"They're gone."

"I didn't mean to disappear…"

Alex stood in Kara's bedroom doorway, it was dark in the bedroom but she could see Kara's silhouette. Her sister was sitting up on her bed, she was framed by the moonlight streaming in from her windows. "It's okay. I know it couldn't have been easy to keep up that sunny facade you put on for them." She paused for a moment, the stab of knowing that she was part of the reason for her sister's grief cut her deep. She was quiet, though, and tried to keep her voice as even as possible. "I just told them that you were too tired, that you'd fallen asleep...they both believed me."

"But you knew that wasn't true."

Alex shrugged a bit before leaning against the doorframe. "I know my sister."

"I just…"

"You've gone through a lot today, too much," Alex said sadly. She'd nearly lost her sister. That wasn't something that she could easily shake and then there was Astra… God, how that ate at Alex. J'onn had told her to keep it quiet, but Alex knew that she couldn't keep such a secret from her sister. Not for long. It was something that Alex just couldn't handle holding onto for her own sanity, let alone the fact that Kara should know the truth. She'd killed her sister's aunt, one of her last living Kryptonian relatives.

"Come sit with me?" Kara requested from the dark room.

Slowly, she moved towards the bed before sitting on the edge of it, but turning towards her sister. She could see her more clearly now. "You really should sleep, Kara," Alex said gently. She and Kara hadn't known each other their entire lives, but that didn't stop them knowing each other the way that they did. Their bond that always been complicated, but also so tight. Her sister curled up and her head fell into Alex's lap. She stared down at Kara, Alex's fingers automatically going to her hair to run through it. There had been times where she'd seen her sister vulnerable and crushed, but this time...this time, Alex realized that she had so much responsibility in it. Holding back the tears and the confession were the hardest in that moment.

"Do you remember when we were little? Jeremiah used to sing to us sometimes?"

Sucking in a breath, Alex looked towards the window. Outside the moon was high and though the stars couldn't be seen well in the city, Alex knew that they were still there. The stars, the moon, the sky above had always meant so much since Kara had arrived...they used to look up at the sky at night and Kara would tell her about what she'd been taught growing up and Alex would tell Kara what her parents had taught her. Sometimes her parents would find them and put in their own other information. It had always meant peace for them, even though Alex knew that it had to be incredibly hard for Kara. Her sister had fallen from the sky, flown across so many stars, past moons and planets, only to land on a world that wasn't as advanced as her own. Alex could only imagine that it must have felt like the stars taunted Kara somehow, but that never changed her.

"Yeah," Alex whispered. She turned in the bed until her back was up against the headboard, pulling Kara to her, kissing the side of Kara's head, before finally her sister's head rested in her lap. Alex's fingers ran through Kara's golden strands. Sucking in a breath, she tried to calm herself so her voice didn't tremble as she started to sing one of the songs her father used to sing to them. "Lay down your sweet and weary head," she began, her voice only loud enough for her and Kara to hear. "Night is falling, you have come to journey's end. Sleep now. Dream...of the ones who came before," she continued. "They are calling from across the distant shore." It had been so many years since she'd even thought about that song, now...the words felt like they were so much more appropriate and yet hit hard. "Why do you weep? What are these tears upon your face? Soon you will see...all of your fears will pass away," Alex sang, her voice threatening to break as she continued the quiet song. "Safe in my arms, you're only sleeping…"

Her eyes looked towards the window, as if the stars in the sky could bring her the strength to continue. She sucked in a shaky breath and then pushed it out lowly, her eyes brimmed with tears. "What can you see on the horizon? Why do the white gulls call?" All Alex could think of in that moment was her father, but she knew that it was more than her loss… Kara had lost so much in her short lifetime.

Alura and Zor-El.

Krypton.

Her sense of normalcy.

Raising Kal-El.

Jeremiah.

Alura-

A sob bubbled up inside of her and she couldn't push it back. Kara wasn't asleep, though, and her sister did the one thing that made her sob all the more but was comforting at the same time. Kara sat up, adjusted where she was on the bed, wrapped arms around her, and pulled her down so that they were both laying on the bed together. Kara pressed a kiss to the side of Alex's head and then the song unexpectedly continued.

"Across the sea, a pale moon rises. The ships have come to carry you home," Kara sang, her fingers playing with strands of Alex's hair, just like she'd done with her sister moments before. "And all will turn to silver glass, a light on the water, all souls pass…" Her voice broke, like Alex's had and she watched as tears rolled down her sister's cheeks anew. "Hope fades into the world of night, through shadows falling, out of memory and time…"

Alex felt like she didn't deserve the comfort she was getting from her sister, but she wasn't going to push it away. Right now, they both needed each other. In the morning, she could figure out how she was going to tell Kara the truth that had happened with Astra. Tonight, though, they both needed this. So, she sang with her sister, quietly and a bit shakily. "Don't say we have come now to the end, white shores are calling...you and I will meet again...and you'll be here in my arms, just sleeping…"

She closed her eyes, holding onto Kara and thinking about home...about Midvale...about her parents...about the beach… The good memories…

"What can you see on the horizon?" they continued in whispers. "Why do the white gulls call?" Alex could hear the crash of the ocean in her head, the memories of the cold water rushing over her feet, and the salty smell in the air. "Across the sea, a pale moon rises. The ships have come to carry you home. And all will turn to silver glass, a light on the water, grey ships pass into the West…"

Silence enveloped them.

No words.

Breathing.

Heartbeats.

Eventually, sleep overtook them both.

The End.