Chapter Text
Sam presently is finishing her last bits of work at L-Corp before she plans to head home for the day. Unfortunately tonight Sam will not be seeing either Kelly or Alex, as Alex is on a late shift at the hospital tonight, then Kelly is away at some therapists conference in Seattle, so she won’t be back for a few days. Admittedly, even though Sam only saw Alex and Kelly the other day, she misses them both, which she finds ridiculous. Sam has never thought she would be the type of person who would have a girlfriend, or in this case girlfriends, that she would miss after not seeing them for a day, but that does seem to be the case. In fact, Sam knows that she is quite excited about the prospect of Kelly and Alex moving in with her and Ruby, and them all getting to live together, and Sam knows that Ruby is excited about it too. Sam thinks it will be so nice for Ruby to go from only having one parent watching out for her, and taking care of her for 13 years, to now having three, as Sam knows both Alex and Kelly adore Ruby.
A little while ago, Sam did get a message from Ruby, letting her know that Ruby is going to a friends house from school, as they are going to be doing a group school project together. Sam has told Ruby she has no problem with that, and will come and pick her up in a couple of hours time. However, because of this news, Sam has thought that she doesn’t really have any need to go home right now, as she will be alone. So, Sam is just finishing some last bits of work that she has to do here at L-Corp, before gathering up the rest on her laptop, and then planning to go home where she will finish it off, or at least continue with it until she has to go and pick Ruby up.
After a few more moments, Sam is soon disturbed by the sound of a knock at her door. Someone is only able to knock at her office door right now because Sam sent her assistant home about an hour ago, as usually her assistant would announce someone was outside wanting to speak to her over the intercom.
“Uhhh…. Yes?” Sam calls out.
The door to Sam’s office opens, and that is when Sam is surprised to see Kara is walking into her office.
“Kara?” Sam says, in a confused voice, “If you are looking for Lena, she went home, almost 2 hours ago now.”
“I know.” Kara nods, carrying her laptop under one of her arms, “I’m here to see you. I need your help.”
“You need MY help?” Sam asks, in a confused and surprised voice.
“Yes.” Kara nods, as she walks to Sam’s desk.
“Oh, is this like a thing where you accidentally broke an ornament at your home, and now you have come to me to help you find a replacement for it, so that Lena doesn’t know you broke it?” Sam asks.
“What? No. Why would you think that?” Kara asks, in a confused voice.
“Alex has told me stories about how much of a klutz you can be at times. She also told me about the time that you were driving with Alex, a few months after you passed your driving test, and you almost crashed into a tree, because of an opossum.” Sam says.
“That opossum came out of nowhere!” Kara exclaims.
Sam now chuckles.
“In all serious, Kara, I would totally help you try and replace a broken ornament before Lena notices. Sounds like a fun game.” Sam smirks.
“I……. that’s good to know…. for the future….. But that is not why I am here now.” Kara says.
“Okay. Then, why are you here?” Sam asks.
“Snapper, my boss at CatCo, has assigned me my very first task to actually find something to write an article about without having a tip to go off to start with. So, I have had to go out and find the story. Anyway, I have found a story, or at least, something I think could be a major story. It’s about the various National City housing projects that the National City government have been doing over the last few years. I started off hearing stuff that multiple of the projects were not finished yet, and have been delayed by years, then I also found out that some of them that are finished have major issues as well. Anyway, to put a long story short, I was able to get my hands on some financial data about a subsidiary company that the government has been using to build these housing projects, and I don’t really have the knowledge to really dive into it and completely understand it all. Although, what I can tell, is it seems like a portion of the funds are being sent to another company entirely, and it always seems to be about 15% of the funds marked for each project. So, I was hoping that maybe you could help me, as I know you have experience looking through financial data. So, maybe you could look through it for me, and tell me if this is what I think it is?” Kara asks.
“I….. wow….. that was a lot, Kara…..” Sam says.
“I’m sorry….. This is just really important to me. I feel this could be make of break for whether I’m actually cut out to be a reporter or not.” Kara admits.
“Okay, that’s fair enough.” Sam says, “Of course I’ll help you. Let me see what you have found.”
“Great! Thank you!” Kara says, with a wide smile.
Kara now comes round to the other side of Sam’s desk, and opens up her laptop right in front of the CFO, with the financial documents already being on the screen, ready to go.
“Okay…. there are a lot of pages here….” Sam says, “This is going to take me a while, Kara.”
“That’s okay….. I…… do you want to do it another time or something, like tomorrow?” Kara asks, “I would say you can take it home, but Winn, my friend who got me this data, said I shouldn’t start passing this data around to anyone to create a footprint. He didn’t even want to email it to me.”
“I’m going to choose to ignore what that suggests as to how your friend got this data.” Sam says, “But…… yeah….. okay….. I’ll look through it now….. I was only going to go home to an empty house anyway, as Ruby is staying at a friends for the next few hours, so, I have some time.”
“That’s great! Thank you, so much, Sam. You’re amazing!” Kara says, with a wide smile.
“Oh, I know I am.” Sam smirks, “You might want to get yourself comfortable though, this is going to take a bit.”
“Sure.” Kara nods, “I’m just going to step out and phone Lena, so she knows where I am. But I’ll come back in after.”
“Sure. Okay.” Sam nods.
Sam now begins to read through the documents, with Kara now walking outside Sam’s office and soon phoning her mate, and her future wife.
“Hello, darling.” Lena answers, “I was just wondering where you are.”
“Oh hey.” Kara replies, “I’m actually at L-Corp right now.”
“You’re at L-Corp? Were you looking for me? I did tell you I was picking the girls up from school, taking them to see Andrea, then coming home, didn’t I?” Lena says.
“Yes, I’m not here to see you. I’m actually here to get some help from Sam.” Kara explains, “I’ll tell you all about it more later, but that article that I have been working on, I think I have found something, which right now includes some financial records which I have asked Sam to have a look through to let me know if this is really what I think it is, and to see if she can find out more from them than I can understand from my limited financial knowledge.”
“Wow. It truly does sound like you have a juicy story, Kara. I’m so proud of you.” Lena says.
“Thank you. That means a lot.” Kara says.
“Of course, darling. I will always support you. I love you.” Lena says.
“I love you too.” Kara replies, “Anyway, I was just calling you now because Sam said that it’s going to take a while for her to look through all these documents. Winn said that I can’t just email the information to anyone, as he is the one who got this financial information from me. So, Sam is using my laptop right now as she looks through all the data, and I’m going to stay with her while she does, and I thought I’d let you know that, so you didn’t start to wonder where I was.”
“Oh, that’s okay, darling, and thank you for letting me know.” Lena says, “So, I’m guessing that means you likely won’t be home for dinner?”
“Uhhh…. Probably not.” Kara says, “I might actually just go back into Sam’s office and ask if she wants me to order the two of us a takeaway that we can eat here. It’ll just be one of the ways I can thank her for doing this.”
“That sounds like a great idea, Kara.” Lena says, “I won’t leave you any dinner to come home to then. Although, let me know if you change your mind and don’t get take out. I’ll leave you something to heat up when you get home if you don’t eat before then.”
“Yeah, okay.” Kara replies, “How did things go with Andrea today? How are the girls?”
“They are in much better moods now.” Lena says, “Andrea has actually decided to stay here in National City for the next couple of weeks, with her moving back to her home within the next couple of days, where Dr Mitosimo will be monitoring her, before then travelling to Argentina for the rest of her recovery in a few weeks time.”
“Oh wow.” Kara says, in a true surprised voice, “I’m surprised she actually changed her mind on the matter. I’m, of course, happy for the girls though.”
“Yes, well, she didn’t like admitting it, but she said that whatever you said to her the other day, that was the thing that made her change her mind.” Lena says.
“What? Really?” Kara asks, in a very surprised voice.
“Yeah. I was surprised too. Not at your ability to actually convince her to stay, but at Andrea actually listening to you in the first place.” Lena says.
“Well…… I don’t care why she decided to stay, just as long as the girls are more happy about it.” Kara says.
“And that right there is why you are such a wonderful mom to Natalie and Ashley.” Lena says.
Kara now freezes at Lena saying that, as while Kara has been aware of Natalie almost referring to her as her ‘mom’, Kara has never mentioned it to Lena or anything. So, to hear that Lena actually considers her to be another mother to Natalie and Ashley truly feels very surreal to the blonde, with her also being over the moon about it, as she loves Natalie and Ashley so much.
“Kara?” Lena says, after not getting a response from the blonde for a few moments.
“Uhh…. sorry….” Kara says, recovering from her thoughts, “I just got lost in a thought. But I’m glad the girls are okay.”
“Yeah.” Lena replies, “I also agreed to buy Obsidian North today.”
“Really? You accepted Andrea’s offer?” Kara asks, “What made you decide that?”
“Honestly, it was very much an in the moment decision. As I walked into Andrea’s room at the L-Corp facility, I still hadn’t made up my mind. All I knew was I wanted to give her my decision then and there, instead of dragging this out. Ultimately though, I think my greater business sense just won out, as I know that any other businesswoman in my position would have taken Andrea’s offer instantly, without even doing any due diligence, simply because of how cheap Andrea is willing to sell her company to me. At the end of the day, while Obsidian North does have a lot of things that I would have to shut down, it also has some things that show true potential.” Lena says.
“What about the drug thing?” Kara asks, a bit awkwardly.
Lena sighs at Kara mentioning that.
“Honestly, I decided that I wasn’t going to let that influence my decision. I’m putting a pin in that for now. Although, I know that once the sale of Obsidian North is complete, I will have to actually make a decision as to whether I want to continue that project or scrap it completely. I have a little time to figure that out though.” Lena says.
“Well, whatever you decide, I will support you, just like how you support me. And I’m happy you have made a decision to buy Obsidian North, one way or the other. At least it is done now.” Kara says.
“Yeah.” Lena replies, “Before I agreed to the terms, I did add a stipulation to the deal, that Andrea and I will work together to set up a trust for Natalie and Ashley, that will make it so they have their own money to buy their homes and pay for any education that they want in the future, or any courses they wish to take, while also giving them shares of the merged Obsidian North into L-Corp. Then, at the same time, the trust will have safeguards so Natalie and Ashley don’t become like these stereotypical trust fund brats, who don’t work a single day in their life, and are just rude and obnoxious because of that.”
“That sounds like a very good idea, although I can’t ever imagine either Natalie or Ashley becoming trust fund brats.” Kara says.
“Maybe not. But you never know what money can do to people.” Lena says.
“That’s fair enough.” Kara replies.
There is now a silence between Kara and Lena.
“Alright. I should probably get back to Sam now, and let you get on with making your dinner. I will see you later this evening.” Kara says.
“Okay, love you darling.” Lena says.
“Love you too.” Kara replies, “Bye.”
“Bye.” Lena says.
The phone call now ends between Kara and Lena, with Kara now heading back into Sam’s office, where she sees the CFO very intensely focusing on the laptop.
“Sam?” Kara says.
“Hmm?” Sam hums, without taking her eyes off the laptop.
“I’m happy to see how enthralled you are with that, but I was wondering if you’d like me to order us dinner we can eat here?” Kara suggests.
“Uhhh…. Sure….. Get me whatever….. I don’t mind….. You pick.” Sam says, without taking her eyes off the laptop.
Kara decides not to probe Sam further for any specifics, as clearly the CFO is really focused on what she is reading right now, so, Kara just pulls up a delivery app on her phone, and makes an order for delivery.
It is now a little bit later, and back home Lena has just called Natalie and Ashley downstairs, after having finished making their dinner. Natalie and Ashley soon both come running down the stairs, and join Lena at the dinner table.
“How many times do I need to tell you girls not to run down the stairs?” Lena asks, with a sigh.
“I guess one more time?” Ashley smirks, with a shrug.
Lena rolls her eyes.
“Just…. please both be careful. The last think I want is for the two of you to run down the stairs, then trip and crash down the stairs and break a bone, or something even worse.” Lena says.
“We promise we’ll be careful mom.” Ashley says.
“Yes, we promise.” Natalie says.
“Okay.” Lena nods, and now begins to eat her food.
Natalie and Ashley now begin to dig into their food too, but a few moments later, Natalie begins to look around the table.
“Where’s m’…..ara?” Natalie asks.
“She’s with aunt Sam at the moment.” Lena explains, “She is getting Sam’s help to look through some financial documents in regards to an article that she is currently working on.”
“That sounds cool. What article is Kara working on? Is she about to expose someone doing something illegal or something?” Ashley asks, in an intrigued voice.
“I don’t know.” Lena admits, “She didn’t give me all the details. Perhaps you can ask her when she gets home later, if you are that interested.”
“Okay. I will.” Ashley nods.
Lena, Natalie and Ashley now continue to eat their dinner together, having a little bit of conversation as they do.
It is now a few more hours later, almost 10PM here at L-Corp right now, and Sam is literally just finishing up thoroughly reading through all these documents that Kara has asked her to have a look at. A few hours ago Sam did get a call from Ruby, asking if she could have a sleepover at her friend’s house tonight, and usually Sam would have said no, as it is a school day tomorrow, but today Sam decided to make an exception for Ruby as that would mean she can continue to look through these financial documents that she is very interested in. As for Kara, after eating the food she ordered for her and Sam a few hours ago, she has mostly just been sitting on the couch in Sam’s office on her phone, although about 40 minutes ago, Kara fell asleep on Sam’s couch. Sam, for her part, hasn’t even noticed that Kara has fallen asleep.
“Okay. I’m done.” Sam says, suddenly, closing the laptop with a thud.
“I… what? Huh?” Kara says, jerking up, being woken by Sam.
“Oh shit…. I’m sorry Kara…..” Sam says, and then looks around her office, and out her window, seeing how dark it is, before then looking down at her watch, “Oh crap. I had no idea it was that late.”
“It’s….. it’s okay…..” Kara mumbles, rubbing sleep from her eyes, “What…. did you see?”
“Well, I do need to follow up on a few leads that I read from this Kara, and I will do that tomorrow, but these documents suggest that the money meant for these housing projects is partially being funnelled into a private company. From my own experience, that never happens unless someone is stealing money. However, that is not the only thing. The rest of the money, that is actually earmarked for the housing projects, it all seems like the contractors that are being paid to build these houses are all getting overpaid, substantially, and when you add it up, the sum total of the money actually earmarked for the housing projects doesn’t equal the money actually left after the 15% has been sent to a private company. Even if you take into account the 15%, the total sum of everything would greatly exceed that.” Sam explains.
“So, what does that all mean?” Kara asks.
“It means that if this data is to be believed, these housing projects are literally a financial black hole, with the remaining money that the project doesn’t have likely being taken from other areas of the government.” Sam says.
“That’s…. bad….” Kara says.
“Yes. It is.” Sam nods, “The important thing now though, is to figure out who owns this private company, and that is going to be tricky, as it is a subsidiary of a subsidiary that is located in Switzerland. However, I have some friends who might be able to help me find out who actually owns the company. I’ll give them a ring tomorrow, Kara, and get back to you.”
“Okay…. thank you.” Kara nods, “So…… do you think….. do you think I really have a story here, Sam?”
Sam now chuckles at Kara asking her that, just because of how ridiculous the question is.
“Kara, not only do I think you have a story here, but I think this story is going to lead to some notable politicians from this city ending up in prison.” Sam says.
Kara’s eyes go wide at Sam saying that.