There was once a time when I would have written this, but not posted it. However, there comes a time in everybody's life where they sort of go "fuck everything, I'm going to post it and I don't really care what you have to say about it!"
I do ship them (obviously), but in like... a super low-key, down-low sort of way. I can't imagine that either of them would go around and flaunt their relationship. Not around the DEO, and not around Kara.
This was never intended to be as long as it is, but it got a little out of control somewhere along the way... It was only supposed to be a one-shot, but I decided to break it up into two chapters once I'd finished writing it, since it seemed a bit too long.
That being said, this has not been proof-read, so if you spot an errors, please let me know so that I might fix them.
Standard disclaimer: There is mention of Alex being injured and kidnapped, but it's not overly graphic, which is why I didn't really tag it as being "graphic".
Also, the names Alex lists were generated using a random name generator. Any resemblance to real people is pure coincidence.
Cheers, and happy reading!
Hank Henshaw should have known that this was a bad idea. Getting too close to Alex was a bad idea. He was her superior, her elder. He should have drawn the line in the sand between their professional relationship and what little of a friendly relationship that they had.
But…
"You need to talk to somebody, Hank," Alex said as she followed him down the halls of the DEO. "And I know that you won't talk to even the DEO councilors, won't reveal yourself."
"And what exactly do you propose?" Hank said to her slowly. He didn't look at her for a moment, but then he half-turned to face her.
"That you talk to me," Alex said. "I know that I'm not exactly qualified to deal with… situations like yours, but I think that just talking to somebody would be very therapeutic. You aren't alone, Hank."
She put her hand out, as if she was going to touch him, but then thought better of it, and her hand hung between them for a moment. Finally, she dropped it back down to her side again. She looked at him and a look that Hank couldn't quite name. It wasn't pity, but he knew that Alex wouldn't treat him like that. It was sadness, but for the things that Hank had been through, for what he'd carried inside of himself every day since he'd escaped, while the rest of his people had been slaughtered. But also, that sadness was for the simple fact that she couldn't help him like she wanted to.
"Please," Alex said, her voice like a whispered prayer.
Hank pressed his lips together as he tried to weigh the pros and cons to this. He tried to keep everybody at arms-length, too afraid of being found out.
But in the end, he'd told Alex about himself on his own. He'd told Kara, too, but only under Alex's urging. And her big mouth.
Of course, the recent incident with the White Martian was mainly due to Alex encouraging him not to be afraid of his powers. And Hank had walked into Lord Industries, feeling exceptionally confident. They had needed to find out what Max Lord was hiding, and even though what he had found had only raised even more questions…
But for one brief moment, Hank had felt glad to be able to use his powers for good again. And the repercussions of that were apparently still falling onto him.
"Fine," he finally said to her. He saw Alex's face working hard to clamp down on some of her joy, but she wasn't quite successful. It was mildly amusing.
"Great. It'll be good for you to get… some of that… stuff off from your chest," Alex said carefully. "You'll see. Should we clear out a meeting room or-"
"No, not on the base," Hank said sharply. "I don't even want to risk the chance of anybody overhearing, or walking in while we're discussing these things. It's been exceptionally foolish of me to keep… shifting and talking to you about everything here. And I'm putting a stop to it now."
"Okay," Alex said with a slight nod of her head. "Then where?"
Hank paused again, reconsidering her offer again. He should have drawn the proverbial line, told her that she was out of line in offering something like this.
But then he considered how great that he'd felt after he told her about his daughters, how Alex's words to him had carried him all the way to the meeting with the White Martian.
"Since I'm already going to be telling you a bunch of incredibly personal info, I might as well invite you into my home as well," he said quietly but firmly.
Alex nodded firmly like he'd just told her some important info on some alien. At the end of the hall, the door slid open and two men walked towards them, deep in conversation. Alex and Hank continued walking in the direction that they had been.
"Sir," the men said as they approached Hank and Alex. Hank gave a slight nod of his head to show that he'd heard them, but didn't say anything else.
They turned the corner, and then waited a moment more until they could no longer hear the two men.
"Tomorrow, assuming that there is not another emergency with Supergirl," Hank said quietly so that only Alex could hear him. She nodded with agreement for a moment, and then she turned and walked away.
He respected that about her. Unlike Kara, Alex didn't feel the need to fill silence with a lot of super unnecessary chatter.
He regretted his decision already.
He should have canceled on Alex, told her that it was a stupid decision. But he didn't, and then she was standing in the middle of his living room, looking around at the little things that he'd collected over the years with mild interest.
"I got some articles from the internet about people who survived the Holocaust," Alex said as she sat down on the sofa. She pulled out some papers from an accordion file-folder that she'd brought, and tapped them against the coffee table to fix them. "What you told me about your experiences the other day reminded me a lot about the Holocaust."
Hank bowed his head in agreement. He'd noticed the similarities between his own experiences on his home planet and the Holocaust a long time ago.
"A lot of the articles that I read about how to help people indicated that I should let you lead the conversation," Alex went on as she looked at him. She gestured silently to him.
And so it continued like that. They tried to do weekly meetings, either at Alex's apartment or his own. However, sometimes meetings got put off or moved because of whatever disaster that they'd had to advert that week.
For the first several months, Hank spoke solely about his imprisonment and the war. Then, he felt as though he'd told her everything about what had happened to him on Mars, and he started to tell her about after he'd left his home planet and started to try to make a home for himself on Earth.
That continued for another few months, until one day when Alex was kidnapped again. Kara had saved her sister in the end, but that wasn't the point.
"We should start a punch-card system," Hank said dryly when Alex came over to his apartment the next day. "Get kidnapped, and then get your card punched. Fill up the card and get a prize."
Alex collapsed onto his sofa and put her arm over her eyes. "I would have filled mine out already, then," she said with equal dryness. "What's my prize?"
"It's an idea in progress," Hank told her. "I just keep thinking about how much that we all tend to get kidnapped."
"We end up a lot better than some people, though," Alex said quietly. Hank knew that the deaths of every single DEO agent weighed just as heavily on her mind as it did for him. "Liz Johnson. Nick Gammon. Don Rawls. Meg Barrier. Keith Farrell." Those had been the agents who'd been lost yesterday. But Alex wasn't finished yet. "Tom Robinson. Dani Palmer. Barb Gustafson. Emily Ragan."
She kept going on and on, listing so many people. All DEO agents, all killed in the line of duty. But finally, she stopped listing names.
"Those are all of the people whose deaths that I feel responsible for," Alex finished. Her voice was quiet and scratchy, the precursor to her crying.
And he hated that he knew that.
He remained silent. He knew that Alex knew that all of those deaths weren't her fault. She hadn't asked those people to do the things that had caused their deaths.
The silence settled around them, heavy but not awkward. "I remember all of those, people, too," he finally said. "I feel responsible for their deaths as well.
And then, despite the fact that Alex had started their little meetings to help Hank out, that one day had been a tipping point. Alex started to tell him about her own problems, about how she felt growing up in the shadow of a girl who could literally fly, about how angry that she'd been when Hank had told her that the main reason why he'd hired her was because she'd "shared a bathroom with Supergirl".
"My problems seem stupid in comparison to the things that you've been through," Alex said after telling him about some latest drama that Kara had caught her up in.
"It's not a competition, Alex," Hank told her steadily. "Your feelings are just as valid as mine are."
Alex bowed her head, her lowered eyes on her laced fingers. She remained silent, but Hank settled back in his chair, content to wait out her silence. He knew that it was the best way to get Alex to continue to talk about a subject that she found difficult.
And he hated that he knew that.
The third part of their relationship was not the fault of Hank or Alex, but rather Kara.
"Come on, please?" Kara said. She looked at them with the puppy eyes that he knew that Alex couldn't possibly resist. "It's just one movie. It's only two hours. Surely the leader of the DEO and my own sister can spare two hours."
"You know that I'd come with you, regardless," Alex said without hesitation. "But I don't know why you're insisting on bothering Hank."
"Because I think that it'll be good for him to get out and do something fun. For once," Kara said sternly.
Alex looked to Hank, trying to sense his mood before she spoke. "I think that it'll be good for you, too," she said.
"Of course you're going to gang up on me," he said, but he found that he couldn't be too angry with them. He sighed with annoyance. "Fine, I'll go see the movie with you, but then I don't want to hear any more nonsense. From either of you. I have work to do, and so does Alex."
"It's just one movie," Kara said with a big grin on her face. She practically skipped away.
"You see what I mean about how difficult it is to say no to her?" Alex said once they were alone in the hall.
"I already knew before, trust me," Hank said with a slight chuckle.
"Hey, why is it that you didn't want to have Kara in our meetings?" Alex asked as she half-turned to him. "You know that Kara cares about you, too, and she only wants to help. I know that you have a lot in common; way more than anybody could have ever possibly imagined."
"I don't want to burden her any more than she already is," Hank said slowly. "I know that she struggles with the same things that I do, but differently. She doesn't need anything more to worry about."
Alex bowed her head slightly in acceptance of this. She didn't say anything further; only just turned and continued walking. Hank followed after her.
However, the movie turned into Hank privately admitting to Alex later that he didn't have a lot of pop culture knowledge.
"It's honestly a little embarrassing, to be shown up by a blonde cheerleader in a cape," he said. "I'm a telepathic alien, but she knows more about this stuff than I do."
"She also grew up in a house where we grew up watching Labryinth and Goonies," Alex said with a smirk. "And she's also the target age of a lot of this pop culture stuff, too. Hank Henshaw on the other hand…? Not so much."
Hank shrugged absently, certain that she was right. After all, even though Alex wasn't exactly the kind of person to listen to Brittney Spears, she was still more knowledgeable about that sort of stuff than he was.
She got up from her chair and went over to her TV. She bent down and pulled out several DVDs from the stand that the TV rested on. "Here, watch these if you want," she said as she offered him the boxes.
"I'd rather not," he said firmly.
"Then why did you bring up your lack of pop culture knowledge?" Alex asked. She set the DVDs down on the coffee table and sat back down.
"I don't know. I guess that that stupid movie Kara dragged us to was weighing heavily on my mind," Hank said without hesitation. He felt as if he could tell her anything.
And he hated that.
"What do you mean?" Alex asked with a frown. "Is it more than just the things that you didn't understand?"
"I think that it's more this… I'm not quite sure? But it goes beyond just not knowing who some actor is or something. It's… this… feeling of disassociation because of course everybody knows who Tom Cruise is, but I keep thinking about the people that we celebrated on Mars."
Alex nodded slightly with understanding before she spoke. "You've talked a lot about the war, but you haven't said much about… normal life there. Before the war."
"No, I have not," Hank agreed quietly. "It's painful for me to think about it. It's a lot easier for me to talk about the war. For some reason, it's easier for me to think about them in their last moments, because they were not the best of their moments."
He remembers the day that he faced off against the White Martian, and then he'd told Kara and Alex about his own daughters.
"Tania and Kim," he whispered quietly. He was silent for a very long time as he thought about them. Even though he'd told Alex a lot about them, some things were entirely too private to share.
At least, until then. He opened his mouth and started to tell her about his daughters.
That night, as he lay in bed, unable to sleep, he thought that he should have taken at least some of the movies. He would ask Alex for them tomorrow, he thought briefly before his mind turned to other things.
Mainly Alex in general.
She'd been on his mind a lot recently, but that wasn't the surprising thing. After all, they'd been spending a lot of time together the past several months.
But the thing that surprised him was how well he knew her now. Each little movement, like how she'd brush her hair out of her eyes when she was focusing on something. The way that they could look at one another and instantly seem to know what the other was thinking. They could have an entire conversation like that, and they had in the past when up against some new alien baddie.
He knew the people who worked under him, and he'd known Alex. But he hadn't quite understood how little about her that he knew before they'd started their meetings.
He reached over and grabbed his phone off his nightstand, and, despite the fact that it was three AM, he sent Alex a text about her movies.
"What changed your mind?" was her reply about fifteen minutes later.
"I don't know," he answered her honestly. And he really didn't know.
"I can bring you some tomorrow if you'd like?" she asked almost immediately.
"No, it's not important," he sent to her after a moment of debating over it. He'd lived for over 300 years without watching Labyrinth; he could live another week.
"Okay," she replied. Then, a moment later, he got another message from her. "Is there some reason why you're awake at 3 AM?"
"I suppose that there's always a reason for being awake in the middle of the night," he replied evasively.
She didn't respond to that, but he'd hardly expected her to.
That one movie that Kara had asked them to watch with her had led to the fourth part of their relationship. It started the next week after that, when Alex came over to his apartment with one of the movies that she'd tried to offer him the week before.
They watched it, and then they talked a little about what life had been like on Mars.
That one movie had turned into a weekly thing. Sometimes, they'd meet up several times other than their weekly meetings just to watch movies. And then movies turned into TV series.
Hank knew that he should put a stop to it. If agreeing to mutual counseling sessions had crossed a line, then having bi-weekly movie nights was putting the line a good mile behind them.
But then he wondered why he cared. He'd carried so much guilt over everything that had happened on Mars for so long, and maybe he figured that he deserved to have any bit of happiness, no matter how "wrong" that it might be.
"Do you ever regret hiring me sometimes?" Alex asked out of the blue one evening when they were watching Star Trek reruns. She was stretched out across his sofa and he hated how he just accepted that she just seemed to belong there, like that.
"What brought that on?" he asked with surprise.
"I sometimes think about how you told me that the main reason why you hired me was because of Kara," Alex said slowly.
"I have never regret hiring you," Hank told her honestly. "You're a great asset to the team, and when things go to hell, I know that I can count on you. And this was before I told you about myself." He paused for a moment. "You're a great friend, Alex."
She was silent for a moment, and he thought that she was just caught up in the antics of Captain Kirk, Bones, and Spock. "Thanks," she finally said without taking her eyes off from the screen. "You're a great friend, too. It's nice to have somebody to talk to about Kara, who understands where I'm coming from rather than to tell me that I need to accept it because she's my sister and an orphan and a refugee on top of being motherfucking Supergirl."
"I like to think that our relationship is built more on just our mutual annoyance over your sister," Hank said with a hint of laughter in his voice. "It might have been the start of our… closeness, but there's a lot more to it than just Kara."
"Yes, and I never said that," Alex said. Her eyes flicked up to him for a brief moment before her attention refocused on the TV.
They were silent until the end of the episode. Then, Alex got up and checked the messages on her phone.
"Kara's bothering me about something, so I should go see what's bothering her today," she finally said with a slight roll of her eyes. Alex was normally a strong façade of professionalism and maturity, but her sister always managed to bring out the inner child in her. Or rather, her inner teenager.
She started to walk towards the door and Hank stood up as well.
"Sometimes, I do regret agreeing to your initial idea for mutual counseling," he told her lowly. That made her pause, but she didn't turn to look at him.
"Why? Because our relationship has crossed some sort of professional line?" she asked after a beat.
"That, and some other reasons," he answered evasively. "Look, just go deal with whatever non-alien drama that Kara's dealing with."
"Fine, but we're going to talk about this later," Alex said firmly. Hank knew that she would hold him to that. He sort of regretted having told her that, but he knew that there were very little secrets between them at that point.
And he hated that.
If there was one thing that Hank Henshaw was great at, it was putting on a front at work. He'd been doing it for such a long time working for the DEO that sometimes, he didn't even realize that he was doing it at all.
He used it to put some distance between himself and Alex when they were working. Despite their new-found friendship, they both knew where to draw the line when they had to deal with the latest alien drama.
However, the face that he put on for work was seriously tested the next day when Alex was first badly injured by a plasma-bolt, and then captured by the alien.
"I will get my sister back," Kara said through clenched teeth as she paced around the meeting room at the DEO.
Hank had called everybody back in order to regroup. Although his first instincts had been to chase after the alien and give her hell for daring to lay a finger on Alex, he knew that it would only do more harm than good.
"I'm going with you," Hank said without hesitation. It was the only thing that made sense.
Kara had come such a long way in the year that she'd donned the cape and had been named Supergirl, but this was Alex's life. She had already been badly injured before the alien had run off with her. Time was an important factor here, and having two aliens helping to bring Alex back home would really help.
"What?" Kara asked as she turned to face Hank. "Are you serious?"
Hank explained to her his reasoning. "We shouldn't be sitting here arguing about if this is a good idea or not," Hank finally said when Kara opened her mouth. "Every minute that we waste is a moment that could have been spent working to get Alex back."
Kara nodded her head. "Yes, you're right. Let's go."
When they finally managed to defeat the alien and rescue Alex, Hank feared that they were too late. Kara rushed off to the DEO's hospital with her sister, leaving Hank to his own horrible thoughts about what might happen.
He didn't know what he would do if he lost Alex. And he hated that.
Hank paced around in front of the entrance to the medical wing in the DEO. He was completely helpless to help Alex. And he hated that so damned much.
"I should have been there," he growled out to Kara as he passed by her for the millionth time. She was sitting in a plastic waiting chair, looking exceptionally depressed. "If I'd only just used my powers, none of this would have happened."
Kara remained silent, her eyes on her clenched hands.
Hank didn't know what to say to her, so he just kept pacing.
Hank and Kara took turns sitting by Alex's beside as she recovered from her ordeal. The doctors kept her in a medically induced coma so that she wouldn't have to deal with the pain, and possibly injure herself further.
Knowing her as well as he did, Hank knew that Alex wouldn't want to be lying in a hospital bed. She'd try to get up and get back to work, even at the risk of her own health.
And he hated that he knew that about her.
He talked to her about whatever popped into his head. He'd heard that coma patients can hear you, so he thought that maybe she might appreciate that.
On Mars, there were no such things as comas, medically induced or otherwise. He knew that he could easily try to read her mind, to find out if she was hearing him or not, but he'd always respected her privacy too much.
The mind was a very sacred thing, especially to the people on earth, who did not have telepathy. Humans always likened having their mind read to being raped, and in a way, Hank supposed that they were right.
So, Hank just kept talking to her. Talking and praying that whenever the doctors came into her room, that they'd come with the news that they were going to wake Alex up.
Both Hank and Kara were out dealing with some new alien when Alex woke up. And he hated that he couldn't have been there for her. He knew that Kara did, too, but he would never admit his feelings to Kara, of all people.
Kara rushed into her sister's hospital room as soon as they got to the hospital. But Hank paused, hesitating on the threshold of the hospital ward in the DEO.
He would give Kara some time with her sister. If Alex was feeling up to seeing him later, then she would ask for him.
He turned and walked away from the ward, determined to start in on the mountain of paperwork for the latest alien attack. And he hated that he needed to distract himself like that.
After about an hour, Kara knocked gently on his open office door. "Is this where you've been this entire time?" Kara asked as she stepped over the threshold of his office. "You were right behind me when we got back here, but when I got to Alex's room, I was suddenly alone."
"I wanted to give you some time with your sister," Hank explained, although he felt as though it should have been obvious to her.
"Well, I had some time with her," Kara said with a faint smile. "But she asked for you, and I came to find you."
"Then I'll go and see her as soon as I finish this paperwork," Hank said, but that was a lie. He'd go see her as soon as Kara left.
"Right, of course," Kara said with a faint nod of her head. She paused, and Hank could sense that she was going to say more. "She's pretty anxious to get back onto her feet. The doctors were completely right to keep her under so that she could heal."
"Yes, I know," Hank said evenly.
"I'll leave you to your paperwork, then," Kara said as she turned to leave.
Kara's cape was barely out of sight before Hank threw his pen down and stormed from his office. He practically ran to Alex's hospital room, only he paused when he was actually standing before the door.
How many times had he seen this door in the past two weeks? The wood grain was too familiar to him now. And he hated that. He hated that Alex had needed to be in the hospital for two weeks.
He gently knocked on the door before he opened it. The room was dark except for the faint glow of the machines all around Alex. He was used to those, too. And he hated that most of all.
However, Alex was sitting propped up in bed, looking pale, bruised, and thin, but very much alert. Very much alive.
"Hank," Alex said. His name on her lips was like a balm for his worried heart. He crossed the small distance from the door to her bed and sunk into the visitor's chair. He was also very familiar with that chair. And he hated that, too. "Kara said that you were right behind her when you guys got back, but…"
"I wanted to give you some time with one another, first," Hank said.
"You know that that's not true," Alex said softly. Hank had to admit that it was a little bit. "Are you ashamed of our relationship?"
"I'm not ashamed of it. I just don't want anybody to know," he said defensively.
"Kara also told me that the only person who was at my bedside more than she was was you," Alex went on. She met his gaze and neither of them were willing to back down from the show of dominance. "So trust me when I say that that ship has sailed."
"Is it wrong to be concerned over the health of one of my agents?" Hank asked her steadily.
"No, but you also didn't spend all of your free time by Botsford's bedside when he was attacked last month," she was quick to point out.
"You're my second in command. And you were hit with a plasma-blast. Botsford was hit upside the head with a two-by-four. He was out of the hospital in three days. You've been in a medically-induced coma for two weeks, Alex."
That made Alex drop her gaze from him. And Hank hated that he'd made her feel bad just for being injured.
"But the important part is that you're safe, and the doctors expect you to make a full-recovery now," Hank went on quickly. "It was pretty touch and go at first. We were all incredibly worried about you, Alex."
They were both silent for a long time, but it wasn't the usual comfortable silence. It was awkward, and Hank didn't know what to say to her.
And he hated that.
Finally, Alex spoke up, "I heard you sometimes when I was asleep. At least, I think that I did. It's all very hazy, like a dream. But I remember lying in bed, unable to move, to do anything. I couldn't even open my eyes. But I could see you, anyway. It was like I was standing next to you, listening to you talk."
"I did talk to you while you were asleep," Hank told her. "I… I'd heard that it's good to talk to coma patients."
"Yeah, I've heard that, too," Alex said. She gave him a small smile. "I suppose that it is true what they say. Although I must admit that I don't think that I could tell you anything about what you said to me. Like I said, it's hazy, like a dream."
"None of it was important," Hank said to her quickly. "Oh, and Alex?"
"Yeah?"
Hank reached into his pocket and pulled out a punch card with all of the slots punched out. He handed it to Alex. She took it and turned it to the light of one of the monitors so that she could read it.
"'DEO Agent Kidnapping Club Card. When card full, redeemable for one prize'," she read. She laughed, and then looked over to Hank. "Okay then, what's my prize? I think that you were still working out the details the last time you brought this up."
"I'm still working on that," Hank said with a quiet laugh. "What would you like?"
"I don't know," Alex said slowly as she tapped the card against her lip thoughtfully. She was silent for a moment. "Raincheck?"
"Fine, but don't tell the other agents that I owe you something," Hank said with all seriousness.
"I would never!" Alex said. She acted offended that he would even suggest something like that. She put the card down on the night stand. "I know that you're going to tell me that I need to stay in bed, but please Hank, I'm begging you. Just some paperwork or back-log or something!"
"You're right about that, but I'll see what I can do," Hank said as he stood up. "Get some rest, Alex. I'll come by to see you again soon."
"You'd better!" Alex said to him sharply. Hank couldn't help the big grin on his face.
And he hated that, but he didn't care, because Alex was going to be okay.
Alex was in the hospital for another week before the doctors discharged her. But with very strict instructions to take it easy. And absolutely no field work whatsoever.
"There is no way that I'm even going to think about letting you into the building until after the doctors have given you the all-clear, Alex," Hank said to her as he and Kara helped to take her back to Kara's apartment. She would be staying with her foster-sister for the immediate future, so that Kara could keep a close eye on her when Hank couldn't.
And he hated that because it meant that he wouldn't be able to spend as much time with Alex. He hadn't really understood how much that he'd come to look forward to their time together until they couldn't do it anymore.
But at least it was only temporary. Alex would heal, and go back to her own apartment. And work, as Alex kept reminding them. Nobody was looking forward to Alex's return to work more than Alex.
However, Alex accepted Hank's comment without argument, which worried him a little. He waited until Kara had left to go to work so that he could talk to Alex alone.
"Alex, are you okay?" Hank asked, his voice low.
"Oh, I only just had a 150-degree bolt hit my stomach," she replied dryly. "And then I was kidnapped by aliens, and kept in a medically-induced coma for two weeks." Her voice started to get that weird scratchy sound, the pre-cursor to her crying.
"Alex, you almost died," Hank said gently. "I know that our little 'therapy' sessions have sort of been our 'thing', but I really think that you should see one of the DEO councilors about this."
Alex looked wounded over his words. More wounded than Hank telling her that she wasn't allowed into the DEO building.
And he hated the look on her face, and how it made him feel. But, much like telling her to stay and get some much-needed rest was for her own good, telling her to speak with the councilors was also for her own good.
"Don't make me turn it into an order, Danvers, because I will," he told her shortly. He never called her by her surname when they were alone. Only ever at work.
"Yes sir, of course," Alex said, absently slipping into her role as his subordinate.
"Alex," he said carefully, making sure that she knew that the moment was over. "I still want to continue our meetings. Because they make me very happy."
"Good," she said quietly. "I'm glad. They make me happy, too."
"But you have to admit that there are some things that not even I can help you with."
"Will I be allowed onto the base if I'm there to speak with a councilor?"
"Of course," he said without hesitation.
They were both silent for a moment. Hank could tell that Alex wanted to say something, so he waited patiently for her to say it.
"Talking with the councilor will probably mean that I'd need even more counseling. Ugh. They're very annoying, what with needing to remind me that none of what happened to me is my fault and whatever. It's always the same stuff, over and over."
Hank huffed with annoyance and tried to think for a moment about what he'd say to her. "You can come to my office after your session and then we can talk," he finally said.
"Good," she said, and did nothing to hide the pleased look on her face.
Hank stood. "But that will be tomorrow. You need to get some rest now."
"Yes, alright," Alex said absently, her face falling. She did try to hide how hurt that she looked, though.
And he hated that. And he hated that he had to leave her. But he had work to do.
Hank expected for Alex to come by his office sometime the next afternoon, but the day passed, and he didn't see her, nor did he hear from her.
After the second day passed without word from her, he called Kara to make sure that Alex hadn't been killed by Kara's well-meaning but often times bumbling stupidity.
"No, no, she's doing okay, but she's sleeping a lot," Kara said. "I came home at lunch today and found her asleep in front of the TV. I tried to turn it off, but she just woke up and yelled at me. I'd be worried about her if I wasn't more worried about her getting back to work meant right now."
"Is she asleep right now?"
"Yeah."
"Will you tell her to remember our previous conversation when she wakes up? She knows what that means."
"Alright," Kara said slowly. "I'll tell her. I'll see you later."
Hank tried not to focus on Alex, and had to keep reminding himself that Alex would come in when she was feeling up to it. It was a good thing that she was getting plenty of rest.
Thankfully, he had a rather minor distraction with some lunatic who tried to take over the world. Although he wasn't alien, of course Kara rushed off to try and put a stop to him. However, the guy was in handcuffs by the end of the day, just in time for the evening news crews to get their big story for the day.
Hank went back to his office with the beginnings of a Kara-induced headache. He just wanted to grab some papers and head home for the day, but all thoughts of doing so flew out of the window when he found Alex waiting for him in his office.
"I hope that you weren't waiting too long," Hank said to her carefully.
"No, not really," Alex said slowly. "I came to see one of the shrinks today. The guys told me that you were out dealing with something, but wouldn't tell me what it was. I was catching up on the office gossip when somebody said that you were on your way back."
"How was your counseling session?" Hank asked.
"Pretty much as I told you that it would be the other day," Alex said with an annoyed frown. "I know that I almost died, and I know that it wasn't the fault of anybody but the guy who shot me. My mind was set at ease when Kara told me that you'd taken the guy down and had him locked up. I wanted to see him, but the shrink told me that maybe it wouldn't be the best idea right now."
"I was a little worried about you when you didn't show up on Tuesday," Hank told her.
"I'm sorry," Alex said as she raked a hand through her hair. "The pain meds that the doctors gave me make me exceptionally tired. Before I knew it, I'd slept most of Tuesday. And the same thing on Wednesday. But I'm feeling much better now, so that's good."
"That is good. I know that you're eager to jump back into work, but I don't want you to push yourself too much and end up in the hospital again."
She gave him an annoyed look. "I know, I know. I'm taking it easy. But I'm also going very crazy not being in the loop anymore! I mean, what did you even do today?"
"You can just turn on the national news," Hank told her with an annoyed look. "The area was swarming with reporters by the time that we got out of there."
"Watching stuff on the news is never the same," Alex said with a sneer. "They always downplay the alien parts and-"
"It wasn't an alien; just your run-of-the-mill psycho. Tried to take over the world. Not quite sure how the media will try to spin it, but the cameras are still focused on Kara, even over a year after she first took to the skies."
With one last annoyed look, Alex stood. "I hate being kept out of the loop, and being here when even you won't tell me anything is just making me even more depressed. I'm going to head home now. Well, actually, back to Kara's place. I can't even go to my own home right now."
"Alex, I don't like keeping things from you, either," Hank told her honestly.
She heaved a heavy sigh. "I know," she finally said before she turned and left his office.
After a week, Alex returned to her own apartment, but work kept Hank busy. It had happened before, where they were caught up with whatever alien drama was going on, but he always saw her at the DEO, so they could at least reschedule any other plans. But with her still not cleared for field duty, he couldn't do that.
Sometimes, when he crawled into bed so late that it was early, he thought about calling her. But he always decided against it in the end, figuring that Alex still needed her rest. And just because they were closer now than ever didn't mean that she'd appreciate him calling at four AM.
He missed her. And he hated that he missed her.
But he held onto the knowledge that this wouldn't last forever. She'd be cleared for field duty again, they'd continue watching movies and TV shows and just talking.
And he wasn't sure what he hated more about that.
Alex finally came back to work a month following her release from the hospital, but she was yet to be cleared for field work by the doctors.
"I'm just glad to be back to work at all, even if I'm just sitting at a desk and organizing things from behind the scenes," she told him as they walked down the hall together. "I was going completely stir-crazy. But on the bright side, my apartment has never been cleaner."
"I find that hard to believe," Hank said with a slight chuckle. Alex wasn't exactly a slob, by any standards, and kept even her apartment fairly clean.
Alex stopped, and half-turned to face him. They both waited until two other agents had passed them before she spoke. "Come by tonight? We have some serious catching up on our shows to do. They started up with the new season of Law & Order when I was in my coma, and it took every ounce of my will not to catch up on everything while I was laid up. I was so bored."
Hank inwardly cursed at how Alex sounded. Like they were a couple.
Of course, by earth standards, they practically were.
And he hated that.
"Fine," Hank said quickly. "I have some papers for you to sign, though…"