One Difference

Chapter 8

Kara is rudely awoken by the sound of buzzing. It takes Kara a few moments to open her eyes and realise that the sound is coming from her phone. Kara makes a move to reach over to her phone, however as she shifts her body, she realises there's a weight on it. This is when Kara sees that Lori is cuddled up and basically on top of her chest. So, Kara just gently moves Lori off of her, placing the 3-year-old right next to her, before she finally grabs her phone and answers it.

"He.... hello?" Kara answers, in a voice that clearly very much lets the person on the other end of the call know that she just woke up.

"Oh.... hello Kara. Are you okay?" Lena asks, "You sound.... different."

Kara chuckles at Lena asking her that, and carefully makes her way out of the bed, and walks into her living room area, not wanting to wake Lori up from her being on the phone.

"Sorry. You woke me." Kara explains, once she is standing in her kitchen, "Lori and I were just taking a nap."

"Oh." Lena says, "Has everything been going okay?" Lena asks.

"Yes. Everything has been going good." Kara replies, "Once Alex arrived, Lori met her, and admittedly was a bit shy about it, but she wasn't too bad. We then went to the park, and Alex promised to go on the swings with Lori, which Lori seemed to be pleased about. Alex then taught Lori how to swing on the swings by herself, without needing to be pushed, and that caused Lori to very much warm up to Alex. After that, we went to see the ducks at the pond for a little while, before getting a Big Belly Burger, and then coming back here for a nap."

"Oh, that sounds really nice. And I'm sure Lori is having a lovely time with you." Lena says.

"I hope so." Kara smiles, "How is it going at L-Corp?"

Lena sighs at Kara asking her that, and right away, from that sigh, Kara can tell that clearly it is not going good.

"Not good." Lena replies, "It turns out that the reason the machine malfunctioned, and caused the damage in these labs, is because the lab tech who was responsible for it, hadn't been doing his job as he should have. I've had to fire him. Now, I'm having to go through all of the equipment in the labs, and make sure it's calibrated, and been looked after, and at the same time, I have a team here clearing up some chemicals that were spilt, some of which might be hard to replace quickly. So.... it's just a lot to deal with."

"Oh.... I'm sorry to hear that, Lena." Kara says.

"Thank you." Lena says back, "But..... I think this does mean that I'm probably not going to be able to come pick Lori up until very late tonight."

"Oh, that's okay." Kara says, "I've already suggested to Lori, seeing as she likes chicken nuggets so much, that this evening we can make chicken nuggets together, which we'll pair with some vegetables. Alex said she'd come back here around 5 or 5:30 to help us make them."

"Oh, your sister left?" Lena asks.

"Yes. She parted with us after we had lunch." Kara explains, "But she suggested she come back later for dinner after Lori asked her if she was leaving with a pout. I think she likes Alex now."

"That's..... that's really good news." Lena says, "I'm so happy that Lori is warming up to other people."

"Yeah. Me too." Kara smiles, "But, don't worry about how late you are going to be. You can just keep me updated on a time. And if it gets too late, I can put Lori to bed, and if it gets any later, I can leave a key to my apartment somewhere, and you can come in while Lori and I are asleep or something."

"Oh... that sounds like a good idea. But are you really sure you are okay with this, Kara?" Lena asks, "I really know I'm asking a lot of you. I mean.... we only met a few weeks ago, and now you are babysitting my daughter for the day, and also probably putting her to bed too."