Just posting this a day early so I'm not updating this and Old Gods tomorrow. That way leads to putting the wrong chapter to the wrong fic.
Chapter Text
Kara was peacefully sorting emails for Ms. Grant and marking them by relevance or just answering or deleting the rest. It was a bit tedious, but also probably the most peaceful part of her job working for Ms. Grant. Unfortunately, it was a bit mindless, which left her mulling over the James situation. Ms. Grant's advice had mirrored Daisy's, only a bit blunter. Stop trying, shine more and he'd 'dock in her port'. Which was a horrible metaphor. But the other words 'do you still want him or do you think you are supposed to want him?' were sticking more.
The important problem was this morning at the DEO. Siobhan wasn't an alien but whatever was going on with her wasn't good. Lucy said they'd keep looking into it. But the sinking feeling in her gut said that it might be her fault. That was silly though, she'd gotten Siobhan fired, not exposed to anything that'd cause powers! Kara was still gnawing on the inside of her lip though.
Rats, she'd stopped typing. She went back to the request for a raise and sent it to the correct individual in HR who should have gotten the request, not Ms. Grant. She was clicking into an email asking about arranging a meeting with Ms. Grant when she heard the now familiar rapid drumbeat that was Daisy's distinctively too fast for a human heartbeat.
She couldn't help the reflexive smile as she looked up. Daisy hadn't said she was swinging by, it was her first day at RadioShack, and she must have just gotten off. Kara beamed, as her foot bounced slightly as she waited for the elevator to reach their floor. She was up and around her desk the second the door opened and she could believably know Daisy was here. "Daisy! What are you doing here?"
"Celebratory coffee tastes better with other people, and for the moment you're my only friend in the city." Daisy passed over a Noonens latte, extra hot and the distinctive scent of vanilla.
Kara excitedly accepted the cup before pausing and pouting at Daisy. "I should be the one doing something nice for you!"
"Uh, you're letting me crash on your couch and are helping me get a mattress tomorrow after the paint finishes drying." Daisy smiled though, "And you've been doing the dishes and helped me paint. You're good."
Kara narrowed her eyes and poked Daisy's chest. "I'm getting you ice cream after work and you can't stop me."
"Wouldn't dream of it, and I expect cookie dough." Daisy's smile was just pleased and happy as she let Kara hook their arms and pull her back to her desk.
She flicked her eyes to where Ms. Grant was working on her couch. "I can take a ten, especially if we're celebrating. Do you like red velvet?"
"Who doesn't like red velvet?" Daisy easily sat on the empty side of Kara's desk, taking a sip of her own coffee.
Kara dropped back into her seat. "Psychopaths, that's who."
"Oh, well a good thing I'm capable of basic empathy then." Daisy teased lightly, which she did a lot, the teasing. "Speaking of, RadioShack, I got the tour, and the login info and spent the remaining hour and a half cleaning porn viruses off of people's laptops."
Kara understood the pleased tone and expression. "So you like it?"
"Yeah, I think I do." Daisy hummed. "I have a terrible red polo and name tag."
It was the belonging, the slice of normalcy that Daisy liked, and Rao did Kara understand that. "Not wearing the polo outside of work?"
"I'm not really a polo girl," Daisy said dryly, amused light in her eye. "Just because red isn't hideous on me doesn't make it my color."
Kara couldn't help it, "You wear enough color to have a favorite?"
"Rude," Daisy snickered, "And I wear plenty of colors, like plaid." She turned slightly thoughtful, head tipping slightly. "I probably do need to get some clothing that's more than dark green, dark purple, grey, and black."
It really was a weird thought to only wear such somber colors. "We can go to the clothing section when we go to Target!" Kara's brow crinkled, "Why don't you wear more color?"
"Yeah, no one wears a lot of color in an underground military base. It tends to be chilly, dark colors hide stains, and I don't know, field uniforms were usually black. Just ended up a habit I guess. Dark colors or suits were pretty typical."
Kara looked at Daisy critically. "I think you'd look nice in pink actually."
"Oh, I do." Daisy grinned. "I had this hot pink sun dress I used one time, tragedy struck and it got ruined. But I liked the dress. I wore a lot more color, and skirts really before I got recruited."
Kara considered her friend. "Did you wear less eyeliner then?"
"Hey, I like my eyeliner, but yeah. And if you think this is a lot you should have seen me in my goth faze. I wore fishnets and black nail polish." Daisy's lips quirked up as she sipped at her coffee smugly.
Kara would have replied but the movement caught her attention on the other side of the bullpen. Something miserable and guilty cringed at the sight of Siobhan. "Oh no."
"What?" Daisy's eyes flicked to the movement, her brow shooting up as they watched Siobhan shove Winn out of her way. "Oh off her rocker power bitch?"
Kara cringed, "I got her fired."
"Yeah, I'm thinking that was reasonable," Daisy muttered.
Kara shot Daisy a look but didn't say anything as Ms. Grant called out from her couch. Siobhan was going through a lot, she needed help, not to self-destruct and have Ms. Grant blacklist her even more than she already had!
"Kiera, call security. I haven't seen eyes that crazy since I had fondue with Ramona Singer." The snide, casual disregard was not helping.
Still, Kara was up and around her desk not quite blocking Ms. Grant's office. Rao, she'd dreamed of this sort of thing before, now it just felt awful. The churning regret at messing everything up was uncomfortable in her stomach. "Siobhan, I'm sorry, you can't be here."
Kara did her best to beg with her eyes for Siobhan to let herself be talked down. To leave before the police got called, or she had to actually physically block her approach towards Ms. Grant.
The rage was practically leaking from Siobhan as her attention locked onto Kara. And oh, the disdain and fury were focused then. She might be more disheveled than Kara had seen her before, but she was still as razor-sharp and purposeful as ever. "You ruined my life, Kara Danvers." She spat with enough poison to make a lake from it.
Siobhan's face twisted up in a scream of sheer rage building. It was unhinged. Kara didn't even know what to do in the face of just…this. But the scream that came out of Siobhan's mouth was shrieking, a physical wall of sound so literal it blew Siobhan's hair back. It felt like knives stabbing into Kara's skull as her feet left the ground.
////
Daisy had been intending to stick around long enough to 'bump' into James and deescalate the tension there, no matter how much he rubbed her the wrong way. Besides, she'd been curious about whether Cat would try and talk to her, the woman clearly had been in her power bubble for way too long. Mostly seeing Kara was nice. Having a friend to just talk about stupid things like a first day at a boringly crappy job was nice.
Those plans went flying out the window, literally, when unhinged power bitch, apparently Siobhan, came striding in on a warpath. Which hadn't pinged any danger vibes. The woman couldn't be more of a civilian. Right up until her face had twisted up and every instinct in Daisy's body went off. Because civilian didn't mean 'safe', it just meant 'untrained'.
The sound of the shriek she let out was horrible, it was like shards of glass stabbing into her brain while dancing up and down her nerve endings. Daisy wasn't unused to pain though.
She didn't even think, lunging a half second after Kara as the woman was blown clean off of her feet.
Daisy didn't need to stop and think, she'd had the instincts of what to do in these situations beaten into her head, sometimes literally, for years. She caught up to Kara right as Kara was breaking through the glass window.
She didn't hesitate, she jumped right out after her, one arm hooking around her friend's waist. Daisy barely had time to get her feet up in time as they hit the smooth metal and glass of the indented L of the face of the building. Right angles in architecture, shockingly useful at this moment.
Her right foot slipped on the smooth slightly damp surface, her left foot didn't. It was barely enough grip, but Daisy still kicked off back towards the window they'd just come out of.
Gravity and geometry were a bitch, they weren't going back through the window. But, it was close enough that Daisy was already twisting, her left hand reached out.
Daisy's hand caught the bottom of the metal window frame for the window that'd just been blown out.
The downside of grabbing the window frame of a freshly shattered window, the glass hadn't actually all fallen out, meaning a few shards of it sliced into Daisy's hand. Especially in the far corner just barely managing to grab the thing.
Upside of grabbing the window frame of the freshly shattered window Kara'd just been chucked out of, neither of them were going to be using their powers to survive this. Cover identities preserved, 'yay team'.
And then Daisy and Kara's combined weight hit, jerking Daisy's grip, driving the shards of glass deeper. Daisy grit her teeth to keep from yelping at the pain as she held them up there. She breathed out through her nose. Ok, they were good. She glanced down at the forty-story drop beneath them, and then up at the window. With only one hand there was no way an un-serumed person was getting another human up and to safety.
She frowned, no more terrible shrieking vibrations from hell up above. So hopefully someone had tackled psycho bitch Siobhan. Daisy looked at Kara. Fuck, she was out of it. Concussion probably from the vague whiny sounds she was making while not seeming to quite grasp they were on the side of a building, considering alien, she'd give her five minutes to be good as new. Still, good to know that shit could hurt her, it was a thing to look out for.
Daisy squinted up at the open window. They did realize they were hanging here right? She hissed, fuck that glass in her hand really hurt. So she shouted up. "HEY! SOME HELP HERE PLEASE!"
It was faint, outside of a skyscraper windy and all, but Daisy could just barely hear the hysterical sound of a woman's voice, "Oh my god they didn't fall!"
There was some sound, and then James and Winn were partially leaning out of the window. Winn's face blanched, his face was sheet white.
"Hey, if I pass Kara up can you guys take her?" Daisy cut off whatever panicked anything was about to come pouring out of Winn's mouth.
James was on the ball. "Do we need a rope?"
"If I lift her up, can you hook her under the arms, or do you need the rope?" Daisy's feet were resting on the flat surface of the side of the skyscraper.
James was moving. "I can get her by the arms. Winn, grab me around the waist." He leaned half out the window. "Is she alright?"
"Probably a concussion, maybe shock." Daisy looked down at Kara. "Kara, I need you to not fight me, ok?"
Kara squinted at her from where she was hanging a bit like a sack of potatoes. "Wha- why'd you help? I…"
"You got sent flying out a window." Daisy let a thrum of her powers vibrate Kara slightly, hopefully, it would remind her everything was fine, she didn't need to do anything heroic and cover-blowing. Daisy pulled herself and Kara up a full six inches, then using a leg, and her grip adjusted Kara so she was mostly between her and the building and more upright.
There was a flash of blue eyes as Kara seemed to be more aware. Good, she just needed to play along for a few more seconds.
Daisy held Kara's eyes, "Kara, I need you to put your hands on my shoulders and push yourself up so James can grab you, ok? I know you're confused, you have a concussion. But it's going to be fine."
Kara's eyes were less glassy by the second as she nodded, her hands were gentle as they moved to Daisy's shoulders and she did as asked.
James, which he had seriously good instincts for a civilian on how to not overbalance, hooked Kara under her armpits and pulled her up and through the empty window frame.
It was a sharp lessing of the pain in Daisy's hand at the loss of the extra weight. She didn't wait for James to come back for her, he was a decent dude, and he'd have come back for her. But she had abs before she got serummed, thanks. She pushed up with what little friction she had with her feet, her now free hand gripping a less glass-encrusted part of the metal window frame, and easily pulled herself up and through the window.
Daisy ignored the sharp pain from un-impaling her hand as she swept the room, there was no hogtied and being sat on Siobhon. "Where did the shrieky bitch go? Did you shove her in a closet or something?"
"Oh, well, after she went all Mariah Carey on you, she just split," A woman with a brown updo said from where she was next to Winn where he was crouched by a now sitting upright on the floor Kara.
Cat Grant spoke. "What the hell was that?"
Daisy's head tilted, and wow, right, civilians. "Airforce Special Reconnaissance war vet?"
"You're bleeding?!" Kara sounded alarmed, her eyes locked on Daisy's hand.
She winced looking at her hand, quickly reaching up and pulling the visible piece of glass out of her palm. "Yeah, that's going to need some stitches." Daisy dropped down in front of Kara. "And you need to get checked for a concussion."
"Your nose," Kara sounded horrified.
Daisy's good hand poked at her nose, she blinked looking at her fingertips stained red. Huh, that shriek had done some damage. Would be healed up in another twenty minutes tops though. So she needed to get her and Kara out before then. "Huh, shrieky had some lungs on her." She looked over to Cat. "Look, do you have an underling who can drive us to a walk-in clinic? I just need some stitches but Kara's going to need to get evaluated, whatever that was hit her dead on. Might get sent to the ER, but faster to check out a walk-in first."
"Of course, Cathy, you have a car I presume?"
Daisy bit the inside of her cheek, good to know, Cat Grant cared about Kara, even if she was still ridiculously bitchy about it. She tuned out the arrangements and looked at James. "You wouldn't have a handkerchief or something I can use to stop the bleeding?"
"Of course," He yanked his necktie off his neck, handing it over. "Will that work?"
She blinked, huh, hostile towards newbies in Kara's life, but not an asshole. "Yeah, that'll work." Daisy accepted the tie, quickly tying it around her sliced open hand, and hiding what would be skin stitching back together, and fast. "I'll get you a new one."
"You saved Kara, you don't owe me anything," James said, voice warm and slightly shaky. Not uncertain though.
Kara lunged forward hugging her.
Daisy awkwardly patted Kara on the back. "It's not a big deal?"
"You jumped out a window forty stories up!" Winn squeaked.
Daisy rolled her eyes. "I've jumped out of airplanes at twenty thousand feet, what's a skyscraper? Only like a 90% chance of going splat if I missed getting the frame on the way down." Her eyes widened as she stared at Cat Grant. "Do not put me on your front page, I swear to god!"
////
Kara breathed easy as Karen's car drove off after dropping them off at the walk-in clinic. She looked at Daisy. "Come on, let's get you stitched up."
"Uh, I'm fine." Daisy pulled the soppy with blood tie off of her hand, it was just an angry red scab. "I heal fast. Needed to get us out of there before someone noticed that or that you healed up from a severe concussion in under two minutes. I'll fake our medical paperwork once it doesn't hurt to type."
Kara hugged her. "Why would you do that! You got hurt!?"
"Uh, you got chucked out a window, grabbing you was just instinct. Then like it wasn't a big deal to keep everyone thinking we were human." Daisy shrugged, after hugging her back briefly. "You're really a hugger aren't you?"
Kara's face flushed, not having Alex around for hugs and cuddles was showing. "I'm sorry, I can stop if-"
"It's fine, I'm just not that used to it." Daisy smiled, and it wasn't a happy smile. "So, now that you've got a free afternoon, what's the plan, cause I'm going to go out on a limb and say that your former co-worker is going to need to be stopped and if the cops do it she's going to end up dead."
Her jaw tensed at that thought. "Would it be all right if I flew us back to the apartment?"
"Go for it." Daisy agreed, tipping her head to a nearby alley.
What Kara actually wanted to do was fly them to the secret base at Catco. But she knew enough about Daisy to know she'd be deeply opposed to anyone knowing about her. She wanted to disappear into the crowds. So to the apartment, she went. As soon as her feet had hit the floor she let go of Daisy. "I don't know what to do, when her scream hit me, everything went fuzzy."
"Well it's soundwaves, you're sturdy enough some construction earplugs with like over-the-ear construction muff things should probably keep you on your feet." Daisy frowned stepping to the sink and whipping the blood stains off of her hands. "That and you're fast enough you should be able to get around her if you take her by surprise. If that doesn't work, I control vibrations, sound waves are vibrations, I can just make them not happen."
Kara's eyes widened as she realized that was an offer of help with Super stuff. "You'd help?"
"Yeah, I'm not going to leave you to deal with this alone." Daisy scoffed, crossing her arms and leaning against the counter. "That said, Daisy Johnson and Quake can't be connected. Not if Cadmus is linked to the DEO. If they know who I am it's going to limit what I can do, and ups the chances of me having to fight them outright before we even know where their icky tentacles of shit are. At least as plan A."
Kara nodded, that made sense. "So what, I text you where and you meet me there?"
"If something happens and you can't take her by yourself, yeah. You take a GPS tracker, hit an SOS message, I'll stay central enough that you should only have to hold out for three minutes tops till I can get there. Ideally less, but if she heads to the outskirts, It'll take me a couple of minutes."
Kara considered what she knew of the situation. "I need to go into the DEO and update Lucy on what's going on." She looked at Daisy. "Siobhan isn't…nice…she's really mean but she's scared and doesn't know what's going on with her powers. She needs help."
"So we're helping the lady who just tried to murder you, sounds fun." Daisy hesitated, "Kara, if you end up needing me it's going to be important that anyone who sees it believes it's the first time we've met. You can't act like you've seen me before. I can make sure your reaction is more genuine, but it means you need to be surprised."
She wanted to brush off the warning, but there was a seriousness to Daisy that said she shouldn't do that. Kara straightened fully, "Let's do this."