Dear readers,
I just finished writing this chapter. I still need to review it and etc, so please do not mind my grammar. I will be editing it in a few days if i find i am not satisfied with it. Sorry, it took so long. I got discouraged about my writing after the darkside of the Supergirl fandom made fun of my piece I had done for a Karamel prompt sent to me on tumblr. My tumblr is asunderingheart.
EDIT: 4/30/17 have edited this chapter and made some changes that made more sense.
The DEO had transported Kara on a stretcher and flown her to headquarters. There, she was immediately taken to the nearest medical examination room. Alex was by Kara's side the entire time.
In the medical room, Kara laid supine on a metal examination table, chest rising and falling in a methodical manner. Her golden hair was draped over one shoulder. Kara's skin was pale under the fluorescent lights, and her lips were ashen in color. Kara had remained unconscious after Alex had found her on the street. In some ways, her being unconscious was a blessing in disguise. The medical staff, and Dr. Hamilton, could perform the procedures faster with Kara unconscious. Kara wasn't always the best patient.
When she was brought in, the first procedure they did was disinfect Kara's wounds. Kara had undergone X-rays, an MRI scan, and blood transfusion. They had determined that part of the reason Kara passed out was a result of blood loss, the other being from the sheer pain. For the blood transfusion, they used blood from Kara's own personal DEO blood storage, something Alex never thought they would have to use. Alex had designed the meager storage unit as a precautionary measure, and she never thought they would ever have to break into Kara's storage unit. In fact, Alex's design and intention, with the blood storage units, had not been for Kara at all. The DEO contained blood storage units for all the aliens on the DEO's national registry. If anything happened, the law-abiding aliens could show up at the DEO and be taken care. Aliens, also, needed checkups every now and then, and the DEO gave refugee aliens medical check-ups. The DEO was about the only place in the nation such a resource, like medical care for aliens, could be available, and from these checkups, it helped the DEO learn more about each alien species. It was a win-win situation. More importantly, it helped recruit students in medical school who wanted to learn how to expand their knowledge to provide care for aliens. Effectively, this was baby steps to aliens, perhaps, someday being more integrated into society. She had designed one for Kara simply because it was proper since Kara, being an alien and all, could never go to a hospital.
Right now, though, Alex was just thankful she had made Kara give blood for her own personal storage unit. Kara was hooked up to all sorts of machines. She was hooked up to an ICU monitor, and a steady pattern of beeping sounded as it tracked Kara's heartbeat. Wires were tacked to her head to monitor her brain waves. She had an IV bag hooked to her arm. Kara had been cleaned up—most of the blood had been wiped away from her skin. Alex had aided with cleaning Kara up. Alex didn't want her sister to wake up to still being covered in her own blood, so she made sure almost every inch of her sister was clean from the red fluid.
The scans they had performed on Kara, and cleaning her up, revealed the bone in her leg only broke through the skin in one spot. Originally, Alex had thought there had been multiple exit wounds where the bone punctured through Kara's skin. However, once Kara was cleaned up, it was clear that Kara only had one compound fracture wound where bone had broken through the skin. The medical staff at the DEO had attempted to use the solar emitters to recharge Kara cells, but Kara's leg refused to heal. They weren't sure what was preventing her leg from healing. The lacerations Kara had sustained in the fight had healed under the solar emitters. Eventually, they concluded that they needed to re-set Kara's leg. Their theory was that the bone needing to be rest was why Kara's leg refused to heal. The bone could not just snap itself back into place.
Nevertheless, that wasn't all their problems involving the fracturing in Kara's Leg. The x-rays revealed that Kara's tibia and fibula were shattered in certain places. Kara, literally, had bits, and shards, of bone that had embed itself in her muscle. The medical team was uncertain if the bones shards would respond after they reset the bone in the open compound fracture. Despite that, the bone shards were not as a priority as compared to closing the open compound fracture.
At the moment, Mon-el and Alex were the only people in Kara's room. In a chair, close to the examination table, was Mon-el. His hair was a mess, tousled from nervously running his hands through it. His face was etched with worry, and his eyes had this sad glimmer to them. His eyebrows were drawn upward on his brow, painting his face with a heart-breaking expression. Mon-el's hand applied constant pressure to a towel on Kara's leg. the towel and the pressure he exerted was to quench the bleeding where the fractured bone had ripped through her skin. His other hand was intertwined with Kara's. The towel was practically soaked through with blood. The room had a stench like iron—the room smelled of blood.
It was a big understatement to say they needed to quickly close the wound on Kara's leg. They couldn't re-set the bone with the equipment they had right now, if Kryptonian skin was tough to break, Kryptonian bone was even tougher. They would need to use kryptonite to weaken Kara, or put her under red solar emitters. Winn, J'onn, and anyone else that could help were at work trying to replicate red solar waves. It was deemed too risky to use kryptonite for the procedure of resetting Kara's leg.
Alex paced about the room nervously and anxiously. She stopped for a moment and faced Mon-el. "I'm going to check on the progress of the red solar emitter," she said, and made her way to the door of Kara's room. Alex headed in the direction of where Winn and the current project was being worked on. You would think that putting a red filter on Kara's solar emitters would be simple. In fact, it wasn't as simple as putting a red filter on. The solar rays had to be just right to imitate a red sun. They had tried the red color filter and it had done nothing to Kara.
Alex stood and watched from the threshold of the Tech-Lab, in the DEO headquarters, as DEO agents raced around and gathered information from any logs they had about red solar radiation. She leaned on the doorpost of the threshold, as she peeked at the progress of the machine that could help, and save, her sister. She truly felt helpless for the first time in years. The feeling gripped her and her stomach felt queasy.
I can't do anything. There's nothing I can do. She's in Winn's hands now.
Alex was never good at waiting. She was never good at doing nothing, especially when she knew Kara needed her. Right now, though, she was exactly in that situation. Her skills couldn't assist in replication of red solar waves. It wasn't like a chemical compound substance like kryptonite. Her sister could bleed out on that medical table and she couldn't do much to stop it. She didn't have the tech skills to help her little sister. Anxiety was painted on her face as she watched agents run simulations and weld parts together.
J'onn seeing Alex by the entryway, unfolded his arms and stop overseeing the project. He calmly strode to Alex. Her brow was wrinkled with worry and her eyes mirrored her face. Her eyes were lost. She was lost, lost in interim of tasks with nothing to keep her busy.
"Alex, she'll pull through," J'onn said and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"yeah," Alex said unconvincingly. She looked down and fiddled with her hands.
This was a complex situation. They didn't know how much blood Kara could lose without her body shutting down. They didn't know much about Kara in this situation. They were in new territory. Heck, Alex wasn't even sure if Kara was immune to human infections—her injuries have never been exposed to the air this long. On top of that, this wasn't any ordinary wound—Her fractured Tibia had torn through her skin. Tron through so many layers of skin. There was so many variables about Kara's biology.
They were fortunate to have the hologram of Alura from Kara's pod. Alura offered substantial amount of information in regards to Kryptonian medical physicality. There were still variables though with the information since the data pertained to a Kryptonian under red sunlight and not enhanced by the yellow solar emissions.
J'onn turned Alex away from the project and walked her towards the waiting room of the medical bay.
"Alex, I promised to keep you and Kara safe. We'll get her patched up," J'onn said gently as motioned for Alex to sit on one of the benches, and sat next her.
Alex was hunched over on the bench her hands clasped in front of her face. Her posture was the picture of worry. J'onn placed a hand on her back trying to comfort the older sister.
"Why don't you call Maggie," suggested J'onn, "we may need her help with the solar emitter."
Alex couldn't fight the grin that made itself to her face. Her grin was hidden beneath her clasped hands and had gone unseen by J'onn. He saw the crinkle of her eyes, though, after he said that and knew beneath her hands a smile had graced her lips. She had caught onto his ploy.
J'onn was sneaky, and Alex saw right through him. Maggie, the one that teased her about being a nerd, couldn't help with the solar emitter. J'onn had said that so Maggie could come down here to be with her and Kara. He wanted Alex to call the NCPD and request Maggie for DEO business. The request would pull Maggie from her current shift and have her stationed at the DEO for the time being.
As J'onn got up to go back towards the room where Winn and the others were working on the red solar emitter, he put his hand on her shoulder again and squeezed reassuringly. J'onn, turned his face to her as he started to head in that direction, "That's an order agent."
Alex immediately set out to do as ordered by the DEO Director. When she checked her phone, to her surprise, she found numerous texts form Maggie on her phone, Alex had been too busy with Kara to check her phone before this. Apparently, according to Maggie, the fight between Supergirl and the Pruydakh had been televised. Maggie had inquired about Kara's wellbeing.
Alex shot her a brief text: It's not good. The alien is locked up. Kara was rushed to the ICU unit. She almost hit send, though at the last minute added, to the end, I need you.
Once the text was sent, she called up the NCPD and gave the chief of police the orders by the director. The liaison system, or partnership, the DEO had created with the NCPD, since it became more public, was a useful resource on different cases. Thus, a request for a consultant was not unusual for the DEO to ask of the NCPD. Usually, the consultant was visited in NCPD office, or contacted over the phone. The chief of police, thought nothing of it though, and Maggie was going to be 'assisting' the DEO on important business for the next few days.
Mon-el's heart had pounded in his chest when he saw Kara wheeled into the DEO on a stretcher. The image was permanently burned into his mind. When Mon-el saw her, there had been so much blood, and the Girl of Steel even had an oxygen mask strapped to her face. His stomach had tied itself into several knots at the sight. At the time, Mon-el was a frenzy of anxiety for the women he loved. This was the woman who had taught him how to be a good man. The woman that made him see that he had been an ass. Even after the mutilated flesh of her leg healed up, it had done nothing to quiet his nerves. Mon-el knew Kara was not out of the woods yet.
"Hang in there, Kara. Winn is working on that red sunlight emitter," Mon-el said.
He removed the towel from 'open compound fracture,' as Alex had termed it; the towel was saturated with blood. He dropped it onto the floor-the towel hit the ground with a soggy and saturated smack. Mon-el disentangled his fingers from Kara's and grabbed a clean towel from the stack that laid next to Kara's thigh on the medical table. Mon-el didn't, not for even a second, allow himself look at the wound uncovered by the towel, when he first saw Kara's shin he had hurled the contents of his stomach into the nearest trash can.
He pressed the clean white towel onto the wound while he fastened his gaze on Kara's pale face. He pressed on the wound, applying pressure to it. It was only after he had covered the open compound fracture on her leg with the towel did he let himself look near the vicinity of the wound, or at the towel. The white towel was immediately painted in red from the fluids leaking from the open fracture. Kara was currently set up with an IV bag that was attempting to replace any blood that was leaving her body.
"Kara, I know you'll get through this." Mon-el said gently, his voice flavored with sadness. He, more or less, said it to reassure himself.
"When you wake up, I'll be right here," he said remembering her sweet, and kind, voice saying the same words to him while he was comatose. Minutes passed by painfully slow, and Mon-el continued to talk to Kara. He talked about anything really. He hoped she could hear him, even though she wasn't in a coma like he had been.
Abruptly, Winn barged into the room, and exclaimed, "We did it! It's done!"
Winn held the door open and signaled for the emitter to enter the room. The red solar emitter was wheeled into the room, and the medical staff rushed in afterward.
The machine was maneuvered over Kara and Mon-el was pushed out of the room. From the window, he could see the medical staff turn the machine, pick up a scalpel, and pressed it gently to Kara's hand. The person holding the scalpel applied just enough pressure until he saw blood start to spring from Kara's skin. It worked. The red solar emitters worked this time. Winn had done it.
There was no time to celebrate though, Winn and the other techs were pushed out of the room, and the medical team set to work at resetting Kara's Leg.
Mon-el looked to his right and found Alex standing right next to him looking out the window into Kara's room. He hadn't even heard her approach. Her eyes were fixed on Kara; they were unwavering and her face was stoic. Though, her eyes shimmered with worry and seemed to hold a storm of emotion. had a shimmer to them.
Alex wished more than anything that she could hold her sister's hand through this. She hypothesized that Kara was going feel this.
Without warning, a loud crack resonated as the medical team re-set Kara's bone. The crunching sound made Mon-el flinch, and, boy, was he glad he hadn't been watching when the doctors had snapped Kara's bone back into place.
Alex, on the other hand, hadn't even filched at the sound. She had observed intently taking stock of the procedures and calculating the reactions of Kara's body on the monitor. She was the most versed in Kara's capabilities and she cataloged in her head how Kara reacted to the procedure.
Kara had felt that. Her heart had rate had spiked when the doctors had snapped her bone back into place, yet she remained unconscious still. Alex was sure she saw Doctor Hamilton inject Kara something before the procedure, and if she had to guess it was probably something to keep Kara knocked out while they reset her tibia.
The medical team maneuvered the yellow solar emitters over Kara's still form. They monitored the readings on the various machines Kara was hooked up to and took down notes.
Right now, all we can do is hope for the best. We have to hope Kara's bones will repair themselves, thought Alex.
