A defense mechanism. A failsafe.
Amelia Hamilton was hunched over the charts at the foot of Maggie's bed, trying to make sense of it.
When she'd walked back into the med bay after J'onn had told her to get her head straight and take care of her patient, Maggie had been unresponsive.
"Maggie…?" Amelia had raced to the woman's side, checking the monitors next to the bed. Her heartrate, blood pressure… everything was normal. Her eyes were open and blinking, but she wasn't responding to anything.
"Hey… Can you hear me?"
Maggie squeezed her eyes shut, before blinking furiously. Amelia reached for her hand. "Squeeze my hand if you can hear me."
A few seconds later, she felt the weak pressure on her fingers. So Maggie was still in there.
"Amelia."
She heard her name being called behind her, and turned around.
"Alex…?!" Her eyes widened when she saw the agent standing in the doorway. "Y-you're…"
"Alive, yeah. So I heard." Alex smiled weakly. "Don't worry, I'm not a shapeshifter or anything. Just… figured out how to break the bond. Just in time."
Amelia sighed in relief, as she ran up to Alex and wrapped her arms around her. They hadn't really been touchy and open about their feelings at work, but they were good friends. And the prospect of losing Alex had been nothing short of devastating.
When they pulled away, Alex glanced at her girlfriend on the bed. "How is she?"
"She's in there."
The vague answer confused Alex. "What do you mean?"
"I think the poison is manifesting. Maybe it was always latent from the start, but it has just now started developing because of the alien's death." Amelia sighed. "She's deteriorating fast, Alex. We're out of our depth."
The words felt like Amelia had taken a sledgehammer to Alex's gut. She moved past the doctor to finally rest at Maggie's side.
To her relief, Maggie didn't show any signs of discomfort or pain at her closeness. That was one problem she'd fixed – thank god.
She wasn't sure if she'd be that lucky a second time.
"What do we know?" Alex glanced back at Amelia as she pulled a pair of gloves from a dispenser nearby and put them on, before walking to the glass wall and analyzing the data Amelia had already provided.
"Low blood pressure ever since we took blood. Heartrate has been stable, oxygen saturation is normal. Slightly diminished lung sounds on the left, but not concerning, and we've been battling the infection with antibiotics and a morphine drip."
Alex took a step back. "We have the alien's body. The entire bio team is analyzing his mouth to get a better look at his saliva. We haven't been focusing on it all weekend."
Amelia noticed the deep regret in that last sentence, and understood what Alex meant. If they had focused on it, they'd have known that the alien was more dangerous than they thought. They could have prevented it.
Of course, hindsight was 20/20. There was nothing they could do about it now, but move forward.
"She squeezed my hand, so it could be local paralysis."
Alex moved back towards Maggie's form on the bed, and caressed her face. "Hey, babe… I'm here, it's okay. I'm going to help you."
Maggie blinked up at her, but didn't reply. Alex smiled weakly, and rested her forehead on Maggie's. "See, I can touch you again… I fixed it."
She glanced down to where the bite mark had been bandaged, and carefully peeled the layers away to look underneath. The wound was raw and angry, but at least it had stopped bleeding.
"I'll stay here until we get an update. You should get some rest." Alex said, looking at her friend. Amelia looked exhausted, but she still looked like she wanted to fight. To help.
The doctor sighed. "Are you going to be okay?"
Alex smiled. "Yeah, I think I am."
"I'll pass by the biolab to tell them about her condition. Call me, the second something changes, okay?"
Alex nodded, and watched Amelia walk out of the lab, rubbing her forehead. She respected the woman to death; Amelia always had her back. The amount of time they'd spend by themselves in the med bay, when she was stitching Alex up after a mission, or just drinking coffee and sharing theories and analyses… Amelia was one of the only people at the DEO that she actually had a connection with.
She ran her thumb across the back of Maggie's hand, the ghost of a smile on her face as she looked at her girlfriend's eyes fixed on her. "I kicked the alien's ass, babe."
She backtracked with a weak chuckle. "Well, actually, I shot him between the eyes, but it still counts. So he's gone, and he'll never hurt us again."
When Maggie didn't respond, apart from blinking, Alex swallowed thickly. "I'm sorry for all the things I did. I… I've been under that thing's influence since Friday, but it doesn't make it right. I shouldn't have…" She cut herself off with a sigh. "Well, we'll have this conversation when you're better, and when you can reply. I'm sure you're frustrated about all this."
She felt Maggie squeeze her hand, and Alex squeezed it back gently. There was no need for words anymore. She just settled on holding Maggie's hand and taking a seat next to the bed. "Just squeeze if you need anything, babe. I'm not going anywhere."
A few minutes later, when Alex was on the verge of falling asleep, she was shook awake by the sound of a phone buzzing. She looked down at her own, but the screen was black.
Maggie's eyes were focused on something to her right. Alex moved up to see Maggie's phone on the end table next to the bed, vibrating and jumping around. She leaned over Maggie, placing a hand on the bed, and grabbed it.
Maggie was blinking furiously. Answer it.
They didn't need to talk to know what the other was thinking at this point. Alex didn't waste time in answering the call and bringing the phone to her ear. "Hello?"
"… Mags? You sound different…"
Alex didn't like the flirty way the woman on the other end of the line said Maggie's name, but decided quickly that it was honestly a problem for another day. "This is Alex, her girlfriend."
"Oh, the scientist! It's so nice to finally meet you!" The woman now sounded cheerful and legitimately interested. "Maggie keeps on gushing all about you."
"Yeah, about that… Maggie can't really come to the phone right now…"
"Oh damn… has the paralysis already set in?"
Alex frowned. "Uh… Yeah, we think so. How do you know?"
"A friend of mine is from that alien's galaxy. Maggie called me for help. How is she doing, is it bad?"
"I don't know." Alex answered honestly. "Her eyes are open, it looks like she's awake, but she can't talk. She's squeezing my hand, though."
"Good, that means it hasn't gotten worse yet. Can you do something for me? Can you check her chest? I need to know if there is a mark near her heart."
"Hang on." Alex moved the phone to press it between her ear and her cheek, as she looked at her girlfriend. "Mags, I love you. I need to pull up the sheets a bit, okay? And your clothes too. Can you squeeze my hand if that's alright?"
A tiny squeeze. Enough for Alex to ease the gnawing feeling that she was crossing a line that Maggie didn't want crossed. As she pulled down the sheets, she spoke into the phone again. "What kind of mark are we talking?"
"You'll notice it when you see it."
That didn't make Alex feel less nervous, as she finally saw Maggie's toned chest rising and falling. She glanced up quickly to meet her eyes, but Maggie was staring up, and not making eye-contact.
Near her heart, on the left side, black lines were visible, following the veins leading to her heart. Alex's stomach turned. "Uh… y-yeah. There are… uh… black marks."
"Damn it… Okay, well, at least we know for sure what we're dealing with. It's venom. A friend of mine has a natural antidote against it, but she's currently in Alaska visiting family."
"Text Maggie the address, we can have someone there in less than an hour. What can we do until then? Is it going to get worse?"
"I'm not sure. She said that the side effects could include paralysis, those marks on the chest that show the infection spreading. Her heart could stop, she could stop breathing… It all depends on where the infection sets first. But it can go fast."
"She was fine a few minutes ago, from what I heard." Alex sighed. "We'll keep monitoring her. Get me that address."
"Keep me posted, please." The woman disconnected the call.
Alex took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. Maggie would be fine – they had the antidote. It was just a matter of time.
Time… That she wasn't sure the woman had.
She moved forward to put an oxygen mask over Maggie's face. "This is just to help you breathe a little better, babe. Can you squeeze my hand if you're feeling okay?"
No reaction. Alex carefully pushed a strand of hair away from Maggie's face. "Are you in pain?"
A squeeze.
It broke Alex's heart. She reached for her own cellphone, and dialed her sister's number.
"… Alex! Where the hell are you? I've been waiting here for-…"
Alex cut her off quickly. "Kara, I'm sorry. I had to go back to the DEO. But I need you." She got up from her seat, and turned away from her girlfriend to continue the call. "Maggie's getting worse, Kara. There's an alien that has an antidote, she's in Alaska. I'll send you the address. Can you please go get it?"
"I'm on my way."
Alex sighed in relief, as she disconnected, and turned back around.
"You hear that, babe? Everything's going to be okay."