Chapter Text
Lena sensed when someone jumped on her bed and got under the covers. Must be really early because her alarm hadn’t rung yet.
“Mom, wake up.” She felt the little girl’s breath in her neck. “We’re going to be late.” When the brunette opened her eyes and saw big brown eyes staring at her. She raised an eyebrow staring back at the girl. “I'm sorry. I shouldn’t have called you mom.”
“It’s okay, babe. Come here and give me a proper good morning.” The girl hugged her tight and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “How did you sleep?” Lena sat on the bed and the girl imitated her move.
“Well, I think. I'm a little nervous.”
“I can tell. You’re getting better than my alarm on waking me up. What time is it, by the way?”
The girl looked at her with a thoughtful expression the looked at the clock besides the bed. Lena did the same.
“Woah! It’s not even 6 o'clock yet.” The little one muttered a soft I'm sorry and Lena kissed her forehead. “How about you take a shower while I make your favorite breakfast?”
“Chocolate and banana pancakes?” She asked with the little eyes shining.
“Chocolate and banana pancakes.”
The girl jumped on Lena and covered her whole face with kisses. “Thank you, thank you.” Then she got out of bed and went running to the bathroom yelling you’re the best.
Before getting out of bed too, Lena looked at the small picture frame placed closer to the clock, by the bed and a sad smile appeared on her face.
“I wish you were here to see her growing up. She’s amazing, just like her mother. And she’s also looking a lot more like you each day.” The brunette closed her eyes and dropped a tear. She took the frame and ran a hand over one of the three figures in it. “We love you so much. I hope you can find your way back to us because I know you’re out there somewhere. I won’t give up on you. Ever.”
She placed three fingers on her lips and back on the frame, almost like a kiss, before putting the picture back in place. Then she got up to make the little one's favorite breakfast.
“Aunt Lena.” The eight year old girl walked into the kitchen where the Luthor was making breakfast. “I'm ready.”
Lena turned around to look at her and started to laugh. “Oh, sweetie. Why are you wearing your new pajamas?”
“I couldn’t find my uniform.” The girl pouted.
“Shoot, it’s in my closet. I forgot to put it on your bed while you showed.” The brunette put the pancakes she were making on a plate with some blueberries and chocolate syrup. “You can start to eat and I'll get your uniform. Try not to get too dirty or you'll need to shower again and will be late for your first day.”
“Fine.” She said with her mouth full of food. That made Lena look back at her and raise an eyebrow. “Sorry.” The girl smiled shyly after swallowing the food.
Lena went back to her bedroom to get the uniform and took the opportunity to get dressed. She had already showered, that’s why the breakfast wasn’t ready yet when the little one arrived at the kitchen.
“Babe, it’s in your bed. Finish the pancakes and get dressed.”
“Aren't you going to eat?”
“I had coffee while making breakfast.”
Lena took the time to read some emails. She’s going to be interviewed this morning about the moving of the L-Corp head office to National City. The reporter had sent an email that morning already to confirm the interview time. She thought she was going to be interviewed by The Queen of all Media herself, but Cat Grant, the CEO of CatCo, told her that she left at the hands of her most promising reporter.
She was so lost reading her inbox the she didn’t see the girl leaving the kitchen to get dressed and brush her teeth.
“I’m ready. Can we go?”
“Of course, babe. Let me get my purse and we can go.”
They were almost at the school’s parking lot but the traffic was crazy that morning.
“Who is going to stay with me after school?” The little one was on the backseat playing with a rubik's cube.
“I’ll come get you and you'll stay with me at work until I find a new nanny.”
“Really? I love going to work with you.” The girl said excited. “But I'll miss Jess.” She pouted. “And Ms. Queller.”
“Me too, babe.” Lena looked at her through the rearview mirror. “But my new secretary seems fun. I think you'll like her too.”
“What’s her name?”
“Eve Teschmacher.”
“Eve Tessm... That’s a difficult name.”
Lena laughed.
“Look, I finished the second layer.” She lifted the cube so that Lena could look.
“Congratulations, sweetie. You’re getting better, soon you will solve the entire cube but I can’t look right now. Hold on for a second because...” She pulled the parking brake. “We are here.”
The little one loosened her seat belt and went straight to kiss Lena’s cheek like she does every time she gets her to school.
The left the car and went inside the school hand in hand with the kid walking and jumping at the same time. When they arrived at the classroom door, the teacher was there greeting the students and saw them.
“Hello, you must be Ruby Arias.” The woman talked smiling at the girl.
“That’s me.” She smiled back.
“I’m Ms. Honey.”
“Really? Like Matilda?” The girl was already impressed by the name.
The teacher laughed. “Kind of. Get inside to meet your new colleagues.”
Ruby went to hug Lena who gave her a kiss on the head. “I’ll see you later, babe. Love you.”
“Love you too.” Lena saw her entering the room and sitting beside a little boy with a blonde hair.
“You have an adorable kid, Mrs. Arias.”
“It’s Ms. Luthor, actually.” Lena turned her attention from the little girl to look at the teacher.
“Oh, I'm sorry. I thought...”
“It’s fine. I'm only her legal guardian.” The woman looked embarrassed. “I should get going or I'll be late for work.” Lena reached out to greet the woman. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Honey.”
The woman took her hand in a quick handshake. “Likewise. And again, I'm sorry.”
Lena only smiled and turned around to leave. She got inside the car and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She thought about the girl’s mother and closed her eyes for a few seconds. Then she started the car and headed to L-Corp.
Lena spent the entire morning signing new contracts and answering emails. Being a Luthor, daughter of Lionel and sister of Lex, she was already used to the business world but she didn’t know that being a business woman herself would be so boring and stressful at the same time. She thought that a year after the company opening things would get calmer but it seems that all the madness was just beginning.
“Ms. Luthor?” Her new secretary, Eve Teschmacher, a blonde woman that seemed too nice for her own good, entered the office. “Your 12 o'clock is here.”
“Thank you, Eve.” Lena closed the last document folder on her desk and stood up. “You can send her in.”
Eve hold the door for another blonde woman to enter the place then closed again, leaving them alone.
“Good Afternoon, Ms. Danvers, right?” Lena greeted her with a handshake.
“Yes, but you can call me Kara. It’s nice to finally meet you, Ms. Luthor.”
“Likewise, Kara.” Lena pointed to the couch so Kara could sit down and did the same. “We’re already on the first name basis. I hate this formality.”
“Me too.” Kara placed the recorder on the small coffee table near the couch. “Can I record?”
“By all means.” The blonde then turned the record on. “Can we start the interview and talk later if there’s time? I have a feeling that we’re going to need a lot of time to talk and I have to be somewhere at 3 p.m.”
“Of course. So, this is your first interview after deciding to move the L-Corp head office to National City, right.” Kara started talking and Lena nodded. “What led you to make this decision?”
“I never had the intention to stay in Metropolis for long after the company opening but since I kept the former Luthor Corp building after the bankruptcy and after the selling of all subsidiaries, we need certain kind of stability before deciding to finally move.”
“But there’s still an office in Metropolis?” Kara was recording but also taking some notes.”
“Yes. My mother, who is also a partner, took over the office there. We decided to maintain because we still have partnership with some labs and companies there, such as S.T.A.R Labs.” Lena got up and went to her desk to get the water jar and two glasses for her and Kara.
“When you knew that was the right time to make the move?”
“Like I told you, we needed stability first. I never thought that we would get it in just a year but with the successful products and the software that we developed to the Palmer Tech smartphones made our finances move in a way that I didn't think was possible.”
“Does L-Corp have new products in development for this new step?”
“Not yet. I mean, not in development, we do have new projects in minds but they’re all theoretical at the moment. We’re working on the new updates for the OS now.” She took a sip of water. She didn't expect her to talk so much but the reporter seemed to know exactly what she was doing. And Lena appreciated that.
“Can we go a little personal now but still about work?” Kara asked a little nervous.
“How so?” The CEO was confused about the question.
“I think I never read anything where you talk about the project you sold to NASA when you’re still in college.”
“Oh, that.” Lena seemed kind of relived. She thought the blonde was going to ask about her personal life. She always interfered so that the spotlight wouldn't reach Ruby since her brother went crazy and got arrest for almost destroying Metropolis and killing Superman. Of course people knew she had a daughter even if the girl wasn’t her daughter after all.
“Is it something we can talk about?”
“Of course.” Lena took a deep breath to answer. “When I was still at MIT, I developed a kind of external signal blocker for satellites. At first it wasn’t really what I had in mind to build but all my calculations led to that.”
“And how it works?”
“It’s almost like any other signal blocker but it prevents 99,9% of signal interferences of any kind coming from this planet, another one or even another galaxy.”
“Woah! It’s impressive. Why did you sell it?”
“My father had died at the time and I didn’t want to live with the money he left for me. Also, I didn’t know what I wanted to do after college, all I knew was that I wanted to gkeep doing research, so I decided to sell it.”
“You regret it?”
“Absolutely not. I didn’t have any use for that and I'm glad that it’s in good hands.”
They finished the interview and stayed talking about science things that Kara had read and that her sister, Alex, had shared with her. Lena could swear that she had heard that name Alex Danvers before but couldn’t remember where.
When Kara was about to leave it was almost 3 p.m and Lena needed to get Ruby so she offered the reporter a ride back to Catco, since it was on the way to Ruby's school.
“Now I understand why Cat sent you to do the interview.” Lena said while they were going to her car in the parking lot.
“Why?”
“Your questions. You are on the rise.”
“Thank you?” Kara smiled.
“You don’t need to thank me. I can see you being the next Lois Lane in a few years. The first Kara Danvers, actually.”
Kara felt her face heat up and realized right away that she must be blushing absurdly. “Thank you, Lena. It means a lot coming from someone successful like you.”
“Just don’t tell Cat I said that about Lois Lane.”
Lena waited for exactly five minutes in front of the school when Ruby came bouncing and entered the car.
“Good afternoon, sweetie.” Lena received a kiss on the cheek before the girl sat and put the seatbelt.
“School is amazing.”
“Really?” Lena looked at her through the mirror and smile. “Where’s that scared little girl I saw yesterday and in the morning?”
“I don’t know her.” Ruby said and both of them laughed.
“What do you think about ice cream before we go home?”
“What about your work?”
“Today we go home and you tell me everything about school and from tomorrow on we go to L-Corp and stay there until 6 p.m.”
“Deal.”
Lena take them to a park near the pier to taste one of the best ice creams in the city. They buy and walk through the park hand in hand.
It’s a beautiful day in National City, not too hot and not to cold. The sun is out but surrounded by a lot of clouds. Since it’s work/school day, the park is almost empty and silent, the only sound they can hear is from the squirrels and the beach near them.
“Can I ask you something?” Ruby stops walking and looks to the ground.
“Of course, babe. You can ask me anything.”
“I know you’re not my mother.” She starts speaking very softly. “But you take care of me since I can remember. Why do you get sad when I call you mom?”
“Ruby, sweetie...” Lena sits on a bench next to them and asks the little girl to do the same. “It doesn’t make me sad. It’s just that...”
“What?”
“Makes me think about your mother a lot.” Lena takes one of Ruby’s hands and place it on her lap. “What do you remember about her?”
Ruby looks at their hands and speaks softly. “Not much.”
“That’s why, babe.” The little girl looks back at Lena confused. “When she... You know... When that happened you’re so young and I don’t want to take her place in your memories.”
“I understand.” Ruby looks to the ground again. “Can you tell me more things about her? And maybe about what happened? I know you told me before that I was too young for us to talk about it but I'm older now, I'm 8 already. I'm a big girl.” The girl smiled proud of her age as if she was an adult.
“That I can do.” Lena ran a hand through the beautiful strands of the little girl’s hair. “We can start with little things and then I tell you about that . Not now though, I don’t think you’re ready to touch on that subject yet.”
“Fine.” Ruby sighed.
“What do you want to know?”
“Hm.” Ruby tasted some of her own ice cream as she considered a question.
Lena was staring at her expression. She looked exactly like Sam. That made the CEO smile sadly. There’s been five years already without her and that time doesn’t made Lena miss her any less. Doesn’t made Lena love her any less either.
“What was her favorite ice cream flavor?”
“Oh! That’s a difficult question.” It was the brunette's turn to think. “She loved all flavors of ice cream even the disgusting ones.”
“Ew!”
“That’s the perfect word to describe her taste.” They both laughed. “But her favorite was salt caramel. Wanna hear a story about the disgusting ones?”
“Yes!” Ruby replied excited, jumping on the bench.
“We were going back to my apartment...”
“You know Harvard dorms are in the opposite way, right?” They’re in Lena's car leaving the theatre after spending the entire afternoon and half of the night watching classic movies there.
“Yep . But today you’re sleeping in my place.”
“Why so?”
“Because I still don’t think a pregnant woman should live in a place so small and on top of that sharing that little space with someone else.”
Sam sighs. “You know I can’t afford living somewhere else. I got that place because of the scholarship.”
“I know... Sorry.”
They stayed silent for a while. Sam would love to move for a bigger place or one where she could have her own bathroom. She and Lena had been friends for almost 6 months now, the same time of her pregnancy, and Sam was used to spend the entire weekend at the Luthor's apartment, watching movies, playing board games and studying.
They loved to study together. Lena has a minor degree in Business, courtesy of the insistence of Lionel Luthor , the same minor Sam is doing right know at the same time she’s getting a major in Math. Meanwhile, Lena is still struggling to decide what field of engineering she want to build her career on, so she’s studying all of them before choosing a specific one.
“Besides...” Lena starts. “Today is Saturday and you spend most of weekends at my place. ”
“But I don't want to take advantage of your hospitality.”
“You don’t.” Since they are stopped at the red light, Lena uses the time to look at Sam and give her one of her most genuine smiles. “I like when you’re there. ”
There’s no need for Sam to respond so she just smiles. Lena knows that the older brunette loves nothing more than spending time with her.
They’re almost at Lena’s building when Sam says the she was in need to eat ice cream.
“I don’t think there’s a place where we can buy ice cream at this time of the night. I mean, it’s almost eleven.”
“What about that convenience store in front of that blockbuster? ”
“Sam, the ice creams there are the most disgusting I've ever saw. Sell something like that should be a crime.”
Sam laughed and rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic and take me there, young lady. You don’t want your goddaughter looking like ice cream, do you?”
“Fine.”
They go there and Sam buys three cartoons of that 'thing'. That’s what Lena calls those ice creams. And the younger Luthor buys frozen pizza for them to eat and for Sam to 'wash the disgust off her mouth' .
“You ’re going to eat this far away from me.” Lena says unlocking the door and going straight to the kitchen to put the pizzas in the oven.
“No, I won’t. I'm sharing with you.”
“Ew , Sam."
Sam laughs and goes to the guest bedroom to change in something more comfortable. Since the first day in Lena’s apartment Sam owned a spot in the guest's closet or what Lena likes to call “Sam’s closet in Sam's bedroom” even though they always sleep on the couch sharing the same blanket or in Lena’s bed.
“Hey, Luthor ." Coming back to the kitchen, Sam sits in the island while Lena makes them orange juice.
“Hey, Arias.” She has her back to Sam. “What are we going to watch today?”
“I don’t think my brain can take more movies.”
“We could watch The Greatest British Baking Show.”
“Why ... Want to get some ideas to cook for me?” Sam winks at her.
“In your dreams.” They laugh.
“Lena...”
“Hm?” She turns off the oven and takes the pizza to the coffee table near the couch with the juice she made.
“Thank you... For everything you've done for me in these five months we know each other.”
“What?” Lena walks closer to Sam and sees that she has some tears in her eyes. “ Sam... You don’t need to thank me. You would have done the same for me.”
“Still.” She drops a tear and clean her face right after. “ I don’t know what I would do without you. You’re the best thing that happened to me in the middle of all the shit that’s going on in this year for me.”
Lena pulls her best friend in a bear hug. “I’ll always be here for you.” She gives her a kiss on the forehead before hugging her again. They stay like that for a while until Sam stops crying.
“So, what flavor you want to taste first: cream cheese with bacon, vanilla and cheetos or cheesecake?”
“I’ll take the cheesecake because it’s the only normal flavor you got. You can take the other ones and die from food poisoning.”
Sam laughs hard. “Oh, Luthor you’re so dramatic. That’s why I love you.”
Ruby had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard when Lena finished the story.
“You know what’s the best part about this?” She takes Ruby’s hand as they go back to the car.
“What?”
“You’re already there with us even if you’re still in your mother's belly.”
Later that day when Ruby was already sleeping, Lena was reading some L-Corp reports sitting on the couch with the TV turned on but the without the sound. She looked at the TV and saw what looked like a warzone at the docks. There were bodies everywhere, even if blurred by the camera, and a message written with blood on one of the containers: This city will be swept away from all criminality and sin by the force of Rao.
At the end of the statement there was a symbol. The same symbol that was drawn on a tree on a much smaller scale near where Samantha had disappeared. On that day Lena had showed the drawing to one of the police officers there but he said that it wasn’t important. Now all Lena could think is that the symbol could be a clue to finally find out what had happened to Sam.
So, Lena took her phone and made a call. The number got to the voice mail and she left a message.
“We need to talk. Call me tomorrow morning.”