Chapter Text
When Lena opened her eyes, everything was dark. She couldn’t see, couldn’t hear anything. All she could feel was her own body, and how much it hurt. Every inch of her skin was burning as if she had just been sent to hell; and yet, she couldn’t move. Very slowly, the pain started to fade away, and she tried to open her eyes. Her ears started to ring, with a high pitched sound that made her head spin. When, finally, her body had seemed to have calmed down, her eyes opened. She was starring at a white ceiling, and could feel the cold hard floor against her back. Once all of her senses had come back to her, she sat up. She was in her laboratory, which was a complete mess. The machine she had been working on, meant to study molecules and their interactions with each other, had fallen down and rolled over on the floor until it was ripped to pieces.
“Fuck”, Lena muttered to herself.
She had been working on this machine for months, and she was so close to making a big discovery. Frustrated, she stood up and cleaned up as much as she could, but left the broken machine in place, too angry at herself that she had failed, again. Once most of the mess was cleaned, she sank into her desk chair and sighed. She started to question what had gone wrong. She had done every calculation right, every measurement, every movement. It should have worked. And what happened that was so violent that it made her collapse on the floor? She wished she had an explanation, but for the first time, she didn’t have one. She called it a day and headed home.
Keys turned in the door, and Lena let out a sigh when she finally entered her apartment. It felt nice to be home, and she felt terribly tired after her failed experience today. All she wanted was a good night of sleep. She made her way directly to her bedroom, but as soon as she stepped in the door, her entire body felt numb. She was frozen in place, her mouth half open in shock, incapable of moving. The room started to spin, and she thought she was going to fall on her knees, but her body stayed still, and she stayed standing up. She closed her eyes, incapable of looking at the room which was now spinning very fast. Her breathing stopped for a second, her entire body was shaking, everything around her kept spinning and spinning until, suddenly, everything was still. She slowly opened her eyes, but all she could see was fog. She tried to move, but her body was still frozen in place. The fog started to lift slowly, and she managed to see the shape of a room, with a couch. She smelled potstickers, and heard voices that seemed to be coming from a television. She still couldn't exactly see the entire room, but overall it seemed very familiar. The room, plus the smell… It was reminding her of someone, but her mind was empty. As quickly as the room appeared, it disappeared. Everything started to spin again, and Lena held her breath and closed her eyes, incapable of doing anything else. Seconds passed, without her being able do to anything, and then everything stopped. The weird feeling that was enveloping her all this time went away, and her muscles stopped working. She fell on her knees, her eyes shut open as she took a deep breath, which felt like she had been holding it for two minutes. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her breathing. With her hands she found the bottom of her bed, and crawled on it, eyes still closed. Her head touched the pillow, and everything went dark.
Kara had had an exhausting day. Nothing out of the ordinary, really, but today had seemed to be one of those day, where the bad guys just never stopped coming, and from the moment she woke up to the moment she opened her apartment door that evening, she had taken no break. She almost let out a moan when she stripped from her Supergirl suit and folded it before putting it under her bed. Not the best hiding place, but it came in handy when she was woken up in the middle of the night to stop a bad guy. She took a hot shower before laying on the couch with her potstickers and blanket, as she turned the TV on. She was enjoying finally getting some time alone, in her quiet apartment, just eating her favourite food and watching a random show on TV. Something suddenly caught her attention, on the right side of the TV, close to the entrance of her bedroom. It looked like the surroundings were… moving, as if space was distorting on this specific spot. For a second, she thought she had seen a shadow, almost like a human, but, as quickly as it appeared, the almost transparent shape disappeared, and the distorting spot in her apartment was nowhere to be seen. Kara blinked a few times, making sure she had not dreamt. The weird shape had appeared without making a noise, and seemed harmless.
“I am just hallucinating because I am exhausted”, Kara said to herself out loud.
She turned the TV off and quickly finished her potstickers, stood up and turned all the lights off and finally laid in her bed for a well deserved night of sleep, trying not to think about what had just happened.
When Lena woke up, she had one of the biggest headache. She was still wearing her day clothes, and all the lights were turned on. She looked at the clock on her night stand; it was past 3am. She felt terribly hungry, and tried to recall what had happened. Her experiment with molecules had failed, she had come home and fallen asleep right away, and had the strangest dream about a small apartment and the smell of potstickers… Or had the dream happened before she fell on her bed? No, that wasn’t right. She stood up slowly, feeling that her entire body hurt. She got to the fridge and grabbed the first thing she found, before eating it and trying to remember her dream. It had been so uncomfortable, everything kept spinning and she couldn’t move. Then she was in this foggy apartment, with a TV on and the smell of potstickers…
“Kara!” Lena let out.
She remembered. She had been in Kara’s apartment. But why? Well, she was her best friend, and she had been in that apartment numerous time. It could have just been like any other dream. But given what had happened that day, she wasn’t sure about anything any more. She put her food away, took off her clothes and turned off the lights, before slipping under the covers to finish her night.
The second time Lena woke up, the sun was out. One look at the clock and she realized she was late for a meeting at work. She stood up quickly, too quickly, because her headache immediately came back. It wasn’t as bad as it used to during the night, but still, she decided to call Jess, her secretary, to cancel the meeting. Slowly bur surely, she made her way to the bathroom, taking a shower at the most perfect temperature, hoping it would make the headache go away. Sadly, it didn’t work, and she spent all day in bed, alternatively napping or doing researches on what was happening to her. It was vain, and the day went by pretty fast. She fell asleep that night with that weird feeling on her chest, the feeling that something was not right, mixed with fear, and emptiness.
The next day, she came back to work, as if everything was fine, and started to work on new projects, doing paperwork, hosting meetings… Everything but touching her broken machine. She kept that routine up for three days. She kept herself busy with work, not seeing anybody, and most importantly, totally ignoring her broken machine, hoping that denial would bring everything back to normal. On the third day, her phone buzzed in her pocket.
[Kara, 5:36pm]
Hey! Is everything ok? I haven’t heard from you in three days, and you haven’t answered my last text… Are you okay?
Lena smiled as she read the text. Everything around her was a mess, but somehow Kara was worried about her – the only one worried about her. She frowned at “my last text”. She scrolled up a little to see the text her best friend was talking about. It was from four days ago, the day her machine exploded.
“Still up for that lunch date tomorrow?”
Oh, of course Kara was asking her to have lunch with her. But why in the world didn’t Lena reply? She looked at the time. 7:30pm . Approximately at the time her machine broke down. Oh. She quickly typed her answer.
[Lena, 5:39pm]
Hey Kara. I am okay, don’t worry. I am sorry I ghosted you, I have been really busy with work. Lunch tomorrow? On me.
She didn’t have to wait too long for an answer.
[Kara, 5:4 0 pm]
Hi! Glad to hear you’re okay. Lunch tomorrow, sounds good!! :)
Lena smiled at the smiley; she loved how Kara could always be in a good mood. She put her phone back in her pocket, and sighed. Kara. It had always amazed her how much affection she had for her. She had been raised to be cold, and to work alone. And yet, Kara had managed to chip away at her armour with her warmth and her earnestness. She shook her head and got back to work. She started to glance at the machine, as she was working. By 7pm, she decided it was time to head home. She looked one last time at the machine, and decided that tomorrow morning she would put an end to this denial, and try to fix it.
The next morning, as planned, she entered her lab and went straight for the machine. She was excited for her lunch at Kara’s place, and thought that if she worked enough this morning, she would actually deserve the lunch. The machine wasn’t big, and she managed to put it back up by herself. She had put all of the broken pieces in a box, and started to work on that. Once all of the pieces were fixed, it was around 11am, and she decided to take a break before putting them back on the machine. She sat down on her chair, got a glass of water and stared in silence at her failed experiment. It must have triggered something, because she suddenly felt weird, like she was going to pass out. She put her glass down, and stood still on her chair, trying to recollect herself. Slowly, the room started to spin, and she understood what was happening. This time, she kept her eyes open. The fear that took over her body the first time it had happened was still there, but she felt like she could control it this time. The room span faster and faster, until it disappeared and became a heavy fog, like the one she saw in what seemed to be Kara’s apartment, last time. She felt her body leave the chair, like if she was floating. No matter how hard she tried to keep her eyes open, everything suddenly went black.
Kara had cleaned her apartment from top to bottom waiting for Lena. She hadn’t seen her best friend in three days – which felt like an eternity for her. She didn’t want Lena to think Kara was living in a messy apartment (which she was, most of the time). It was around 11am when the blurry shape appeared next to her television again. She stood still, at a safe distance, observing the shape. Space was distorting again around the shadow, and the said shadow was becoming more and more visible. Kara used her x-ray vision to see if she could figure out what was in that shape, and her mouth fell open when she realized it was a body that had just entered her apartment. She didn’t know if it was a threat or not, but she wouldn’t have had time to put her suit on anyway, so she just kept her distance. Quickly, the shadow lightened, and the blurry spot slowly became a visible human body. The white skin, the dark long hair, and finally the entire body appeared. It was a woman. Her eyes were shut close, and her face was still a little too blurry for Kara to figure out who it was. All she knew was that she seemed unconscious. The silent shape continued to grow more visible, until it was perfectly evident that someone had just teleported in Kara’s apartment. The distorted space around the woman fell back into place, and the woman who was floating in the middle of it started to fall down. Using her super speed, Kara rushed to her, as she was obviously not here to hurt the blond woman. Once the brunette in her arms, Kara gasped as she realised it was Lena.
“Lena!” she called. “Lena? Can you hear me?”
The brunette was unconscious in Kara’s arm, and the hero started to panic. She put her arms behind Lena’s back and legs and carried her to her own bed. She stared at her best friend on her bed, checked her pulse and breathing. Her own heart was beating hard against her chest, and she hesitated to call the DEO, or at least Alex. She decided not to, and sat at the bottom of the bed, waiting.
When Lena woke up, she had a headache again, which made her grunt as she brought her hand to her forehead. The headaches she was getting were less and less painful, but still, they were painful. She opened her eyes and was surprised to see Kara sitting next to her legs, on the side of the bed.
“Kara?” she asked. “What are you doing in my apartment?”
Kara was smiling softly at her, relieved that her friend was okay.
“Well, actually, look around.”
Lena did. She wasn’t in her apartment, she was in Kara’s.
“What… what am I doing in your apartment Kara?”
“I don’t actually know. I thought you could tell me. You just… appeared.”
“Appeared? What do you mean?”
“Well, a weird blurry spot appeared in my apartment, like a space distortion, then a shadow in the middle, which was a human body, and, it was you. That is all I know. Oh, also something similar happened three days ago, but I didn’t get to see a full human form, just a blurry shape.”
Lena listened quietly as the pieces were slowly coming together.
“What were you eating three days ago when the shape appeared?” Lena asked.
“What? What does this have to do with anything, I’m lost.”
“Just answer. What were you eating?”
“Mmh, I believe it was potstickers.”
Lena’s entire body froze, and panic rushed over her. Kara immediately noticed.
“Lena? Lena are you okay? Talk to me.”
She grabbed her hand, and it seemed to have brought Lena back to reality. She looked up to meet Kara’s worried gaze. She hold tight on her friend’s hand and took a deep breath. Then she explained everything. How she was studying molecules and built a machine that exploded on her, how she got that weird feeling and passed out before “waking up” in Kara’s apartment, smelling potstickers. And how she was there, now, after manipulating the machine again. Telling her story out loud, Lena realize how crazy it all sounded. But Kara, being Supergirl, had heard crazier stories – not that Lena knew.
“I see”, she said, once Lena was done.
“Do you believe me?” Lena asked, worried.
“Of course I believe you! This whole story is… crazy, but it matches up with what I experienced three days ago, and I did see you appear on my living room floor, so...”
“So...” Lena echoed.
They stayed quiet for a second, still holding hands, letting it all sink it.
“So”, Kara finally said, “you can teleport”
“I can teleport.” She paused. “But apparently I cannot choose when that happens, and where I land. It makes it all very… scary”, she admitted.
“Hey”, Kara said, grabbing Lena’s second hand. “It’s gonna be okay. You’re not alone. We’re gonna figure this out.”
“Will you help me?” Lena asked, holding Kara’s soft gaze.
“I will, Lena. Do you want to go to the DEO?”
“No”, she answered firmly. “They’re gonna lock me up until they figure it out, and a Luthor teleporting, well, that’s not a good thing.”
“Enough with the Luthor name, you know we’re past that.”
Lena nodded. Kara had a point.
“Yes. But still, don’t bring me to the DEO, please. I started this in the first place, I’m sure I’ll find the answer. With your help, if you agree.”
“Of course I agree. And okay, no DEO. But if it doesn’t work, and you end up getting hurt, I’m calling Alex right away. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Kara smiled softly and squeezed Lena’s hands before letting them go.
“Well,” Kara spoke, “you were supposed to come for lunch. And you’re here, so… Milady, would you like to have lunch?”
Lena laughed, making Kara chest feel warm, as it always did when Lena laughed, and she nodded.
“With pleasure, my darling.”