Castaway AU -- Reconnecting
Despite her promise to James, Kara needs time to cross the country again, and return to the house Lena shares with James. She wants to, but it's hard to leave her apartment these days, let alone traverse the country on a crowded plane.
Her time runs out nearly a week later, when James gives her a call.
"She's shutting down," James tells her, his voiced edged with desperation. "She can barely stand to look at me, let alone let me help her."
"Why?" Kara croaks.
James sighs. "Because I'm the one who told her you would want her to move on."
Silence stretches thin between them.
"I'm going to take the kids to my mom's for a few days," James continues. "Please-- come. It's-- whatever you may feel, please don't blame Lena."
Only then does Kara reclaim her voice.
"Never."
---
When Kara arrives at Lena's home, she's surprised and concerned to receive no answer when she knocks. She calls James.
"There's a shed out back," he tells her. "You'll find her there."
True to his word, when she opens the gate in the side fence and traipses to the backyard, the door of the shed hangs open. Inside, the interior is nothing like she expects.
Instead of storage for tools and lawncate equipment, she finds the remains of what was once likely a clean and tidy home laboratory. Now, though, she steps into the ruins of a tornado-- broken equipment on the floor and shreds of ripped paper scattered across every surface, floor included.
In the middle of it all is Lena, sitting on the room's single stool with her head bowed and shoulders slumped. Whatever rage may have prompted the destruction around her seems to have evaporated, leaving her without the strength to so much as lift her head when Kara softly calls her name.
"Lena..."
Lena only flinches, turning her chin away to further hide her face. She doesn't look up as Kara picks her way through the debris, and only studies her tightly clasped hands in her lap when Kara comes to stand before her.
Once there, Kara waits in anxious silence. She doesn't know what to say. In her time in the phantom zone, she's rehearsed what she might say to Lena million times, a million ways, but somehow nothing for a scenario like this.
"I tried," Lena whispers. Head bowed, she takes a shuddering breath. "For years. To bring you home."
Kara nods. "I know," she says quietly.
Swallowing audibly, Lena shakes her head once. "I said they told me to let you go, but... the truth is-- I gave up."
"Lena..."
"I just-- nothing worked, and I didn't... I didn't know what else to try. So-- I let myself believe you would want me to-- to move on."
Lena's voice chokes up. Finally, her head lifts, revealing features pallid and eyes full of tears that soon spilled down her cheeks.
"I gave up," she rasps. Her lips tremble. "I-- I stopped looking!"
With that, Lena's control collapses. With a sob that seems to crack her chest, Lena gasps through her tears, shoulders heaving. Before Kara knows what she's doing, she's stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend's shoulders.
Lena's face presses against Kara's chest, their difference in height only furthered by Lena's seat on the stool. Lena's arms wrap tightly about her waist, clutching her fingers into the fabric of her shirt as the front dampens with tears.
When Lena's sobs weaken and eventually cease, their embrace continues. Kara's hand cups the back of Lena's head, the touch more tender than anything Kara has felt in nearly a decade. For long moments, they simply breathe, tangled together, until Kara withdraws her arms to gently cup Lena's cheeks and tilt her chin up, allowing their eyes to meet once more.
"I can't say I wanted you to stop looking," Kara utters, "but if it was keeping you from being happy-- from living-- they were right. I didn't want that."
Lena's features threaten to crumple once more, and Kara isn't sure if she helps or hurts by leaning down to press a kiss to Lena's forehead.
"I forgive you," she murmurs. She takes a quaking breath as Lena's own breath catches in her chest. "And thank you. For not forgetting about me."
Lena's head shakes no between Kara's hands. "I could never forget you," she promises through a hiccup.
Kara's thumbs away Lena's tears, on the verge of spilling anew. Lena reaches up to grasp her wrists, willing Kara to believe her.
"Mia-- our eldest daughter-- her middle name is Kara."
Kara freezes, surprise coursing through her entire body when Lena's words register. Tears of her own spring to her eyes, for the first time in years.
"I love it," she says.
A warmth sparks in Kara's chest, slowly spreading as Lena finally stands and wraps her arms around Kara's shoulders in a true embrace. It's a long moment before she realizes what the warmth is, at this unexpected inclusion into Lena's family, despite her absence.
This feeling, long forgotten, foreign to Kara yet achingly familiar.
It's love.
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