4. Revelation

“Mommy!” the twins exclaimed.

“Alex!” cried Kara and Eliza

Alex was bombarded by her four family members as soon as she walked through the door to their apartment.  Her heart was still pounding in her ears from her near-death experience in a crashing plane.

“Are you OK?” Eliza asked worriedly.

“I'm fine.  I'm OK,” she assured them.  “I'm OK.”  She returned their bear hugs.  “Um, Mom, would you mind putting the girls to bed?  I need to talk to Kara in private.”

“Of course, sweetheart.”  Eliza herded the girls to their room, deaf to the youngsters' protests.

Alex sighed when they were out of earshot.  “Oh, my God.”

“I know!” Kara giggled.  “It's incredible!”  She hugged Alex so tightly her bones cracked a little.

“Ow!” Alex groaned.

“Oh, sorry.  That was... That was too hard.  I'm just... I'm so excited!” the Kryptonian panted.  “I still can't believe I did it!”

“Yeah,” Alex huffed.  “Neither can I.  Are you okay?”

“Me?  Am I okay?  Are you okay?”

“Yes,” she took a deep breath.  “Thank you.”

Kara was still excited.  “Were you scared? I mean, I was scared too, but you... You had to be terrified. Because you had no idea I was coming to save you.”

Alex shook her head.  “I need a drink.”

“Right! Yeah, we need to celebrate!”  She poured Alex a half a glass of whiskey and brought it back to her.  

Alex swallowed it all in one go.

Kara continued her rant.  “It’s been so long. I almost forgot how to fly. Well, not so much how, but more, more how it feels, like... Scared, but good scared.  Like how it felt right before the kids were born.  And now-  Now it's like, I'm not sure what comes next. Or maybe I am sure and I'm just afraid of what it means. And if it means what I think it means.”

“What were you thinking?!” Alex snapped, while still trying keep her voice down to keep the kids from hearing.  “You exposed yourself. To the world. You're out there now, Kara. Everyone will know about you and you can't take that back!”

Kara frowned.  “I don't want to.  This is what I was talking about, Alex.  I've always felt the need to help people, and tonight I finally got that chance.  I didn't travel 2,000 light-years just to be an assistant.”

“What if people figure out who you are? What you are? Seriously, what were you thinking?”

The blonde faltered.  “I was thinking, ‘Dear Rao, Alex is going to die!  I have to save her!’  What else could I be thinking?”

“You should have been thinking about our children!  What happens if you're exposed?  What would happen to our half-Kryptonian children if someone found out about them?  Then what?”

“I was thinking about our children!  I was thinking about how devastated they would be, if they lost their mother.  Our family has lost too much already,” Kara defended.  “I've lost too much already.  I'm not going to apologize for saving you.  Not ever.”

Alex sighed heavily and poured herself another glass of whiskey to calm her nerves.  She didn't think her partner understood the magnitude of danger she’d just put herself in.  All she could see was how powerful she really was, and the Kryptonian seemed to be blinded by the awe of her own gifts.  In a way, it was perfectly reasonable for Kara to feel that way, but Alex was not perfectly reasonable right now.  In fact, reason was right out the window at the moment.  “You can't do anything like that ever again, Kara!  Do you hear me?”

Kara glared at her so darkly, she was afraid the woman's heat vision might ignite at her.  “I'm going to bed.  I'm a little tired from carrying a plane on my back.”  And with that, she turned and stomped into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her hard enough to shake the walls of their apartment.

All thoughts about having a baby were long gone now.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

“Winn, I need to talk to you on the roof,” Kara demanded.

“The roof?” Winn gulped, but scrambled to meet her anyway.  “Kara?” he called as she stood at the edge of the rooftop.  “Hey, uh, just whatever you have to say, can you make it quick? I'm not really into being this high up.”

Kara could smell his fear and noted that he looked like he really might be sick.  “Okay, um, Winn, I'm going to tell you something about me that only three people in my life know. Can I trust you?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” he answered earnestly.

“Good. Um, I just-  I really want someone to be excited for me. And I, um... Right, how do-?   Uh, there's something about me that for most of my life, I've run from it.  But last night, I embraced who I am and I don't want to stop.”

“Oh, my God, you're a lesbian. Oh, Kara, that's why you're not into me. This is, this is great news!”

Kara playfully swatted at her friend's arm.  He knew perfectly well that she was married to a woman, though the term ‘lesbian’ seemed a bit inaccurate in her case.  However, she definitely was not going to explain that to Winn.  “No!  Come on!  I'm serious!”

“What is it, then?” he pressed.  

“I'm... I'm her!” She sighed at Winn’s blank look.  “The woman who saved the plane!” She chuckled nervously awaiting his reaction.

“Okay,” Winn laughed.  “Yeah.  OK.  Right.  Kara, what are you doing?  Hey, Kara!  Hey, get away from the ledge, you're gonna get hurt.  Kara!  Hey!”  He watched helplessly as she fell backwards off the edge of the roof, then rocketed back up and onto the concrete beside him.  “You're... You're her!”

“Yup,” she answered needlessly.  

“Wow!”  He gasped.  “How do you do that?  What are you?  Are you an alien?  A metahuman?  What is it?  Come on, tell me.”  He had the biggest grin on his face.

Kara smiled back.  “I'm an alien.  A Kryptonian, to be specific.”

Kara didn't think it was possible for Winn’s eyes to get any bigger.  “Like Superman?” he asked excitedly.

Kara nodded.  “Just like Superman.”

“Are you two related?” he quizzed.  “Wait, is it racist ask that?  I mean, species-ist?  Wait what's called when you offend an alien race?  I'm so bad at this, please stop me.”

Kara giggled.  “Yes, I'm related to Superman.  He's my baby cousin.”

“Your baby cousin?”  Winn’s confusion was obvious.  “Cause it seems like he's got a good ten years or so on you.”

“Yyeeaahh,” she drawled.  “That's a story for another day.”

“Okay,” he answered slowly.  “So you wanted to tell me this because you wanted someone to be happy for you?  Is Alex not happy about this?”

Kara shook her head.  “No... she-  She's upset that I exposed myself to the world.”

“Ah.”

“But I need to do this, Winn!  It's burning inside me to help people.  I- I just have to!”

“Then you should,” he confirmed.  “But you need a suit.  You can't just go running around performing super-human feats in your regular clothes.  People will figure you out.”

Kara’s eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning.  “Yes!  Yes, that would be so amazing!”  Her face fell.  “But I don't know how I'm gonna do that.  I can't sew or anything.”

Winn waggled his eyebrows at her.

“Don't tell me you would do it,” she said hopefully.

“I would, and I will,” he confirmed.  Then, looking scared, he added, “Don't let Alex kill me."

Kara jumped up and down, clapping and squealing.  “OK, we won't tell Alex.  This has got to stay between us.”

“Understood.”  He gave her little mock salute.

“And my kids don't know either, so…”

Winn mimed zipping his lips.

Kara couldn't help but squeal in delight again.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The DEO.  They captured her.  Showed her her old ship.  Threatened her.  Her own wife was working for these people for years right under her nose.  It made them fight.  What the hell?  There was rarely anything that could come between them, but this sure was something.  

Kara sulked.  Family dinners were awkward with she and Alex not speaking to one another.  Her mood was worsened when Cat Grant named her 'Supergirl' instead of 'Superwoman.'  And then, to top it all off, now she had some crazy felonious aliens chasing after her, all from a Kryptonian prison, one of whom happened to be her aunt.  What next?

Miraculously, thankfully, Alex came around to her being a hero.  She even set Kara up with some Kryptonian A.I. from her birth mother.  Kara was relieved beyond measure, and she figured that if Alex allowed her to go around super-heroing, then she could forgive Alex for not telling her about the DEO.  It was only fair.

Life as Supergirl was difficult with children, however.  Kara and Alex couldn't always just run off at any emergency.  Luckily, the DEO (Well, mostly J'onn) arranged for an on-call nanny/bodyguard of sorts that could take care of the girls when Alex and Kara were both needed.  His name was Douglas Dickson, and he was of Moroccan descent.

He was great with the kids.  He made them do their homework and their chores, he cooked them dinner, he read to them, watched movies with them, and even played games with them.  Kara and Alex were quite amused to come home from a mission one night to find Douglas, Jamie, and Jessie all playing Just Dance, long after bedtime.  The women couldn't even find it in their hearts to be bothered.

Slowly, the family found a new rhythm that allowed for Supergirl emergencies.  Alex thanked God and Rao and whoever else was out there that her girls were relatively well behaved and had above-average intelligence.  It helped her worry a tiny bit less when she and Kara were working, and they were with someone else.

They decided together that it was time to talk to the children.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Jessie and Jamie plopped down on the couch when Kara and Alex called a family meeting.

“Is this about the baby again?  When are we doing that?” Jessie whined.

“Oh…  Well, we can't really do that right now anymore,” Alex answered.

“What?!” the girls wailed.  “No!  Why not?”

The redhead sighed.  “We're about to tell you.”

“Right… So,” Kara stated but failed to add anything afterward.

“So,” Alex parroted, not knowing where to begin either.

Jessie growled.  “Sooo?”

“What do you guys know about Supergirl?” Kara finally asked.

The twins looked at each other in surprise and then back to her.  “Uh, well, we know you save people and fight bad guys,” Jamie answered.  “Is that what you want to know?”

“Wait,” Kara blinked heavily.  “You know it's me?”

Both twins looked at Kara like she'd lost her mind.

“Duh!” Jessie huffed.

“How?  You never said anything!”

“Grandma told us not to talk about it, even with you, because it could get you in a lot of trouble if anyone found out who you really were,” Jessie answered.

Kara looked to Alex in pride of how mature their kids were.

Jessie held up her hand.  “Wait.  Did you call this family meeting to tell us you're Supergirl?”  At their parents’ affirmative, the twins started howling with laughter.

Kara’s look of pride was replaced with one of bewilderment.  

“How did you know?” Alex piped up.

Jessie rolled her eyes.  Jamie’s look of irreverence was unnerving.  Alex was sure she wasn’t ready for her babies to start acting like this.  The twins seemed to have some kind of silent war between them to decide which of them had to do the explaining, each of them trying to out-pout the other.  

Finally, Jamie caved.  She spoke as if to a small child.  “You were supposed to go to Geneva.  We dropped you off at the airport and Mama and Grandma took us out to dinner.  We always memorize your flight information when you leave, so we knew it was your plane going down when we saw it on the news.”

“Mama’s eyes started glowing red!” Jessie interjected with awe in her voice.

“And then she was just gone,” Jamie finished.  “Poof!”  She snapped her fingers.

Right now, it was Kara’s cheeks that were glowing red.  “I should probably apologize to your mother for that,” she told Alex.  “I just left her there with the kids without a word!  I never even thought twice about it.  I knew they'd be safe with her.  She's the best.  She never even said a thing about it.”

“So yeah,” Jamie added, “When Mama turned up on the news after catching that plane, we kind of figured it out.  We can recognize our own mother, geez.  When Grandma took us home, she talked to us about it, but told us not to talk about it anymore because it could get us into a lot of trouble.  Are we going to be in trouble for talking about it now?”

“No, baby,” Kara assured.  “Like we've already established, we wanted to talk to you about it right now, so it's fine.”

“Although, after this, it would be good to keep Grandma's advice,” Alex added. “It would be very dangerous if anyone ever found out about who Mama is.”

“So,” Kara said again.  “If you have any Supergirl-related questions, now's your chance to ask.”

The twins looked thoughtful for a moment.  “How much can you bench press?” Jessie asked.

Kara laughed.  “I think we've already established that I can lift a whole jet.”

“What about a tank? Oh, or a whale?” Jessie added.

“I think a tank would be easier to lift than a crashing jet.  I don't want to know if I could lift a whale or not.  I probably could, but it would also probably hurt it, and I don't want to do that.”

Jessie nodded thoughtfully.

“How fast can you fly?” Jamie wanted to know.

“I'm not sure, but I know I can break the sound barrier.”

“What's that?” Jessie asked.

“That's the maximum speed that sound can travel.  So I can travel faster than the speed of sound.”

The girls looked a little confused.  They were smart, but they were still only ten.  They had no real concept of the principals of how sounds works.  Alex made a mental note to teach them.  They were smart enough to understand.  They just hadn't learned this yet.

Kara adjusted her tactics.  “I can fly faster than a speeding bullet!  I can even catch them in my hands!” she said proudly.

“Cool!” the girls exclaimed.

“I wanna see that!” Jessie bounced in her seat.

Alex frowned thinking about how scary it was watching Kara get shot at, even if she was impervious to bullets.  “I don't want you to see that.”

Jessie pouted.  “Why?”

“Because I don't want you girls around guns!  That's why!” she answered a tad too harshly.

Kara reached out and took her hand to calm her.  “Your mom's right,” she said at her daughter's pout.  “Me getting shot at is not something you should be so eager to see.”

“I just meant-”

“We're well aware of what you meant, Jess,” Kara interrupted softly.  “But how do you think I have the chance to know how to catch bullets?”

“Practicing with Mommy?” the girl guessed.

Kara shook her head.

“Getting shot at by bad guys,” Jamie supplied helpfully.

“Yeah,” Kara answered.  “So do you really want to watch me get shot at by bad guys?”

This psychology backfired on the Kryptonian.  “Yeah!” Jessie roared.  “Then you can fly around catching all the bullets!”  She imitated flying around the living room.  “And beat up the bad guys!” She punched and kicked at the air in front of her.  “And it would be so awesome!”  She plopped back onto the couch next to her sister.

Kara couldn't help but laugh at her daughter's antics.  It made her a little proud to be receiving such praise from Jessie, who usually favored Alex.  She briefly wondered if being Supergirl might win the girl over to herself so that she would be the favorite parent for both of her children. Of course, it was a selfish thought, but it was there nonetheless.  “Well, I'm glad you have so much faith in me, but let's forget about watching me get shot at for now, OK?”

“Fine,” Jessie conceded.  “Can we go play our game now?”

“You don't have anymore questions?” Alex asked.

“You're both going to be at our dance recital on Saturday, right?” Jamie wanted to know.

“Yes, of course, baby.  We wouldn't miss it.”  Kara smiled brightly at her daughters. “Any other questions?”

“Why can't we have a new baby?  I don't understand,” Jamie pouted.

Kara looked sympathetically at her daughters.  “I'm sorry, but that would just be too much on our plates right now.  Taking care of a baby is a huge responsibility, and so is being Supergirl.  Right now, it just wouldn't be a good idea.”

The girls pouted heavily back at them.

“We love you girls so much, and you're old enough now that you don't need or want as much attention as a baby would.  You're all we need.  We're so happy with you girls.  Come give us hugs and kisses!” She opened her arms wide.

Jessie and Jamie rolled their eyes good-naturedly, but still smiled, got up, and hugged and kissed their mothers.  “Can we go play now?” Jamie asked.

“Don't you guys want to go out to dinner tonight?” Kara reminded them.

“Oh, yeah!  Grandma, yes!” the girls danced around the room cheering.

Alex and Kara laughed.  

“OK, that's enough,” Kara spoke up.  “Go get ready.  You girls still have your dance practice stuff on.”

“OK,” the twins answered and pranced back to their room to change.