"Alex!"
She heard her own name and she knew whose mouth it sprouted from, but she couldn't push out his name to alert him as to where she lay freezing and miserable. Alex squeezed her eyes shut, her ear against the concrete as she just listened to the footfalls. They got closer and closer. There was relief inside of her.
"Oh Alex," she heard him breathe before his hands rested on her still form.
Alex didn't know how long he'd been gone. They had police pursuing them and so J'onn had to leave her...to lead them away...it had been the best plan at the time given that J'onn could change into another's form. It meant that Alex had to hide, though, and it was cold...they didn't have shelter...and they had no food or water with them. They'd been forced to leave that all behind when they'd been found. So, when they'd split up, Alex had gone underground into an abandoned train station (she'd told J'onn before that it would be a good spot for them and then it was the one place they both knew they could rondevu at without confusion).
His arms wrapped around her and rolled her until she was looking up at him. She gave him a weak smile, it was all she had. "You found me," she whispered.
"I will always find you," J'onn vowed.
She believed him.
They were family. J'onn, Kara, and her...they were a family. Right now, that's why they were on the run, to protect Kara. Her sister was safely tucked away in the confines of the Fortress of Solitude and it was their job to clear her good name (as well as theirs).
"This can't go on, Alex," he whispered.
She was shivering in his arms and Alex was struggling to keep her eyes open. "I'm going to be fine," Alex lied. "I just wanted to take a little nap...and then some heat…"
"You need a doctor."
"Stay out of my head-"
"Alex," he practically growled.
"Kara needs-"
"Kara needs her sister alive...and with all her fingers and toes…"
Alex cringed slightly at that comment.
"I think I know a place I can take you for medical attention. Somewhere safe. Someone we can trust."
"We can't trust anyone," Alex reminded in a weak whisper.
"We can always trust each other."
"She's going to need to stay here for a few days."
"If someone sees us-"
"Don't worry, I'll have you both in isolation. You'll be safe."
Safe.
Alex just lay there, drugged out and barely conscious. In the last couple of weeks, she'd never felt less safe in her life. The one thing that gave her any solace was that Kara was safe in the Fortress of Solitude. Sure, it was cold there (which Kara didn't feel like they did) and it was lonely (it was called the Fortress of Solitude), but at least she was safe...and apparently there was some kind of Kryptonian AI there that could serve as some kind of company.
She missed her sister.
One day more.
That's what she kept telling herself.
There weren't very many long periods in their life where the two of them had been so far apart since Kara had become a Danvers. When Alex and Kara first lived together, Alex had wanted to get as far away as she could or to send Kara away...but eventually they'd formed an undeniable bond and Alex had a hard time leaving Kara (and it was definitely more than just worrying about her and her safety).
"I've already started to rehydrate her, she's warming, and I've given her a shot for all of the bites...hopefully she'll sleep for a day and then be more alert after that."
"Thank you."
"I'll be back to check on you both...and I'll bring you something to eat."
She heard the door close and she saw J'onn hovering over her. Blinking, she realized that whatever was going on in her brain, she wasn't registering things normally. One second J'onn hadn't been there and then he had as if he'd been standing above her the entire time. It was so bright and her head was so upset over it.
"Close your eyes and sleep, Alex," he whispered before leaning down and pressing a kiss to her forehead as he smoothed her hair back.
Alex sucked in a breath and squeezed her eyes shut, his hand moved to take hers and she opened her eyes again to search for him. Her head rolled to the side and she just stared at him for a moment as he sat in a chair next to her bed. "I'm sorry," she managed to breathe.
"Hush," he said with a smile. "You're safe. We're both safe. None of this is your fault...I shouldn't have let you…"
"J'onn-"
"Did Kara ever tell you stories about Krypton growing up?" he asked unexpectedly.
"Yes," she replied as her eyes slid closed. Alex was still awake, but she listened.
"On Mars, I remember there would always be a time in the early morning and a time in late evening when there would be this echoing of our traditional songs on the wind," J'onn spoke in a whisper. His voice was beautiful to her ears and though she took in every word, she felt herself falling more and more towards the darkness of sleep. "They were always my favorite times…" He paused for a moment and then there was a low singing that came from him. Another language that was unfamiliar to her ears and yet so entrancing. It was just enough to lull her completely to sleep.
"Do you ever dream of other planets?"
"I've been to several, so yes."
Alex looked over at Kara and just grinned. "Sometimes I wish that I could just fly away...up towards a star and-"
"You can't fly, Alex," Kara said with a smile as she tilted her head to the side. "And once you reached the-"
"I know," Alex brushed off. She let out a sigh and stared up at the stars above them. "But if it were scientifically possible…"
"Why is it that whenever we have problems, we look to a far away place?"
"Because some of us grew up with dreaming about places like Neverland, a library that seemed to never end, places with people that seemed to understand who even the most unwanted and misunderstood was…"
"I never really thought of you as a Disney princess," Kara teased.
Disney had been something that her mother had thought would help Kara to acclimate to Earth quicker, so the two of them had watched quite a lot of Disney. "Just because I'd rather play with swords than sit in front of a mirror in a ballgown doesn't mean-"
"Which world would you live in?"
Alex shrugged. "Can't we just live on a starship?"
"We're jumping to science fiction now? 'Star Trek' or 'Star Wars'?"
"Do we really have to choose?"
Kara laughed at that. "No, we really don't…" They were quiet for a while. "If you were world building...tell me about how it would all work."
"Women would be in charge."
"Good call."
"There needs to be less fighting," Alex said. "There's so much fighting and violence...no matter how much Mom tries to shield us from it, we both know it's out there."
"A world that's not dying," Kara whispered.
Alex looked over at her sister in silence for a moment as Kara looked upward. How hard it must be for her to look up at the sky every night and know that Krypton no longer existed. "You're right, a place where people are at peace with each other and with nature…"
"I think it's more easily said than actually accomplished."
"You're right." They just sat out there and Alex sometimes would look over at the spot where Superman had first landed with Kara and wondered how she'd been so irritated about having this alien come to live with her and her family. Kara had lost so much...and yet she'd given Alex so much in just the short time that they'd been sisters. "And I'd want us to live close to each other."
"Treehouses?"
Alex laughed at that. "Yeah, those really cool tree houses that are connected by bridges!"
"And every night, we could still look up at the stars together."
"Definitely."
"Even if we were apart," Kara said. "If we're on the same planet, we could look up...and we'd see the same stars...they just might look a little different." She paused for a moment. "But it would be like I was sitting right next to you and we'd never really be alone when we're looking up."
"I like that."
"Me too."
One day more.
At least that's how much longer the doctor wanted to keep them locked up in the small room. Alex had at least gotten a shower out of their confinement, so she was overly appreciative of that along with the fact that she was warm and wasn't in so much pain. She sat on the edge of the bed and watched J'onn as he just sat in the chair. "You okay?"
"You kept calling for Kara in your sleep," he said as he looked up at her.
"I think I was dreaming about her…"
"You were mumbling about stars."
Ah.
Stars.
"When you two were little in Midvale, you used to always look up at the stars together on the roof," J'onn supplied.
"Yes," Alex said. "Kara once told me that if we were ever apart, we could look up at the stars at night and no matter where on Earth we were...it would be like we were sitting there together because we'd be looking up at the same stars."
"I think it might be time for me to fly you to your sister," he said slowly.
"It's too cold down there," Alex told him. "It's just one more day in here, right?"
He nodded.
"And then another until we can uncover more about whatever conspiracy is out to make us all look bad, right?"
He nodded again.
"One day more," she whispered. "That's all…"
"Tomorrow you can look up at the stars."
Alex smiled at that. She'd look forward to it.
The End.