Back To Krypton

Chapter 41

"Good morning, sunshine," Alex grumbles from the couch as Kara strides out of the hallway. "You look nice."

"Thanks." Kara smiles. "I'm just going to grab a quick bite and then head off. I want to get a good chunk of time at the lab today before I take you guys out later for another excursion."

Lena frowns, sitting next to Alex before she is forced to move by the heavy weight of Alex's glare. Kelly sits between the pair in the spot Lena just vacated not ten seconds later, and Alex's glare lets up to make way for a soft smile.

Looking at her with pinched brows, Lena looks confused. "Wait, why are you going back again? You spent quite a while there yesterday after we got back from the Jewel Mountains."

"I know. I just promised I'd help with what I can, I don't want them to turn around at the end of these few days and try and say that I didn't uphold any part of my side of the deal. I want this to be a clean break, and to do that, I have to make sure that I'm playing the good little girl I was back in the day when this planet was still my home. As long as they see that, I think they'll behave themselves."

Alex jumps in as she wraps an arm around Kelly's shoulders. "Why are you going now though? Can't you go later on?"

"I could, but the place I want to take you is somewhere quite warm, and no, it's not the Firefalls just yet. It cools off mid-afternoon, making the trip much more pleasant for us. I think you'll like it, but it's very much something you can't do earlier on, so I'm going to go and spend some time with my father before I come back and pick you up."

Esme seems to pop up out of nowhere, her hands clutching at the soft pleats in Kara's dress, a light lilac number that makes Lena create a mental note to buy her more purple clothes when they're back on Earth. She looks downright regal, and she's totally not resisting the urge to bow at her feet. That would be ludicrous.

"Aunt Kara?"

"Hey, bud!" Kara grins down at her niece, startled by her sudden appearance but way too excited at seeing her at her side to care.

"I want to come with you."

Kara presses her lips together tightly, her smile straining. She doesn't know how to handle this one and looks to Alex and Kelly for assistance.

Kelly, ever the hero, comes to her rescue. "Esme, baby, she has to work. It would be super boring for you in the lab with her and her father."

"But I want to be like Aunt Kara and sit at the desk while she talks to me about science like she said she did."

The pieces click in Kara's mind. She has mentioned more than once how her father used to take her to the lab with him and use her as a sounding board while he worked through his projects. It made her feel like a real scientist and only gave her all the more enthusiasm towards her studies so she could one day stand beside him as an equal in that lab.

She supposes that on some level, she has gotten there now. Maybe not in the way she had imagined and not with the qualifications she aimed for under her belt, but she's beside him nonetheless. Now Esme wants to be beside her and feel that same joy she once felt.

"I want to go." Esme presses herself to Kara's leg, wrapping her arms around it and leaning into her as Kara's hand drops to the back of her head, stroking her hair out of her face.

Kara shrugs at the little girl's parents. "I can take her but she might get bored. I have no doubts that it'll be safe for her there. Nobody will try anything."

"I'm not worried about that." Alex shakes her head before continuing. "Well, I am, but that's not my main concern. Will you be able to finish everything when you're looking after her?"