Kara recognised the feeling. The blinding pain in her skull, the burning behind her eyes and the pounding of her heart. Her heat vision. The pressure kept building up but she could not open her eyes to release it. She could feel her heart banging against her rib cage, getting faster by the second, dangerously fast.
The intermittent beeping of a machine had turned into a constant alarm and it was making her headache worse.
Somewhere nearby she could hear people talking but couldn't make out what they were saying. It was like she was still under water and no matter what she did, she couldn't unscramble the noise.
Unable to open her eyes she felt the burning pain spread throughout her limbs as if trying to find an alternative route out of her body. She wanted to scream it out but she could not open her mouth.
Her reality was starting to unravel again.
A final wave of pain swept over her entire body and then she found herself swallowed by the cold.
Maggie woke up cold and alone just before 8 o'clock in the morning. The spot next to her was cold, leaving her wondering if Alex had managed to get any sleep at all.
She took a quick shower before heading to the medical bay where she expected to find Alex. She had almost made it to the bay when she heard a loud bang that sent her ducking for cover in the unfamiliar environment of the DEO. An alarm began to sound.
Unsure of what to do, she followed a group of agents who she assumed were responding to the situation. They led her straight to Alex's lab.
"It's alright, false alarm." A vaguely familiar agent was shouting.
"Someone shut that damn alarm up." Another agent was yelling.
When the crowd dispersed, Maggie finally laid eyes on Alex. Her black DEO top had a hole burnt into the shoulder and her face was lightly coated in soot. The workbench that Maggie had found Alex working at in the early hours of that morning was also scorched and broken equipment was strewn everywhere.
"What happened Danvers?" Maggie asked once the alarm had stopped its screeching.
"I can't figure out what's wrong with her." Alex was heavy-handedly clearing broken glass into a bin.
"Is Kara alright?" Maggie asked, worried that something had happened whilst she had been asleep.
"She's still unconscious. She hasn't woken up since last night." Alex sighed as she sent another broken beaker crashing therapeutically into the bin. "Her wounds haven't healed, even though the solar energy in her cells has been restored and she's at massive risk of infection because we can't get any IV access for antibiotics." Another piece of glass was thrown into the bin. "And even if we could get a needle through her skin without exposing her to more harm, we don't have any antibiotics anywhere near strong enough to affect Kara, especially with some of her powers restored." Alex finished, sending a final beaker flying through the air and crashing into the now overflowing bin.
"If I don't figure this out soon she'll die Maggie." Alex's voice was no more than a whisper.
"You'll figure it out." Maggie told her firmly as she snaked her arms around Alex from behind and tucked her face into the crook of Alex's neck.
"So, what were you working on that caused that explosion?"
"It wasn't an explosion." Alex freed herself from Maggie and set about resetting one of the machines she had been using.
"It sounded like an explosion to me."
"I'm trying to stabilise Kara's cells." Seeing Maggie's blank look, she continued. "Something is affecting her ability to store and process sunlight. I think it is why her powers have been so unreliable and would account for the sudden surges and depletion of solar energy in her cells. I'm basically trying to synthesise something to reverse it." Alex continued to fiddle with the machine.
"So, what exploded?"
Alex glared at her girlfriend but explained anyway.
"When I added the compound I was working on to the sample of Kara's blood it reacted badly and started to bubble. I was trying to stop it but I knocked the sunlamp over and it kind of, well it…"
"Exploded." Maggie finished for her.
Alex did not look impressed so Maggie went back to cleaning the workbench.
"You don't have to do that." Alex told her. "Go home if you want to."
"Don't you dare do that, Alex. Don't start shutting me out." Maggie shouted as she threw down the cloth she was using.
Alex flinched at the sound of Maggie's raised voice.
"I'm not."
"Good. Because it's not going to work." Maggie was clearly upset and retreated to the door.
"Where are you going?" Alex called after her.
"I'm going to sit with Kara. I won't be much help here and I don't want to get in your way." Maggie told her as she left the lab, casting a last reassuring look at Alex. "Just please be more careful."
Maggie took a deep breath to calm herself down before turning left and heading for the medical bay, only to walk straight into Winn.
They both apologised simultaneously.
"Are you okay Maggie?" Winn asked awkwardly.
"Yeah, I'm just heading to see Kara."
"I've just come from there. She's still unconscious."
"Alex is working on it." Maggie reassured him.
"Yeah, I know, she was already in the lab when I came in this morning." Winn told her as his phone pinged in his hand. "I've got to go." He gestured wildly at his phone and then down the corridor before heading towards the command centre.
"See you later." Maggie called as she set off back down the hall.
When she got to the medical bay she hesitated slightly when she saw that James was with Kara. His head was bowed as his hands clasped around one of hers.
Maggie sat herself in a plastic chair on the other side of Kara.
"You okay Olsen?" Maggie asked after a minute.
James lifted his head but did not look at Maggie, he kept his gaze focused on Kara.
"I've just been thinking." James told her as he leaned back in his chair slightly.
Maggie remained silent, allowing James to continue.
"We've been distant ever since she found out I was Guardian and now..."
"James."
"I messed up our friendship. I didn't listen, I just dismissed her concerns."
"James, she's going to be okay." Maggie managed to sound a lot more confident than she actually was.
"We don't know that. She has never looked so human. What if…"
"No, James, please. Alex will fix this."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching Kara sleep, flinching at any change in the vitals on the monitor above Kara's head.
James gently placed Kara's hand back on the bed and stood to leave.
"I've got a meeting to get to." He informed her as he pulled on his jacket. "Let me know if anything changes."
"You got it."
Maggie settled back into her chair. Her gaze drifted back to Kara in the bed. She looked small. The standard hospital gown seemed to swamp her. She was definitely looking thinner, her face especially. Her cheekbones more defined, amplified by how pale she was. Her hair was tangled and hung limp and dull on the pillow. Maggie reached across to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear and off her face.
She pulled put her phone and called her Sergeant to let him know that she would be out in the field following a lead for the day and then she settled down to sift through her work emails whilst watching over Kara.
It had been four hours when Maggie had finally given up on getting any more work done. She was contemplating going to check on Alex when Kara began to stir in the bed.
"Alex?" Kara's eyes were open and frantically searching the room.
"Kara, it's Maggie. You're in the medical bay. Do you remember?"
Kara's eyes settled on Maggie and she nodded.
"Big alien."
"Yeah, big alien." Maggie smiled and let out a sigh of relief.
"Where's Alex?"
"She's just in her lab. James and Winn were also here but they had to get to work." Maggie explained as she watched Kara struggle to follow what she was saying.
"I'll go and grab Alex for you." Maggie told her and walked towards the exit.
She was almost at the door when she heard a pained gasp from the bed behind her. Kara had swung her legs over the side of the bed and was now standing, dangerously close to falling over.
"Woah, hold on. Hold on." Maggie shouted as she ran back to Kara's side, reaching around her back, trying to steady the wobbling superhero.
Her efforts to stop Kara falling were in vain. Kara continued to make uncoordinated steps until she tripped, dragging Maggie down with her in the process. Both women hit the floor.
