Chapter Text
Kara Danvers is a good assistant. A little inexperienced, maybe, but she has other qualities. A good memory. Punctuality. An uncanny knack for always having exactly what Lena wants before she asks for it. And, of course, absolutely zero connections. Not to other businesses. Not to Lex. There’s something to be said for an assistant that won’t plant bugs in her office. Or let in assassins.
But, perhaps, Lena should rephrase. Kara Danvers used to be a good assistant. Maybe the best assistant Lena’s ever had. So why, pray tell, was Lena’s most reliable assistant suddenly terrible?
It started not long after the move to National City. She started disappearing. Lena calls for documents and they arrive half an hour later with a flustered “Sorry, Ms. Luthor”. Kara misses meetings where Lena could have sorely used her rapid note-taking. She’s frequently late. Lena starts receiving her weekly plans at odd hours on Sunday nights rather than their prompt, scheduled delivery at 10am. Worse, when she’s at her desk she’s distracted: her scheduling more haphazard, her emails less quick, notes less detailed.
And the excuses. The excuses are remarkable. The third time Kara tells her that she’d been delayed by a neighbor’s veterinary emergency, Lena has to go take a quiet moment in her office to avoid screaming.
Lena likes Kara. Lena even respects Kara. But she could not have picked a worse possible time. The transition from LuthorCorp to L-Corp is the most difficult piece of maneuvering Lena’s done in her entire career, and that rebrand has enough bureaucratic hang-ups without an assistant whose workload becomes slower and sloppier by the day. At least Kara’s managed to continue avoiding Lillian’s calls. If Lena had to deal with her mother on top of all this, she’d show the world just how minor Lex’s mental break had been. And then there’s this …Supergirl… thing. It’s not like Lena’s against it. It’s great, actually. The exact opportunity she’d been hoping for to finally show everyone that L-Corp and aliens can coexist. Supergirl keeps bringing up her charity projects during interviews. Unbeatable PR. Except, well, it’s all a little too convenient, right? A new, previously unrevealed super just happens to show up in National City right after Lena moves there? She just can’t help the feeling that she’s being watched.
Kara is very in favor of the whole thing. Which-- Of course, she is. It’s not that Lena thinks Kara is stupid—not at all—but she always likes to see the best in people. Which is lovely, and charming, and really does bring a lot of joy to Lena’s daily office life, but it also means that sometimes Kara is not the most reliable source of character analysis. Kara says Supergirl is only here to help, and it never crosses her mind that a Super might just have an ulterior motive for keeping a Luthor so close. It’s the payment, Lena supposes, for all that makes Kara so… her. If not for that bleeding heart, she would never have considered working for Lena at all.
Two years. Two years of work—of partnership—and now…
Lena’s previous assistant had quit the morning her brother started dropping bombs on Metropolis. After the police arrived and untied her, Lena had arrived home to an emailed resignation letter. Apparently he’d needed to do some soul searching. Coward. And then it was assistant after assistant, all of them clawing for something. Nobody jumps onto a sinking ship unless it has something they want. Her first assassination attempt happened not long after that. A lone man with a gun and a dead family somewhere under the Metropolis rubble. He wasn’t the last.
And then Kara had appeared. Like a shining star who put way too much sugar in her coffee. She was kind, and real, and so smiley Lena’d actually found it a bit obnoxious at first. And all she wanted was a job. She’d organized Lena’s meetings while Lena gave testimony at the trial. Brought her coffee and takeout on late nights in the office when Lena forgot to eat. She’d even muscled back reporters trying to push through to talk to Lena when they went to the Metropolis Innovation Summit. She was surprisingly strong under all those pastel cardigans. When Lena had been considering the move to National City, she’d talked to Kara. Asked her if she would follow. And Kara had told her she went to college there and had always wanted to move back someday.
It was sentiment that kept Lena from firing her now, and Lena isn’t sure how much longer she can justify it. If she could at least figure out why it was happening, maybe she could make it work. Maybe things could go back to the way they used to be.
Whatever it is, it’s partially connected to that tech down in R&D: Winn. Lena may not eat in the regular lunch rooms or chatter with her employees, but she isn’t blind. She’s seen Kara and Winn in the halls, whispering with their heads pressed together, seen them visit each other’s desks. A few times, she’s even seen them slip silently off to a back storage room. That isn’t really her business. Most of the time Kara is AWOL, Winn is sat at his desk, tinkering away. He can’t be the primary cause, just an exacerbating factor. And no, it isn’t creepy that Lena is using the camera system to check on her employees. Kara should just be grateful that Lena turned off the camera in the back storage room that she and Winn apparently forgot was there. She’d had to hurriedly shut that one off when she’d gone looking for Kara and caught her halfway through pulling off her shirt (luckily with her back to the camera).
Lena simply chooses to pretend that didn’t happen. It’s fine. People date. And some people have sex in back room at the office. Or at least, Lena thinks they do. Her father certainly had. Kara and Winn aren’t in the same department so it’s not even a problem for HR. It didn’t happen. Lena didn’t see it. And the sight of Kara pulling open her shirt is definitely not permanently etched into Lena’s brain. She doesn’t even get what Kara sees in him. Sure, he’s brilliant, but this is L-Corp. There are a dozen brilliant people within a stone’s throw from Kara’s hall. He’s too needy, in Lena’s opinion. Always preening and wanting attention. And he’s not even that funny.
She corners him one day when he’s working alone after hours.
“Mr. Schott, could I speak with you for a moment?”
The man in question jumps about two feet into the air and nearly sauters his own hand. Seriously, of all the men Kara could have chosen—and she would have had her pick.
“Ms. Luthor! I—I didn’t see you there!” Obviously. “What—Um—What do you want?” He asks, his voice about an octave higher than usual.
“I want to know why my assistant keeps disappearing on me.” Winn has put on an expression of placid, innocent confusion. It’s not terribly effective. “I hoped you might be able to tell me. Since you two are so…” She wrinkles her nose “…close.”
“We’re friends, yeah.”
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about.”
Winn lets out a nervous giggle. “I—I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean you’re having sex. Must I spell out everything, Mr. Schott?”
Somewhere in a hallway at the top of the L-Corp tower, Kara chokes on her bagel.
Winn recoils, throwing up his hands as if to shake the accusation away.
“Whoa, whoa, I—We’re not—I mean, I wish—”
“Enough, Mr. Schott. I’ve suffered enough insults to my pride this year to have you think you are good at lying. Everybody in the office sees the way you two sneak around. If you actually want to help her, tell her to find a better hiding spot for her clothes. The cabinet in 102 does actually get used from time to time.”
Winn grows steadily more pink as she continues, his mouth flapping wordlessly like a dying fish. Ugh.
Lena sighs. “Your business is your business, Mr. Schott. But if this keeps up, Kara is going to lose her position here, and I would rather solve whatever problem she’s having than send her away.”
“You’re going to fire her?” Winn says, fresh alarm in his voice.
“She’s missed three of the last five meetings with LordTech. I do actually need an assistant, Schott," Lena says. "For all I know, firing her might be a favor—I’m half convinced she’s already closing on another job.”:
“She would never,” Winn says, with absolute conviction. “She loves this job.”
“Then what is it? Is she sick? I can help arrange her schedule, she knows that.”
“Have you considered… talking to her about your concerns?” Winn asks.
Lena blinks. What a ridiculous idea. “I’m her boss, Mr. Schott. I’m not going to interrogate her about her personal life.”
“…Right. Of course.” Winn pauses, then says, “Kara’s fine, Ms. Luthor. I think it’s just dealing with the move that has her all distracted. If you wait a little while, I’m sure everything will balance out. She just needs to… adjust. To the her new, uhh, circumstances.” Winn fidgets for another minute under Lena’s disbelieving stare before saying, “Umm. If there’s nothing else, I really do need to get this chip finished before I leave tonight.”
Lena waves him off and he scuttles back to his desk. Whatever. She doesn’t need him. She’s a Luthor. She can figure this out on her own.