Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1
“Look at you. You’re worthless. You’re weak. It’s so easy to take what we want from you.”
Kara screamed as the owner to the voice drilled into her leg.
“It’s like a never-ending source of data. We keep you hooked up to that IV and give you just enough nutrition to sustain your alien biology, turn on those sun lamps for a little while, and you’re healed up enough for us to go again. All it takes is a little kryptonite and keeping you out of the sun for a month. What Lex and Lillian wouldn’t give to see you like this. A super screaming and crying, completely at my mercy.”
The drill clattered onto the metal table to her right, Kara tensing at the sound, struggling against the restraints holding her down, the kryptonite in the cuffs burning her wrists.
“We’ve studied your blood, your bone marrow, all of your organs, and yet there’s one thing I’ve held off on. I’ve saved it for last. I didn’t want to taint the results in case this ruins your body.”
Kara turned to look at the figure, his back to her as he prepared his next experiment. He turned around, the doctor’s mask still hiding most of his face, all except his eyes. The eyes she has seen for five straight months now. The eyes of the devil himself. The difference this time was the green glow coming from the syringe in his hand. Kara’s eyes widened, struggling even more against her restraints.
“No, please no.” the plea slipping out from her lips.
He reached forward, pushing her head to the side and holding it still.
Kara struggled, knowing in her mind that she couldn’t escape, but she wouldn’t take it without a fight. The amount of kryptonite in the needle already making her feel like she wanted to throw up. She felt the needle go into her neck, the first small amount of kryptonite making its way into her veins. She whimpered, feeling the substance being pushed slowly into her bloodstream. A scream tore from her throat, the pain being too much to stop it from coming out as he pushed the plunger on the syringe, the entire amount of kryptonite surging into her veins.
“Kara”
“Amazing. I thought for sure you would pass out from that. Even your tears have a green tint to them.”
Kara panted, the tears burning as they trailed down her face.
“KARA WAKE UP”
“I wonder what liquid kryptonite does to your skin?”
Kara sat up, a scream tearing from her throat as she came back to consciousness, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.
“Kara…” A voice softly whispered from beside her. Flinching away from it, a whimper coming from deep within her, her eyes screwing shut and her legs coming up as she curled into a ball.
“It’s Alex, Kara. You’re safe.” The voice said again, still a whisper, like she’s trying to calm a wild animal.
Kara opened her eyes, adjusting quickly to the barely lit room. Looking to her right, she saw Alex sitting on her bed, her hands up and concern written on her face.
Tears formed as Kara locked eyes with Alex, a sob escaping her as she flung herself across the bed into Alex’s arms.
“Shh, Kara. It’s ok. You’re safe here. I got you.” Alex clutched at Kara, one hand stroking her hair, the other rubbing her back. She fought against the tears threating to spill at Kara’s pain.
Slowly, Kara calmed down, relaxing into Alex.
“I’m sorry” came a muffled voice.
Alex pulled at Kara until she was sitting up again, her hands finding Kara’s face as she made Kara look her in the eyes, her thumbs wiping away the tear tracks.
“You do not have to apologize Kara. You have nothing to be sorry for. You are allowed to have feelings. You are allowed to cry. You won’t heal unless you feel these emotions. I stayed the night for you. You’re my sister and you’re hurting. I love you too much to let you try to go through this alone and shove it down.” Alex leaned forward and kissed Kara’s forehead, pulling her into a hug.
“I love you, Alex.”
“I love you more, Kara.”
~~
Kara walked into Lena’s office, a smile lighting up at seeing Lena relaxed on her couch reading, instead of sitting stiffly behind her desk.
“Knock knock!” Kara’s voice rang out, causing Lena to look up from her report and smile.
“Hey, you! We didn’t have lunch plans, did we?” Lena said, her smile slipping into a confused glance at her watch.
“Oh no, I finished my article and Snapper was yelling at every person he came across so I thought I would come see if you wanted some company? I can start working on my next article if you still need to work, I just couldn’t handle all the yelling.” Kara’s smile faltered a little.
“Of course, Kara. Come and sit, I still need to finish my reports, and I have a video conference with some clients in fifteen minutes, then I’m all yours. I don’t mind you using my office as an escape. I can’t promise you won’t have some angry words being spoken once the meeting starts, but I highly doubt it’ll be up to Snapper’s yelling.” Lena stood up, grabbing a couple of glasses and the pitcher of water from her bar, pouring them both a glass before sitting back down next to Kara.
“Thanks Lena. I promise, they won’t even know I’m in your office.” Kara pulled out her laptop from her bag, setting it up on the coffee table.
~~
Both women sat in silence, the only sounds in the office were the rustling of pages and scratching of a pen on the documents Lena were working on, and the keys of Kara’s laptop. This was what Kara needed to calm down again. After a particularly bad week with nightmares, and then Snapper yelling, Kara was trying hard to fight down her anxiety. It was nearing the two-year mark since her kidnapping and Kara was fighting to keep her life on track. But the silence she was relaxing into was bound to have an end.
Kara jumped at the beep coming from across the room. “Ms. Luthor, your meeting starts in two minutes.” Jess’ voice comes from the phone on the desk.
Lena cuts her eyes at Kara, noticing how off Kara seemed. “Thank you Jess.” A click followed her response as Jess turned off the intercom.
“Kara, are you ok?” Lena asked, her hand falling to Kara’s knee.
Kara looked up, meeting the bright green eyes of her best friend, concern evident on her face. For a fleeting second, Kara felt like crying and telling Lena everything. She spent so much time hiding what happened, only having Alex to lean on, that the idea of Lena knowing was tempting. But she had a meeting to start, so Kara put on her smile, nodded and put her hand on top of Lena’s, squeezing it very carefully. “I was just in the zone. I’m not used to hearing Jess when I’m writing. Go, be a badass. Try not to make them cry.”
Lena smiled, not totally convinced, but Kara would tell her what was going on when she was ready. She stood, moving to her desk and opening the folder sitting there. She leaned to the drawer on the side of her desk, pulling out a remote and turning on the television on the wall. Lena appeared on the screen, the webcam being the only thing connected. Kara smiled as she watched Lena adjust herself in her seat, her poise now screaming CEO. Pressing a button on the keyboard, the tv on the wall went dark for a second before the faces of several men gathered around a table appeared.
“Hello gentlemen.” Lena said, her voice commanding attention. Kara looked back down at her laptop, finishing up the rough outline of an article she was getting ready to start on.
~~
Kara had pulled her laptop into her lap as she sat with her legs crossed on Lena’s office couch. It was easy to get lost back into her work, Lena and the men on the tv blending into the background. It wasn’t until fifteen minutes later that Kara started to notice something was wrong. She glanced up over her screen to see Lena had leaned back into her seat and crossed her arms. She tuned into the conversation, wondering what the problem was.
“-not what we meant. It’s not that you’re a woman- “
“That’s exactly what you meant. You have a problem that I am a woman and yet I refuse to agree to your views. You want me to just agree blindly, because what, you’re a man? I’ve never followed a man in my life. What you’re proposing is atrocious. Did you honestly expect me to agree to spending two million dollars on an experimental part, that” Lena reached over and grabbed a paper from the folder next to her, “has wielded only one partially successful run after 100 trial runs?” The paper was thrown back to the desk, Lena crossing her arms again. “Honestly, if you wanted to insult me, you could have sent me an email and not wasted my time. I am not naïve, and I am surely not struggling and desperate enough to buy a faulty part.”
“Your brother never had a problem with our business.”
Kara’s eyes widened. Surely this man had a death wish.
Lena’s eyes narrowed. She unfolded her arms and stood, grabbing the remote and switching to a wide angle of her office, the sound of her heels filling the silence as she walked around her desk and closer to the screen. Kara could see the other men in the video, two of them had their head down in their hands, one with his mouth open as he stared at the apparent leader of the group, the leader himself was standing, his hands on the table.
Lena stopped in the center of her office, folding her hands together in front of her, looking every bit the powerful CEO.
“My brother may not have had a problem with your business, but that should say enough. You’re saying your product was good enough for a madman that had lost touch with reality. I wasn’t put in this position because of my name, Mr. Miller. I was made CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company because of my ability to run said company, not because of my last name. I was set to take over this company within two years, before Lex went mad. That being said, even having me take over two years ahead of time, I have tripled the revenue of this company and turned it into something quite good. So, thank you for your time, but your contract will no longer continue with L-Corp.” Lena lifted the remote to the tv, hitting a button and causing the screen to go black.
Lena stood there for a few seconds, staring at the black screen.
“Well. I need a drink now.” Lena said, turning and raising an eyebrow at Kara, a silent question being asked.
“I’m good, but I think you need a better drink than sitting in your office. You need to escape, at least for a couple hours because that was a low blow.” Kara closed her laptop, shoving it into the bag and standing, waiting for Lena to make the first move towards the door.
With a smirk on her face, Lena walked over to her desk to put down her remote and get her phone and purse out of her drawer before walking to the doors.
“Jess, I’m leaving for the day. I suggest you do too.”
“Yes Ms. Luthor! I’ll finish up shortly!” Jess said, smiling at Kara. Anytime Kara could get Lena to leave the office before 2am was a win.
The two women stepped into the elevator, Lena already relaxing out of the CEO persona.
~~
“Kara, I wanted to thank you” Lena said, as they settled into the back of her car. The driver starting out to the alien bar Kara gave him the address to.
“What do you need to thank me for?” Kara asked, turning in her seat to look at Lena.
“You’re a good friend. I haven’t had someone to lean on, ever, and you are really easy to just relax into. I don’t think you understand how much I appreciate your friendship. I’m not used to having friends, so I apologize if I ever seem like I take advantage of you.” Lena was looking down at her hands curled together in her lap.
“Lena, you never seem to take advantage of me. Why would you think this?” Kara said, reaching over to grab Lena’s hands.
Lena looked up, meeting Kara’s bright blue eyes. “It’s just, after Mr. Miller brought up my brother, I just wanted to make sure you knew I appreciated you. I never had someone in my corner like Lex did. He had people always supporting him, somehow.” Lena scoffed, the idea of Lex having people to support him, even as he become insane, was slightly funny.
“Lena, you’re my best friend. Short of you killing a puppy, I will always have your back. Know that.”
Lena smiled at Kara, turning her hand just enough so that they were now holding hands, silence engulfing the car as they made their way to the bar.
~~
Kara walked into the bar, followed by Lena. Waving at the bartender, the two girls sat at the end of the bar, ordering the first of many drinks. Conversation flowed easily between the two women, only stopping briefly as Alex, Maggie and Winn joined them. Hours passed, Lena and Alex becoming quite drunk, much to the amusement of the rest of the gang. Before they knew it, it was close to midnight, Winn leaving Kara and Maggie to herd Lena and Alex home.
Knowing with how drunk Lena seemed to be, Kara refused to let her go to her apartment alone. Thinking it would be a better idea, Kara scooped up Lena, flying to her own apartment, Lena asleep in her arms long before they even landed. Carrying Lena into her bedroom, Kara pulled back the sheets, laying Lena down. She leaned down, taking off Lena’s heels and belt before pulling the covers back over her, watching Lena curl onto her side, clutching the pillow under her head. Smiling, Kara walked into the kitchen, getting a bottle of water and some painkillers she keeps for Alex and sets them down on the nightstand next to Lena. Kara walks into the bathroom, changing before crawling into the bed next to Lena, comforted by having someone else next to her.
Kara cried out as the knife cut across her stomach. Clenching her jaw, she snapped her mouth shut, refusing to scream and give him the satisfaction. Clenching her hands into fists, her entire body rigid as she fought the tears in her eyes, she endured another cut, deeper this time as he poked in her abdomen.
“Interesting. Your body is anatomically the same as a humans.” He began cutting further up her abdomen, exposing more of her insides. Kara cried out again, the pain being too much to handle as the edges of her vision danced with black.
“Ah Ah. Can’t have you escaping into the blackness now.” He said, backing away from her bleeding body. He reached onto the table, grabbing a syringe and injecting it into the IV that was in her arm. Kara felt her heart begin to race, the edges of her vision clearing and the pain coming back to the forefront of her mind.
“Adrenaline, my dear alien. I need to know every little detail of what happens to you.” He reached forward and plunged his hand into Kara’s abdomen, causing Kara to scream.
Lena woke up, confused for a minute at where she was and why she woke up. Sitting up slightly she recognized the rack of clothing against the wall. She was at Kara’s apartment. Looking around she noticed the water bottle and pills sitting next to the bed. Shaking her head, she reached over and took the pills, glad she had Kara in her life. Lena turned back to the bed, looking over at Kara sleeping next to her. She wasn’t surprised, they’ve slept in the same bed several times, what surprised her was the sweat covering Kara’s forehead. She didn’t look peaceful, she looked like she was in pain. Lena reached over, intending to wake Kara when she was stopped by a whimper.
Lena was confused, Kara didn’t seem like the type to get nightmares. She was too optimistic and bright. But she sat here, as Kara started to turn her head side to side, the whimpering becoming almost constant. Knowing better than to startle someone out of a nightmare Lena started softly.
Reaching over, she ran a finger down the side of Kara’s sweat soaked face, whispering her name. Kara just whimpered in return, thrashing more in her sleep, the covers being kicked further down the bed.
“Please” Kara spoke out, pleading with the monsters in her mind. Lena’s heart broke seeing her best friend, her constant ray of sunshine plagued by her own mind. Crossing her legs, she leaned over again, saying Kara’s name just a little louder, needing Kara to hear her over the voices in her mind. Touching her bicep Lena tried again.
“Kara, It’s Lena. You’re having a nightmare darling, wake up.”
Kara pleaded with her monsters again, struggling against some invisible force. Deciding to try harder, Lena grabbed Kara’s arm, saying her name with force.
“KARA. WAKE UP.” Lena breathed out a sigh of relief at Kara’s eyes snapping open. “Kara” she breathed out, only to jerk away as Kara jumped out of bed, knocking into the wall across her apartment and curling into a ball. Lena jumped up, rushing over to her, stopping at the edge of the couch as she heard Kara’s voice.
“No please. Not again. I don’t want to hurt again. Please I’ll tell you whatever you want, I’ll explain my biology and my planet. Just no more. Please.”
Lena’s heart shattered. Kara lay on the floor crying, looking like she expected to be hit, or worse. Crouching low, Lena stayed where she was, not wanting to make Kara more afraid.
“Kara, it’s Lena. You’re in your apartment. You’re safe. Look at me darling. I want you to see me. Come back to me. You’re not in that place anymore.” Lena whispered, almost sighing with relief as Kara peeked out from under her arms, tears streaming down her face.
“Lena?” Kara’s voice was so small, so broken. Lena just wanted to rush to Kara and hold her and cry with her.
“Yeah, Kara. It’s me. You’re safe.” Lena whispered again, leaning forward slightly and holding out her hand. Hoping to coax Kara up off the floor. Lena didn’t expect to suddenly be sitting on the floor, her arms full of a shaking Kryptonian. Recovering quickly, Lena started stroking Kara’s hair and rubbing her back as Kara cried into Lena’s chest.
“Shhh. I got you Kara. You’re safe, love.” Switching into a maternal mode she didn’t know she possessed, Lena started humming a lullaby. Somewhere deep in her memories she pulled the melody, feeling a distinct pull towards green lands and feeling carefree.
Slowly, Lena felt Kara relax in her arms, the crying turning into hiccups and broken sobs, finally turning into silence. Lena sat there, still humming and comforting Kara, knowing she’ll come back up when she was ready.
The minutes passed, Lena feeling Kara tensing up, preparing herself to sit back up and face the world around her. Slowly, Kara started to sit up, Lena refusing to let go though. As Kara sat up fully, Lena let her hands run down Kara’s arms, stopping only to grab one hand, her other hand stopping on Kara’s leg, letting her warmth be a grounding experience. She caught Kara’s tear-filled eyes, getting lost in the bright blue and seeing the fear and sadness swirl around in her eyes.
“I won’t push you to talk. Just know I’m here for you when you’re ready.” Lena said, squeezing Kara’s hand and leg.
Nodding, Kara cracked a small smile, grateful at having Lena in her life. Breathing in deeply, Kara stood, pulling Lena up with her and into a proper hug.
“Thank you, Lena.” Kara whispered into Lena’s neck, so lowly that Lena wouldn’t have heard her if Kara wasn’t basically in her ear.
~~~~~~