14. ...when you're...

“Kara… please, please tell me, you didn’t…” Winn begged as Kara cringed and tried her utmost to half the amount of space she took up among the loudly applauding crowd.  

“I… It- It was an accident, I swear.” Kara muttered, gnawing guiltily at her bottom lip as she watched Lena step up to the podium.

“God dammit, Kara.” Winn groaned out whilst James merely sighed and deflated behind them in response. Kara couldn’t really blame them but in all honesty it was an accident.

It had happened only a couple of hours ago.

After breakfast, the journalists were gifted an hour or so of free time since they would all be travelling to the August Gardens together to watch the Queen give a planned speech for the anniversary of National City University being established. The University had requested the Queen make a speech, due to it being her alma mater, and Lena had accepted since it was a good opportunity to highlight the new government’s continued efforts to make further education more widely available to the population.

James was using their free hour to go over Kara’s copious notes of research regarding the Theonian education system and the history of National City University to better understand the context and meaning behind the Queen’s speech and the subsequent article Kara would write. The quotes the Catco team had gotten from students yesterday would already give their article on the Queen’s speech later a little something extra but James, as always, wanted to have a good knowledge foundation to provide thoughtful editing advice when the time came.

Winn, on the other hand, was gathering data regarding the hits, comments, shares and likes their various articles had been getting. Whilst Catco was led to some degree by its number of readers and their own preferences, Kara always appreciated the importance Catco placed on the importance of the story rather than whether it was exactly what people wanted to read about over breakfast. This number analytics was a side project of Winn’s he had been working on for the last couple of months. He was attempting to gather evidence that showed that putting out substantive, well-articulated and thought provoking pieces retained a more consistent pool of readers than their more whimsical work. By analysing peak times, and consistent commenters, Winn’s work was already showing promising results, but he liked to keep on top of it all and the eclectic mix of articles they had produced during their Theonia trip was providing him with a lot more useful data.

Kara, meanwhile, chose to take the opportunity to stretch her legs since she had already memorised the research and written up the quotes from yesterday. She decided to revisit the hall of remembrance that she had somewhat missed out on during the earlier tour of the Palace due to the awkwardness with Lena weighing heavily over her at the time. Kara mentioned her desire to revisit the area to Sam at breakfast, and the royal chief of staff had kindly taken the time to give her easy to follow directions to help her through the labyrinth of corridors.

With the golden rays of the morning sun streaming through the tall gothic windows behind her Kara found herself getting lost in the paintings, sculptures and pictures lining the walls. Some of the images and artworks came with useful little captions or inscriptions, enabling Kara to see somewhat through the heavy shroud of history. She would have adored having more information, learning the deep, sprawling history behind everything and she quickly found herself lamenting yet again over the cut short Palace tour last week.

Kara was so deep in thought, so lost in the secrets of time presented to her, that she didn’t register the click-clacking of heels hurrying towards her nor the figure approaching behind her.   

A hand landed on Kara’s shoulder in perfect imitation of Alex’s surprise attack drills.

Instinct, subconscious action and a roaring sound in her ears took over as Kara quickly shrugged off the hand, whirled around and jabbed.

“Hey, Ka-” A soft voice began before being immediately lost to a shout of, “FU-”

“OH MY GOD!” Kara practically screamed as Lena hunched forward, her hands protectively moving to cover her nose. “I am so, so, so, so sorry!” Kara apologised, her hands flapping wildly by her sides unsure whether she should reach out to Lena after attempting to break her nose. Kara’s eyes began to sting with unshed tears; she was unable to fathom the truth that she had caused Lena physical pain.

“Kara, it’s fine.” Lena murmured, stiffly rising back to her full height, her brow heavily furrowed as she fought off the pain obviously radiating across her face. Her green eyes, however, were filled with concern for Kara who presumably looked on the edge of a breakdown. “It’s just a little…” Lena removed one of her hands from her nose, to reach out for Kara’s hand, but stopped when she noticed the crimson rivulets marking her palm. “I mean a moderate amount of blood.” Lena corrected with a light chuckle as if it was nothing whilst, at the same time, she reached into her impeccable black work jacket’s pocket to pull free a handkerchief that she immediately employed to wipe clean her hands and face.

“Lena, I am so so-” Kara whispered, her gaze dropping to the floor as her nervous energy deserted her leaving her limp and devoid of her usual fidgetiness.

“Enough of that.” Lena ordered gently, her fingertip moving to lift Kara’s chin up. Despondent blue eyes met fond green ones and Kara finally felt brave enough to take Lena’s cleaned up hand in her own. “You apologised, you don’t need to do it again.” Lena explained, her expression soft but her tone serious.

“But-” Kara whimpered pleadingly, guilt still resting mightily on her shoulders.

“Kara, I’m fine.” Lena affirmed, lightly tugging Kara forward into a full-bodied hug to reassure her. Kara stumbled willingly into Lena’s open arms, and rested her chin on Lena’s shoulder that was just the right height due to the killer heels the other woman was yet again wearing. “You have a mean right jab by the way.” Lena murmured approvingly into Kara’s ear as the tears that had been forming in Kara’s eyes finally receded back. “You could probably show my security detail a thing or two.” Lena commented thoughtfully, causing Kara to blush and duck her head further into Lena’s shoulder.

“Alex has been training me in self defence,” Kara whined, Lena tilted her head to the side to hear Kara’s muffled words their cheeks brushing against each other in the process (not that either minded), “but she went overboard - like she does with everything, it’s kind of in her nature.” Kara huffed and she could feel Lena’s ribs, captured between her arms, vibrate with laughter at the childish sibling frustrations. “Anyway, due to the limited time she had to teach me - she claimed 3 months was insufficient to truly grasp the basics, which I heavily disagreed with by the way,” Kara complained, as Lena ran a soothing hand up and down her back in comfort, “she decided to go more ‘aggressive’ in her approach.”

“Meaning…?” Lena prompted, her voice catching slightly, as Kara squeezed her to offer her comfort in return.

“Surprise drills.” Kara muttered bitterly.

There was a momentary pause, as Lena considered this and it’s various implications. Kara, meanwhile, took the time to simply enjoy having Lena so close again (admittedly not for a reason she could be proud of). She liked that their hug was comforting to the both of them, not just one of them. Lena was using it to reassure Kara and try to alleviate her emotional turmoil, whilst Kara felt like she was trying to absorb any residual pain that Lena was feeling through sheer force of will and physical contact alone.  

“Ah, I see.” Lena replied dryly, though Kara could practically hear the amused smile dancing across her face. It was the desire to see that smile, rather than just hear it that had Kara unburying her face and leaning back in Lena’s arms.

The smile was definitely there and worth seeing, by the way.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Kara coughed out shyly, “I’ve already put two people in the hospital for doing the same thing as you.”

“And that would make me feel better because…?” Lena asked, squinting adorably at Kara in confusion.

Kara freed a hand from around Lena to shift her glasses on her nose in her typical nervous manner, “You’re much tougher than them.”

Lena took Kara’s movement as a sign to step back and give Kara her space (which was the last thing the blonde wanted and she barely resisted the pout that wanted to arise automatically).

“I aim to impress.” Lena responded with a coy wink.

“You do.” Kara agreed, far too quickly she feared to seem simply friendly. Lena, thankfully, didn’t pick up on this as she lightly brushed and prodded her nose, which Kara could see was already swelling up significantly. “Sorry, ag-” Kara couldn’t help but start to apologise at the sight before her.

“Kara!” Lena reprimanded sharply with a shake of her head.

“Right.” Kara winced, feeling appropriately scolded. “Let me at least come with yout to put some ice on that…” Kara requested, employing her best puppy dog eyes that had the strong-willed Queen crumbing in a heartbeat.

“Since you asked so nicely…”, Lena teasingly grumbled, not hesitating to drop her hand away from her nose to accept Kara’s proffered arm as they made their way towards their kitchen.

“What were you even doing in the hall of remembrance?” Kara inquired, enjoying her current closeness to Lena as they wandered easily through the quiet corridors, “I thought you would be preparing for your speech…”

“Er…” Lena coughed awkwardly, her arm wrapped around Kara’s tensing ever so slightly as she ducked her head, allowing her dark hair to obscure her reddening cheeks, “Sam might have mentioned that you were going there and I… um… I wanted to make up for the less than stellar tour last week…”

“Oh…”, it was all Kara could think to say upon finding out that she had derailed Lena’s sweet desire.

“We’ll just have to do it another time…” Lena mumbled, though there was a distinct lack of certainty to her words which cut right to Kara’s heart.

“Yeah…” Kara agreed quietly, though she couldn’t help the quiet ‘when?’ that kept playing over and over in her head.

Kara, held the door open to their kitchen and proceeded to unnecessarily guide Lena, who grumbled about not being an invalid the whole time, to her regular chair before rushing to the freezer for something suitable to reduce the swelling. Lena accepted the bag of green peas wrapped in a tea towel, with a grateful nod, placing it gingerly to her nose with an almost imperceptible wince that Kara only noticed due to how much she had been studying Lena over the past week. Kara immediately fell into the seat beside her and pulled Lena into a one-armed side hug; silence weighing heavy over them from their previous conversation, neither willing to acknowledge the ominous ticking clock that was hanging above them.   

“How did you even manage to do that?” Winn asked in exasperation, wrenching Kara out of her reverie and making her realise that Lena had been speaking for a while without Kara being aware. Kara began scribbling away in her notebook, glad to see that James had been paying attention for the entirety of the speech.

“I was wandering the Palace,” Kara muttered under her breath in explanation as she tried to write, listen and talk at the same time, “I told you I wanted to see a couple of those portraits from the tour again. The Queen saw me, figured I was lost and came over to see if I needed help then-”

“Kapow?” Winn guessed with a childish snigger.

“Yep…” Kara admitted, rolling her eyes before letting out a heavy, pleading sigh, “Is there any chance, you won’t tell Alex about this?”

“None, nada, zero.” Winn replied instantly, a smug smile lighting up his face.

“I’ve already texted her.” James confessed behind them causing Kara to gasp loudly and whirl around to whack him repeatedly with her notebook. Kara only stopped her childish attack when Captain Dunn appeared next to her, like CatCo’s constant companion and shadow. He gave her a less than impressed glare and muttered, ‘easy there slugger’, under his breath making Kara turn a bright red and wither up under his stare.

Dunn remained by her side for the rest of the speech keeping a wary eye on her as if he feared she might just randomly start taking out members of the public, Kara kept her head down and scribbled notes resulting in her missing the fond smile on the old soldier’s face directed her way.

Lena was simply incredible (in Kara’s unbiased opinion).

Lena started with the expected thank yous for everyone involved in making this day possible and then went on to give a brief overview of National City University’s history and well-respected reputation. Kara tuned in properly during the tail end of the history section, which fortunately meant she didn’t miss out on Lena talking about her own history with the university. She spoke about her own personal love of science and how the university had encouraged and supported her in all her pursuits. Lena even shared a few personal anecdotes of failed experiments much to the amusement of the crowd and the press. One story was about how Lena’s over-enthusiastic first attempt at an invention resulted in the entire science department being evacuated, whilst another story revealed how a mistimed chemical reaction meant her and her class had to be quarantined for twenty-four hours.

Kara knew these tales were probably the most audience friendly ones and as such she immediately resolved herself to pestering Lena for more stories of her university days the first chance she could.

After her light-hearted anecdotes, which ensured she had captured the crowd’s attention, Lena pivoted expertly into the importance of education, university and how the newly established government was supporting these institutions and those that wanted to attend them. The main body of Lena’s speech was passionate, well-articulated and there was, amazingly, something in there that resonated with everyone.

Lena was charming, good-humoured and the entire crowd was hanging off her every word, moving through every emotion that she wanted them to when she wanted them to. Laughter, gasps and proud cheers punctuated Lena’s sentiments so perfectly, Kara wouldn’t have been surprised if there had been people holding placards up at the edge of the stage telling the crowd what to do.

Before Kara knew it, Lena was finishing up and ending on a message of hope for the future that had the crowd’s cheers reaching a decibel that Kara was convinced would leave her eardrums ringing for the rest of the day.

The foreign reporters, during the speech, had been ushered to a designated section in front of the erected stage to watch the speech under the watchful gaze of the Royal guard in a more controllable area. Once Lena’s speech had reached its end, the reporters were granted their freedom to interact with the general public, most chose to race off the second they were permitted to, with the aim of getting accompanying quotes for their own articles. Captain Dunn humbly requested that the CatCo team stay within his eyesight due to the size of the crowd; the team promised to do so, deciding to head around to the edge of the stage, among the outskirts of the crowd and to an overall quieter part of the gardens.

Kara held numerous short conversations with various Theonians, most of the quotes were superficial positive remarks about the speech they had all heard but Kara wasn’t disappointed by this having already gathered more detailed insights the day before to support her writing. The CatCo team were tucked away under a copse of trees, away from the paved paths which winded through the green spaces, significantly reducing the amount of footfall they would get.

Kara, however, happily seized the opportunity presented by the lack of people to enjoy her surroundings yet again.

She admired the flowers, well-tended trees and hedges, comparing it to the untamed sanctuary Lena had take her to a couple of days ago. She wondered if Lena preferred that style of natural beauty or if she had favourite parts of both.

As if summoned by sheer thought alone, Kara spotted Lena not too far away, surrounded by military personnel, having obviously just finished conversing with the chancellor of the university and the education minister who had occupied the stage alongside her.

Kara wanted to wave at Lena, shout out her name and invite her over to walk freely around the gardens together. She knew none of those things were feasible, but Kara pretended for a second that it was and it produced a swooping feeling in her stomach which happened whenever she thought of Lena being in close proximity.

Kara let out a sigh and was about to turn back to trying to entice random strangers to speak to her (Kara’s respect for Jehovah witnesses was surprisingly increasing every time a passerby avoided eye contact and sped up their walk to get past her undisturbed) when she spotted a blur heading unopposed by the guards towards Lena. The blur collided with Lena who, upon spotting the movement rushing towards her, froze before her face transitioned into the brightest smile Kara had ever seen and opened her arms wide ushering the person into a warm hug.

Lena gave, what Kara now saw was, a young girl with brown hair and a genuinely happy grin, a tight hug and quick kiss to the top of her head. It was over in less than a couple of seconds, Kara watched as Lena gently pushed the young girl away and gestured to the guards and the general people milling around that had yet to spot that the Queen had appeared from behind the stage and was obviously waiting for her transportation to arrive.

The girl nodded once in understanding, her face shifting to blank and neutral, and Kara hated how Lena seemed to tense up and her green eyes immediately lost their vibrancy at the young girl’s transition.

Kara observed for a little bit longer, Lena and the girl spoke carefully, their conversation appearing controlled and precise, eventually a guard approached giving a swift bow before directing Lena and her young companion to a black 4x4 with tinted windows that was in the process of pulling up.

After Lena had left, the CatCo team perserved for another half-an-hour or so before getting Captain Dunn to take them back to the Palace for some lunch and final prep for their afternoon interview.

The interview that particular afternoon was the one Kara and Winn had been most excited for since receiving their interview schedule. The Science and Technology minister was highly intelligent, with the rare ability to capture and entertain the masses by translating complex scientific ideas into more easily understandable concepts. He was tall, with light blonde hair which kept falling to cover his eyes and he was dressed in a grey short-sleeved shirt accompanied by a bright blue bowtie. Winn declared in excited whispers that the minister was the blonde version of Matt Smith’s Doctor Who, instantly making him Winn’s real life hero.

Kara and Winn had been preparing for this interview from the second they had found out it would be happening. Kara loved science, specifically learning about breakthroughs in a wide variety of fields from medicine to theoretical physics, whilst Winn personally preferred the more visible tech developments and the implications it could have for the world.

The interview overran by two hours.

The minister adored Kara and her eager companion, who seemed to light up every time they spoke about Theonia’s advanced capabilities like the intranet being provided by state of the art infrared cabling running the length of the country. The minister spoke about his intent to link Theonia up to the rest of the world’s internet in a couple of months time, and their desire to share some of their more innovative technology especially those related to renewable energy.

Theonia, due to their disdain for mining and their lack of trade with other countries had never been dependent on fossil fuels, their need for energy had produced some revolutionary inventions. Solar cells in use throughout the nation were incredibly efficient and could store a mind-boggling amount of power to see through the days of overcast, grey skies.

Kara was inspired by the sheer volume of information she had gathered to write a series of articles rather than just one. The minister, keen to continue speaking to journalists that were so interested in what he was trying to do offered another interview later in the week which the CatCo team didn’t hesitate to accept. It was only Sam coming to find them and tell them dinner was starting that finally brought their interview to a close.

Kara and Winn, supported by James who was happy to be their stand in for the reader (if he didn’t understand what Kara was trying to explain, she had to go back to the drawing board and rewrite until it was clear), began working on their series. Snapper, at first dubious of the idea, was distracted by Kara’s Amnesty article and gave them permission to write to excess about their interests on this occasion.

“Hey.” Kara called out tentatively later that evening, peeking her head through the door to the kitchen `rather than skipping inside without delay as she was now accustomed to do.

Lena, seated in her usual seat, looked up immediately from the tablet she was typing on to flash Kara a wide, welcoming smile. Kara, however, barely registered the smile, her eyes were glued to the purple butterfly-like bruise emanating around Lena’s nose. Lena merely rolled her eyes and scoffed loudly before putting on her most authoritative voice, “Get in here already and take that guilty expression of your face. It was an accident. If you want to make it up to me-”

“Yeah?” Kara asked, rushing forward eagerly ready to carry out Lena’s every wish.

“Give me a hug?” Lena finished with her signature coy smirk that made Kara swoon every single time it was sent her way.

“You don’t need to ask for those.” Kara mumbled, stepping forward into Lena’s open arms and holding her close. “Good day? Despite the… err… you know…” Kara trailed off and Lena chuckled sweetly into her shoulder.

“Yeah, pretty good. It got even better a couple of minutes ago.” Lena replied, tightening her arms around Kara once more to emphasise her point before letting Kara step back so she could check that Kara’s guilty demeanour had fully vanished.

“What did you tell people about the-” Kara gestured helplessly to Lena’s nose.

“I told Sam the truth.” Lena said bluntly, “She laughed for about fifteen minutes straight. She then told everyone that I walked into a door whilst I was trying to read the latest update on the government’s budget before coming into the office.”

“And they believed that?” Kara queried disbelievingly.

“Mmhmm…” Lena hummed, her gaze drifting back to the tablet as she shifted nervously on her seat.

“You’ve done it before haven’t you?”

“Once or twice.” Lena coughed out awkwardly.

“Who knew the graceful Queen was so clumsy?” Kara teased, nudging Lena’s side with her shoulder affectionately.

“You’re one to talk…”, Lena fired back, putting on a haughty air that simply made Kara laugh harder.

“Point taken.” Kara acknowledged, her giggles cutting out when she flashbacked to the statue falling to pieces on the atrium floor. Lena sat up straighter, pleased with herself, whilst Kara admired her faux stern profile. “Hey, can I ask a personal question?” Kara asked, fidgeting shyly with her glasses.

“Of course.” Lena responded without a second delay, spinning around to give Kara her full attention.

“Who was that girl you were talking to after the speech?”

“Oh…”, Lena’s eyes went wide with surprise and Kara was only a second away from backtracking immediately when Lena continued before she had a chance, “that was Ruby, Sam’s daughter. Why?” Lena tilted her head to the side, the question wasn’t suspicious or concerned, simply curious as to Kara’s interest.

Why was Kara so interested?

The young girl, Ruby, was the first person during Kara’s stay at the Palace who she had seen to treat Lena the same way she did, who looked at her as if she was a normal, yet incredible person. Ruby was the first person to whom Lena let all her walls down for in less than a second, it had been impossible for Kara to look away when she had seen Lena interacting so easily.

“It’s just…” Kara took a stuttering breath, struggling to find the right words, “it’s nice to see that you have people who really care about you. I worry sometimes.” She admitted softly.

“Oh…”, Lena murmured in understanding, “you don’t have to. I have people… Sam and Ruby especially.”

“Good.” Kara said simply, because it was that simple.