Yo!
Chapter Text
Daisy stared at the huge amount of mattresses. "How do we even start?"
"Most people start with whether they want a firm or soft mattress," Kara offered from where she was standing next to her.
She blew out a breath, right, she could do that. "Is there a word for not as hard as a bunk on a plane but still has back support?"
"Medium firm, I think?" Kara's eyes alighted on a poor shmuck in the mattress uniform. "We can ask!"
Daisy kind of hated that they probably did need someone. She needed furniture. Also apparently to find a way to sell at least five or six gold bars cause furniture and mattresses were apparently as horrifyingly expensive as paint, counters, and shit had been. A large part of Daisy wanted to do what she always had done in situations like this, find something that'd work, grab it, and then move on. But…she didn't want to do that for the apartment. So she followed along behind Kara toward the salesperson.
"Hi, Maria! My friend here needs some help?" Kara chirped with one of her easy and brilliant smiles.
Daisy wondered how much of it was genuine and how much was acting. Because who Kara was when she wasn't done up as Kara Danvers was different, and so was Kara done up as Supergirl. It was subtle, there was truth to all of the ways she presented herself. Daisy shook off the thought.
"Of course," Maria turned to Daisy, "What are you looking at getting?"
She let herself wince slightly. "Um, kind of everything? For a bedroom?"
"What do you already have?" Maria asked clearly expecting a list or parameters or something.
Daisy sighed, "I'm fresh out of the Air Force and I signed up the day I turned eighteen. I have an empty apartment and enough belongings to fit in a duffle bag. I don't have a bed frame, mattress, tables, any of that stuff you're supposed to have for a room."
Maria's eyes lit in a way that said that she got paid commission. "Do you have the measurements of your bedroom?"
"We do!" Kara happily cut in while pulling out an honest to god paper planner and opening up to the lists of measurements and the sketched-out floorplan of the apartment. She had not been kidding when she said she had learned home improvement as a child.
Maria had refocused on Kara clearly identifying who the actual one to sell to was. "Wonderful, what size of bed are we thinking?"
Daisy sighed, it was going to be a long day. Also…did she want a big bed? "Um…I don't know?"
"Let's go look at some options so you can get a better idea of what your choices are and what might work best for your lifestyle," Maria suggested while directing them toward the bedframes.
Daisy stared at the bedframe. "No, it needs to be sturdy more than anything else." She was not getting a bed which a singular nightmare was going to break. Or sex, cause her powers were harder to control when her heart rate spiked. She was not going to think about how pathetically long it'd been since she'd hooked up with someone. It was just depressing.
"Why not this one then?" Kara pointed to a minimal frame design, it was a mix of wood and metal. "It's built well, and there's room for storage underneath if you want."
Daisy considered that she could and probably should expand how many weapons and just useful gear she had. It wasn't like SHIELD was around with bunkers of the stuff as needed anymore. Was stealing the gear she wanted from the army base a few miles out unethical? Probably. Was it also funny and the easiest method considering they were concerningly easy to infiltrate? Yes, yes, it was. Actually, since she was apparently getting a queen bed there'd be room for a rocket launcher, she'd always wanted one of those. "It'd go with the colors, I think?"
"It will look lovely with the colors, though you might want to go with green for the sheets. If you get too many blues it'll make the pallet cold despite the purple." Kara said with conviction.
Daisy just nodded, thank god Kara knew about color. Cause outside of fashion, Daisy wasn't really sure what to do with color design in buildings. "So green for the sheets? Wait, how many sets of sheets do I need?"
"At least three." Kara laid a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, they can all be different colors or patterns."
"I should have gotten a smaller apartment." Daisy was enjoying this, but also…why was there so much?
Kara was flipping through her planner, "So that's a mattress, check, bedframe, check, two bedside tables, check, a lamp, check, a dresser, check, and a mirror. I think that's everything we needed from this store unless you want something else?"
"We're doing the rest online," Daisy replied, staring at the quietly pleased by her imminent commission Maria. "We can get this delivered to the apartment yes?"
Kara was pouting, "But then we can't go to thrift stores to find you the perfect table and chairs, or the perfect couch!"
"We can eat extra potstickers while looking for the perfect table and chairs as well as the right couch if we do it online." Daisy countered with, because thrifting sounded very much not her style. Or maybe her style if she wasn't trying to put together an entire organized life on a time crunch. Months of slowly growing into a tiny studio apartment probably would have made thrifting for cool pieces of furniture fun. Getting it all done at once for a larger apartment sounded terrible. Also, she'd avoided thrift shops once she could. Having clothing and things that hadn't been someone else's first was…it mattered. "Come on, we can get lunch after we pay for this."
Daisy was enjoying eating burgers in the food court at the mall when she noted the look on Kara's face. "Go for it, I'll make it back on my own just fine."
"I'm sorry," Kara got up. "I promise, I'll make it up to you."
Daisy tossed a fry at Kara, laughing because that was ridiculous. "Go, it's fine."
Kara's face had a curious crinkle, and then she was taking off at the fastest human speed possible.
Shaking her head, Daisy grabbed her soda and sipped at it. So her afternoon was open then. She hummed, she had some ideas. First, finishing up her lunch. Cause, god she was never going to get sick of eating hot delicious food. Crappy base food was the worst.
Daisy was watching the world around her with her eyes less than with her powers. Because in a world like this with as many aliens in it, there had to be a community. A community who weren't Inhumans, but they needed help. And Daisy was tired of leaving people like her behind, barely being able to help them so she could uphold the greater good. Maybe…maybe she could actually be allowed to help the people who needed it the most instead of playing the numbers game this time?
So here she was absently wandering down the streets of National City concentrating on the vibrations of the people around her, trying to pick out an alien. Kara's vibrations were so distinctly 'not-human'. They were denser and brighter almost? It was distinct in a way that was impossible to miss. Other aliens were less obviously noticeable. Or, the ones she'd noticed so far. And she had noticed them.
The busboy at Noonans whose bones felt hollow. The school bus driver that went by the apartment building every morning who felt like they were made of almost pure water. A half dozen others she'd picked up on since arriving on this world. There were more aliens than Inhumans, by a vast degree if Daisy's guess at the situation on this world was right. Asgard was shit at protecting Earth, but they apparently had kept it off the alien refugee path for everyone but the Skrulls.
Still, what she was looking for wasn't just any one of the probably couple thousand aliens in National City. It was something like a community, a network. She knew where to look, it wasn't in the high-budget, expensive neighborhoods like where Catco was. The poorer, less monitored areas. Not too poor, there'd be too much police attention there. A neighborhood where not everyone had bars over the windows, but some did. Signs that flickered a bit, but weren't growing algae yet. A pocket of poverty amongst the rich shiny aesthetic of the city.
Daisy kept her hands stuffed in her pockets, using her peripheral vision and her feel of vibrations, she meandered through the right neighborhoods, waiting to see it. And she'd know it when she saw it. In fact, there. She turned on her heel and headed down the alley. The walls of the building were covered in paint, peeling posters, graffiti, a dumpster that had the smell of food waste, and some trash on the ground, but for a back alley, it was clean. And that was a camera by the heavy metal door.
She stopped at the door and slid it open, it was just slightly too heavy for even a strong human to be able to open it easily. Daisy slipped in looking at the bar she'd entered. It was dingy, but on a bar scale, it wasn't that bad. She'd been in far, far worse. It was mostly clean, the dark outdated furniture and poor lighting a dime a dozen for bars. There was a black woman behind the counter of the bar, cleaning glasses, clearly having just started opening the place up. And her vibrations were…wiggling. Not that that made any sense, but they were.
Daisy walked towards the bar, she clocked two or three less outwardly human-appearing patrons hidden in dark corners. Two of whom were clearly passed out still from the night before. She slid onto a barstool at the counter. "Hey, bit early for alcohol, you have coffee?"
"Want anything with that coffee?" The bartender flicked her towel over her shoulder, turning and picking up the ancient-looking coffee pot and pouring it into a chipped white mug. She slid the mug across the counter to her.
Daisy smiled slightly. "Thanks, and do you have sugar and cream?"
"You're new in the city?" The bartender asked as she pushed sugar over, no cream.
Daisy dumped sugar into her coffee. "That obvious?"
"I've worked this job for a long time." The woman replied, which neatly didn't give much away.
She held out her hand, elbow on the bar top. "I'm Daisy, you?"
"M'gann," The woman took her hand shaking it before pulling back.
Daisy's lips curled, yeah, she'd picked the right place. "I got here a couple of weeks ago. Still figuring things out, have any tips?"
"Have any support here in the city?" M'gann asked, her face and expression serious but not particularly closed off.
She gave a tip of her head. "Whole studio apartment, new job, and a friendly neighbor who is like us, but she's human-raised."
"Then keep your head down, you pass enough you'll have enough time to figure out how things work." M'gann offered out as her advice.
Daisy curled her hands around the mug of coffee, using her powers to swirl the coffee, mixing the sugar in. "Well, that's depressing. Always been this dangerous or is it a new thing with the higher scrutiny since Supergirl?"
"They're new to the wider galaxy." M'gann tapped her knuckles on the bartop, "Take care of yourself."
She hummed, "You guys at least have karaoke night?"
////
Kara dropped the radioactive alligator into the cell in the DEO. "So it's a regular alligator?"
"Drug dealer kept it as a pet and dumped it in alien goop for some reason, Ma'am." Vasquez answered as she locked the cell.
Her face scrunched, "That's just so weird."
"Understanding stupidity isn't the job, Ma'am."
Kara pouted but headed back to the command center. She could feel her spine straightening from the side looks she got. It was uncomfortable, had been worse since RedK, since Alex left. She pushed down the discomfort, keeping her chin up, and shoulders back as she headed for where she could hear Lucy's heartbeat.
"Supergirl," Lucy raised her coffee cup from where she was bent over a computer screen. She straightened, her back popping. "Thank you for handling the radioactive swamp life."
She didn't like the dark circles under Lucy's eyes, or how worn out she looked. Kara fell in at Lucy's shoulder as Lucy started moving for her next fire to put out. "Have you had lunch?"
"You packed me spaghetti and meatballs for lunch," Lucy replied, and oh they were heading toward J'onn's…Lucy's office. "Which was delicious actually, I didn't know you cooked."
Kara couldn't help the pep in her step. "Daisy made it, she's been excited about learning how to cook."
"Huh, well hopefully she keeps it up." Lucy waited till the door shut to keep speaking. "We need to go back over your debrief from yesterday."
Kara munched on a granola bar as she sat on a chair in the secret base at Catco. It was frustrating that she couldn't do her work as an assistant. Patty from the temp agency would be filling in for her, and she'd leave it a mess. Ms. Grant's personal schedule was going to be in shambles. But, extra time as Supergirl…she was torn.
"Kara!" Winn excitedly rushed over. "Should you be here? Ms. Grant will lose her mind if she finds out you are here while you're supposed to be home."
Kara pointed at the Supersuit she was currently in. "I can fly away before she can catch me."
"Oh right," Winn shrugged and then walked over to his computer setup. "Do you need a crime to stop? Cat up a tree to save?"
Kara hesitated, "I wanted to see how you were doing after Siobhan?" She pushed the donut box towards him.
His shoulders crumpled. "I asked if I could talk to her, she doesn't want to see me. I think this means we're broken up."
"I'm sorry Winn," Kara had no idea how he could like someone that awful, but he'd really liked her.
He leaned back in his chair, "I don't know what I did wrong, why wouldn't she talk to me? She was so scared and I was trying to help but…she didn't want my help."
"Hey, you did the best that you could," Kara leaned forward. "And whether she likes it or not, she's at the DEO now and maybe she will get help."
Winn nodded, "Do you think it'd be stupid to write her a letter?"
"No, I don't think that's stupid at all." Kara ached for her friend, for his hurt.
He visibly pushed it down. "What about you and James? He's been twitchy, he's so jealous of your new neighbor. Is that a thing he should be jealous of? Because if you are into women, I would be totally cool with that."
"Winn," She sighed, she didn't want to talk about how Kryptonians saw relationships. It was just one more way she was different. "I don't know, shouldn't it be easier than this? If he likes me enough to be jealous why doesn't he want me enough to date me?"
Winn's hands twitched, "I don't know? But he said he needed time, maybe if you just wait he'll be ready soon?"
Kara looked at the collar of Winn's shirt, it was plaid and had a nice green pattern. "I was so certain about him, all 'whapow' and everything! But it hasn't felt right like that for a while? I get all queasy and anxious and I feel like a hamster in a wheel!"
"You'd make a very Super hamster?" Winn offered, he gave her a faintly strained smile. "We can be eternally single together."
She breathed out and it hurt, but she nodded. "Yeah, best friends forever." Kara smiled softly and kind of sadly at him. "How's the temp managing Ms. Grant?"
"We're on the third one today." Winn shook his head. "I think she's taking out her feelings from yesterday on them."
Kara shook her head, Ms. Grant was really bad about doing that. But at least her wrath wasn't directed at her this time? "Maybe tell tomorrow's temp to get her a Big Belly cheeseburger and put it on top of the salad she orders?"
"Will do," Winn gave a playful salute. "It'll be good to have you back once you can stop pretending to have a concussion though."
There was a warm sensation at knowing she was missed. "I wish I didn't have to pretend to be concussed."
"Well, your Super secret didn't get outed and you get a vacation. I don't think that's too terrible. How's Daisy's hand by the way? It was bleeding everywhere. Cat had to have maintenance clean the outside of the windows where it'd dripped down and soap the carpet to get the drips off."
Kara still felt sick at the reminder of Daisy pulling the actual glass out of her hand! Like it was nothing! "She's been wearing a glove to keep the bandages in place."
"I can't believe she jumped out of a window for you! I mean it was scary enough seeing you get thrown out of the window!" Winn ran a hand through his hair.
She completely agreed, but the conversation came to a quick end as the police scanner went off, fire on 12th street.
////
Lucy was exhausted, but she was going to sleep tonight so it was fine. She just had to not lose her composure for this video call. Pulling up the privacy settings on J'onn's…her office, and dialed. She kept herself settled into the familiar security of the military as the video call connected. "General."
"Director," Her father's face was as unforgiving as always, and knew better than to read pride into any small part of his expression. "You said you had something to report?"
Lucy refused to flinch, 'hi to you to dad'. "Thoughts on the airman whose records I told you to pull?"
"Johnson?" He made what would have been an interested face if he was someone else, but on him was a faint twitch of his jowl. "Not that most of her record is available," Which fuck, classified to the point even her father a four-star General didn't have much access? "But valuable soldier. Tough, skilled, a real hero unlike Supergirl, but a liability if you're thinking of recruiting her to the DEO."
Lucy barely kept from raising a brow, he had gotten more access than she had then. Or was making more conjecture than she was willing to make? "Liability?"
"The records of her final mission would have been above your access. Some of it is still classified for me, but I read enough to know she and her unit went on a mission behind enemy lines, local contact sold them out, the mission went to hell. The whole unit went MIA for three months, she popped back up. The original mission parameters were not accomplished, whole unit dead, she got sent to a German medical facility for treatment for extensive torture, and then slotted for medical discharge, a purple heart and a commendation for bravery. Not her first purple heart or commendation for bravery either."
Lucy's eyes narrowed slightly, "And that makes her a liability?"
"She put the unit above the mission, above her country, but both above herself. Not the kind of soldier who follows orders, too loyal, but can't criticize the woman's grit." Her father clasped his hands in front of himself. "It's a pattern in her file, she won't sacrifice her unit to stop the monsters in the night, but she'll take a bullet for you and is effective. Your mess to deal with if you recruit her. Don't let her make the calls, the Air Force didn't give her command for a reason."
It was faintly rewarding to have her call on Johnson confirmed. She hadn't been wrong. And if Johnson was being run by someone else, it wasn't her father. "I didn't recruit her to the DEO, but I did contract her out for surveillance of a high-risk target."
"Interesting, why tell me, it wasn't for added intel." And he was waiting in judgment.
Lucy took pleasure in surprising her father. "Because effective immediately I have Supergirl's civilian identity under surveillance. You were right, she needs to be controlled, and I needed someone crazy enough to surveil a Super and have a chance at survival if it goes wrong."
The pride and pleasure on his face were less welcome than the shock. But she couldn't be openly fighting wars on every front. Nominal allies were needed, which meant she needed her father's support. For now. So Lucy didn't balk at her father's pride in the sign of her doing what he thought was necessary.