Blockbuster (supercorp)

back to the beginning

Lena had just had the shittiest twenty-four hours she could remember having, including the time she once agreed to stop eating and drinking for nineteen hours to give herself a "malnourished" look for a couple scenes in a role. Looking back, her agent helping talk her into it probably should have been a warning sign. Her agent being her brother probably should also have been a warning sign. But it was too late to blame herself now. Her family had always been controlling. She had just always counted herself lucky she wanted to do the same thing they wanted her to.

It had all come down around her ears when she was in Lex's office discussing his latest ideas for her auditions. The police came in all of the sudden and before she quite knew what was happening, Lex was shouting and the pair of them were in handcuffs and being escorted into waiting police cars. Cameras were everywhere. Lena had heard some rumblings of corporate malpractice but had never dreamed they were true. She didn't put much stock in company rumors. She spent at least six hours telling the police that while they interrogated her. Three of those hours were in handcuffs. Several more hours were spent in a holding cell before a bemused officer–the same one who had arrested her personally, Lena was pretty sure–opened the holding cell door.

"You're free to go, Miss Luthor," she said, eyes down on her keys as she fiddled with them in the door. She glanced up and caught Lena's wrist gently as Lena made to leave. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but your brother is not free to go. You're innocent, but he's not."

Lena just sighed. "I figured as much. Otherwise we'd be here together, right?"

The cop cocked her head to the side and smiled, dimples coming out on display. Brown eyes regarded her with unexpected warmth. "You're a lot smarter than he makes you sound, you know?"

"You were the one interrogating him?"

"Well, yeah. I may have had orders to arrest you but I could tell right away who was innocent and who wasn't in that room. I'm not gonna waste both of our time when you clearly don't know a thing." Lena considered her for a long moment thoughtfully, wondering how she could tell. The cop jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "Come on, I'll walk you out."

—

"Alex, seriously, how long does it take to unlock a single door?"

Alex glanced over at her pacing sister from above her Ammo Monthly magazine, boots propped on Maggie's desk, unperturbed at Maggie's long absence. "Do you think your chances of meeting her in a non-creepy way are going down with every passing second?" Kara huffed, and Alex rolled her eyes. "Chill, drama queen. I'm sure your idol will be just as stunned and overwhelmed no matter what minute Maggie brings her out. Try not to drool when you jump her." Kara glared, and Alex pretended to shiver before turning back to her magazine. "Ooh, someone tell Mom the high school theater paid off. I can feel the chill from here."

"Shut up," Kara muttered, not even pausing in her pacing as she shoved at the back of Alex's rolly-chair, but Alex tensed, gripping the heels of her boots on the table so she didn't go anywhere. Kara sighed after a long moment, turning on her heel and propping herself against Maggie's desk. "Good magazine?" she asked in an obvious attempt to distract herself. "I still don't understand what that could possibly be about, you just put the bullets that fit into the right gun, right?"

Alex didn't even look up. "I'm not going to dignify that with a response, considering you have a federal agent as a sister, one who is certified in over thirty types of firearms." Kara rolled her eyes, looking more frustrated than bored, and Alex finally lifted her eyes. "Your anxiety is ruining my mood, Kara. They'll be out in a minute. Chill."

"Alex, I don't understand how you're not freaking out about this, Lena Luthor–" Kara dropped her voice to a near-reverential stage whisper to say her name "–is in the building and we might be about to meet her!"