9

This fic will stabilize with weekly Friday updates once Old Gods goes on Hiatus, but till then it's probably going to just update earlier in the week so I don't end up with both updating anywhere near the same day.

Also, Alex gets brought up a lot in the comments, she'll pop up when she returns in the show, so like the later half of the whole Myriad thing. So you'll know when she's coming, it's the same time and place as the show.

Chapter Text

Daisy wasn't sure what to do with the warm fuzzy feelings as she ate cookie dough ice cream straight from the carton, curled up on one end of Kara's couch, listening to Kara gripe about how the DEO had taken the day's shenanigans. It wasn't exactly what she'd expected after she'd reacted that strongly to the gun. But it hadn't ruined everything. She'd thought, for a second there Kara had realized she was a monster and wanted nothing to do with her. But here they were, ice cream, pajamas, and still friends.

"Lucy was having kittens over you, or Quake you," Kara said while taking a vicious dig into her carton of triple chocolate fudge ice cream with her spoon. "I'm supposed to try and get information out of you if you show up again, apprehend you if possible."

Daisy smiled faintly at that, well that would be fun. Maybe she should look up 'Super' related pick-up lines? Kara had clearly never had to use flirting as a tool before, and was easy to get a rise out of. "Well, probably shouldn't show up for another four or five days unless you have something big happen again."

"Why?" Kara asked looking at her in confusion.

Daisy continued to work at prying up a chuck of cookie dough. "Playing hard to get with the media. And it gives you more time to get back into your usual groove. The optics are better."

"You sound like military Ms. Grant sometimes," Kara said with a beleaguered sigh.

Daisy blinked. "I think that's an insult, that feels like an insult."

"Ms. Grant is an amazing woman, she's accomplished so much!" Kara protested with a loyalty that wasn't deserved from what Daisy had seen.

She stared at her friend. "She's a bitch, I'll give her she's not quite as awful as she comes across as, but she's like all the worst boomer traits wrapped up with a designer bow."

"Once you get to know her and get past the prickles, and there's maybe a lot of those, she cares so much and tries so hard to use her platform for what she believes in." Kara defended.

Daisy gave a tip of her head in acknowledgment. It wasn't like she knew the woman, but she wasn't convinced. "If you say so, I'll reserve judgment till I see her do something positive that isn't being upset at you almost dying."

"I can't believe she's letting me stay home for three days!" Kara actually sounded shocked.

Not that Daisy could judge, it wasn't like SHIELD had sick days. "According to Google it's the average time recommended for people with mild concussions to stay at home. You're also supposed to be avoiding bright lights, sounds, and other stimuli. So I just went with that on your doctor's note."

"You sent in a whole doctor's note?" Kara looked up from her ice cream.

Daisy laughed, "I said I would." She held up her hand slipping the bandages up, revealing the fully healed skin, only a thin, barely noticeable mark left on her palm. "And, all healed up."

"You were still bleeding." Kara reached out poking the palm of Daisy's hand as she protested the injury.

"Not everyone is bulletproof, which has got to be so nice. I mean I can't wear a bikini without getting noticed for the wrong reasons. Which is a shame, I'm hot. Do you know how much cover-up makeup I have to wear to infiltrate a pool party? Or even just go to the beach? Vacation is supposed to involve tropical islands and I've got questionable scars everywhere."

Kara hesitated, "I'm sorry if it's rude, but how many scars do you have?"

"No idea, five bullet wounds, couple of grazes, been stabbed, then got vivisected, had the slave chip ripped out of the side of my neck, jumped through some glass windows before, uh…only have scars from being tortured the one time, the other times didn't leave scars. So there's that. Then just the usual cuts and stuff from working in the field and just being human." Daisy reached out catching Kara's hand, poor alien looked like she was blatantly horrified. "Hey, I'm fine."

Kara had that look that said she was considering hugging her again as she spoke. "That's horrible!"

"And why I wear a suit that stops bullets." Daisy's face softened as she looked at Kara's just concern and vibrating consideration of physical affection. "I'm sorry you miss your sister so much."

Kara seemed confused by that. "I miss her, of course, I do, but what does that have to do with bulletproof suits?"

"You're a very huggy person, which is nice, but you look like you're about to try and cuddle me. I figured you're just missing the person you'd usually be spending time with." Daisy didn't mind being a replacement for the person Kara actually wanted to spend time with. It was sweet even.

"Oh, I do miss snuggling on the couch with Alex, and morning hugs, and evening hugs, and quick hugs at lunch," Kara admitted, her cheeks flushing. "But you're hurt and I can't make it better. It makes me want to hug you even though I know it won't help."

Daisy couldn't help the smile as she rolled her eyes, before scootching on the couch. "Right, you're sharing some of that chocolate, you can have some of my cookie dough. And I think we have to brave the news."

Kara lit up and adjusted so that Daisy could settle next to her, their sides leaning against each other. "You don't have to."

"You are very warm and cuddly." Daisy flicked her eyes at Kara, letting a brief hum of vibrations run through Kara. "I'm not suffering to make you feel better. Now, no more delay. The media's reaction to Supergirl blushing at being flirted with by a supervillain. The embarrassment is part of life."

Pouting, Kara picked up the remote and turned it on.

The coverage was exactly as confused and directionless as Daisy'd assumed. The ongoing and baffling anti-Supergirl sentiment left everyone flat-footed in what to think of what was clearly a powered person capable and willing to kill flirting with their hero. And Daisy'd timed her arrival right, cameras everywhere from the professional to the personal. The whole thing had been heard, seen, and recorded from multiple angles. Also, Supergirl had taken that hit from Livewire to save a lot of lives. A helicopter crashing on a crowded park in the middle of the city would have killed more than a handful of people.

It was a genuine mess of stories. Who was Siobhan and what was her power, when and how had Livewire escaped again, a few positive comments about Supergirl, who was Quake, what were Quake's powers, what was Quake, what was Quake's obviously evil master plan, did a villain really just flirt with Supergirl instead of fighting her? And on it went. They couldn't seem to settle on a narrative. The repeated coverage of 'Banshee's first attack on Catco World Wide Media PA foiled by anonymous hero' was a bit frustrating. Fortunately, that footage was poor, and her own face was blurred even if Kara's and the rest of the offices' were not.

Daisy grabbed the carton off the coffee table of open things of ice cream. She checked the label. "You really went out on the ice cream thing."

"It's for emotional support," Kara grumbled into her current carton of mint chip. "Do they have to keep showing me blushing? Supergirl isn't supposed to blush."

Daisy snickered, "It's outside of Supergirl's usual image, I don't think it's going away for a while. If you didn't want people looking at your face you should have worn a mask."

"Your mask is horrible, it scares people." Kara snuck a spoonful of Daisy's newly opened toffee chip and caramel.

She elbowed her slightly. "That's the point, I don't plan on anyone finding out I'm Daisy Johnson and that I'm Quake. At least not till it's useful for them to find out."

"You could find a nice mask," Kara mumbled around the spoon in her mouth. "One with a face on it."

Daisy knew she'd break down, it wasn't like she was attached to the ski mask and face shield, and putting in some air filtering into a mouth and nose guard part would be a good idea. Getting gassed by the Kree, shame on them, letting it happen by anyone else and it'd be shame on her. And Daisy was getting sick of getting kidnapped. "I could find a Ghostface mask I guess."

"Don't you dare!" Kara whacked her shoulder.

She grinned, and was pleased Kara wasn't treating her like she was made from glass, cause that shoulder whack had some weight to it. More weight than Kara probably fully realized. It was fine, it wasn't enough to bruise her. "What, it has eyes and a mouth."

"It's a horror movie mask," Kara's eyes squinted, cheeks puffed slightly. It was adorable, the woman was unfairly adorable most of the time.

Daisy just grinned before a question occurred to her. "Are the Scream movies musicals?"

"No, or yes, but no we are not watching horror movies!" Kara protested, "I had to watch them with Alex, I'm not watching them again."

Daisy's grin grew, "Holy shit, please say the killers have a murder song?"

"It's really catchy." Kara was outright pouting.

She couldn't help the burst of laughter at that. So she knew what she was hunting down while Kara was rescuing kittens. "That is so wild you guys have so many musicals, I mean we have them but it's like one or two a year, not fifty percent of movies."

"It's forty percent," Kara admitted, her head tipped a bit. "Do people not like them in your world?"

Daisy shrugged, "I've got no idea, Coulson would have known, but he's not here to ask."

Kara opened her mouth to reply only to pause, her eyes focusing on the door past Daisy's ear. "Lucy?" And then she was speeding to the door.

////

Lucy Lane didn't even get to knock on Kara's door before it was yanked open fast enough to cause a gust of wind. She mourned the chance to bang her knuckles on the door. It'd have been therapeutic. She had a great knock, very authoritative and firm. The blinding enthusiasm on Kara's face was overwhelming and joyful, it would be nice if she could understand why! It'd been a nerve-wracking, horrible day. Lucy wouldn't be surprised if Alex Danvers developed an ulcer before spontaneously combusting through sheer rage at seeing the news. The amount of effort J'onn had to be putting in to keep Alex Danvers from showing up had to be an alien super power.

"Lucy!" Kara moved too fast for Lucy to defend herself before she was being hugged by an enthusiastic alien.

She wheezed, "Can't breathe." Fuck, since when were she and Kara people who hugged?

"Sorry!" Kara pulled back like she'd been burned. It was funny to see her like this, all comfy Kara Danvers lounge clothing but with no glasses and the loose Supergirl waves of hair.

Lucy had no idea how she hadn't figured it out. It made so much sense, she hadn't wanted to see it, but it was a depressing testament to the human mind she'd managed to miss it, even willfully. Which is what Lucy was blaming that it took her a solid thirty seconds to notice the stranger in the room. "You're not alone."

"Oh, this is Daisy!" Kara excitedly stepped back welcoming Lucy in.

The woman on the couch buried her face in her hands. "Kara, you're so bad at compartmentalization."

Lucy shut the door behind her, folding her hands behind her back, and looked at Kara, her few last, precious crumbs of belief in her ability to hold down the Super-fort dying. "Want to explain who this is, Kara?"

"Uh…what is happening?" Kara looked back and forth between Lucy and this 'Daisy'.

Daisy groaned and looked up, setting a carton of ice-cream with a…horrifying amount of cartons on the coffee table while standing up. "You answered the door without your glasses, hair down, faster than a human, before she could knock, and you're wearing Kara clothing. IE, I'm a random stranger who knows both of you."

"Not going to deny it?" Lucy looked at the woman evaluating her. The flannel pajama pants with a soft longsleeved shirt weren't threatening, but the way her clothing laid on her said muscle, and there was something that made Lucy pay attention.

Daisy shrugged, "You'd be an idiot not to dig into my life with a backhoe if we tried to lie. And I'd rather just give you what you need so the inevitable background checking doesn't make things irritating for me."

"Wait, what?" Kara's shoulders were setting, huh, Supergirl stance while in pajamas would never not be strange.

Daisy rolled her eyes, walking over and holding out her hand to Lucy. "Daisy Johnson, Kara's new downstairs neighbor. She took insult at me sleeping in my car till I got the place set up and insisted I crash on her couch." Her amused expression had a slightly lopsided lilt to it. "And then this is a studio apartment and she floats in her sleep. Didn't take a genius to put two and two together. Ma'am."

"Military?" Lucy asked, shaking the woman's hand. And Jesus, no wonder Alex was an anxious wreck. Apparently, her superpower was keeping Kara's secret a secret.

Johnson gave a tip of her head. "Air Force SR, just got out on a medical discharge. Hence getting an apartment but not owning any furniture."

"Nice to meet you, Major Lucy Lane." And Lucy would be pulling the woman's files as soon as she got to the DEO tomorrow morning.

Kara was vibrating with excitement. "Don't worry, Daisy won't say anything."

"I'll sign an NDA for you." Johnson shot a fond look at Kara. "Just because you decided I was a good person, doesn't mean anyone else should trust me. Legal paperwork isn't a big deal, she wouldn't be doing her job if she didn't insist."

Wonderful, Kara had definitely told the woman about the DEO and that Lucy was running it. But the woman was being reasonable at least. Lucy looked at the woman again, a few inches shorter than Kara, with extreme physical training, trained to react in high-stress situations, a new 'friend', and that was a bandage around her left hand. "You jumped out of a window to rescue a person who can fly?"

"Oh, that was fast." Johnson grinned, "And to be fair I didn't process she didn't need the help till we were already hanging off the side of the building, and by then I mean might as well finish it out so nobody's explaining a crater instead of a body from Kara hitting the ground. Or her flying in a cardigan." There was an aggravating shrug like that was obvious.

And the thing was Lucy could see it, of course, Kara without Alex there to chaperone would meet her new neighbor who was a veteran planning on sleeping in her car while figuring out civilian life. Of course, Kara would then insist on the woman sleeping on her couch, who cares about a secret identity? A woman around the same age as Kara, who had to be accidentally ticking so many subconscious boxes as being similar to Alex which would make Kara far too trusting. Then Kara being Kara would endear herself to a jumpy veteran. Especially the type of veteran who had almost certainly seen active combat, and was either too traumatized to re-connect with their pre-enlistment civilian contacts or didn't have them. So entirely the kind of person who'd jump out a window of a mother fucking skyscraper.

Lucy was not paid enough for this. Nobody was paid enough for this. No wonder J'onn had an Oreo stress-eating condition and Alex looked like a hard poke would make her explode like a porcupine. "Please say you have a bottle of Alex's scotch lying around somewhere?"

Lucy was not frowning from a minor hangover, or feeling slightly sick from being force-fed a horrifying amount of ice cream last night. Or rather been left with a carton of ice cream and a bottle of scotch as the whole scale of the fact she was the only rational adult left to hold together the DEO, Supergirl, and thus preventing the regression of anti-alien governance on the west coast. No, she was fine, thinking about the so heavily redacted it might as well not exist, file of one Special Reconnaissance Senior Airman Daisy Skye Johnson.

That wasn't entirely true. Lucy had learned the woman had been Air Force for eight years, and been on the career path in it. Someone important had noticed her early and fast-tracked her hard for the SR. From there it was almost entirely classified with metaphorical giant flashing letters of warning she'd been doing some legally tenuous and or highly politically delicate at best action for the Air Force. It wasn't hard to guess what kind of work she'd been doing. The lists of commendations, and medals, were telling as well.

It was impressive, but also a problem. Someone like Johnson wouldn't follow anyone's tune she didn't choose to follow. With her skills that could be very dangerous. However, there was an opportunity. Daisy Johnson had no family, likely no civilian friends, and no purpose. The woman also wasn't interested in notice or fame. Probably a partially trained-in trait, and partially a trait that got her the notice of her trainers and slotted into the SR.

A gamble for Lucy to make, was this mess something she could pull something good out of, or was she just adding fuel to the fire? Doing nothing was the worst option. Protecting Kara and 'Controlling' Supergirl rarely were two interests that aligned. It was a hell of a balancing act J'onn and Alex had been playing there. But Johnson offered something that might just work to relieve a bit of the pressure. Which was why she was here, in Daisy Johnson's bare bones, but actually on its way to being a very nice, apartment. "Thank you for meeting me."

"I mean we could have used Kara's apartment, there's a coffee machine and chairs." Johnson pointed out, her eyes were sharp though.

Lucy set a file on the kitchen counter, it was a very nice kitchen counter, ignoring the complaint they both knew the answer to. No still sleeping Kryptonian to hear this conversation. "I organized that after I left last night."

"Did you get any sleep?" Johnson asked a single brow raising.

She took a drink of her coffee, it was pure espresso. "No, but I think we agree that protecting Kara takes precedence."

"Agreed, so what do you want to talk about that you don't want Kara to know about?" Johnson crossed her arms, utterly uninterested in touching the file. "Because all this theater isn't necessary for an NDA."

Lucy hoped Johnson was exactly who her files said she was. That she was who Kara thought she was. Because if Lucy was someone with hostile intentions for Supergirl, she'd have stuck someone exactly like Johnson in this building with a set-out purpose to 'befriend' Kara. It would be so easy for Johnson to be Cadmus or Cadmus affiliated. Lucy was risking a great deal on how very short the gap was between medical discharge, and Johnson showing up in National City. "You jumped out of a building to save Kara, are you willing to do more?"

"What do you want?" Johnson's stance shifted to something distinctly military.

She opened up the folder and turned it to be clear Johnson could see the contents. "For you to sign an NDA, and if you're interested, I'd hire you to monitor Kara."

"No." Johnson uncrossed her arms, hands coming to rest on the counter. And there was a threat there.

Lucy looked at the other woman and felt a spark of victory, less likely to be Cadmus then. "I don't want you to write reports on her, I don't need you spying on her. I need someone to keep an eye out for threats and risks to her in her civilian life."

Johnson blew out a breath. "And you need to be seen tightening the leash. That's a hell of a risk to take on me."

"Your service record, classified to hell and back as it is, tells me you can keep your mouth shut even under torture, you are capable, and your commendations for bravery and repeated disciplinary notes for disregarding or being flexible with orders to protect your unit tell me you care. And, you're already involved in this whether I like it or not." Lucy held the woman's attention. "So, will you assist in keeping an eye on Kara?" And if she was something worse than what she seemed, as a contracted employee, Lucy would have every legal ability to arrest and chuck her into a dark hole.

Johnson picked up the file, her eyes traveling over the contract, she barely skimmed the NDA. She looked up after a moment. "Verbal only reports?"

"The DEO isn't secure for a paper trail." A thing that made Lucy's skin crawl.

Finally, Johnson set the file down, her fingers drumming on the wooden kitchen island's countertop. "It's that bad of a situation then. Fine, but I won't keep this from Kara."

"Then I look forward to working with you." Lucy hoped this didn't bite her in the ass. "NDA first."