Say When by Bal3xicon
Prompt from @jetthead70 Lena's working with Lillian/Cadmus when Supergirl is brought in and thrown into a cage (with or without Mon-El in adjacent cage).
When the full extent of her brother’s madness was revealed to the world, Lena wanted desperately to distance herself from the Luthor name. She spent countless nights trawling through her family’s accounts, analysing businesses mergers, and pouring over her brother’s prototypes and blueprints. Lena shifted all files pertaining to her own experiments and research to remote servers protected with the most complex firewalls and encryption software she was able to manipulate.
Lena had already began the process of legally changing her name, each piece of her documentation arriving sporadically with the new moniker attached. Kieran Elizabeth Walsh. Lena moved small portions of Luthor Corp finances to untraceable accounts, not enough that it would be missed, but enough to set herself up in Canada. She was debating between Newfoundland, perhaps, to revisit the place where she was born, or Kelowna, somewhere less predictable, which she had visited during a summer trip with friends as a teenager. East Coast or West did not matter, leaving and starting fresh was Lena’s priority.
Lena had fantasized about leaving as a child. From the moment she arrived at the Luthor household she had considered repacking the single bag she had arrived with, and leaving in the middle of the night. It was Lex, of all people, who made the idea of staying bearable. Now that he had revealed his true colours, Lena found no more reason to stay. Her temporary appointment as CEO afforded her the opportunity to dig around, to tie up loose ends, and then she would cut ties permanently.
It was whilst researching properties on opposite sides of Canada that Lena received a call from Lillian. Rarely did her mother call without agenda and this time was no different, but for the first time Lena could recall, Lillian spoke with praise. She gushed about Lena’s brilliant mind and did so without comparison to Lex. Lena found herself gripping her phone more tightly, pressing it harder to her ear, craving each and every word Lillian was saying, starved as she had been of such approval her entire life. Lillian spoke of the seemingly unique ability Lena possessed to envisage something and bring it quietly to fruition with precision, and without fanfare.
At her core, Lena knew she was about to be used. She knew that the way Lillian’s words oozed like molasses, coating her pride, and each and every one of her vulnerabilities, she was going to be asked to be a part of something she would likely regret. Yet, Lena found herself so desperately in need of the praise, so desperately in need of the awe-like veneer in her mother’s voice, she listened.
Continue reading on Ao3
