Next of Kin - SuperCorp

Next of Kin Part 21- SwissCube Project

As Kara stepped out of CatCo, she saw a familiar figure leaning against a car. She almost didn't recognize the woman in normal clothes. It was like seeing your pharmacist in the aisle of the grocery store. You know that you know them, but without the usual clothes and familiar surroundings, the person looks strange.

"Kalia?"

The nurse nodded. "How you doing, Kara?"

"Is Lena all right?" Kara's heart was racing.

"She's a pain in the ass," Kalia replied, opening the passenger side car door of the car on which she was leaning. "Get in."

"What?"

"Inside the car. They're designed for people to get inside them and drive around. Get in," Kalia repeated.

"But I..." Kara looked into the car. It was a normal looking sedan, no one else inside, and there was a box from a pastry shop sitting on the passenger side seat. She lifted the box, sliding into the seat and putting on her seatbelt as she watched Kalia walk around the outside and get into the driver's side, also buckling up.

"Hungry?" Kalia asked while she started the car and checked traffic.

"Uh...always."

"I've noticed. Go ahead and eat. You seem to have quite the sweet tooth."

"Yeah, I..." Kara opened the box. It was filled with an assortment of mini-pastries. There were eclairs, crème horns, seven layer cakes, half-and-half cookies, and cannoli. Her breath came out in a trembling shudder, and as she inhaled, the sugar slammed her in the face like a fist. She closed her eyes, taking a moment to breathe normally before her eyes opened and slide left to stare at Kalia. "So, uh, how many of these can I uh...?"

"They're all for you," Kalia replied to the partially asked question.

Pulling her feet up to the seat, Kara wrapped a protective arm around the box as if Kalia might change her mind.

"So, how was work?" Kalia asked.

"Uh...busy," Kara mumbled amid sweet goodness. "You?"

"I'm on my way in still, but actually I'm hoping you can help me out there."

"Me?"

"Yeah, you blondie. See, Miss Luthor is being an even bigger pain in the ass than usual since your departure. I want you to fix that."

Kara's eyes narrowed at the word choice 'than usual'. There was something about it that felt like a longer relationship than less than two weeks. She considered digging into that but let it go. Instead, Kara said, "Lena kicked me out. She had a lawyer talk to me. I can't help."

"Bull shit. If you want to help, you can help. Do you want to help?" She glanced over at Kara. "Well, do you?"

"Do I want to be with Lena?"

"Okay, another way to ask it, sure, so do you?"

Kara sighed. "If it were real, 100% real, yes. I'm not cutting off pieces of myself to be with someone. I've been thinking about his. I miss her. I miss just her friendship. It has to be real though."

"Hmmm...I don't know what went wrong with you two, but not talking to someone doesn't fix whatever is broken. The way you two looked at each other, that's worth fighting for. I've lost people I've loved. There comes a point where you can't fill those holes with anyone else or anything else, and you're never whole again. There comes a point where you can't fake it, where you don't want to fake it. Kid, before you stop caring about love, grab hold of it."