She tugs another homework assignment off the stack on her desk, surrounded by a graveyard of empty coffee mugs and crumpled sheets of paper.
“Dallas?” There’s a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Dallas calls and rubs the heel of her palm across her eyes.
“I was just checking to see if I could get you something?” Jess offers. “Or umm… call your parents perhaps?”
“I thought you’d gone home already, Jess,” Dallas says, bypassing the questions. “You don’t need to be here this late.”
“I said I would stay until the new reports from the lab came in, so I could organize them before they got to your mom, Remember?”
“Right, of course,” Dallas says as scraps of the conversation come back to her and she becomes aware that she is missing large chunks of time from this day. “Well, I certainly did not expect it to take this long. Go home, Jess,” *Dallas says gently. “I’m sorry you waited so long, I didn’t mean to keep you here, you don’t have to babysit me.”
“It’s okay, Dallas. Will you be leaving shortly?”
“I just have to do more homework and projects for my classes,” Dallas says, taps a heap in front of her with the end of her pen.
“I might be overstepping here, but you should probably get some rest. I know you didn’t go home last night.”
“I’m fine, Jess. I appreciate your concern, but there’s some work I still need to get done.” I’ll be here all night, if I have to; and probably even if I don’t.
Jess nods, mind already made up. Kara is the only one who can make sure Jess’ boss is taken care of, which leaves one option. “Have a good night, Dallas.”
“You as well, Jess.”
The minute the door is shut, Dallas lets her forehead drop onto the pile of papers, and Jess returns to her own desk and dials the number that is quickly moving up on the office speed dial.
“Jess? Is everything okay?”
“Yes, it’s just that I think Dallas would benefit from You and Miss Luthor taking her home.”
Kara’s already gathering her stuff from her desk at CatCo, closing out of the article she’s spent most of the night working on. She looks at the clock and curses, she didn’t realize it’d gotten so late. “What’s wrong? She’s exhausted and refusing to go home, isn’t she? She was supposed to be at a friends house.”
“Yes.”
“I’m on my way over now. Go home, Jess, me and Lena will take care of her. Thank you for calling me.”
/
“Dallas,” Kara says softly as she cracks open the door and steps inside.
“Mom, hi.” The child’s tears her eyes away from the work sheets in front of her, allows herself the pleasure of seeing her mother’s sweet face looking back at her.
“Come home?” Kara tries, stepping closer. Moonlight outside glimmers off her hair, casts shadows across her frame.
“But I need to finish up here and there’s so much to do--”
Kara inches toward her again.
“—and I’ve hardly made any real progress. I’m trying my best but the magnitude is just too large and everything I try falls short and I have to get this right because if I don’t my grades might go down again and I can’t—“
The blonde takes a step closer.
“—Mom, I can’t go through that another time, so I have to stay here and I have to get this done because if I don’t… mom, if I don’t, so many bad things could happen and I—“
“Okay, okay, shhh,” Kara whispers, pulls Dallas out of her seat so she’s pressed against Kara and held close. “It’s okay, Baby, and so are you. Everything’s going to be okay.” Dallas lets Kara sway them for a minute, lets Kara’s soft words wash over her.
One of Kara’s hands rubs Dallas’s back, the other tangles in dark hair as Dallas allows herself to stand limp, face nestling Kara’s neck and eyes closing. “You don’t feel good, love,” ^ Kara whispers, lips brushing Dallas’s forehead.