Family Name 7

“Ms.Luther, Ms.Zor-El is here to see you.”Lena immediately jumped up from her seat as she heard her assistant’s voice over the intercom. She was alone in her office as Sam had invited Winn to lunch so that she could have some privacy to talk to Kara. Lena wasn’t completely confident that she could convince Kara to loan them the money they needed. She had gone over how she was going to ask with Winn and he had only positive feedback but Lena was still nervous. Nervous and embarrassed. Lena hated the fact that she was going to have to ask her biggest competitor for money to save her business. Especially after Kara had already done so much and had promised to do more. It had to be done though. Lena was completely out of options. Giving herself a once over in the mirror Lena fluffed her hair out and readjusted her shirt.

“Send her in Jess.”Lena replied walking to the front of her desk. Watching as the door opened and Kara walk into the room Lena’s carefully planned out greeted died on her lips. She hadn’t really thought about what Kara would wear to her meeting but seeing her in a fitted black suit Lena was more than pleased with the choice. Lena didn’t even think she had a thing for women in suits but seeing Kara in hers Lena knew that this version of Kara would be joining in on her many other fantasies of the woman.

“Hello Lena.”Kara replied.

Lena shook her head to clear the lustful thoughts.”Hello Kara thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”

“It’s my pleasure.”Kara wouldn’t have missed chance to see Lena again.

“Why don’t you have a seat on the couch? I asked Winn for your lunch preferences and he mentioned you enjoyed Noonan’s so I ordered what he promised was your usual.”When Lena had heard the amount of food Kara ate in one sitting she had thought Winn was pranking her. It was only after many reassurances that she placed the order.

Kara took a seat in the chair. Seeing the amount of food on the table she felt bad that Lena spent so much money to feed her.”If you got my usual then you will have to allow me to repay you.”

“Nonsense. I invited you to lunch.”Lena didn’t mind paying for Kara’s lunch.

“Thank you then.”Kara would have to do something nice for Lena to repay the gesture.

“So please help yourself.”Lena handed Kara a plate and a fork.

“You got some for yourself as well right?”Kara asked as she loaded up her plate with food.

“I did.”Lena was a little too nervous to eat but Winn had reassured her that any food she didn’t eat that Kara would eat for her.“I guess while we eat I should get to why I asked you to come here.”

“That would nice.”Kara was extremely curious to why Lena had invited her to her office.

“I had this whole powerpoint presentation and a bunch of talking points planned out but when I talked to Winn about it he told me that it would be better to just ask you outright. He said that you would be more likely to help me if I wasn’t trying to sell you anything.”Lena told her.

“I would like to think that if you needed something that you would be comfortable just asking.”Kara preferred that people get straight to the point when asking her for things.

“I am very embarrassed that I have to come to you with this but honestly you are the only one I think would even be willing to help us. L-Corp is in financial ruin. We have enough money to cover running cost for about a month before we are broke. What’s even worse is some of the names of the people that need to be fired are our top earners.”Lena told her.

“How much do you need get through the next 6 months?”Kara asked.

“A rough estimate 500 million but if we want to be able to manufacture the products we currently have on the market 1 billion.”Lena watched Kara’s face closely to see her reaction but it had remained blank.

“Have your CFO contact my assistant and they will arrange the transfer.”Kara had no problem giving Lena the money.

Lena wasn’t sure she understood what Kara was saying.”Wait you are going to give me the loan and not even ask for anything in return?”

“I am more than willing to give you the money. As to wanting something in return not only would it be morally wrong to take advantage of you while you are in this situation, I don’t want anything from you.”Kare told her.

“Why not? I mean you are doing so much for me personally and you are getting nothing in return. Why are you doing any of this?”Lena couldn’t figure Kara out and it was very frustrating.

”I want to tell you a story. A story I ask that you not repeat to anyone else.”Kara felt that she could trust sharing her past with Lena.

“Anything you tell me will be kept between us.”Lena was very interested in what secret Kara was going to reveal.

“On my home world I was the crown princess. My parents ruled over the entire planet.”Kara smiled at the shocked look Lena was giving her.

”If you were the crown princess why did you come to earth? Wouldn’t you have stayed on your planet to take the throne one day?”Lena couldn’t understand that part. A crown princess would normally stay in the country or in Kara’s place planet they were going to inherit.

“My people were reckless with the planet. They over mined our lands and depleted it of all natural resources. My parents were giving many warnings from experts that the core of our planet was unstable and if they didn’t act the planet would implode and kill every life form that called it home.”Kara told her.

“You don’t have to continue if this is hard for you.”Lena desperately wanted to hear the rest of the story but it was obvious that telling it upset Kara and Lena didn’t like seeing her upset.

“For you to understand why I am willing to help you I need to tell you.”Kara took a deep breath before continuing.”Where was I, my parents were given numerous warnings but they ignored all of them. My planet was the only known location you could get a certain mineral and if we stopped mining it it would have ruined our economy. In the end my parents chose wealth over the very people they promised to protect. The didn’t even warn then of the dangers to come.”

“What happened to your planet?”Lena almost didn’t want to know the answer but was compelled to ask.

Kara smiled sadly.”Just like the experts told them the planet imploded and everyone was killed.”

”How are you still alive?”Lena asked.

“My aunt drugged me, put me in a pod and sent me to earth before it happened. I have searched the universe for other survivors but I have found none and have come to the conclusion that I am the last of my people.”Kara had used all her resources but had found no other living survivors.

“Jesus.”Lena had suspected that Kara had a tragic backstory but could have never imagined it was as bad as it was.

“So to answer your original question. I am willing to help you because I know what it’s like to be the one left to deal with picking up the pieces after your family’s crimes have been exposed.”Kara told her.

“Kara I don’t even know what to say. I think saying I’m sorry that happened to you is inadequate but I am really am sorry that happened to you.”Lena didn’t how Kara dealt with the obvious guilt she felt. Even if Lena had a feeling that guilt was misplaced.

“The reason for me to tell you my story wasn’t so you would feel sorry for me. It was for you to understand that I like you come from a family that committed horrendous crimes and am striving everyday to make my family name respectable again.”Kara didn’t want Lena’s pity. Especially because Kara felt partially responsible for what happened.

Lena didn’t think that was the only reason Kara was helping her but wasn’t going to question Kara further about it. The woman had revealed enough for today.”Thank you for taking a chance on me.”

“Giving you a chance was an easy decision.”Kara said.

“What do you mean?”Lena asked.

“When investigating your company I looked into your background. I was very impressed with your research and had read your many papers. I saw how Lex and Lionel suppressed your genius and know that if given the chance you could help earth in many ways.”Kara had read though some of Lena’s project proposals that had been rejected by the company. If they had been approved then L-Corp would have made a lot more money off of them than the subpar alien weapons they had been selling.

“You know of my work?”Lena was very surprised to hear that.

Kara nodded.”It was your work that convinced me to give you a chance. It proved that you were nothing like your family. You want to help others not hurt them.”

“I had actually thought about going off on my own but my father threatened to use his influence to make sure no one would invest in my ideas and that he would have his allies in the government deny any patents I tried to submit.”That was one of the reasons Lena was more than happy to let her father and brother rot in prison.

“I suspect that he made such threat because he wanted to make sure you never outshined Lex. Something that would have happened if you were allowed the freedom to actually work on your own ideas.”Kara knew that Lena was the real brains in the Luther family.

“It was nice when those people came forward and exposed all of Lex’s achievements to be false.”Lena had laughed out loud when her step mother had tried to get her to use the company’s lawyers to sue the many people who exposed Lex.

“It’s to bad that your family didn’t put more support in you because if they had they wouldn’t have had to go to the extremes they went to to make the company successful. I honestly believe with enough cash to keep you going to give you time to dedicate to your projects you could revolutionize the medical world and become a leader in the industry.”Kara actually expect it to happen very soon.

“When we work on our project is it going to be medical based?”Lena asked.

“No, I thought that I would help you create something in the renewable energy field.”Kara told her.

“Your company owns the renewable energy market. Why would you want to help me enter the field?”Lena didn’t think Kara would want to give someone else a chance to move into a space where her company made so much money.

“I’m doing it because I think it will be the quickest way for you to make a lot of money. The idea I have for you is something that if you hired the right people they would be able to improve on it for many years to come. It would give your company a way to make money so that you wouldn’t have to worry about pushing out other projects and could focus on things you are passionate about.”Kara explained.

“You have already finished the project?”Lena liked the idea of having a product that could make enough for her to be able to focus on her own research.

“I did however I will not be giving you the final blueprints. I want you to earn your right to put your name on the patent.”Kara had created technology that was far more advanced then what the project she was giving Lena but didn’t want to use it as it was far to advanced for humans to have.

“If you already finished the project why haven’t you marketed it?”Lena asked.

“I am a firm believer that humans shouldn’t be given everything. They need to progress on their own so that they don’t become reliant on others.”Kara told her.

“I guess that makes sense but surely some things you have created are a long way from humans discovering that would be beneficial to the help the planet and humans themselves?”Lena was positive that Kara had things that would be extremely helpful to humans.

“That is true and eventually I will release a lot of it. I will just do so sporadically in the future to give humans a chance to grow.”Kara was going to give humans the chance to evolve before stepping in.

“I would love to see some of your ideas.”Lena would give anything to see the projects Kara worked on that she didn’t release to the public.

“Maybe one day I’ll take you to my private lab.”Kara had never taken anyone to the Fortress of Solitude where she did most to her work but found the idea of taking Lena exciting. Maybe it was silly putting so much trust in Lena but the Kara felt that Lena wouldn’t spill her secrets.

“I would love that. I was actually going to see if I could get an invitation to see the Tower after Winn told me that the technology was a lot more advanced than I could imagine.”Lena wanted to see what the Super Friends used to help them fight the many threats they took care of.

“How about you talk to Sam and see when she and Ruby are free and we can arrange a tour for the three of you?”Kara offered.

“Really?”Lena hadn’t expected Kara’s offer.

“I doubt you are going to tell people what you see and even if you did I am confident that you wouldn’t be able to steal the technology.”Kara usually wouldn’t let people in the Tower but didn’t mind taking Lena, Sam and Ruby.

“Then I would love to come to the Tower. I know that Sam and Ruby would like to as well.”Lena was touched that Kara extended the offer to not only Sam but Ruby as well.

“Just give my assistant a call and set it up.”Kara said.

“Will your assistant actually get us in or will it be put off for a few months?”Lena really didn’t want to deal with Kara’s assistant.

Kara smiled.”I told them to make you a priority when you called so you don’t have to worry about them putting you off.”

“Thank you.”Lena was happy she wouldn’t get the brush off again.

Before Kara could reply her watch buzzed. Pushing the button she spoke.”Hello.”

“Kara we have an incident down town that the police are asking assistance on.”Nia’s voice said.

“What is it?”Kara asked.

“Bank robbers using alien weapons.”Nia told her.

“I’m on my way.”Kara smiled apologetically at Lena.”I’m sorry to cut our lunch short.”

“It’s no problem.”Lena was disappointed that Kara was leaving but understood that the hero had obligations.

“Thank you for lunch and don’t forget to call my assistant to set up that tour.”Kara said.

“I will.”Lena replied. She felt her jaw fall open involuntarily as she watched Kara shrug off her clothing to reveal her suit. She hadn’t expected to see Kara change in front of her.

“Can you give Winn my clothes to take home with him?”Kara asked.

“Uh… yeah..sure.”Lena stuttered out.

“See you around Lena.”Kara said before stepping on the balcony and launching into the air.

“See you.”Lena replied watching her fly away. She took a big gulp of her glass of ice water trying to cool her body down. Even her fantasies couldn’t have prepared her for seeing Kara actually strip in front of her. Standing up from her seat Lena walked over to Kara’s suit and picked it up. Before she could stop herself Lena lifted the buttoned up shirt to her nose and inhaled deeply. The scent caused an almost drug like feeling overcome Lena. She couldn’t quite identify the smell but it reminded her of bright sunny days. Lena had a feeling it was Kara’s natural scent. She wondered if it was some type of natural alien pheromone that made Lena react to it so strongly. Not that she could ask Kara about it without admitting that she was sniffing her clothing like a weirdo. That being something she was never going to admit to anyone she did. She was going to let herself indulge for a few more minutes and then she was going to get some work done. At least that’s what she told herself. In reality Lena was probably going to be smelling Kara’s shirt until someone came and interrupted her.