Next of Kin - SuperCorp

Next of Kin Part 32- Detective Dimples

Brows heavily pressed together, Lena studied the information on her laptop. Her fingertips drummed out a steady beat with one hand while her others sat lightly against her left temple. The frown on her face seemed to be etched there. It hadn't receded in over an hour. Occasionally she'd pulled off her glasses to rub at her eyes, but that didn't make the information below on the screen any better, so the frown remained.

At this moment the glasses and frown were still firmly in place, but when there was a knock on the door, Lena pulled off her glasses and smiled slightly as she said, "Come in." As Kalia entered, the smile fell off Lena's face. "Oh. What is it now?"

Closing the door behind her with a click, Kalia replied, "Good to see you too, Princess. So, want to guess why I'm here again?"

"Kalia, please," Lena replied with a sigh. "I've got a situation at L-Corp that needs my attention. I'm much too busy for—"

"Anyone that isn't Kara?" Kalia said with a smirk.

Clearing her throat, Lena replied, "Anything that isn't critical. You took my vitals at the start of the shift. I'm fine. Are we done?"

"No, we're not done. You should have eaten an hour ago, and your nutrition is critical." The nurse dropped the menu on the keyboard of Lena's laptop. "Pick something out since you didn't do it beforehand. Since you bought roughly half this hospital, I bet they'll cook it for you."

"It's that late?" Checking the time on her laptop, Lena nodded. "I hadn't realized. Well, it doesn't matter. Kara is coming with food. We're eating dinner together. I'll wait for her."

"Right, you told me that when my shift started, and that was fine when she was going to be here at six o'clock. She's an hour late."

"She'll be here."

"I heard you the first time. It doesn't change the fact that if you don't eat you don't heal. So you're dinner—"

"Kara will be here," Lena insisted again.

After a few moments of staring match, Kalia made her way to the door and locking it before returning to pull up a chair. Arms crossed, she leaned back and said, "Okay, let's talk about her."

"There's nothing to talk about," Lena replied casually. "I agreed to have dinner with my friend who's running late. These things happen."

"Did she call?"

Through force of will, Lena managed to not look at the TV silently playing off to the side. The news was showing an earlier footage of Supergirl putting out a fire downtown.

"She let me know she'd be late, yes. I just didn't realize the time."

With a loud sigh, Kalia said, "Fine, so she's late. Still, an hour is awful late for your friend to be late for dinner. Something happen between you two? You sure she's still coming?"

"Why would you say friend like that?"

"Oh, for Christ's sake Lena. I'm on board, okay? I even encouraged this. You don't need to be defensive. If there's a problem, you can even talk to me about it. Just—"

"Kalia no, absolutely, no." Lena's hands swung back and forth quickly in front of her. "There is no...anything but friendship, all right? I need you to hear that from me and understand it. Do you understand?"

"Well, I hear you, but it's utter bullshit. You know I know that. What's the big deal?"

With a sigh, Lena pinched the bridge of her nose and took a moment before continuing. "Kalia, it is the truth. It's what I'm telling you, and it's the truth. Kara and I, we're just friends. She'll tell you the same thing too. If anyone asks you about us, that's what you need to tell them. Anyone."