…...

Power Outage

A Supergirl story starring super-sisters Kara and Alex! This is basically just an excuse for sister fluff, because Kara and Alex's relationship is probably my favorite part of the show, and I utterly adore Alex more than anyone. Supporting roles for Winn, James and Lucy.

Spoilers: none really, except for the very loose basis off ep 7, "Human for a Day." Kara blows out her powers for the first time, immediately gets sick, and won't let anyone but her big sister take care of her. I am disregarding the timeline of the actual show and the awkward love triangle between James, Lucy and Kara, because I really like Lucy as Kara's friend and part of the Supergang, in a simple and uncomplicated way. Enjoy!

…...

Winn was just coming back from his lunch break when he stopped short in front of Kara's desk, blinking quizzically at a sight he had never seen before: his best friend, Supergirl, asleep at her desk. Glasses askew, head pillowed on her arm, which was resting on a notepad half-filled with research notes for Ms. Grant's latest headline. She still had her pen held limply between her fingers as she slept.

"Um...Kara?" Winn said gently, shaking her shoulder hesitantly. He was a little bit afraid that if he startled her awake, she might hit him on reflex and send him crashing through the wall. Fortunately for Winn, the blonde superhero's wake-up reflex was far tamer than what he'd been expecting.

"Right away, Ms. Grant!" Kara gasped as she sat bolt upright, then focused her sleepy, glassy eyes on her friend's familiar form in front of her. Thank God the hot-headed but brilliant boss lady was out of town, Winn thought; he wouldn't put it past the unyielding, demanding older woman to fire his best friend on the spot the second she was caught sleeping at her desk, no matter how dedicated an assistant she'd been for over two years now.

"Hey, hey, Kara! It's okay, it's just me," Winn assured her, giving her shoulder a little squeeze as she got her bearings after waking up so abruptly.

"Oh, Jesus...sorry, Winn...I don't know what..." Kara shook her head sleepily as she trailed off, rubbing her forehead. Her face was flushed, which, combined with the glassy-eyed, unfocused look she was giving him, made the thought strike Winn that his best friend looked feverish. But that was obviously impossible. The girl was bulletproof, she flew faster than a military jet. She couldn't get sick.

"Kara? What's, um, what's happening here?" He asked quizzically, with a note of slight alarm and concern.

"I blew out my powers...fighting that stupid Red Tornado," Kara yawned, pushing her glasses up briefly to rub her eyes. "I guess...I need to get more sleep now."

"Whaaaat!" Winn hissed in disbelief, eyes widening. "For how long?"

"I...*snf*...I dunno," Kara shrugged; then her bleary eyes narrowed as she took an involuntarily deep breath. "Aah'tchxeww!" She sneezed adorably onto her desk, eyebrows knit together in an expression of absolute helplessness. She sniffled and wiped her nose on her hand when she sat up, sounding very congested.

"Bless you!" Winn exclaimed, still in shock. "Kara, are you...are you sick?" He asked in bewilderment. The blonde Kryptonian sniffled again, wiping her nose more firmly on her knuckles.

"I hope so..." She sighed softly, blinking up at him with dazed, glassy eyes. "Because if this is what normal feels like, I don't want to live anymore." She sneezed again, but this time she recognized the strange, inside-her-head tickle, and cupped a hand to her face in time to catch it. "Hhuh'chhew! *Snfl*..."

"Okay, yeah. We have to take you home," Winn nodded to himself as he walked a few feet to the nearest desk with a box of Kleenex sitting on it, bringing them back to Kara.

"Uhh, thandk you," Kara sniffled, pulling a tissue out and cupping it awkwardly to her face, trying to remember what people looked like when they blew their nose, and copying it. It helped a little. "But I'm fine, really. People get colds, right? Well, I'm people now. I might as well get used to it." She yawned and rubbed her eyes under her glasses again. "I need some coffee," she sighed, standing up and making her way to the break room. Winn tailed after her relentlessly, sure that Kara Danvers' first time being sick should probably not be something that happened in public.

"Kara, come on. Let me take you home. You look like crap. I, I mean, not like—I wasn't—you're beautiful," he stammered, cursing the blush he could feel rising up his cheeks. Hopefully his best friend was too distracted by the strange new things her body was feeling to notice. "But you really look sick. You should go home and rest. The world can survive without Supergirl for one day." He smiled sympathetically and put a hand on her shoulder. She gave him a reluctant half-smile back, and for a moment he actually thought he'd won.

"Thanks, Winn. You're a good friend. But I'm fine." She patted his hand on her shoulder in appreciation, and then promptly walked out from under it, proceeding towards her goal of coffee. He heard her sneeze again a moment after she'd turned the corner. Time to assemble the troops, the young IT tech thought to himself with a sigh, and walked off toward James and Lucy's offices.

Kara was back at her desk by the time her three friends appeared in front of it, diligently typing away with an extra-large cup of coffee beside her on the desk, right next to the Kleenex that Winn had left her. Without looking up from her typing, she snatched a tissue from the box and wiped her nose, still typing with one hand. Then she coughed, finally taking both hands off her keyboard to cover her mouth as her eyes squeezed shut and the heavy sound of deep, congested breathing rattled her chest.

"...Ouch," she whispered to herself, eyes still closed as she pressed one hand to her chest, in obvious pain from her coughing fit. She still hadn't noticed her friends standing in front of her. They all looked at each other with the exact same expression. Winn hadn't exaggerated.

"Hey," Lucy broke the silence first, walking around the desk to rub Kara's arm. The poor thing looked so miserable, they all felt the same driving need to comfort her in her confused, distressed state. "We heard somebody's not feeling so super today."

"Very funny," Kara glowered, pointedly averting her eyes back to her computer screen. "Don't you guys have anything better to do than harass me? I'm on a deadline here. Ms. Grant might not be in the office, but I still have to email her my copy by the end of the...*snfl*...the day..." She tried her hardest to keep her flickering eyes from closing; but in the end she couldn't help it, and she sneezed again, knocking over her coffee cup with her elbow. James immediately picked up her keyboard and notepad so they wouldn't get wet, and Winn grabbed a handful of Kleenex to mop up the spill. Kara groaned in exhaustion and embarrassment, putting her hands over her face.

"Now can we take you home, sweet pea?" Lucy asked gently.

"Ndoe," Kara whined behind her hands, sounding on the verge of a meltdown. "I...*snf*...I want Alex."

…...

Alex was in her lab looking through a microscope at one of the shards of the robot they'd recovered after Kara blew it up, determined to figure out what the thing had done to her sister on a cellular level when it knocked out her powers, and how to fix it. She felt her personal cell phone vibrating in her back pocket; and she almost didn't answer, her focus on her work was so intense. But then her stomach did a little backflip as she thought about all the ways Kara's first day without powers could go awry, and she whipped it out and answered.

"Hey Winn, is everything okay?" She asked, having seen his name and photo flash across the screen before she answered.

"Um, well, sort of? Not really. On a scale of one to weird, it's like, maybe an eight?" Winn had a tendency to babble when he was anxious, and now without realizing it he was transferring that anxiety directly to Alex.

"Winn!" the dark haired young agent snapped, drawing him back to attention. "What is wrong? Is it Kara?"

"Uhhh, yeah. She's sick. And, well, she doesn't really know how to be sick. She's really out of it, but she wouldn't let any of us take her home...so, she's kind of having a meltdown now and she just wants you."

"I'm coming right now," Alex said in an anxious but still commanding voice. "Will you please tell her I'm coming right now?" Without even waiting for his reply, she hung up the phone and ripped off her lab coat, grabbing her jacket and car keys as she ran out of the DEO full-tilt.

Why hadn't she anticipated this? Kara had been out of the lab without her powers for less than twelve hours...but her body had never used her immune system since the day she landed on earth when she was thirteen years old. She may as well not have an immune system. Every single germ on this planet was completely foreign to her body. They should never have sent her out in this state, they should have kept her under the solar panels longer...Alex gritted her teeth, cursing herself as she jumped into her car and peeled out of the parking lot.

When she got to CatCo, she was slightly calmer. Kara was with her friends, after all, and they'd all proven their loyalty in a dozen different ways in the months since learning that their friend Kara was Supergirl. They would take care of her until Alex could step in. She was unsurprised to find Kara's desk empty when she got off the elevator; she remembered that James' office had a couch (and a mini-bar, and two armchairs—he was a department head at CatCo, after all), so she turned a corner and made a beeline for the art director's office. Sure enough, when she opened the frosted glass door, she found her sister curled up on the fashionable victorian-style couch, shivering, with Winn's coat laid over her as a blanket, or the closest thing they could get to one. Winn himself was sitting by Kara's feet, trying to finish Kara's work remotely on his laptop, while James sat proofing layouts at his desk and Lucy paced the floor yelling at someone on her phone in a heated yet quiet voice, obviously trying not to disturb Kara. They were all trying to help her without disturbing her; that, Alex knew instantly, was all Kara would let them do. They were her friends...but they weren't her family. Alex knew, with a stab of protectiveness that cut right through her heart, that Kara must be feeling truly awful to be so guarded.

"Hey," she murmured, kneeling down by Kara's head and reaching out to stroke her sister's face, which was blazing hot.

"Lexie," Kara whimpered, reaching out and holding Alex's arm as if she might disappear, fingers digging into the fabric of her shirt. "Why does it hurt so much...?" Tears welled up and slid down the blonde girl's face, and Alex reacted on instinct, climbing onto the couch beside her sister and opening her arms, which were immediately filled with a trembling armful of blonde Kryptonian.

"Shh, you're okay baby, it's okay. I'm here now, I got you," Alex cooed softly to her feverish, sobbing little sister. Yet another red flag that told her Kara was in serious pain—she never called Alex Lexie in front of other people. It was her special nickname for her big sister, one she only used when they were alone together. "Just focus on my heartbeat, honey...you remember...you can do it, just relax," Alex hummed soothingly, rubbing Kara's back with one hand and stroking her hair with the other, sifting through the soft blonde strands to rub her scalp. Kara's head was resting snugly on Alex's chest, and her tearful breathing began to relax as she closed her eyes and shut out everything but her big sister's warm, steady heartbeat. Alex could sense the relief in the room around her as Kara's friends relaxed, seeing the miserable girl taking comfort that none of them were able to give her.

It had been a long time since Kara had needed this level of comforting; but Alex would always be there to give it to her. Alex's heartbeat was the only thing that calmed Kara when she was truly losing it. The older girl remembered the very first time they had found themselves in this position, at two in the morning on Kara's first night on earth. The girls had spent the day cautiously getting to know each other, walking on the beach while her parents spoke with Kara's older cousin—who Alex knew had been taken under her parents' wing once too, long before she was born. Kara was so innocent and sweet and full of wonder, gazing around at the ocean and the cawing seagulls like it was some kind of fantastical paradise. Alex wanted to ask her about what life had been like on Krypton, but she held herself back, worried that bringing up her destroyed planet would just make the younger girl sad and homesick. With that off the table, they didn't really have much to talk about, two nervous only children who were suddenly expected to be sisters. They'd come home and eaten dinner with Alex's parents...our parents, the dark-haired girl had to remind herself...watched a little TV, and gone to bed, just like it was a normal night on planet earth. Alex had laid awake a little longer than normal, her brain trying to process everything that had just changed in her world, her very understanding of life and the Universe; but the heaviness of it all soon washed over her sleepy brain and dragged her under.

It was hours later when she woke in a fog, blinking sleepily at the glowing numbers on her bedside alarm clock that flashed 2:37am. She wasn't sure what had woken her at first...until the soft, tearful sounds coming from her open doorway made her sit up, rubbing her eyes blearily.

"...Kara? What's wrong?" Alex asked sleepily, her eyes adjusting to the darkness so she could see the younger girl standing in the doorway, as if she were afraid to come in any further and disturb her new human sister's sleep...but she was holding her hands tightly over her ears, and she was crying, in the hitching, ragged way that Alex recognized as the "I'm trying not to cry" kind of crying.

"Alex, it's too much," Kara whimpered, her breath hitching as the tears slid down her face in the moonlight. "It's so loud, everything is so loud...I can't, I...I don't know what to do..." Alex climbed out of bed and went straight to her hysterical little sister, pulling her into her own bed and wrapping both arms tightly around the trembling girl. Without conscious thought, some dormant part of her rose up fiercely, protectively, shifting her forever away from feeling like an only child. Kara was experiencing a sensory overload like nothing Alex could ever imagine...and when she couldn't take it anymore, she hadn't gone crying to her new foster parents' bedroom. She had come to her sister.

"Shh, it's okay Kara," She whispered, knowing instinctively that she needed to keep her voice quiet. "I've got you now, I won't leave you...just try to listen to my heartbeat, okay? Nothing else. I'm right here, just you and me..." Alex's soothing instructions worked, and Kara had nestled her blonde head snugly against the older girl's chest, tuning out everything else outside the rhythmic, warm thudding of her sister's heartbeat. Her sister. Her sister who was holding onto her like she would never let go.

"I love you," little Kara murmured woozily, and both their hearts opened wide to each other as they fell deeply asleep. Alex's mom had been a little surprised to find them curled up together when she went to wake Alex for school the next morning; but before she could say a word, Alex sat up in bed and launched into a heated diatribe about how they had to do something immediately to help Kara cope with her super-senses, flat-out refusing to go to school until her mother promised her it would happen today, they had already sent for a contractor who would set about the daunting task of lining all the walls of their house with lead, starting with Kara's bedroom. The sleepy young alien girl had woken up with one arm still flung over Alex's waist, listening to her sister advocate for her as if both their lives depended on it. She smiled as she sat up rubbing her eyes.

That was the first time Alex had used her heartbeat to calm Kara when she was in pain or overwhelmed...but certainly not the last. It still worked like a charm, and within a few minutes Kara's feverish sobs had calmed to sniffles. She still held onto Alex just as tightly as she had her first night on earth, while Alex continued stroking her hair and holding her protectively for a few more quiet minutes. When the dark-haired girl looked up, she could see the palpable relief in their friends' faces, all of them having tried and failed to give Kara the comfort that only her sister could offer.

"Can we take you home now, hmm sweet girl?" Alex hummed softly, kissing the top of the sniffling girl's blonde head. "You need a real bed and a real blanket."

"Yeah," Kara agreed submissively, for the first time all day, as she gave herself over to the one person in the galaxy who she trusted implicitly and completely. She tried to sit up a little too fast, and she swayed dizzily on the couch for a moment, one hand pressed woozily to her hot forehead as the room spun around her. But Alex caught her, and sat holding her up on the couch for a minute while the vertigo slowly passed, rubbing her back and murmuring soft assurances to her, while Kara whimpered with her eyes closed against the dizziness. The others all looked so helpless, and Alex felt for them. She knew how crazy she'd be going right now if she was in their shoes, wanting to comfort Kara but not being able to. She tried to give them a reassuring smile.

"Thank you guys, so much. I owe you...anything you want." Alex's dark eyes shone with sincerity as she thanked Kara's three closest friends for their brave attempts at caretaking. She knew better than anyone how stubborn Kara could be, and a frightening and strange situation like getting sick for the first time in her earthly life seemed more than likely to exacerbate that quality.

"No thanks necessary," Lucy half-smiled, with the boys nodding along emphatically. "Kara, honey, can you walk? Or do you want James to carry you out to Alex's car?"

"I can walk. I'm not dead," Kara grumbled crankily, rubbing her teary eyes as she stood up, and immediately stumbled. Alex caught her again, wrapping an arm firmly around the younger girl's slim waist.

"How about you just lean on me, hmm?" The older girl murmured gently, feeling that Kara could stand up fine; she just couldn't balance herself, dizzy from the blazing hot fever making her shiver and sweat at the same time.

"Yeah," Kara agreed with her sister again gratefully. She did not want to be carried out of here like a damsel in distress. She may not be having her best day ever, but she was still Supergirl. Leaning on Alex was okay. Alex was safety, and home, and complete and utter trust. "Thank you," she whispered, with a weak but coherent smile. Alex smiled back, resting her forehead briefly against her sister's warm temple and kissing her cheek.

"Come on, sweetheart. Let's get you home."

Once they actually started walking, Kara was able to hold herself up reasonably well, all things considered. As long as Alex kept a firm grip on her, she stayed upright, with just the occasional wobble. James and Lucy bid them goodbye at the elevator, telling Kara they hoped she'd feel better soon; but Winn, his eyes round with puppy-like devotion, gathered Kara's purse and laptop from her desk, plus the box of tissues that still sat there, following the two sisters dutifully all the way down to the parking lot.

"Thanks, Winn," Kara murmured with a weak smile as he deposited her stuff in her lap once Alex had her buckled into the passenger side of the car. "You're such a good friend..." Her smile faded as her eyes narrowed and her breath caught, and she snatched a tissue from the box in her lap just in time to cover the congested sneeze that rocked her forward in her seat.

"Bless you," Winn said a little awkwardly as he closed the car door gently. He wanted so much to be the one that Kara wanted comfort from...but he wasn't. And he was man enough not to let his ego get in the way of calling in the one person who could comfort the girl he loved best in her hour of need.

"Thank you for calling me, Winn," Alex echoed her sister's thanks, giving the young IT tech such a grateful, glowing smile that Winn couldn't help smiling back. He knew Kara would be all right now. He nodded and waved as they drove away.

…...

Kara kept her eyes closed the entire ride back to her apartment, but her regular sniffles and nose-rubs told Alex she was still awake. The dark-haired girl hummed a Kryptonian lullaby that Kara had taught her years ago, and by the time they pulled up in front of Kara's building, the younger girl was almost asleep in her seat. Alex gently helped her stand up, and half-dragged her to the elevator, thanking her lucky stars that she didn't have to drag her poor sister up four flights of stairs on foot. As soon as they got through the door to her apartment, Kara released her woozy grip on her sister and stumbled the few feet to her soft, squishy couch, flopping down bonelessly on it with a deep sigh of relief.

"Don't you want your bed, honey? It's bigger and comfier," Alex said gently, coming to sit on the couch beside her alien sister's outstretched body, still shivering weakly with fever chills. God, she was burning up.

"Too far," Kara mumbled croakily, nestling her head deeper into the couch cushions and wrapping one arm possessively around her sister's leg beside her. "Comfy here."

"Okay, my sweet little alien baby...we'll stay right here," Alex murmured, pulling off her jacket and tossing it over the armchair across from the couch. "But let me get you some PJ's and medicine, okay? And something to drink. You're burning up honey, you're gonna get dehydrated."

"Noooo," Kara whined, pressing her hot face into the fabric of Alex's jeans. "Just stay, Lex...stay...please." She coughed, and Alex could feel the rattling congestion in her sister's chest vibrating through her hand, which was resting on Kara's back.

"I'm not leaving you, Kar. I'm right here with you, I'm right here," Alex promised, leaning down to press her forehead against her sister's for a long, quiet moment, before kissing her cheek and straightening up again. "But I just need to get up for a minute, baby. I'm not leaving you. I'm just getting what you need to help you feel better, okay? I'll be back in a minute, I promise. Here, pick out something to watch on TV." Alex put the remote in Kara's hand, and Kara took it submissively, relaxing her hold on Alex's leg and idly flipping through Netflix. The older girl smiled at her small triumph, and slipped off the couch to gather her supplies as quickly as possible.

First she went to Kara's bedroom, pulling a pair of comfy flannel pajama pants and a faded old Midvale High Athletics t-shirt from her sister's bureau. Then she went to the bathroom, where she knew a bottle of Advil sat in the mostly unused medicine cabinet, which Kara only kept around for visitors. Thank God, Alex thought gratefully, because the idea of physically leaving Kara alone in the apartment right now was gut-wrenching to even contemplate. She shook ten pills from the bottle, praying that her years of theoretical research on Kryptonian biology at the DEO would withstand their first real-life test. Kara may have blown out her powers, but she still wasn't human; and her natural Kryptonian metabolism was five times faster than an earthling's. Giving her a normal human dose of any sort of medicine was unlikely to have any effect whatsoever. She wished they also had something on hand for the horrible congestion overtaking her little sister's respiratory system, but she wasn't willing to leave Kara alone to get it. Maybe later, if it got any worse, she'd send Winn out to the drug store for them; it was plain as day that boy would do anything for Kara, long before her even knew she was a secret superhero.

But for now, Alex was satisfied with simply making her sister more comfortable and bringing down the fever, hopefully making it possible for her to rest and maybe even sleep, which she obviously needed. The young agent's last stop was in the kitchen, where she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and popped a straw in it, so Kara wouldn't have to sit up to drink, and an ice pack from the freezer, which she wrapped in a dishcloth.

"Okay, I'm back honey," Alex smiled sweetly as she sat back down on the couch and deposited all her goodies on the coffee table. "Can I help you sit up, just for a minute? I promise you'll feel better after." Kara didn't grumble or whine this time, submitting herself completely and unquestioningly to her sister's care now that she was safe and sound in her own apartment, just her and Alex and no one else. She sat up a little shakily, the floor feeling cold under her bare feet for the first time ever. "Good girl," Alex murmured encouragingly, holding out the handful of Advil before anything else. "Here, swallow these sweetie. It should help." Kara nodded wordlessly, tossing back the entire handful of pills and taking a long swallow of cold water to wash them down. The cold water felt so good on her raw throat, she gulped down almost half the bottle before handing it back to Alex, who gently praised her again and set the water back on the coffee table.

"Now we just gotta get you comfy, then you can lie back down and rest. C'mon, hold your arms up for me..." Kara had never needed help undressing before, but it was impossible to be embarrassed when it was just her and her big sister, so she complied without a word of argument, raising her arms and allowing Alex to pull the light sweater over her head. When the air hit her bare skin, she shivered feverishly, automatically wrapping her arms around herself for warmth, naked now from the waist up except for her lacy bra.

"Hhet'chxiew!" She sneezed sleepily into her lap, arms still wrapped tightly around herself as she shivered.

"Bless you, baby girl," Alex cooed sweetly, grabbing a tissue from the box on the coffee table—which, again, was only there for human visitors to the young alien girl's apartment—and wiping her little sister's runny nose for her.

"Thandks," Kara murmured back, her voice so sleepy and dazed she sounded almost as if she were in a trance of some kind.

"Mm-hmm," Alex nodded with a half-smile, torn between worry over her sister's first bout of earthly sickness, and the undeniable adorable factor of seeing Kara like this for the first time ever, sick and woozy and punch-drunk on the unfamiliar sensations coursing through her body. She seemed like a little girl right now, which just made Alex's protective big sister instincts blaze up inside her even more strongly, reminding her of the crying child in her doorway all those years ago, hands over her ears in distress, begging Alex for help, for comfort. Wanting to give her that comfort as quickly as possible, Alex efficiently finished changing Kara into her soft pajamas, then helped her lay back down, settling one of the neatly folded throw blankets from the foot of the couch over her, then finally pressing the ice pack to the younger girl's hot forehead.

"There, does that feel good?" Alex asked gently, sitting on the edge of the couch cushion and stroking her sister's long hair again.

"Cuddle me," Kara whimpered woozily, with another painful-sounding cough. "Please, Lexie, please..."

"Shh, okay, it's okay...I got you," Alex gently reassured her scared, disoriented, miserable little sister, kicking off her shoes and climbing over her on the couch, so she was behind Kara's body and could wrap both arms around her stomach, holding her feverish body as close as humanly possible. Kara immediately wrapped her arms on top of Alex's, holding her there, as if Alex had any intention of leaving. The dark-haired girl rubbed her face affectionately into her sister's silk-soft blonde hair, and began rubbing light circles over her stomach with one hand.

"Thank you," Kara whispered, her trembling body finally going limp in the comfort of her big sister's arms. "Love you..." She drifted off to sleep so quickly, she didn't even hear Alex's whispered, I love you too, my little alien, as the older girl gently reached out to pick up the remote, looking for something soothing and familiar to watch while her sister slept safely in her arms.