Hidden Lives ~ Winn Schott [1]

Chapter 2 - Unusual Meetings

Lily was awake before Alex. Stretching, she hopped off the couch and folded the extra blanket she'd been using. She moved into the kitchen to get coffee. Alex kept a large jar of it in the fridge for sake of their impromptu sleepovers. It wasn't as good as a fresh brew, but her coffee addiction didn't care about flavor this early in the morning. As Lily was putting a mug in the microwave, Alex wandered in.

"Morning, Doc." Lily had called her that once and no matter how many times Alex grumbled about it making her sound old. The name just stuck, and it wasn't uncommon to hear it thrown around by other agents as well. Though Alex got much snippier with them than with Lily.

Alex nodded as she passed. Most people wouldn't talk before their morning caffeine, but Alex refused to speak to anyone until after her morning cinnamon roll. If coffee was Lily's addiction than sugar was probably Alex's.

Ten minutes later they sat at the small breakfast table. Alex enjoying her cinnamon roll alongside a rather disgusting looking vitamin drink, and Lily washing down her steaming coffee with a stolen piece of Alex's cinnamon roll. They just sat there, munching and drinking, enjoying a quiet few minutes before they had to get ready for work.

"You really shouldn't drink that much coffee when we have training." Alex's teasing tone broke the quiet spell.

"That's today?"

Alex nodded. Lily groaned dropping her head onto the coffee table.

"We already have to train every day, why do they make us do weekly sparring too?" She indicated her recently dislodged shoulder, "I've got enough bruises to chart the Milky Way."

"Sucks for you."

At Lily's questioning gaze, Alex elaborated. "I've got a doctor's note."

"Not fair. You used to bang him, he's biased."

Alex's cheeks turned pink. "That is not...he owes me a favor," Alex spluttered trying to regain her composure.

Lily raised an eyebrow, "oh, is that what the kids are calling it these days?"

"Shut up," Alex shoved her playfully. "Besides I'm going to use the free time to try to get through to Kara."

That soured the mood immediately. The gnawing guilt that has been forgotten for the nice breakfast was coming back in full force.

"I hope it works. Though if she really is as stubborn as you, you've got a real fight ahead of you." Lily tried to insert levity into her words to lighten the mood once more, but it came out a little hollow. Alex looked at her oddly, clearly taken aback by the unusual tone in her voice.

She quickly changed the subject, glancing at her watch, "I've got to run an errand for Hank. And you know he won't even take that as an excuse for tardiness." They laughed.

"Oh, that reminds me," Alex called as Lily moved into the kitchen, washing out her thermos and putting the new day's coffee in it. "What did Hank want the other day? I didn't see you for the rest of the day and then it completely slipped my mind."

She searched around for a reasonable excuse before the lie just fell out. "He was just annoyed that I wasn't at my desk. You know how he gets sometimes."

Hank's fits of strictness were not lost on his employees. Most of the time he was a reasonably tempered man, but occasionally he would just get ticked off by the smallest thing.

"I hope I didn't get you into too much trouble," Alex said worriedly, ready to rise to her friend's defense.

Lily waved her off, worried by how easy it was to lie to Alex. She didn't want to do it, it reminded her too much of Lex. He'd lied to everyone about everything just to get what he wanted. She shook the thought away, she had to get ready.