L-Gym

Chapter 1 - Lena Danvers

"So then Maggie said..." Alex paused looking across at her sister while Lena finished the fifth...sixth(?) of her vegetable wraps and stared off into space. Clearing her throat, Alex continued slightly louder, "So then Maggie said, 'Damn, Danvers, why don't we just have sex right here at the crime scene?'" When that got no reaction, Alex barked, "Lena!"

"What!?" Lena's head swiveled back and her gaze locked with her sister's.

"You were totally checked-out again."

"No, I wasn't I was—" Lena paused, her mind trying to recall something that her sister had been saying. "Maggie, and a crime scene and...sex?" A crinkle formed between Lena's eyebrows. "Okay, I must not have been listening. I'm sorry, Alex. What were you saying?"

Alex sighed. "What's on your mind?"

"Work." Lena rolled up another vegetable wrap, taking a big bite and mumbling around the food. "The head of the lab has us going completely in the wrong direction with this project. We're basically poking around in the dark looking for answers. It's like that eye closed game you wanted me to play when I first got to Earth."

"You mean Marco Polo?" Alex replied with the clear understanding of someone who had spent years translating for a sibling who spoke with her mouth full.

Lena nodded. "It's exactly like that. Everyone else is stumbling around not knowing what they're doing—"

"And you're a big old cheater because you can look through your eyelids with your x-ray vision?" Alex asked leaning back with her arms crossed.

"Are you ever going to let that go?"

"Nope." The 'P' popped when Alex answered.

"First of all, I had only been here a few weeks, and my English still wasn't perfect. You only said I had to have my eyes closed. I had my eyes closed."

"Cheater," Alex muttered under her breath.

"I heard that, and I would have found you with just my hearing back then too."

"Then why didn't you?"

Finishing her wrap, Lena studied at her sister. "Are you in a bad mood? You seem a bit testy, even for you, I mean. Is everything all right with Maggie?"

"Fine. It's you that worries me."

"Why? I'm good, great, better than great. I'm great...est. I was thinking about mold though."

Eyes narrowed, Alex shook her head. "You lost me, sweetie."

"Penicillin, Alex, think about penicillin," Lena said gesturing excitedly. "What if I penicillined the project?"

Taking her sister's hands to calm them, Alex said, "Sweetie, penicillin can't be a verb."

"Oh...hmmm. English is a hard language."

"I know, but you're great with it. So, what do you want to do?"

With a bright smile, Lena explained, "I could have a happy lab accident."

Alex withdrew her hands. "Lena..."

"Alex, just hear me out. I already know how to 'erroneously' alter my test parameters so that I enter the wrong data and accidentally cause the test results we want rather than the ones we'll get if we follow the parameters that have been set for us. It will save years of time, money, and worthless research."

"Lena..." Alex paused, considering her best course of action as she chose her words. "Maybe if they go the route they're going, they'll stumble on another amazing discovery and..." As Lena shook her head, Alex's voice trailed off. "No, huh?"