"Kara," Alex said softly. She dropped her gun arm and started to step towards Kara when she heard the click of a gun. She stopped mid-stride.
"uh...uh…uh." The green-eyed man chided. "I would advise against that, Agent Danvers."
Alex turned back toward him. All rational thought escaped her and raw emotions slid in. The tears she had been holding back welled up in her eyes and the hate and anger she felt rose up from the pit of her stomach. She clenched her jaw and swung her gun arm back to the man, and started to squeeze down on the trigger when something brushed by her arm, throwing her arm across her body, causing her gun to fly across the floor.
Alex staggered and fought to regain her balance. Once upright, she saw that the green-eyed man was gone and her mother was left standing, dazed but, unharmed. She quickly spun toward Mr. Clark who was momentarily stunned by the sudden disappearance of the green-eyed man. His face registered the situation and he raised his gun at Kara. Alex took a couple of steps before lunging at him, propelling both of them through the medical equipment, tearing wires and tubes loose from their source.
Once on the floor, the two fought through the tangled mess of wires and equipment, struggling to gain control of the gun. It was still secured in Mr. Clark's hand and he was attempting to line it up at Kara above when Alex reached over him, and slammed his arm up and into the wall. But, Mr. Clark already had his finger on the trigger and was able to squeeze off a shot before the impact of the wall forced the gun out of his hand. They reached for the gun at the same time, causing it to end up in both of their hands. As each pushed against the other, Alex released her body from his. The sudden slack caused Mr. Clark to fall over and allowed Alex to twist the gun toward him, pulling the trigger as she turned it. The bullet entered Mr. Clark's chest and he fell against the wall.
Alex pushed her frame off the floor and turned back to Kara, so quiet and still on the bed. Time stopped. She felt like she had stepped out of her body, watching the scene through a distant haze. She's so far away, Alex thought. And her face is so gray. Her lips are cracked. Why are her lips cracked? The room started to fall away as she started toward Kara. I'll have to remind her to use lip moisturizer. She forgets that she is not invincible. With each sluggish step, it seemed as though Kara moved further away. Alex finally reached the edge of the bed and stood silently, her senses dulled. She noticed some strands of hair had fallen across Kara's forehead. She hates it when her hair falls into her eyes. She sought to brush it off and tuck it away behind Kara's ear but, found that her arm wouldn't move from her side.
"Alex." Alex heard her mother's voice in the distance, pulling her back into her body. The room started to come into focus and her eyes drifted up. She saw her mother sitting in the side chair across the bed, holding the green chunk of kryptonite and bleeding from her shoulder. Alex's eyes grew wide as her mind and body came back together.
"Mom!" Alex left Kara's side and rushed around the bed to get to Eliza.
"I got the kryptonite off her." Eliza's voice was lifeless as she stared at Kara's still form. Alex knelt down in front of her mother. "He had dropped it on her. It was hurting her," Eliza continued, unable to pull her eyes off of Kara.
"Mom, let me look at your shoulder." Alex spoke softly. She gently grabbed the kryptonite from her mother's hands and set it on the floor beside her. Her eyes focused in on her mother's wound, trying to push the image of Kara lying behind her out of her mind. There was too much pain in that thought. She couldn't think about it or it would swallow her up whole.
"Alex, you need to see about your sister." Eliza's strained voice rose. "You're her big sister. She needs you," she pleaded.
Alex bit down hard on her lip. Her hands shook as she pulled back the collar of her mother's shirt to examine the bullet hole. "I will, mom." Her voice trembled. "I just need to see about you first." She sniffled and brought up her forearm to wipe at the tears that had found their way to the surface and blurred her vision.
"It looks like the bullet went right through." She swallowed, pushing down her emotions. She looked up at her mother. "It's going to hurt but, it should be okay."
Eliza sat; eyes fixed ahead, her mind unhitched from her body.
"We need to stop the bleeding." Alex continued to go through the motions, not allowing her mind to stop and think. She started to rise from her kneeling position when the door swung open.
Barry half-stumbled into the room. He fell against the wall, bewildered and out of breath.
"I – I got him…onto the elevator. That's as far…as I could go." He stated breathlessly, looking at Alex.
Barry turned his head toward Kara and his forehead wrinkled into a frown. His eyes moved back to Alex and he noticed Eliza. "What happened?" He asked, confused.
"I need to get something to stop the bleeding." Alex, jaws clamped down and face set in stone, walked in front of Barry to the cabinet on the other side of the room.
Barry watched as Alex, seemingly unaware of her own side bleeding, methodically grabbed a towel from the cabinet and made her way back to Eliza. He looked back at Kara and made his way to her side.
Alex knelt back down by her mom, placing the towel between her mom's shirt and shoulder. "Kara?" She heard Barry's uncertain voice behind her. Her mouth quivered and she pushed down on her mom's shoulder.
"She's going to be fine." Eliza, eyes wide, assured Barry. "Alex is going to help her and fix it just like she always does."
Alex closed her eyes, trying to shut out the pain, wishing the nightmare would end.
Barry searched Kara's face. "Hey, Kara." He repeated a little more firmly and louder. "Kara Zor-El. It's the Scarlet Speedster." He grabbed hold of her hand. "Hey. You better stick around…we have a race we need to finish." He squeezed her hand. "The last one got cut-short." Barry watched Kara's face for any sign of awareness. "That is unless you're too scared," he added.
A soft groan escaped from Kara's throat.
Alex's eyes shot up to her mother's face, looking for clarity. She was certain that she was just imagining hearing sound come from Kara.
Kara groaned again and Alex jumped up and spun around to the bed. "Kara?" She held her breath and stood, eyes transfixed on Kara's face. Eliza stood up beside her.
"Not too scared." Kara mumbled. Her eyes slowly opened and she looked at Barry. "You cheated…last time."
"I cheated?" Barry chuckled. "You're the one who has the cape, which I think has some type of device hidden in it to help increase your speed."
Kara smiled. "Excuses," she replied.
"Kara." Alex voice was hesitant, still not able to grasp that Kara was alive and awake.
Kara slowly turned her head toward Alex and she frowned. "Alex, why are you crying?"
Alex reached a hand up to her wet cheek, unaware that tears had been streaming down her face. "Oh?" Kara grabbed her hand and Alex smiled at her. "Tears of happiness," she replied. "How do you feel?"
"Tired and a little sore but, better than before." Kara shifted her eyes to Alex's injured side and then to Eliza, noticing the blood on her shoulder. "What happened?!"
"It's nothing. I'll be okay." Eliza stepped closer to Kara and reached out with her good arm to brush off the hair from Kara's face. "Especially now that you're awake," she smiled.
Seeing Alex and Eliza's injuries reminded Kara of the green-eyed man. She frantically scanned the room. "Those men. Where are they?" She pushed back against the bed to sit up further but, Alex placed a hand against her shoulder, firmly pressing down.
"No, Kara. You're not going anywhere." Alex looked to the man lying in the corner. "We got one of them and Barry," she turned to Barry. "…well, I'm not sure about the green-eyed man."
"I took him to the elevator and pushed the button to send him up." Barry relayed his movements. "My speed is limited to the constraints of the building and the elevator was the only way of getting up so, I had to just leave him there. And that alien that I was fighting upstairs did something to me. I don't feel quite like me."
"Is that alien still upstairs?" Alex's eyes narrowed. "Is Director Henshaw okay?" She asked, remembering Hanks encounter with the white Martian.
"Wait a minute?" Kara shook her head. "What alien? What's going on?" She looked from Barry to Alex.
Alex let out a breath, hesitating to tell Kara too much, knowing how she will respond. She took in a deep breath,"The DEO…it's under attack." She watched as Kara's brows went up. "That's how those men got down here."
"The DEO's under attack?" Kara shoved her way up, past Alex's restraining arm. "How did they get in? How many are there?" She attempted to sit up straight and slide her legs off the bed but, her head started to swim and she had to place a hand on the bed for support.
"Kara, no!" Alex shouted. She wasn't about to lose Kara after getting her back. "You're in no shape to go." She leaned over the bed to pull her back. "Barry and I will go. Hank's up there and the rest of the DEO team. We'll handle it." She looked at Barry. "Did you get an estimate on how many there are?"
Barry shook his head. "I took the alien that came at me outside the DEO but, I didn't get very far with him. Somehow he drains my powers and did something funky with my head." He tilted his head and hit it with his hand as though trying to get water out of his ear. "It was all I could do just to get away and back in here. When I came back through, Henshaw was fighting a tall white alien and that blue alien that went at you was stumbling around. I think I remember seeing at least one more." Barry recalled.
Alex nodded her head. "Yeah, that's what I remember, too. The white Martian, the Ngoan, the yellow alien and there might have been another one, I'm not sure; it all happened quickly. Plus, the green-eyed man is up there now, too."
"There's a white Martian? And Hank's fighting it?" Kara slid to the edge of the bed and managed to swing her legs down the side.
"Kara." Alex pleaded. "You need to stay here. You just had surgery and were exposed to kryptonite. You're body's not strong enough yet."
"No Alex, I'm going." Kara firmly said. She glanced over her shoulder at Alex. "You're hurt but, you're still going up there. Hank needs help. He can't fight that white Martian alone."
Kara tenuously placed a foot down on the floor. Barry slid closer to her in case she went down. She got her second foot onto the floor and slowly shifted her weight off the bed. Her knees slightly buckled but, between Barry's arm shooting out to grab her and her own hand on the bed, she was able to recover.
When she felt stable enough on her own, she stepped away from Barry and looked to Alex, "Where are my clothes?"