@HeartOfALuthor “…I…”

she slowly opened the door, her usual smile gone. She just had an expression of shame and sadness.

Would Lena look at her the same way? Was she even Clem to her any more? Or just a painful reminder?

She stared at Lena, seeing the state she was in. She quietly spoke

“I…I…can come back later if you don’t want to see me right now…”

@Technosis Lena squeezed Clem's hand and leaned in, resting her forehead on her shoulder.

"... I'm so sorry," she said, voice shaky and broken from her tears. "... I hope one day, you can forgive me."

@HeartOfALuthor “…What?”

she turned her head towards Lena, tears in her eyes

“I’m…I’m sorry…I’m not…I’m not who you want me to be. I’m not who you remember. I should be the one who’s sorry.”

@HeartOfALuthor she gave her hand a squeeze

“I…don’t…I don’t know what I believe anymore Lena. But I know that whatever happened to Clementine? It wasn’t your fault…I…she was stubborn. She jumped into situations not thinking things through. Even if she knew the dangers she didn’t care. But in the end, I know even if she was upset with you, she’d never blame you. She…she loved you so much. I know that for sure.”

@HeartOfALuthor “…I…to me? I…I don’t understand. Why would you even care about me? I’m not…I’m not her. Not really. I’m not /your/ Clem, as much as I would want to be…

…I…I want to help you. Whatever happened to me doesn’t matter. I don’t matter, okay? I..we can just find Clem and fix all of this. Okay?”

@HeartOfALuthor she suddenly wrapped her arms around Lena and pulled her into a big hug, her body shaking. Her tears flowed freely down her face as she couldn’t contain her emotions anymore

“I’ll make this right. I’ll make all of this right. I promise.”

@HeartOfALuthor she kept shaking in her arms, speaking in almost a whisper

“I…I’m not…like her. I’m sure Clem was fearless. Always putting on a smile no matter what came her way. But…I can’t. I’m trying but I can’t…

…I can fix this. So you can have that Clem back and you can be…happy. With her and…whoever comes into your life in the future…”

as tears continued to flow down her face, Clem broke away and stared at Lena. She wiped away Lena’s tears

“…I am so sorry, my superstar…”

@Technosis Lena closed her eyes, pained when she said that she could have the old Clem back. Clem hadn't seen what Lena had seen.

She met Clem's gaze when she looked at her. Lena was still sniffling herself, tears still rolling down her cheeks.

"Not showing your emotions doesn't make someone strong... Crying doesn't make you weak... It's just part of being human."

Lena shook her head, looking at the floor. "... You really don't get it, do you?" She sniffled, her voice --

@Technosis -- quiet. "It doesn't matter how similar or how different you are. Not to me... That Clem was my friend back then, and I cared about her a lot... But she isn't the one who's been coming into work with me every day. She isn't the one who's been eating dinner here with me and my family... She isn't the one who's been sleeping next to me every night..."

Lena met her eyes, sniffling again. "... I cared about Clementine back then... But I wasn't in love with her... That didn't --

@HeartOfALuthor Clem’s eyes went wide at Lena’s words, her lip quivering. She leaned in close for a moment, before she started to laugh softly

“…I…before I saw you again, I felt this…emptiness…like a part of my soul was ripped away from me. But when I’m with you, I feel…I feel like I can…be myse-…I can be her. Or what I think she was supposed to be…

…I think with you here, you’re saving me…When I found out I’m…not who I am, I didn’t see why I should exist. But now? I…”

she pulled her -c-

@HeartOfALuthor -c- away for a moment to brush her tears away

“…I don’t know what to make of what I am. But when I’m with you, I…want to continue existing…

…maybe that’s why this hurts, but I’m happy…”

@Technosis Lena leaned in and gave her another hug.

"... I should tell you everything... there's a lot you should know... just... not here."

Lena pulled back, sniffling again and wiping the tears from her eyes. "... Give me a minute, alright?"

Lena got to her feet, opening the bathroom door. She then swept her hair over one shoulder and got out her toothbrush, quickly brushing her teeth. Once she was done, she stepped out into the doorway of the bathroom and held her hand --

@HeartOfALuthor Clem slowly stood up and slowly grasped Lena’s hand. She looked down at her feet, mumbling quietly

“…sometimes I ask myself why I ever deserved to have someone like you in my life…thank you, Lena…for everything.”

she gave her hand a squeeze

@Technosis Lena squeezed her hand back gently. She wondered if Clem would feel differently once she learned about what Lena had done.

She led Clem out into the main room of the house, where @whspxrs , @JaguarAvatar , and @SteelKon were waiting.

"I want to thank all of you for helping me with everything... Ivette, I'm going to ask you to stay longer, if that's alright with you. I have a feeling Clem's father is going to come for her now that we know what we know. We could use --

@Technosis @whspxrs @JaguarAvatar @SteelKon -- the additional help and protection. All of you, keep your eyes peeled, and be ready. We don't know what he's capable of."

Lena looked at Conner. "Conner, I'd like you to reach out to ARGUS and make sure they secure the facility. Under *no circumstances* are they to harm anyone or anything they find inside. Can you do that?

I'm also going to need the paper and digital files we collected. I'm going to look over those with Clementine. --

@HeartOfALuthor @Technosis @whspxrs @JaguarAvatar Conner glanced at Lena and Clem’s hand, the corners of his lips rising a bit. He nodded slowly

“…Right. ARGUS. Cisco is still recovering but he still has major pull. He can make that happen…

…and I’ll the guest room r-…”

he stopped for a moment, realizing something. He looks over at Mara, his eyes wide

“…ready…I, uh…may have to care of a few things in there, though”

@SteelKon @HeartOfALuthor @Technosis @whspxrs

Ivette was sitting in the corner of the room, her head hanging low. The moment she saw Clem, she lifted her head and smiled. She started to get up, before stopping herself and sitting back down. She shyly raised her hand and waved

“…Glad to see you’re okay, Clem. You…owe me a couple of our coffee conversations. And…you’re right. You do have a…pretty friend…”

she eyes shifted to Lena briefly before looking back at Conner

“…I…hope -c-

@JaguarAvatar @SteelKon @HeartOfALuthor @Technosis Mara had been looking at Lena attentively, but with empathy. She knew everything going on was hard on her, and she wanted to be supportive.

... That was until she was giving Conner a 'really?' look. He was about as subtle as Joel crashing through the roof of the barn. If Lena hadn't thought there was something else going on, she definitely would now.

"Of course," Mara said to her. "We've got it covered."

@whspxrs @JaguarAvatar @SteelKon @Technosis -- situation.

"Thank you." Lena led Clem into the guest room with her, leaving the door open so Conner and Ivette could bring in the things she asked for.

@HeartOfALuthor @whspxrs @JaguarAvatar @SteelKon Clem looked up slowly and raised her eyebrow at Ivette. Why was she here? Questions for later. She looked back at the group as she was pulled towards the guest room.

“…They’re all here for…me?”

she had a confused look on her face, as she stood there still trying to process everything

“…I…it’s just a lot to take in…”

@Technosis @HeartOfALuthor @whspxrs @JaguarAvatar “Guess that’s my cue to check out that lab, grab as much as I can, call Cisco, and come back.”

Conner stretched

“…God, today has been eventful. We’re all gonna need a long long nap after today.”

@SteelKon @Technosis @HeartOfALuthor @whspxrs Ivette brushed her hair back and looked at Mara, setting her bag down

“I guess I should help you…well, get organized for the guests…”

she sniffed the air

“I’m sorry if we interrupted anything or if you had to rush someone out. Either way, I want to be helpful.”

@JaguarAvatar @whspxrs “Hey! Exploitable? What, you mean the whole Kryptonite thing? Not every one is gonna have one of those just lying around! And I’m sure you’re not indestructible either!

But you’re right. Knowing our luck the moment, Gerald…if he’s still out there…might show up here. And he may anticipate me.”

@SteelKon @JaguarAvatar "This guy is connected to Lex, remember? And I'll remind you that even *I* had kryptonite the first time we met.

My point was though, we don't know what's going on. He could be watching and waiting for you to leave for all we know."

@JaguarAvatar @whspxrs “…Ivette, you kicked my ass and you have the powers of an ancient god. I’m pretty sure you’re also a power house…

…and yeah. Sadly once Lex learned how to synthesize Kryptonite, it became a real pain. Although synthetic Kryptonite can really vary in intensity. Sometimes it’s strong and sometimes it’s weak.”