling out onto the track from the open gate downfield. She immediately spots Winn, who, judging by the unruly state of his hair, most likely rolled out of bed twenty minutes ago. She smiles to herself.
Her attention is quickly diverted to the small brunette he’s animatedly talking to. Her nose is scrunched up in an adorable smile, her tinkling laugh just barely audible from where they stand. Kara’s throat immediately goes dry. She takes a moment to clear it and takes another sip of water, elbowing James, “Hey, there’s Winn.”
James looks up from re-tying his laces, “Yeah, they’re probably getting ready to take over the field while we’re on afternoon break. Bet he’s pumped to finally get out of the gym.”
Kara huffs out an airy chuckle, “Ha, I bet. Hey, who’s he talking to?” The last sentence comes out a little too rushed.
James looks over, then back at her with a stupid sort of glint in his eye. Kara has about one second to regret her absolute lack of chill before James is flagging Winn down, “Hey! Winn!”
Winn and the Cute Brunette both turn toward the sound of the call. Kara feels herself flush and her hands inexplicably find their way to being propped on her hips. Her spine straightens on its own. Kara’s eyes lock onto green - or were they grey - eyes. Her eyes flutter and look to the ground.
When Winn waves and starts to jog over, Kara’s heart drops to her stomach. But she quickly she realizes that, thankfully, the Cute Brunette isn’t following him. She clears her throat and self-consciously crosses her arms over her chest, internally scolding herself for being such a tool.
“Hey guys!” Winn rushes out when he reaches them. “We finally made it out of the gym! Thank god, I was beginning to worry the smell of sweat and swamp-ass was starting to seep into my hair.”
“You were right,” Kara teases, screwing up her face as if they were suddenly downwind from the Midvale fishing docks.
“You’re one to talk!” Winn shoves her while plugging his own nose. “Miss Danvers is a ripe one!” He calls out loudly, making sure everyone in close proximity could hear him.
Kara lifts up her arm to give herself a smell and shrugs.
“Who’s the new girl on the squad?” James cuts right to the point.
“You’d have to be more specific. We just got a whole shipment of new freshmen this year. Lemme tell ya, they all smell worse than my Aunt Linda’s pork roast. Like, the B.O. is real. I mean, hello deodorant-”
“The one you were just talking to,” Kara cuts him off short, then goes for casual to make up for it “the… the girl with the dark hair... Short.”
Winn casts a glance over his shoulder, “Oh yeah, that’s Lena.” He turns back to face Kara, “She’s an incoming senior. Guess she transferred in from some boarding school upstate.”
Kara casts a glance over his shoulder at Lena, trying to judge if the name suits the girl now sitting down to stretch out for before practice, “She any good?”
Winn quirks an eyebrow at her sudden interest, “Well… when we first started, she didn’t know the difference between a cupie and an awesome, which, whatever. I guess she’d never done cheerleading before. But she’s learning quick and she’s looking to be the new flier of our third squad.”
Kara brings her focus back to Winn, only having listened to maybe a third of what he had said because Lena had moved to stretch her arms above her head and maybe sliver of skin had peeked out from under her shirt and maybe she was just really cute.
Winn, picking up on the confused crinkle in her brow, crosses his arms and tilts his head, “Any particular reason you’re suddenly so interested in cheerleading when you’ve never once shown any interest in the intricacies of me literally throwing human bodies into the air?”
“No.”
Kara realizes her error in responding so abruptly when Winn and James lock eyes and exchange a knowing look.
“Don’t,” she starts, but James is already warming up for a full ribbing session.
“I don’t think it’s cheerleading she’s interested in,” he starts up.
Kara groaned and felt her shoulders shag at his teasing tone, “Please stop.”
“More like one specific cheerleader,” Winn quips.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kara shakes her head and turns to walk away. Winn grabs the back of her jersey to stop her from leaving. Kara pretends to be clotheslined by the motion and staggers back to the conversation.
“Hey, before you trot off, any chance I can catch a ride with you after your afternoon practice?” he asks, hopeful.
James claps Winn on the back, “Only if you can get a certain cheerleader’s number for her.” Winn high fives him as Kara turns and puts her helmet back on.
“Guys, drop it. And stop saying cheerleader like that. It’s creepy,” she turns back to Winn, “I’ll meet you in the parking lot?”
“Yeah, I’ll meet you by Nel!” Winn yells the last few words after Kara’s retreating back.
Kara joins the huddle around Coach Grant with James right behind her.
Coach Grant is already explaining how the last few minutes of practice will run before their afternoon break, “Run three possessions on the twenty yard line, full offense and defense, live action, on Danvers’ call. Priority is touchdown, then first down. Run red zone D. Play is dead on my whistle.”
The huddle breaks on “Midvale” and the defensive line moves to set up on the twenty while offense forms a quick huddle.
“68 86 Ace Mod on Two,” Kara calls, all thoughts of recruiters and cheerleaders now at the back of her mind.
“Break!”
Kara approaches her position under the center. She pops her mouthguard in and scans the defense.
Set up for pass coverage.
She checks her line and calls, “Set!”
Both lines drop, poised for the hike.
“Hut-hut!” Kara rushes through her cadence and explodes back from the line, ball in hand. Back one, two, three, four more steps.
Balanced. In control.
She gives her receivers time to run.
Down field, one receiver is beating their defensive back to the center of the field. She gathers herself, fires the football hard. A lineman breaks through the offense.
She sees the ball connect with hands as she taken to the ground.
Knees, hips, shoulders, down.
She rolls over to see Kenny Li get brought down at the five.
“First down,” Kara whispers to herself as Coach Grant’s whistle blows.
“No huddle. Back on the 20! Play clock starts now.” Coach Grant calls to her players.
Kara scrambles back up, assessing the defense.
Heavy pass coverage.
Good.
Kara calls ‘22 Tight Blue!’ down the line. Then once more behind her, ensuring James hears her. She makes a show of waving Mike further down the line toward the right sideline.
“Set!” Kara, takes her time looking at her line, “Hut. Hut!”
She explodes back. One, two, three steps. Her linesmen drop back to cover her for a pass.
Kara drops and scans her receivers.
Covered.
She hears James running up on her left. Her linesmen set themselves.
At the last second, she hands the ball off to James. The center and left tackle push against their defenders. A path clears. James slips past the line of scrimmage and pushes downfield.
He’s on the fifteen.
The twelve.
He’s brought down just past the ten.
Another first down.
The whistle blows and Kara hears, “Again! On the twenty. No huddle.”
Both lines hurry back to their positions, ”93 Green F-stop, on me!”
She lines up under the center. Exhales.
“Set, hike!”
Kara drops back. Fakes the handoff to James. Scans defense.
No one open.
Hiding the ball, she turns to her fullback, ready to pitch to the right and… he’s not there. Her eyes flit over to see Mike running up to the line.
Fuck.
She tucks the ball into her elbow and she powers toward the sideline.
“Mike! MIKE!” Kara hollers, angling back toward forward progression, “Mike, block!”
Mike seems to catch onto his mistake. He adjust to block the incoming linebacker.
Barely.
She skirts around his heel and breaks through the line. Eight yards to first down.
She tilts even further forward. Digging her toes in.
Four yards.
The linebacker is on her heels.
Two yards.
Cornerback is up ahead.
She pushes forward, preparing to slide feet first. Before she can slide to the ground, she feels the linebacker give her a shove toward the sideline.
It’s not much, but she loses her balance.
She pitches forward, out of bounds, cradling the ball to her chest.
She’s laid out on the turf. Sliding on her side with the momentum. Ball knocked out of her hands.
Then she’s colliding with something soft and decidedly not covered in football pads. She rolls to her back, hoping to cushion the fall of whoever she was barreling through. She feels the person drop and puts her arms out and around to guide them to the ground.
Something collides with her helmet. Something not at all soft and absolutely not protected by another helmet.
Oh shit.
“Oh god, I am so sorry! Are you ok?” Kara starts as she loosens her grip and her victim moves to sit up. Kara spits out her mouth guard, undoes her chin strap, and whips her helmet off as she follows.
She’s met with two watery eyes and a head of dark hair and suddenly Kara is aware two things all at once.
First, she just body tackled Lena the Cheerleader to the ground.
And B, Lena is still sitting in her lap, their legs still tangled together and wow was this not the time to fixate on that!
“Fuck - shit - god damn!” a stream of profanities are flowing out of Lena’s mouth as she covers her nose with both hands and curls inward on herself.
“Ok, ok, here let’s get you over to the bench!” Kara says as she scrambles to untangle herself from Lena. She moves to her knees behind the dark haired girl, hand placed lightly on her back. Kara gingerly places the other hand under her elbow and guides Lena back to her feet, “Wow, I really am so, so sorry.”
“You’ve said that,” Lena says, voice sounding delicate, like she was focusing entirely too hard on internalizing another slew of cuss words.
Kara guides her over to the bench as the athletic trainer rushes over with a first aid kit. Lena sits and pulls her hands down as the trainer approaches. Blood is streaming down her nose to her chin and, “Woah, holy shit is that blood,” Kara blurts out, taking a step back.
Lena, for her part, doesn’t take any notice as the trainer pulls on a pair of gloves and begins to hand her gauze and instruct her to lean her elbows on her knees.
Kara feels a weird twist in her stomach at the sight of a deposited gauze pad and moves toward the bench, “That’s… that’s a lot of blood. I, uhm... I’m gonna sit down.”
Lena and the trainer both throw her a quick glance, “You need to sit down?”
Kara just lets out a soft ‘Mmm’ and nods as she closes her eyes and counts back from ten, focusing on her breathing.
“I’m the one who just got plowed over by a football player,” Lena replies, sounding only half offended. Maybe joking? Definitely exaggerated.
In through the nose. Out the mouth. “Yeah, but at least I’m a girl football player.” Kara says once she’s reached zero. She peeks an eye open to see that most of the blood has been cleaned up and Lena is looking at her with a cocked eyebrow.
“Your head is still hard,” Lena settles on and looks forward again.
Heard that before, Kara thinks to herself. She looks back to the field where Coach Grant is approaching. Kara stands, “I really am very sorry. I promise not to plow into you again.”
Lena gives her a bit of an up-down at that and gives her head a little tilt, looking back up into Kara’s eyes as she does. Kara’s ears burn as she realizes how that could possibly be interpreted inappropriately, and she quickly turns away to head back to where her teammates are huddled.
Coach Grant passes her on the way, “Good legs, Danvers,” the tiny woman tells her, mouth turned down, “But you missed the first down by a yard. Five shuttle runs. You take the team through. To the twenty yard line.”
Kara’s shoulders drop in disappointment, but she starts her jog back. As she approaches her teammates, she sees James coming her way, “Not exactly how you imagined your first time under the cheerleader, I bet.”
Kara keeps jogging past him, “Shut up, James.”
As she approaches the touchdown line she calls out to her team, “Alright, shuttle runs to the twenty! On me!”
____
Afternoon practice is light in comparison to the full contact work from that morning. Coach Carr works the team in the weightroom before moving out to the field for special teams work in just helmets. Coach Grant dismisses the team with a quick reminder that the first game of the season is only a week away.
When Kara looks to the stands after being dismissed, she sees Winn waiting for her and waves to signal she’s about to head out. She walks to the bleachers to grab her gear bag and spots him quickly descending the metal stairs. He moves to join up with Kara at the stadium entrance that leads out to the parking lot.
“There’s the girl of steel!” Winn jokes, alluding to the nickname given to Kara by the local newspapers when she first started getting playing time last season.
Kara scoffs and swats out at his head while scanning the parking lot for her old red Ford Bronco, “Didn’t feel like I was made out of steel when coach had me benching 165 in the gym today.”
“That is… the worst humble brag to ever come out of you,” Winn swats back at her hand that’s aimlessly flitting around his head.
“I said it was hard, didn’t I?” Kara throws a mischievous grin his way as they approach her truck.
Winn frowns, “Well, technically, you didn’t actually say that, no.”
She chucks her bag and helmet into the backseat and, sliding her seat back into place, clambers up into the old truck.
“Ugh. God Nel, you’re such a fucking boat,” Winn huffs out as he hoists himself into his seat.
“Hey! She can hear you!” Kara defends as she rubs the truck’s dashboard. “Shhhh, he didn’t mean it, babygirl.” Kara says to the vehicle itself, blindly grabbing for her seatbelt.
Nel rumbles to life at the twist of the key and Winn reaches to turn the radio from the local roots station before Kara slaps his hand away.
“Not today, kid,” she points her finger at him dramatically, as if to scold, “Hard day, remember? 165 pounds?”
“Honest to God, Kara, you have the same taste in music as my Aunt Stella down in Carolina. Would it kill you to listen to today’s Top 40? Ryan Seacrest may be so circa 2006, but at least he calls a bop a bop.”
“They play current stuff on this station!” Kara feels the need, as always, to defend her taste in music. “Like, all of this stuff is new music.”
“But it just sounds old.”
“No. It sounds good,” Kara corrects as she locks eyes with him in a silent challenge. In a petty move, she reaches out and pushes the volume far past a reasonable level.
As Kara pulls from the parking lot onto the highway leading back to town, the opening chords of an upbeat bluesy song start to play. One that she’s definitely heard on the more popular stations.
Kara shoots Winn a triumphant look, “See?!”
Winn reaches out to turn the music back down to a reasonable volume with a resigned “Whatever.” Despite the complaints, though, Kara can hear him humming along to the words on the radio.
“Hey,” Kara breaks the comfortable silence that had fallen over the cab of the truck, “How’s Lena?” She had seen the other girl finish her check-up with the trainer and return back to the rest of her squad before the football team had finished their morning session.
“Oh, she’ll be fine,” Winn waves her worries off with his hand, “Trainer said she didn’t have any signs of a concussion and her bloody nose was done after a few minutes. She was able to join practice once, ya know, the pain in her face subsided.”
“That’s good. Did she seem, like, mad?” Kara pushes further, knowing that she’s showing far too much interest to be at all casual.
Her lack of subtlety is confirmed when Winn looks over at her, searching over Kara’s face. “No,” Winn finally settles on, “Not mad. It’s not like you ran her over on purpose.”
Kara nods and a beat of silence passes as Kara pulls into downtown Midvale.
“Kara,” Winn says softly.
“Hm?”
“Lena’s last name is Luthor.”
Kara slows to a stop sign and feels the tension build in the truck as Winn anticipates a reaction.
She doesn’t give him one.
“So?” She looks ahead at the intersection. Focusing on pushing in the clutch and shifting through the gears when it’s her turn to go.
“I just… I wasn’t sure if you knew. And thought maybe it’d be something you’d noticeably react to - once you found out. And, well, what if you found out from Lena and reacted in front of her? So I-”
“Why should I care if her last name is Luthor?” Kara cuts him off.
“Kara-”
“Lionel didn’t even get charged. The evidence was circumstantial at best,” Kara dismisses as she takes a corner just a tad too fast.
“Kara, her dad was the main suspect in your entire family’s murder.”
“Don’t.” She cuts a look over to where he sits.
“It just wouldn’t be unfounded if finding that out caused you to freak.” Winn rushes out before Kara could cut him off again.
“Please stop trying to be my therapist, Winn,” Kara sighs out as she turns down Winn’s street.
Winn is quiet for a moment as he watches the houses pass by.
“You’re right,” he starts, “I’m not your therapist.”
Kara thinks he’s going to leave it at that before he presses on, staring out the passenger window, “But I’m your best friend. And I wouldn’t have any way of knowing if ‘Luthor’ would mean anything to you because you’ve never talked to me about what happened.”
Winn pauses, “And that’s ok,” he continues, shifting to look at her, “I’ve never expected you to. But that doesn’t mean I’m not aware of what happened to your family or that I don’t still want to make sure you’re ok. In whatever way I can.”
Kara pulls to the curb in front of Winn’s house, shifting to first and pulling the parking brake. She mulls his words over, thinking back to when she first met Winn at a neighborhood block party shortly after the Danvers’ had taken her in.
His knobby knees had been grass-stained and scratched, the tail of his shirt untucked from his khaki shorts. He’d run up to her, as she stood shyly behind Jeremiah’s knee, and giggled while blowing bubbles at her face. He had run off back toward the field full of children, but Jeremiah had encouraged her to run after him.
And she had, after some time.
They’d been best friends ever since. Kara was fairly certain her friendship with Winn was one of the main reasons she’d been able to establish any semblance of a normal life. Why she hadn’t grown up to be a full-on Sidney Prescott.
Kara runs a hand through her ponytail. Grips the steering wheel. She’s probably being unfair.
“Look, Winn, I’m sorry. I know you’re just looking out for me. I don’t talk about it because I don’t-” she lets her hands slip from her hold on the wheel, “Because I can’t remember anything.”
She clears her throat and her gaze drops down to her hands, “I was there and I can’t remember anything.”
It’s a blessing and a curse. She’d spent hours in sterile rooms with children’s toys scattered about. Cops and child psychiatrists had tried to gently coax her into remembering something - anything - about the night of the murders. Any sort of clue that could help them figure out who the murderer had been. But the memories just hadn’t been there - still weren’t.
Winn reaches out and takes one of her hands, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
Kara swallows hard and blinks a few times. She turns to Winn and offers a small shrug, “After twelve years of not remembering, talking about it just feels like going around in circles.”
“I don’t need you to talk about it. But if you ever do, I hope you know that you can. To me.” Winn gives her a small smile.
Kara reaches over and ruffles his hair with a grin, “I know that, you big sap.” Winn laughs as he lets her pinch his cheek. With the mood a little lighter, she continues, “Now get the hell out of my car.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he ducks away from her assault and opens Nel’s door, “Hey! You coming to the beach party tomorrow? Last Saturday of the summer and all that.”
“Yeah for sure!” Kara grabs onto the subject change quickly, “I’m helping Ms. Donahue set up at the farmer’s market in the morning, then I’ll head over to Swan Beach. Meet you and James there?”
Winn moves to grab his backpack from the truck, nodding his head, “Sounds good. I heard a certain… cheerleader will be there.”
Kara rolls her eyes and tsks, “Don’t be weird.”
Winn smirks and turns up the walk toward his house.
Kara watches as Winn walks through his front door. She lifts the brake, pulling out into the road.
____
When Kara pulls into her driveway, the house is dark, save for the front hall light that’s usually left on when no one’s home. She sighs as she slowly ambles up the porch steps, keys jingling as she looks for the house key on her ring.
As she opens the door, she hears a loud thump and tap tap tap - telltale signs that the enormous ball of white fluff her family claims is a dog has heard her come home.
Krypto tears into the entryway as she’s trying to kick her shoes off. Kara tries to move around him to chuck her football gear out of the way, only to find herself stumbling over his many legs onto the low bench pressed against the wall.
“Hi boy! Oh you are just so excited that someone is finally home!” Kara smooshes his fuzzy face to hers as he jumps up to lick her hello.
Kara finishes taking her shoes off with Krypto’s tail slapping her face. Her stomach gives a low grumble as she stands, “Come on, let’s go see what we have for dinner.”
Kara makes her way down the hallway to where the house opens up to the living room and kitchen. She gets herself a glass of water out of the kitchen tap and downs it while staring out into the large backyard through the small window over the sink.
She turns to pick up the note left in Eliza’s handwriting on the island countertop.
Got called in last minute.
Should be home by 9!
Money for pizza.
xo Mom
Kara blows a stray hair out of her face and grabs the twenty left behind for her dinner. She looks to Krypto staring up at her expectantly, “What do ya want on your pizza?”
The dog tilts his head to the side and makes a small whining noise.
“Ew, we are not getting kibble on our pizza again.” She smiles at her own joke and takes out her phone as she moves to the soft couch in the living room. Her text conversation with her sister Alex is pulled up and she types up a quick message.
- hey. when do you get off work?
Krypto hops onto the couch and lays his head on her knee. The response comes a few minutes later as she’s searching the mobile menu for the pizza shop downtown.
- Off in a half hour.
- mom got called into the hospital. she left money for pizza. wanna come over and watch bad 90s rom coms
Kara bites her nail as she watches the three dots indicating her sister is typing back.
- Be over in 45.
Kara smiles and hums happily, dialing the number for Pizza Palace.
She won’t have to spend another Friday night alone.
____
Kara pulls into Sunny Acre Farms the next morning before the sun has even made it to the sky. She takes the gravel road to the newly expanded barn that houses the farm store near the front of the four acre property. When she turns off Nel’s engine, she can already see Ms. Donahue and her daughter Vicki packing their trailer under the warm glow of the light mounted above the barn door. She opens her truck door and slides her seat forward to let Krypto bound out of the truck toward the other two women, tail a blur.
“Kara! Morning.” Ms. Donahue calls out as she hoists a particularly heavy-looking bag of metal parts into the trailer.
“Good morning!” Kara throws a hand out in a wave as she rounds to the back of her truck to throw the gate open. She steps back around her truck as Ms. Donahue walks over.
“Everything is packed for the stand. Just need to pack up the produce. Crates are inside.” The older woman juts her chin toward the farm store, wipes an already sweaty strand of graying hair back.
Kara nods, heads through the door, and hefts up the first apple crate she sees. Ms. Donahue moves further into the farm store as Vicki looks up from scratching Krypto behind the ears.
Kara works quietly for a few minutes before noticing the way Vicki is focusing in on the way she’s handling the apple crates, her own packing forgotten.
“School starting next week, isn’t it?” Vicki calls out as Kara slides another crate into the back of her truck.
“Yeah. Monday morning, bright and early.”
Kara is rounding the truck to grab another crate. Vicki seems to consider something before she continues, “What year are you going into?”
Kara pauses, looks up to where Vicki is watching her.
Having just graduated the year before, Vicki was spending this year helping her mom out on their family’s farm before heading off to a technical school somewhere off cape. She had been a close friend to Alex back when they were in middle school, only being a year younger. Kara knew that the way Vicki was looking at her was significant. It made her blush and look down, scuffing her steel toe boot in the dirt. She was never really any good at… this.
“Senior.” Kara replies as Ms. Donahue makes her way back towards them.
“You planning to stay on at all during the school year?” the older woman asked, clearly having heard the topic of their conversation.
“Yes ma’am.” Kara answers, bending to pick up the next crate. She hesitates a moment, flicks a quick glance over to where Vicki is still watching, then hoists the apple crate up with some extra umph and props it on her shoulder.
“Good,” Ms. Donahue states as she and Vicki move to start packing crates into their own trailer. “Hay rides are starting next weekend. You up for filling in on tractor every now and then?”
“So long as it isn’t Friday night, Ms. Donahue,” Kara replies. She stacks her crate into her truck and slams the gate closed.
“That’s right! We’re looking at the new Stallions’ starting quarterback.” Ms. Donahue sends her a warm smile over her shoulder as Kara moves onto helping load their trailer.
“Well, how about this,” Ms. Donahue starts as the three women each grab one of the remaining crates, “you help us set up at the farmer’s market, then take the rest of the day. Go to the beach. Enjoy the fireworks that the city has planned for tonight. Then next weekend, you give me all day Sunday for driving tractor and working the store.”
Kara stacks the last crate into the trailer and straightens up. She shoots her hand out for Ms. Donahue to clasp with a smile.
“Deal.”
____
Kara gets to Swan Beach late enough that she struggles to find a parking spot. While the tourists had definitely dwindled down to just a few stragglers left on the cape, it was a beautiful day and everyone seemed to gravitate to the beach when the sun was shining. She finally finds something in the far corner of the lot big enough for Nel and whips into it. Taking a moment before leaving the truck, she quickly checks herself over in the mirror.
She’d ended up staying at the farmer’s market against Ms. Donahue’s half-hearted protests. The crowd around the produce stand had grown quickly in the mid morning, and Kara couldn’t bring herself to leave while they were swamped. After the crowd had thinned out, Kara had looked down to her watch to see it was 11:30. She’d hurried home to throw on a pair of chubbies, a sports bra, and a sleeveless ‘Midvale Stallions’ t-shirt.
Looking in the mirror now, Kara shakes out her ponytail left in from work and redoes it into a loose bun. She’s not bothered by her red and sweaty face; she supposes she’ll get red and sweaty on the beach anyway. She throws on a pair of sunglasses, casts herself one last look in the mirror, and nods to herself.
Good enough.
Kara reaches the top of the dune with a small cooler in one hand and her shoes and towel in the other. She wiggles her toes in the sand and lifts her chin up to the sun, humming her content. Looking down the beach, she spots Winn and James already mingling in a group of people she makes out to be a mix of teammates and friends.
As she nears the group, she can hear Colin Hix trying to rally enough people for a laid-back game of beach rugby. She’s soon spotted and someone calls “hey KD, just in time to join” from the huddle.
Cooler and towel discarded by the others, Kara jogs over to find James holding a rugby ball while Colin sets out the rules. Teams of four are picked and soon Kara finds herself with a sweaty Mike Matthews running right for her. He grins as he tries a fancy side-step, but Kara is able to get an arm around him and wrap him up.
It takes a little extra effort, but she takes him down to the sand.
Those who had gathered around to watch holler their approval as Kara pops back up and rejoins the ruck. Through brute force on Kenny Li’s part, the ball comes out of the ruck and back to Kara.
She takes off, James set up across from her. She drops the ball to her foot and gives it a little chip. The ball takes an odd bounce and makes it around James, where Kara is able to scoop it up and dive across the temporary try line indicated by coolers. She sits up covered in sand and shoots a smug smile up at James.
James rolls his eyes and offers Kara a hand up, joking, “Don’t get used to it. That’s not gonna happen again.”
And it doesn’t.
Three more times Kara tries to blow by James only to run into him like a brick wall, get scooped up, and be very mindfully plopped on the ground. "I don’t need Coach Grant on my back about wrecking our quarterback one week before the season starts," he’d defended when Kara had complained about him taking it easy on her.
Once, Kara gets called out for trying to throw the ball over-hand, to which she’d just shrugged and trotted off in the other direction.
When Kara makes a break toward the try line in the final seconds of their match, James dips his shoulder low and slings Kara over his back, heading toward the ocean. Kara shrieks in surprise, dropping the ball, and laughs as she swats at James’ back.
She lets out a loud gasp when he finally dumps her into the cold water, popping back out of the cool water. In retaliation, she charges him, grabbing behind his knee and pulling up. James hops a few times, trying to keep his balance, but the combination of Kara’s shoulder pushing him off center and his inability to stop laughing causes him to finally fall under the surface of the water, dragging Kara with. When they both resurface, Kara splashes him one more time for good measure before heading back to dry land.
James throws his fists up in victory as the onlookers applaud his team’s victory. Kara gives a soft laugh at the display and tries to run her fingers through her now tangled hair. Heading back towards her towel and cooler, Kara attempts to detangle her binder from her hair and spots Winn sitting under an umbrella with a red cup in his hand. He sends her a quick wave when he notices her looking over, motioning for her to come join.
Kara’s attention, however, is diverted to another umbrella further back on the beach. More accurately, her attention is drawn to the fact that someone under that umbrella is staring.
Lena, Kara realizes, is sipping bottled cream soda from a straw, has her sunglasses pushed atop her head, and is, by every definition of the word, ogling Kara.
Kara looks down at the drenched shirt clinging to her stomach and smiles to herself. She moves to take it off, wrings out the seawater, and bends to pick up her towel and shoes. Grabbing a water from her own cooler, she moves in Winn’s, and coincidentally Lena’s, direction.
“Hey Winn!” Kara greets as she towels herself off.
“You’re atrocious at rugby,” Winn says by way of greeting.
Kara just beams down at him.
When Kara looks back up in Lena’s direction, the brunette has her sunglasses back in place and is very decidedly not looking at Kara.
____
The party makes its way back to Mike’s house on the shoreline a few blocks away. There, it’s much easier to get away with openly drinking and the party goers can use a properly maintained bathroom. Winn takes over hot dog duties at the grill while James and Kara keep him company on the back deck. A small group of girls were still inside the house where Mike was helping them figure out the sound system, but the majority of Kara’s teammates had taken to the sandy expanse between the house and ocean to throw around a football.
Kara watches Winn burn the hotdogs as he rambles on about the latest school gossip.
“Did you guys hear that Lyra Strayd is in the hospital?” Winn turns his head their direction.
“Oh no! What happened?” Kara plucks a chip from the bowl in front of her.
“Well… I heard that she - oh shit,” Winn realizes a hot dog has caught on fire and uses his tongs to fling it over to the paper plate next to the grate. “I heard that she choked when she was giving her boyfriend… you know…”
Kara’s hand freezes as she’s about to pop another chip into her mouth, her eyes widen.
James spits out his sip of beer, and it dribbles down his chin, “What?!” he exclaims, wiping his face with the back of his hand.
“That’s ridiculous. Can that even happen?” Kara asks, horrified.
James and Winn share a quick glance. When James looks down at his feet, Winn turns back to Kara, “Well, logistically it’s… possible.”
Kara shoves the chip into her mouth and stands up abruptly, grabbing for the now empty bowl, “Ew. I don’t wanna know anymore.” She moves to the door, heading to the kitchen for a refill on chips, “And stop spreading that rumor. It’s really mean.” She gives Winn a pointed look, and he just raises his hands in surrender and turns back to the grill.
She makes her way to the kitchen, setting her bowl down, and starts searching the pantry closet for more food. When she emerges with a new bag of chips and a package of oreos, she spots Lena making her way into the kitchen with at least six empty beer bottles in her hands. Lena pauses for a moment, as if searching for something, not having noticed Kara.
Kara clears her throat, “If you’re looking for recycling, it’s under the sink.”
Lena throws a quick glance over her shoulder with a ‘thanks’ as Kara sets her loot on the nearby counter, intending to help open the cupboard. But Lena sticks out her foot and opens the cupboard with her toe and slides the small blue bin out from its cubby. There’s no trash bag in the bin and Lena turns to her with an expectant look.
“Here,” Kara crosses the kitchen and reaches down below the sink, pulling a bag out of the box stashed there. She busies herself with getting the trash bin situated in an attempt to stop her eyes from loitering too long on the simple black, high-waisted two piece hiding away beneath the loose swim cover-up Lena is sporting.
When she straightens back up, Lena unloads the beer bottles and looks back up to Kara with a small smile, “You look different without all of the football pads on.”
Kara huffs out a nervous laugh, “Good different? Bad different?”
Lena considers her a moment, eyes darting to her shoulders, then her feet, and back up, before deciding, “Smaller… but definitely still tall,” she waves a hand in the direction of Kara’s head, referring to the nearly six inch height difference between them.
Kara can feel her ears burning at the attention. She isn’t sure how to respond, so she redirects.
“I’m Kara, by the way.”
A corner of Lena’s mouth quirks up, as if she already knew who Kara was and thought the introduction amusing. She offers her hand, “Lena.”
Kara takes Lena’s hand and can feel her eyes linger too long on Lena’s as their hands slip away from each other once more.
“Your face looks good,” Kara offers and quickly stumbles on, “I mean, like, you don’t have a bruised nose or a black eye or anything. From, you know, me accidentally smashing my head into it.”
“I’m wearing a considerable amount of cover-up,” Lena replies, the small quirk still at the corner of her mouth.
She can see the playfulness in Lena’s eyes, but Kara still cringes internally, “I really am sorry about that.”
“Well,” Lena bends to return the recycling to its place beneath the sink, “I’ve thought of a way you can make it up to me.”
Kara laces her fingers behind her back, giving Lena a look to continue, not entirely sure where this was going.
Lena crosses her arms across her chest and leans her hip against the counter, “Occupy my time.”
Kara can feel her face reacting before she can school it into a neutral look. Her eyebrows knit together and her chin juts to the side “I’m- what?”
“I’ve seemingly been cornered by Mike back there,” Lena shifts her head to look past Kara into the sitting area nearby, “and I’m… somewhat desperate to not be.”
Kara looks over her shoulder to follow Lena’s gaze back to where Mike has both arms slung across the back of the couch he’s occupying, Lena’s apparent seat being kept for her.
“Ah,” Kara replies, eyebrows raised as she turns back.
“And if you were to sweep me away to anywhere else, well, I couldn’t really be blamed, could I?” Lena finishes her proposition with a small flourish of her hand and an arch of her brow.
Kara takes a brief moment to appreciate the dignified way Lena holds herself before turning to scoop up her scavenged snacks and sweep a flourish of her own in the direction of the deck.
“Well, by all means. After you.”
____
They settle on a spot down the beach where they can still see the small group tossing around the football in the backyard. Kara opens the oreos and immediately offers them over to Lena before settling in to get comfortable.
“So,” Kara starts, peering into her own bag for the right chip, “You’re pretty new to Midvale.”
Lena looks over, the cream half of an oreo in her hand, “That’s not exactly a question.” Inexplicably, she pops the bite of oreo in her mouth without even bothering to lick the cream off first.
“Well, I guess that could lead into a lot of different questions,” Kara shrugs nonchalantly before looking over, “Where do you wanna start?”
Lena gives a sigh and leans back onto her elbows, lolling her head to one side, and sends a teasing look her way, “I don’t think that’s how small talk works.”
Kara pauses a moment, looks out to the water, then back to her toes buried in the sand, “Okay, then let’s play a game.”
“What kind of game?” Lena stretches her legs out, Kara notices the pale pink polish on her toes.
She looks back to where Lena has reclined, “Like a get-to-know-you kind of game. Like…” her gaze moves from Lena’s exposed collarbone up to the house as if she’ll find a suggestion there, “Like two truths and a lie.”
When Kara looks back to Lena, she’s biting into an oreo without even splitting the two halves, “I’m not familiar.”
“Pretty straight forward,” Kara grabs a handful of chips, “One person,” she gestures towards Lena with a chip, “tells two truths and then one lie about themselves. The other person,” she gestures to herself, “tries to guess which one is a lie! If they guess wrong, they have to drink. If they guess right, the other person drinks.”
“Neither of us has a drink,” Lena points out.
“Pretty low stakes then, huh?” Kara lifts her chin and sends Lena a smug look.
Sitting up from her elbows, Lena gives a soft chuckle that Kara takes as acceptance to her suggestion.
Kara breaks into a shy smile and gives Lena’s knee a tap with her knuckle, “You go first.”
Lena looks from Kara’s face out ot the waves, humming in thought. Kara waits patiently, flipping small pebbles off into the nearby brush.
“Ok,” Lena turns back to her, a small glint in her eye, “I’m a licensed pilot, I once accidentally set an entire chemistry lab on fire, and I’ve never driven a car.” She finishes, tucking her feet under herself as she does.
Kara blinks absently as she stares at Lena’s profile. The three options were all pretty absurd for one of them to be true, let alone two. She can see Lena’s lip curl up as her silence stretches on. Eventually, Lena turns her head to look Kara in the eye and let’s a clipped laugh escape her at what Kara imagines must a pretty dumb look.
Kara shakes her head and huffs in disbelief, “Well you brought the big guns right out of the gate.”
Lena laughs at her again and gives her an almost apologetic look, “I’m sorry, is that not how most people play?”
“Most people are a little easier,” Kara teasingly pouts.
“Ah,” Lena lifts her chin and leans away in mock embarrassment, “Well I don’t like to be easy.”
I bet, flutters across Kara’s brain, but she tamps the thought down quickly.
Lena turns back to her, clearly still expecting her to pick out her lie.
Kara reaches over to grab an oreo and shoves the whole thing in her mouth, considering.
“Well the obvious choice for the lie would be flying a plane,” Kara thinks out loud, “But that would mean you’ve never driven a car, which is, honestly, a little crazy. And it would be pretty weird if you could fly a plane and not a car.”
Lena just hums at her reasoning.
“But not having driven a car is more feasible than flying a plane. Which could just mean you included it to throw me off.”
“So what’s your final answer?”
Kara turns back to her, hoping to find a clue in Lena’s gaze. But Lena’s wearing the best poker face she’s ever seen.
“That you’ve never driven a car. That’s your lie.”
Lena sucks her teeth for a moment, looking down at her cleanly manicured nails, “The accidental fire didn’t reach further than a single beaker. Though, the beaker did explode. But that hardly counts as setting the whole lab on fire.”
Kara feels her eyes widen and her jaw drops slightly, “The lab fire was your lie?!”
Lena sends her a wicked grin.
Kara starts at this revelation, unsure of where to start. She settles on, “you know how to fly a plane?!”
Lena nods smugly before expanding, “I took lessons when I was fifteen and was fully licensed by the time I was sixteen. My brother flies too, it was meant to be a bonding activity.” She scoffs a little to herself at that, as if acknowledging how bizarre that sounded.
“But you’ve never driven a car.” Kara doesn’t say it as a question. It’s more to remind Lena how unlikely it is for those two truths to belong to one person.
Lena simply shrugs, palms facing the sky.
“But how did you get to flying school if you couldn’t drive?” Kara asks, plucking up another oreo.
“There are ways. And for the record, just because I’ve never driven a car doesn’t mean I don’t understand the mechanics of the process. Or that I wouldn’t be successful if I tried,” Lena defends, only slightly indignant.
“Right, I mean, how much different could it be from flying a plane?” Kara flails her hands out above her head if only to show how truly bonkers she found the whole scenario.
“Drastically, I’d imagine.” Lena deadpans, before giving Kara a sidelong glance and scrunching her nose. She reaches over and snatches the potato chip bag from Kara’s lap, eating them one at a time, as if unwilling to get the oil on more than her index finger and thumb.
They sit quietly for a moment before Kara presses on, “So how have you gone this long not driving a car?”
Lena gives another shrug, thoughtful this time, “I’ve only been old enough to drive for a few years. And until recently, I’ve been away at boarding school. That was a closed campus, so there was no real need for a car, even once I was old enough.” Lena looks back down to the bag in her hand and sets it aside, wiping her hands together.
“Why’d you leave boarding school?” Kara continues, eager to learn more about the cheerleader sitting next to her who could, apparently, fly an aircraft.
Lena looks over to where Kara’s teammates had migrated to the coolers on the deck for more beer. She turns back to Kara with a coy grin, “Food was awful.”
Kara lets out a sympathetic scoff at that.
It’s a deflection and Kara knows it. She knows there’s a more significant reason Lena decided to come back to Midvale to finish out her high school career. But Kara also knows what it’s like to want to keep some things private, to keep things light and carefree.
If only for a little while.
“Valid,” Kara giggles, and let’s it go.
A comfortable silence falls over them. Kara leans back and tucks her arm behind her head in the sand, stretching her legs out.
Lena gazes down at where she lay. “Ok, it’s your turn,” she taps her own knuckle to Kara’s arm.
Kara looks up to the sky. She notes that she can see Venus rising against the faded blue of the sky.
“My max bench is 200,” she hears Lena scoff and laugh next to her, “I like magic tricks, and I have a near photographic memory.”
In her peripherals, she can see Lena perk up at the last statement. It makes her think of the conversation she’d had with Winn the night before, and the reason she had qualified her statement with ‘near’.
Kara moves her gaze to Lena who seems to be assessing her.
“They say photographic memory isn’t real,” Lena looks at her doubtfully, trying to sniff out the lie.
“Would it be better if I changed it to ‘extremely prolonged eidetic memory’?” She maintains eye contact with Lena as she says it, almost able to see the wheels turning between the other girls ears.
Lena narrows her eyes, then seems to come to a decision, “Well, for the sake of your reputation, I hope you’re lying about the magic tricks.”
Kara lies still for a moment, then slowly sits up, scanning the sand around them. She reaches out for a perfectly sized pebble and then casts a mischievous grin Lena’s way. Adjusting herself so that she’s facing Lena straight on from her knees, she holds the pebble in her flat palm to show Lena. The other girls eyes lock onto the pebble, flick uncertain up to Kara, then back to her palm.
Kara picks the pebble up with her right hand and moves to place it in her left. She pulls the pebble back into her right hand as her left hand closes around empty space, managing a pretty clean vanish. She smirks when she sees that Lena’s eyes are still glued to her left hand. Slowly uncurling her left fist, Kara feels herself glow when Lena grabs to inspect her hand in disbelief.
Motioning with her left hand for Lena to ‘hold on’, Kara snaps the fingers of her right hand. The pebble drops from her fingertips to her palm and she triumphantly holds the pebble up for Lena to inspect.
There’s a pause. Then, “I hate it,” Lena states while taking the pebble, her eyes wide.
Kara grabs the pebble back wordlessly and tosses it back and forth between her hands. With the pebble in her left hand, she reaches to scratch her left forearm with the empty hand. Lena’s eyes track the motion, as if trying to catch the trick.
Kara tosses the pebble to her right hand and, as she reaches across to scratch her right forearm, Lena’s eyes following the movement, she performs a perfect french drop in her right hand. She pretends to toss the pebble back to her left hand, then pulls the left hand away and reveals her empty hand.
Lena just laughs and shakes her head, looking up at Kara in something so close to amazement.
Kara unfurls a very impish smile at Lena as she slowly and deliberately leans in towards Lena, causing Lena’s throat to bob. Kara reaches her right hand up near Lena’s ear, her eye’s locked with Lena’s, and snaps.
Lena’s hands fly to cover her mouth, already knowing what will be in Kara’s hand when she pulls back. “No,” she says firmly into her hands.
Kara just lets the short laugh caught in her throat slip past her lips and pulls herself and her hand back from Lena, revealing the small pebble in her fingertips.
Lena loses her dignified composure for a small moment and flails her hands in front of her. “Oh my god,” she looks up to Kara excitedly, “I’ve never seen anyone do it in real life!” The display makes something somewhat familiar flutter in Kara’s chest and she can only let out an unattractive snort.
Still laughing, she shifts her legs out from beneath her as Lena presses her shoulder against her own and playfully pushes out her arm in an attempt to topple Kara over, “I can’t believe it.”
Kara allows herself to be pushed away, smug smile still in place. When she gets close to losing her balance, she grabs hold of Lena’s wrist to right herself. She moves her other hand to poke playfully at the other girls stomach and chin, as she would with Winn in this type of situation.
Lena responds to the light, tickling jabs with a surprised gasp, her fingers tightening around the spot they had found on Kara’s bicep while her other hand pushes on Kara’s chest. Something entirely familiar and definitely not in Kara’s chest swirls when her focus zeroes in on the contact.
Kara chuckles and gives one last half-hearted shove to Lena’s shoulder as she draws back, “Can’t believe what?”
Lena rights herself with a bright smile on her face, “Well, I really just can’t decide who’s a bigger nerd. You for pulling out party tricks at an actual party. Or me for almost finding them… impressive.”
Kara makes an indignant sound as a hand flies to her chest. She shoots Lena an affronted look, “Excuse me? Almost impressive?”
“Mmm, I said what I said,” Lena looks off toward the sunset, taking on a haughty front.
Kara clicks her tongue, throws her hair over a shoulder, “Whatever helps you sleep at night.” She picks up the pebble she’d used for her tricks and tosses it into Lena’s lap.
Lena turns to her abruptly, “So what was the lie?”
Kara grabs a handful of chips from the nearby bag and shoves them all into her mouth gracelessly. “I can only bench 185,” she mumbles through her full mouth.
Lena’s eyebrows shoot up, “Only? That’s at least as much as you weigh.”
“Bit more,” Kara wagers, glancing over to gauge Lena’s reaction. She doesn’t miss the way Lena’s throat does the bobbing motion again. Or the way she blinks slowly a few times.
Satisfied that Lena is at least impressed with that, Kara is content to let Lena carry the conversation form there.
Appearing to give up on that topic, Lena switches to another, “So you do have a photographic memory, then?”
“Near,” Kara corrects, “And you’re right. Prolonged eidetic memory is more accurate.”
“How long is prolonged?” Lena asks, interested in Kara’s answer in a way Kara couldn’t quite place. Almost gentle? Encouraging?
Kara shrugs, tucks an imaginary strand of hair behind her ear, “It honestly depends?”
When Lena doesn’t prod further, Kara looks over. Lena is evidently waiting for her to continue on her own.
“Well it can vary from minutes to… weeks? Months?” Kara explains.
“And it’s not just transferring memories from eidetic to short term storage?” Lena uses vocabulary that Kara wasn’t aware other seventeen-year-olds used.
She shakes her head, rubs at her eye, “No. Perfect recall.”
“Huh,” Lena looks off into the distance. The ‘fascinating’ goes unsaid, but is implied. “You must be an amazing student,” Lena adds as she redirects her attention to Kara.
That gets a snort from Kara, “Not at all.”
Lena quirks an eyebrow.
“I can only recall things I pay attention to. And I don’t really… pay attention to much,” Kara says, somewhat sheepishly, “Unless I’m like, really focusing. Like, trying really hard.”
Lena opens her mouth as if to say something, but thinks better of it. She instead turns her attention back to the setting sun in front of them, the sky now a brilliant display of pink-tinted clouds against a fading blue sky.
They sit quietly, watching as the sun slips through shades of blue, then orange, to pink.
“I think I’m at my happiest when the sky is pink,” Lena says thoughtfully when the sun finally sinks low enough to allow the sky to slip back to blue hues.
Kara smiles at the thought of Lena being at her happiest while sitting next to her. She thinks to reply, but before she can, she hears Winn call from somewhere behind them.
“Kara! Lena!”
They both turn to see Winn approaching them across the sand. Kara looks back to Lena before standing up and grabbing her bag of chips. Lena moves to grab the oreo package and takes the helping hand up that Kara offers her. They move towards Winn.
“Hey Winn,” Lena greets him with a small wave and a smile.
Kara is less enthusiastic about having a third party joining them.
“Hey, we’re all gonna walk to the docks and take boats out for the fireworks. Mike and James have already gone down to ready their boats. You guys in?” he explains quickly, “They should be starting in fifteen minutes, now that the sun’s down.”
Lena doesn’t answer right away, casting a glance Kara’s way instead. Winn seems to take the cue and turns to Kara, waiting for an answer.
When Kara realizes that the decision has been put to her, she stammers, “Oh! Uh, yeah! Sure.”
She looks back to Lena as Winn nods and turns. Lena gives her a friendly smile, and they both move to follow Winn back to the house.
____
Kara and Lena end up on separate boats for the firework show, and Kara doesn’t really see much of Lena when they return to the house. Partly due to the party having significantly grown in size after nightfall, but also because Jess Huang had swept Lena up to introduce her to the newcomers.
Somewhere between Kenny doing a keg stand with a keg that had inexplicably shown up and Mike destroying the makeshift beer pong table when he’d shoved a guy onto it after being accused of cheating, the neighbors had called the cops on the party.
Winn comes barreling into the living room yelling ‘Cops!’ and Kara is suddenly swept up in chaos.
Since she hasn’t been drinking, Kara isn’t exactly motivated to run away. She’s able to navigate her way through the drunken fray to the kitchen, searching for a suitable hiding spot. Maybe Alex is on duty and will find her and roll her eyes when she eventually discovers her. She eyes the pantry closet, considers it, then quickly crosses the kitchen to shut herself in.
Kara stands across from the cereal and flips the shutters on the door to watch her stumbling teammates leave the house out the back, toward the beach. On their way out someone hits the lightswitch and the light flooding into the closet cuts out.
Kara feels something strange tug in her chest as she stands in the darkness. Something uncomfortable. Familiar.
Suddenly, she’s hyper-aware of the sound of her own breathing. The need to be silent flashes across her - hot, like a branding iron. She needs to be quiet. Or they would hear her.
She stands frozen for what feels like an eternity. Unable to move. The house is silent. Waiting on a precipice.
Then she hears them.
Footsteps are sounding down a hallway.
Her heart beat kicks in her chest. So hard she starts to ache.
She’s aware that she’s holding her breath. She tries to force air into her lungs. But her breaths only come in shallow gasps.
Her limbs start to go numb. Knees give way as footsteps draw nearer. She’s dimly aware that she’s sliding down a wall. She doesn’t feel herself moving.
Sweat slips down her brow. A pair of boots enter the kitchen. The beam of a flashlight streaks across the door. They’re going to hear her.
Light illuminates the hands in front of her. She’s not sure those are her hands. She tries to lift them. To inspect them better. They don’t move. She stares at them, horrified.
Her eyes flit to look out the door. There’s a hand there too. On the floor. Behind a counter. In a pool of-
There’s a heavy pounding in her ear. Is that her heart? The waves of pain through her body pound along to it.
She thinks she hears an officer calling to another.
What was he saying? Something about bodies-
No.
The flashlight streaks across the door again. Footsteps draw nearer.
No. There aren’t bodies here.
She tries to scream. Tries to cry out. Tries to let someone know she’s here.
She can’t.
Her face is dripping. Sweat and tears falling from her cheek.
The closet door swings open and the flashlight is shining in her face. She blinks once. Twice.
She feels small. Like she’s five again.
“Christ,” she hears a gruff voice say, light blocking out their face. “Someone get Officer Danvers!” they call back into the house.
The name Danvers stirs something in her. Something warm and meaningful.
She feels her breath deepen. Letting oxygen back into her lungs.
She lifts her hand slowly. Blocks the light from her eyes. She sees a round face looking down at her. He’s very clearly worried.
The flashlight is lowered as lights are turned on in the room he’s standing. Her eyes flit around, recognizing the surroundings as somewhere familiar. Comfortable.
“Kara!”
Kara.
A breath shudders into Kara’s body and she’s suddenly shaking. Kara realizes she’s sobbing as a familiar woman - Alex - as Alex falls to her knees by her side.
“Kara, shhhh, you’re safe,” Alex inspects the closet as she pulls Kara against her chest. She shifts her attention to Kara’s body for any signs of harm, “Shhhh, I’ve got you, Kara. You’re okay now.”
Alex pulls Kara into her lap, pressing her chest to Kara’s back. She’s still gasping for air between sobs.
“Count my fingers, Kara.”
Kara doesn’t quite process the command. “Count my fingers,” Alex lifts her hands and slips Kara’s on top of them. She realizes what Alex wants her to do. Slowly, she presses her left pinky down on Alex’s, “One,” she’s able to mutter.
“Good, now the next one,” Alex encourages.
Kara moves to Alex’s ring finger. Her middle. Index. Thumb. Two, three, four, five. She’s counts over onto Alex’s right hand, up to ten.
“Again,” Alex says softly.
Kara starts back at Alex’s left pinky. Counts through. Starts again. Then again. Again.
Kara loses track of how long she sits in Alex’s lap, counting her fingers. Slowly, her breathing evens out and her heart rate comes down slightly. Kara feels her body go slack with exhaustion and she falls more firmly into Alex’s embrace.
“Can you tell me what caused you to panic, Kara?” Alex asks as light as a feather, wiping away hair that had been plastered to Kara’s face.
She’s silent for a moment. Looking into the closet before her. She takes a deep breath.
“I… I think I-” her voice catches in her throat. Alex’s hold on her tightens slightly.
“I think I remembered.”