Chapter 7- Alex Danvers

An ear piercing scream has me reaching for the gun in my draw whilst Maggie switches the light on her gun also in her hand. We both make a scan of the apartment. My gun hits the floor and I run over to Ally as I realize she is the one making the noise. I hear Maggie putting the guns away as I try to shake Ally awake. There are tears falling down her face and she is breathing too rapidly, i shake her gently. "Ally come on, it's just a dream, wake up for me." I try saying desperately, "Come on Ally, it is time to wake up now." Finally her eyes start to flutter open, as soon as she sees me she lurches forward into my arms. "Al, Alex she's gone," her stuttering breaks my heart. "I know baby, I know," her breathing is still to rapid but I don't want to move her from my arms, "Mags in the bathroom, can you get her puffers, the blue and white one." Ally is still crying too hard to even hear me ask. I stroke her hair with one hand hugging her close with the other, "Ally I know you are upset but I need you to take some deep breaths for me. Together we take three deep breaths, by the third Maggie is back with her puffer. Ally wordlessly puts it to her lips; she is shaking too much to hold it firmly though, "Here let me," I say taking it from her. She takes six puffs of one before I switch it to the other one, and give her four puffs of. I hold her close taking deep breaths to try and slow her breathing down, as the medicine begins to work; she gradually gets her breath back. Maggie comes over with a glass of room temperature water, "I assumed that cold water wouldn't be good on her chest." I take the glass off her, causing Ally to finally notice that we are not alone. Her eyes begin to water again, "Hey you have nothing to worry about, Maggie is happy to help." Maggie nods her head at my words "Your sister is right, you don't have to be worried, I'm glad that you are okay." I help Ally have a sip of water, but she still looks dreadfully upset. I pull her into my side for another hug. Maggie sits next to us and rubs her back. "I'm sorry, I woke you up. You can go back to sleep, I'm fine now," She mumbles trying to push away from me. "Hey Ally look at me," She slowly brings her eyes up to meet mine, "You don't EVER need to apologize for waking me up, I am here to help, you are the most important person on the planet to me. So you can wake me up, okay? In fact I want you to wake me up." She just falls against me as gut wrenching sobs rack through her body. "I'm here Ally" I say soothingly and just hold her close. Her sobbing breaks my heart and causes tears to fill my eyes. I refuse to let them fall right now though; it won't help. I continue to rub her back until eventually she starts to calm down again, and her eyes become droopy from tiredness. I pick her up and carry her to the bed. There is no way I'm letting go of her tonight. I put her on my side of the bed and pull her close to me, holding her tight. Once her breathing evens out I look to see where Maggie is. She has made some tea and bringing to the bed. "Do you want me to sleep on the couch?" I look down at Ally, "No she won't mind, she sleeps in the bed with Kara and me all the time." This causes Maggie to laugh quietly, "Babe her being in bed with you and Kara is a bit different to being in a bed with you and me." I smile at the meaning behind her words and my own silliness for not thinking of it that way. "Your right, but still I don't think she will mind, plus I don't want you on the couch." This brings a smug smile to her face "Oh really, well if that's the case I best join you then, because who am I to refuse a federal agent." I can't help the smug smile that appears on my lips at her words "Exactly". I turn back to hugging Ally, hoping that it will keep her nightmares away, at least for the rest of the night. Maggie lies next to me resting her hand on my back, reassuring me that she is there. Eventually my eyelids begin to droop, as the forgotten tea goes cold on my bedside table.

Ally Danvers

I jerked into a sitting position as a loud cough wracked through my body. Great! It looks like I would be having a day on the couch to avoid making my asthma worse. As if I hadn't caused enough trouble for Alex last night and now I wouldn't even be able to help her pack. My coughing woke Alex who still had an arm around me. She immediately started rubbing my back, reaching over me for my puffer and spacer. Once the coughing had stopped she somberly said, "Oh no, that doesn't sound good. Here let me help you have your puffer, hopefully it will help." With my throat too dry from all the coughing I just nodded and accepted her help. Finally my coughing stopped, Alex passed me a glass of water, which Maggie had handed to her. Meaning that I had woken both Alex and Maggie up twice in less than 10 hours. I sunk back into the pillows hoping they would swallow me, putting my hands over my face. Instead lying back just caused me to start coughing again. I really did not want to be sick today. Alex put her hands behind my back and pulled me up so I was sitting with my back against her. She squeezed me tight, Maggie looked at me with sad eyes, it was clear she wasn't sure what to do. My coughing finally ceased and I just hid my face in Alex. I hate being sick.

Alex's fingers softly traced patterns on my back, finally coaxing me to look up at her. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "Hey I told you this last night, you have nothing to be sorry about it is not your fault that you have asthma. I want to help you." I just turn back into Alex; maybe we can just stay like this for a bit. Alex being the genius that she is must have sensed that I wasn't ready to move yet as I feel her shift around to get more comfortable before pulling me even closer. She holds me tight with one hand and continues making patterns on my back with the other. The only thing breaking the silence is my loud cough every few minutes. I'm not sure where Maggie is but I can't feel her stare.

Alex holds me close for about half and hour before she pushes some hair out of my face, "How about we go and get something to eat? It might help you feel a little bit better." We both know food won't really help with my asthma but I let her lead me into the kitchen. As I sit at the table my stomach drops, Maggie has made us breakfast. She really shouldn't have to do that; I hope she didn't feel obligated to. Maggie places a bowl with chopped strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, yogurt and muesli in front of me. It looks really good, so I look up at her with a smile saying, "Thanks, you didn't have to, but this looks good." Maggie's hair moves from side to side as she shakes her head at me. "Your right I didn't have to. But I wanted to, so enjoy." I slowly eat the food, it is really yummy, and the berries are cool on my throat, which is a bit sore from coughing. Maggie and Alex both sit at the table with me each eating their own fruit and muesli. They are discussing a TV show I think, but I'm not really listening, I'm not in the mood to talk. As I finish the last bite of my food Alex takes the bowl off me, I go to help her in the kitchen, but instead she tells me, "How about you go and get dressed Ally, the bag that Kara brought yesterday is next to my bed, that way we can clean up and then we won't all need to use the bathroom at the same time." It makes sense really, but I really want to help out. "Okay, but you have to let me do some dishes soon, Alex, it's not fair on you!" She laughs at my response, though her eyes turn serious as she says "Once we get moved in to the new place dishes can be your job, but for the moment, you really don't know where everything goes so it is quicker if I do them. Does that sound fair?" Maybe I might regret saying I wanted to do the dishes. "Um, yeah I guess."

Looking in the bag I can see that Kara packed me a pair of blue jeans that she had gotten my last time I came to visit her, and a white t-shirt with a pink jacket. Looking at the jeans I think of how different my life was then.

Three months ago

I was really excited. Mum had to go away for the weekend to some conference for work. Luckily Kara had quickly volunteered to let me stay with her for the weekend. She was coming on the way to come and get me; I was even missing school on Friday. Kara had arranged for me to come to work with her on Friday, since James was running Catco at the moment Kara said it wouldn't be a problem. I had never been to either of my sisters' work before. It was going to be great. On Saturday we were going shopping, Midvale just didn't have anywhere near as many shops at National City, so it was going to be awesome. Finally on Sunday we were meeting up with Alex. They were keeping it a secret what we were doing, but I knew it was going to be fabulous.

That weekend had been awesome, Kara and Alex had taken me to the zoo on the Sunday, and Mum had even joined us for dinner at one of Kara's favourite restaurants that night.

The dishes are all done by the time I emerge from the bathroom. Alex walks over to grab my puffer, as I finish taking it Maggie appears with a glass of water. As I take it from her I say "Thanks". She just smiles back at me and goes into the bathroom. "So what do we need to pack today? Is Maggie staying to help?" Alex puts my puffer down turning back to face me. Uh oh. I can see it in her eyes, whatever she is about to say she knows I won't like. "Ally, kiddo, I think today you should take it easy, you have only just stopped coughing, I really don't want you to get any worse" I take a deep breathe, man I hate it when I'm right sometimes. "I was thinking maybe you could watch some TV, or read a book. Maggie is going to help me pack and Kara is hoping to come round later once she finishes up at work. So really we should have everything under control. You could even start looking online at the schools in the area and see which one you like best?" I know Alex is right, I do need to rest but I really wanted to help her out. She has done so much for me.


Thanks for reading sorry for the wait, this week I have been sick and busy at work so I've not had time to upload, I hope you all have had a good week :)

moohamquest: this is the beginning of the flashbacks that you asked for in the first chapter, this one is short but there is another longer one in a few chapters, thanks for the idea and the review.

Bobpands: I have already written how Ally finds out, but I will try and incorporate something like this into the story. Thanks for the review

Ally finding out is still a few chapters away.

I have every intention of writing lots more on this story, I am trying to always have a few chapters pre-written, so hopefully it will work out as I do have a plan with the direction for this story and I would like to finish it.

Disclaimer: These characters are not mine except for Ally