Disclaimer – I don't own anything. If I did, Mon El would still be in the show. So hoping he'll be back for season 3.

AN – This one shot takes place after 2x17, the idea came to me not long after I watched the episode. This is my first fanfiction for this show. Does mention/describe child abuse, I think it's pretty light, but I have no idea what can trigger people, so please read carefully. Please review and

Enjoy!

Mon El woke up to see that the other side of the bed, Kara's side, was empty. She was gone. On the pillow though, was a small piece of paper. Mon El sat up and grabbed the note.

Some unexpected alien business came up. If I'm not back when you wake up, I'm probably at the DEO. Love you.

With a small smile and a sigh, Mon El got up and headed to the bathroom to get ready for the day. When he saw his reflection in the mirror though, he paused. On the left side of his face, was a large red mark, shaped suspiciously like a hand, and yesterday's events flooded his memory.

Yesterday, he went back to his parents so his Mother would call off the bounty she placed on Kara's life. He tried to get his Father to help him change the way Daxam was run, to help their people, and his Mother, slapped him across the face for wanting to go against the way their planet always worked and had him locked up in a cell.

Mon El stared at his reflection for a moment longer, wondering if he should actually leave the apartment. He didn't want anyone to see, to know what his Mother did. Then again, if he stayed hidden in the apartment, that might make his friends and Kara suspicious, not to mention, when Kara came home, she would see. He remembered seeing on TV that girls wear this type of paint on their face to cover things like pimples and such so people wouldn't see it, and wondered if Kara had any.

He saw a small bag sitting on the bathroom shelf that looked like it was filled with little containers and tubes. One of those might be the paint, or whatever it was, but Mon El started to feel uneasy about going through his girlfriend's bathroom stuff. Plus, was it weird for a man to wear paint? The idea was starting to feel weird. Before he could make up his mind, he heard his cell phone start ringing.

The alien rushed back into the main room and grabbed his cell phone off the table before he answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi, I didn't wake you, did I?" Kara asked. Even though she wasn't in the apartment and couldn't see him, Mon El shook his head.

"No, I was already awake. What's going on? Is everything okay?" Mon El asked, hoping that whatever alien business came up wasn't anything major.

"Oh yeah, everything's fine. I was just wondering how you are doing, with everything that happened yesterday?" Mon El could hear the amount of concern in Kara's voice and felt guilty for being the reason it was there.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me." Mon El assured her.

"Okay." Kara didn't sound convinced but apparently decided to let it go, "I'm going to be working at the DEO for a while, do you want to come over and hang out?"

"Would it be weird if I wanted to just stay in today? I still do need to finish Romeo and Juliet after all." Mon El replied, sitting down on the edge of the bed. He hoped that his request wouldn't make her more worried, but he knew that if he went to the DEO and she noticed the mark, she'd bring attention to it, probably in front of others. That was the last thing he wanted.

"No, it wouldn't be weird at all. If you finish the play, maybe tonight we can watch the movie." Kara suggested. Mon El almost sighed in relief.

"That would be fun. I'll see you later today then?"

"Yup. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Okay, love you." Mon El said with a smile.

"Love you too, bye." Mon El hung up a second after Kara did, and put his phone on the nightstand beside the bed. He then headed over to the kitchen to get some breakfast, when he noticed the pictures on Kara's shelves.

Ignoring his quest for food, Mon El headed over to the shelves and looked at the pictures. All of them were with her with her human family. Some with just her and Alex, some with her, Alex, and Eliza, some when she and Alex were young, there was even one that had Jeremiah in it, and one with another man, that Kara said was her real cousin, Clark. She had even put one of the two of them on her shelf.

Mon El stared at the photos, seeing how happy Kara was with her family, who were just as happy as she was. He had no photos of him with his family, or with anyone besides Kara. On Daxam, they had paintings of the ruling family, but only the King and Queen, and they definitely never smiled in them. Not that he would've though, he was never really happy around his family.

After a few more minutes staring at the photos, Mon El went to the kitchen to finally get something to eat.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

"Was that Mon El?" Kara turned to see Alex coming over towards her.

"Yeah, I was just checking in on him. He was still asleep when I left." Kara explained as she held her cell phone tightly in her hand.

"Is he okay?" Alex asked.

"I don't know. He hasn't really said anything about what happened while he was on the ship, but, I know that this bugging him. He's barely said anything about his parents before, and even less now, and I can't help but feel like there's something wrong here." Kara revealed.

"There probably is, which might be one of the many reasons why he never told you anything about his past." Alex replied.

"Maybe. I just want to help him." Kara said, looking down at the ground. Alex came to stand beside her sister and wrapped her arm around Kara's shoulders.

"I know, but with something like this, you can't do much. It's between him and his parents. You can help him deal with it though." Alex told her, causing Kara to look up at her.

"How?" Kara wondered.

"Just be there for him." Kara nodded, agreeing to her sister's advice.

"Come on, we got work to do." Alex said as she ushered Kara away from the window.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

For the rest of the day, Mon El stayed in the apartment. Since Kara was at the DEO dealing with, whatever was going on and she knew that he was staying here, he had no reason to leave. The only people who would disturb him were most likely at the DEO with Kara, helping her out with the alien business that had come up.

Since he was left in peace, Mon El decided to finish Romeo and Juliet so he and Kara could watch the movie tonight. And when he finished, he moved on to a different book that he found in the apartment. Before he knew it, he heard the door to the apartment open.

"Mon El, I'm back, and I brought take out." Kara called out as she entered the apartment, closing the door behind her. She then made her way into the kitchen as she heard her boyfriend coming out of the bedroom.

"Since we are planning on watching Romeo and Juliet, I had to pick up the essential comfort food. Cookie dough, donuts, and other such food to eat as we cry our eyes out. You did finish reading it, right?" Kara wondered as she started pulling the food out of the bags, not looking at Mon El.

"Yes, I did, but I didn't cry." Mon El said, watching his girlfriend.

"Oh, trust me, you will during the movie." Kara assured him as she turned around. Her entire body froze as she looked at Mon El. There was an almost resigned look on his face, but that wasn't what caught her attention. It was the large red mark, shaped exactly like a hand, on the left side of the Daxamite's face that all of her focus was on.

"Mon El, what happened?" Kara questioned as she immediately went over to him, gently grabbing his chin and turning his head so she could get a better look at the bruise.

"It's nothing. Just something that happened yesterday. It's not big deal." Mon El replied, hoping that Kara would drop it. It was just a minor bruise after all.

"Yes, it is a big deal. Who did this? A guard or something?" Kara asked as she let go of Mon El's chin.

"Or something. Look, Kara, I don't really want to talk about it. Can we just, watch the movie?" Mon El said as he started to walk over to the couch, "Which version are we watching anyways? I saw online that there are a few."

Kara immediately grabbed his arm to stop the fellow alien, saying, "Mon El, stop. Why won't you tell me? You know you can tell me anything."

Mon El sighed and grabbed Kara's hand, the one holding onto his arm and gently led her over to the couch. He sat down on the armrest while Kara stayed standing in front of him. Mon El looked down at the floor, still holding Kara's hand tightly in his, not saying anything. He still didn't want to tell her, but her knew from the look in her eyes that she wasn't going to let it go, that she cared too much about him to forget that someone hit him. He wasn't sure whether to be happy she cared, or to be annoyed that she wouldn't leave it alone.

Kara remained silent, sensing that whatever happened must have been more serious than she thought, otherwise, he would've already told her. The Kryptonian racked her brain, trying to think of an answer. She knew that a bruise on his face wasn't life threatening or serious in a physical way, but she hated that someone hit him, especially since he was only put in that position because he saved her life. But now that Mon El had tried to change the topic, tried to calm her down without answering her questions, she knew there was something else going on. It only took another minute for an answer to come to her.

"Mon El, did, did your parents do this?" Kara asked, her voice quiet and soft.

"My Mom." Mon El's reply was so quiet Kara barely heard it at all.

"She hit you? But you went with her, did exactly what she wanted. Why would she do that?" Kara wondered, squeezing her boyfriend's hand as she laid her other hand on Mon El's shoulder.

"She didn't like that I wanted to change the way Daxam was run. She thinks you poisoned my mind." Mon El told her.

"She hit you because you don't agree with her?" Kara questioned, trying to understand as a surge of anger started welling up inside her.

"Pretty much. Look, can we just drop it? Please?" Mon El asked, finally looking up at her with pleading eyes. Kara however, was too far gone in her anger at Rhea.

"No. She says she loves you and proved that she's willing to kill to get you back, then turns around and hits you? How could she?" Kara wondered out loud. She knew that parents hurting their kids wasn't uncommon on Earth, and might've even happened on Krypton, and that there were people out there trying to stop it, but she couldn't understand why a parent would hurt their own child in the first place.

"It's not like it's the first time." Mon El admitted, looking back down at the ground. That stopped Kara from continuing her anger-filled rant. She looked back at her boyfriend, seeing the hurt and sad expression on his face.

"How many times did she hurt you?" Kara couldn't help but ask, though she was scared of the answer.

"Just once, when I was a kid." Mon El replied. Still holding his hand in hers, her other hand also still on his shoulder, Kara took a step closer to him.

"What happened?" Mon El sighed as he worked up the nerve to tell her.

"I was about, 7 years old. One of the servants had a boy my age, and would bring him along because she didn't have anyone to take care of him while she was working. The servants, peasants, weren't allowed to attend school. Otherwise there would be a greater chance they would try to rise above their position or try to rise against the royal family. She told my parents that she wanted her son to learn first hand as to what his future would be and wanted to prepare him. My parents agreed. When I saw that he was there, I wanted to play with him. There weren't that many noble families around, even less that had kids, that my parents would approve of me playing with, so, I was, pretty lonely." Mon El the paused for a moment as the memory came back to him in full force, took a deep breath, and continued.

"We became friends. Every day, I would go over and tell his Mom I needed him for something, we'd go to my room and play. He was the first, and only real friend I ever had. One day, my Mom came to talk to me, apparently my tutor told her that I was no longer working on the assignments he would give me and she walked in to me playing with the servant boy. She then slapped him for daring to play with me, to act like we were equals. When she went to do it again, I ran over and grabbed her arm to stop her, but she shoved me to the ground. She then called a guard to watch me, to keep me in my room, and she dragged the boy away. I never saw him again." Kara squeezed Mon El's shoulder, silently wondering if that was the end of the story. Before she could ask though, he kept going.

"She came back a few hours later and told the guard to leave. When he was gone, I asked her what she did to the boy, and she said she arrested him and his mother. I begged her to let them go, that it wasn't their fault, I just wanted a friend. She told me that I am a prince and that servants are too far below me to even think about being friends with them. I said she was wrong. That was when she hit me. She was wearing a ring at the time, and it cut my cheek. She told me never to say that she was wrong again, that she was my mother and knew what was best for me. I said if she knew what was best, then she wouldn't have arrested a 7-year-old boy for playing with the prince when the prince asked him too. She didn't see that coming, her little boy actually debating something like that with her. She punched me for that, punched hard enough that I fell to the ground.

"It was then I started crying. My Mother came over and knelt down beside me, and said that if I really I wanted to help them, then I had to follow the way that Daxam was run, that she would teach me what our people truly needed. I again asked for her to let the boy and his mother go. She said as long as I'd fall in line, she would only banish them, instead of leaving them to rot in jail. I agreed. Then she smiled and pulled me into her arms, and said that she was sorry that she had to hurt me, but that I needed to learn. After that, whenever there was something going on, something my parents did that I didn't agree with, I'd remember that day, I'd remember how it felt, remember the dark and cold look in my Mother's eyes, and I'd be terrified. So I kept my mouth shut and looked the other way. When I first arrived, here on Earth, and I told you that I was a servant for the Prince, I was trying to pretend to be that boy. If he had never been banished, he would've eventually become my servant. It was him I wished had survived instead of me."

The minute those words left Mon El's mouth, Kara wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into her embrace, his head against her chest. Mon El then slowly wrapped his own arms around her waist, both of them holding each other tightly. After a few moments, Kara spoke.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that you went through that. If I had known that that was what she was like, that she did that to you, I never would've tried to reason with her." Mon El slowly shook his head pulled away a little so he could look up her, revealing that though his eyes were red, no tears had fallen. After all, he had learned to swallow his emotions long ago.

"Yes, you would've. Because you, Kara Zor-El, believe in giving people second chances, whether they deserve it or not. It's own of the many things I love about you." Mon El said with a small smile, then added, "Besides, it doesn't matter anymore."

"How could an abusive mother not matter?" Kara asked.

"Because she's gone, and I'm here with you." Mon El replied. Kara smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, you are here with me." Kara then lowered her head and kissed him, and he immediately kissed her back. All too soon, Mon El pulled away, and looked over at the food that Kara had brought home.

"Why don't we watch the movie now?" Mon El suggested, getting up off the couch's armrest. Though Kara knew that something like what Mon El went through, lived through, couldn't be so easily shaken off, she also knew that he needed a break from such a heavy topic, so she nodded.

"Yeah, I'll go get the movie. We're watching the 1960's version by the way. It's a classic, and it's the closest version to the actual play." Kara told him as she went over to her shelves to get the movie.

When she pulled out the movie, she saw all the pictures of her and her family and friends that were on another shelf. Kara always knew that she was lucky to have grown up with such a great sister and mother, and to have an amazing cousin to look up to, and for friends who were always there for her. She couldn't imagine what her life would be like without them. Mon El could, because Mon El did grow up, and had a life without them. Kara looked over her shoulder and saw her boyfriend getting out the plates and cutlery for all the sweets and take out that she brought and swore to herself that Mon El would never be alone like that again. He was a part of her family now.

AN – Yeah, that ending was a little painful to write as I'm about to go and finally watch the season 2 finale. I know, took me quite a while, but I didn't start watching Supergirl until the summer, so I think I made good time considering job hunting, work, and catching up on many other shows. I hope you guys enjoyed this story!