Chapter 13

A/N: Thanks again for the favorites/follows/reviews so far. On to the next chapter!

While Kara recovered, Alex and Maggie practically lived at the DEO base, the immortal rarely leaving her sister's side. The only times she did were when Lena came for her daily visit – during which Alex would hole up in the training room and run through her sword drills, lest she be tempted to do something to the CEO that Kara might make her regret once the Kryptonian regained consciousness – and whenever there was an alien-related crisis that the regular agents couldn't handle on their own, or when one of said agents came up with a lead on Kara's assailants. Unfortunately, even with the information Lena had been able to provide, said leads were few and far between. They found the SUV abandoned near the harbor and dusted it for prints, but when they ran the prints that they were able to pull, the people they belonged to were all either dead or off in some other country that had no extradition treaty with the US. The company that the SUV had belonged to was tied to an anti-alien mercenary outfit known as Veil, and Lucy had attempted to subpoena their client records via their legitimate business front, but they were fighting the subpoena and the process was frustratingly slow. And the group's servers were nigh-impossible to hack, even for the combined skills of Winn and Vasquez. Alex was positive that Lord had hired the mercenaries, but under the current regime anything short of a publicly broadcast confession – one that hadn't been obviously beaten out of him – would likely be ignored. She'd even reached out to Dawson and Ben in hopes that they might have some contacts the DEO didn't. But they weren't having much luck either in connecting Lord to the attack on Kara. And, for reasons the older immortal wasn't sharing, she couldn't seem to convince Ben to take over as her teacher despite his comments at the police station about her being worth something. Nor could she get him to put her in contact with someone who would be willing to help. Alex didn't know if it had to do with the atmosphere in National City, or if something else was at play, but that didn't make it any less frustrating. But as long as Lord kept his distance, she supposed she could take the time to figure things out on her own. It was hard to imagine doing anything besides the sword drills without Jo, anyway, even though the logical part of her brain told her that she couldn't possibly prepare to face another immortal without practicing against someone.

As for the younger Danvers, she was definitely on the road to recovery – albeit a road that was maddeningly long and slow. The external damage was the first to heal completely. It was the internal damage that was still causing problems. They'd been able to take her off the ventilator after about a week, her lungs having repaired themselves enough that she could breathe on her own again, but they maintained the coma while her other damaged organs continued to heal. Every day that passed with Kara still in no condition to be woken up was like a knife being jammed into Alex's heart…especially given the lack of progress in finding those responsible. Ben continued to advise patience when they spoke, but that was way easier said than done with Lord going on TV every day to gloat over Supergirl missing his stupid deadline and apparently choosing to leave National City to his 'real' heroes instead of sticking around. Alex wished they could put the real story out there – one of the few things she and Lena agreed on – but, since Kara was attacked as herself and not as Supergirl, doing so could compromise her identity. And the elder Danvers would never do that to her baby sister, no matter how satisfying it would be to stick it to Lord and show the city his true colors.

They were making some progress on figuring out Lord's so-called 'technosite,' but neither she nor the resident computer experts had been able to find any way to disable it without potentially killing the host. On the upside, she'd come up with a means of identifying hosts, even before the 'technosite' was activated. If they could get one of those hosts into the lab, Alex was sure they could find a solution. Unfortunately, that would most likely require kidnapping, and the DEO was walking a fine enough line as it was trying to help the non-hostile aliens who were literally afraid for their lives under the ARA. Their best bet would be to locate a host with a still-dormant 'technosite' and convince that person to come in voluntarily. But that would have to wait until Kara was in the clear, since she didn't want to leave her sister's side for as long as locating a host would take and wasn't in the mood to spend time trying to explain the identification device she'd developed to the less scientifically-inclined field agents under her command. If Hamilton were there, she'd gladly have sent the doctor out to find them a test subject. But Amelia hadn't been seen since before Kara was attacked, and Alex was starting to fear the worst – especially in light of what Dawson had told Jo about Lord's proclivity towards dismembering Watchers. She and Lucy had been sending out search parties every day, only to come up empty each time.

"Director Danvers?" the slightly-accented voice of Lena Luthor asked, jarring Alex from her thoughts. She looked up to see the CEO walking into Kara's hospital room like she owned it.

Frowning, the young immortal checked her watch as Lena took a seat on the opposite side of Kara's bed. "Your visiting time isn't for another three hours, Ms. Luthor," she growled.

"I know," Lena nodded, seemingly unfazed. "But I was hoping to talk to you."

"If this is about whatever feelings you think you might have for my sister, I'm not interested. And I sure as fuck don't approve."

The youngest Luthor shook her head. "Good thing I'm not asking for your approval. But no, that's not what I wanted to talk about. I think I might have figured out how those mercenaries knew where to find Kara that night."

That got Alex's attention. "What did you find?" she demanded, getting up from her chair and moving next to Lena.

"My executive assistant has been acting a bit odd as of late," Lena explained, pulling out a tablet. "So I took the liberty of investigating her internet and phone activity, as is my right as her boss." She brought up what looked like a cell phone activity trace. Alex understood the basics of how that sort of thing worked, but Winn and Vasquez would be better suited to pick it apart.

"Looks like your assistant has been calling a burner phone," Alex remarked, recognizing the signs from having watched the resident computer geniuses run similar traces in the past. "How does that help?"

Lena pulled up another screen. "I was able to trace the particular brand of burner phone associated with that number, and it's a prototype next-generation device being developed by Lord Technologies. It's not available to the general public at the moment. I only know about it because, of course, I have to keep abreast of the competition. Lord really should have given up his company when he took office, but in this case his questionable ethics actually work to our advantage."

"Any idea why she was calling that number?"

"I'm afraid not," the youngest Luthor sighed. She pulled the first screen back up. "However, if you look at the call logs, she contacted that number only an hour before Kara and I were shot at. Frankly, that's a bit too much of a coincidence for my tastes."

Alex nodded, actually impressed by Lena's detective work but unwilling to admit it out loud. "I don't suppose we could talk to your assistant?"

"She's waiting outside in the car. Feel free to bring her in. If she betrayed me, I'd like to know about it as much as you do."

"Thanks," the immortal muttered. Somewhat reluctantly leaving Lena alone with her sister, Alex sent a couple of agents out to retrieve the traitorous assistant, then went to hunt down Maggie. She eventually found her girlfriend – who had been able to get rid of the sling a few days prior – holed up with Winn in one of their R&D labs. They'd been doing that quite a bit since Maggie had told her boss where to shove the job, and if Alex didn't know that her girlfriend had absolutely zero interest in men and Winn had something going on with Vasquez (though the two had at least attempted to be discrete), she might have been jealous. As it was, she was just insanely curious as to what they could possibly be up to. But there would be plenty of time for that later. "Got a minute?" she asked, poking her head into the room where the pair were bent over a worktable.

Maggie looked up, grinning. "For you, babe? I've got as much time as you need. What's up?"

"I was hoping you might lend me a hand with something." As she spoke, Alex walked in and drew her girlfriend off to one side. "Lena came in a little while ago with a possible way to tie Lord to the attack on Kara. Seems her assistant has been making calls to a Lord Tech burner phone, including one just an hour before the attack. Care to help me question her?"

"Will we be able to do anything with the information?"

Alex sighed. "Probably not…or, at least, not right away. We both know that the NCPD won't lift a finger against Lord. But Lucy's trying to put together some sort of Federal case against him in hopes that the FBI or some other organization with actual legal authority might be willing to step in. And even if that wasn't the case, I would like to know on the off-chance I get the opportunity to take that fucker down myself."

"Fair enough. Good cop, bad cop?" Maggie asked, pointing to herself and her girlfriend in turn.

"Why am I automatically the bad cop?"

The ex-detective's eyebrow shot up. "I'm not the one who interrogated Kol with a fucking bar stool."

"That was one time! I was trying to save your life!"

"And I'm grateful…really," Maggie assured her, brushing her fingers along the immortal's cheek. "Just saying I'm a little more adept at sweet-talking suspects than you are."

Alex sighed once more, unable to argue the point. "Fine," she muttered. "Shall we?"

"Of course." Maggie pulled her into a quick kiss, then turned to Winn. "Be back in a few. Don't get too crazy while I'm gone, okay?"

"No problem," he nodded, tossing off a mock salute before returning to whatever he had going on the work table. Seemingly satisfied, the ex-detective left the room with Alex right on her heels.

"What was all that about?"

Maggie shrugged. "Just a little side project we've been working on."

"What kind of side project?"

"The kind that's a surprise."

Alex frowned. "No offense, babe, but as Director I think I have a right to know what our resources are being used for."

"And you will…when it's ready. You trust me, don't you?"

"Of course I trust you."

"Good," she grinned. "Then it's settled. Time to go have that chat with Lena's assistant."

Nodding, the immortal moved ahead of her girlfriend and headed for the interrogation room, where the young woman in question was already waiting. "You know you're in deep shit, right?" she growled, not bothering with the pleasantries. The assistant looked positively terrified, and Alex found herself reveling in that terror as she stared her down.

A moment later, Maggie closed the door to the interrogation room and pulled her girlfriend back. "What my partner means to say is that we have some questions for you concerning your recent activities." As she spoke, the ex-detective took a seat across from the frightened assistant, setting a can of diet soda in front of her that Alex recognized as part of Lucy's stash.

With trembling hands, the young woman opened the can and took a tentative sip. "W-what would you like to know?"

Alex pulled out her phone and brought up the documents Lena had emailed her before she'd sent the agents after the wayward assistant, setting the phone where said assistant could see the screen. "We know you've been having clandestine communications with someone at Lord Technologies, and that one of those communications took place just an hour before someone took shots at your boss. If you don't tell us who the fuck you've been talking to and why, I guarantee you'll be spending the rest of your life someplace no one will ever find you."

"Y-you can't do that!" the assistant stammered. "I have rights! I want my lawyer!"

Alex laughed harshly. "This isn't the NCPD, kid. Officially, this organization doesn't even exist. Which means your rights ended the moment you walked through my door. Now start talking!" she snarled, slamming her hands on the table for emphasis.

The girl whimpered a bit. "I didn't do anything wrong!" she insisted.

"Bullshit. If you didn't do anything wrong, why were you being so secretive?"

"T-that's not your business."

Seeing red, Alex grabbed the assistant by the shirt and lifted her out of the chair, slamming her back against the wall. "Someone I love is currently in a coma because she tried to protect your boss from whatever the fuck you've gotten yourself into! That fucking makes it my business! Tell me what you know right the fuck now, or I'll start demonstrating all of the excruciatingly painful ways I know to make you talk!" The girl started crying, and before Alex could do anything else she found herself being pulled away by Maggie.

"That's enough!" the ex-detective barked, moving to comfort the bawling assistant. "I think you need to leave." Maggie gave her a look that said she had a plan, so Alex raised her hands in mock surrender.

"Fine…coddle the brat. Just don't come whining to me when she doesn't give you anything." She turned and left, slipping into a nearby computer room and pulling up the feed from the interrogation room on one of the monitors. The immortal watched with pride and awe as her girlfriend masterfully drew the whole story out of Lena's wayward assistant. Despite what the initial evidence had suggested, it turned out that the girl wasn't some criminal. She'd just fallen for the wrong man – Maxwell Lord – and was too love-struck to realize that Lord was using her. On the day of the attack, the so-called Mayor had managed to coax her into revealing Lena and Kara's evening plans. Alex figured the mercenaries had probably been waiting outside for the two of them to leave the bar, and struck the moment their target(s) appeared. They still had no direct connection between Lord and his hired guns, but at least they now knew that he'd had the information necessary to set the attack into motion.

Someone opened the computer room door, and Alex turned to see Lucy walk in. "Did we get anything?"

"Yeah," Alex nodded. "Turns out the girl thought she was in some sort of relationship with Lord and the fucker used her shamelessly to get information. I almost feel sorry for her."

"Information connected to the attack on Kara?"

Another nod. "Now all we need are those records from Veil's so-called 'security' firm. Any luck there?"

"I'm afraid not. They're hiding behind their army of lawyers. And since we don't actually have any sort of case filed against them at the moment, it's not likely the court will step in and order them to hand anything over."

Alex swore. "I don't suppose we could go ahead and sue them or something, could we? Maybe go after them in civil court for hurting Kara?"

"Not unless we want to compromise her identity. We go to civil court, and the part about the bullets being made of Kryptonite is bound to come out. I could talk to the DA about criminal charges against the company for facilitation, but it's still risky. Our best hope would be to use the threat of criminal charges to get them to roll on Lord. I'd just have to figure out some way to justify those charges without dragging your sister into the spotlight."

"Fine," the immortal muttered. "Just try not to drag this out too long, okay? The sooner we can take Lord down, the better off we'll all be."

Lucy nodded. "No arguments there. I'll do my best, Alex. That's all I can promise." With that, the lawyer turned her attention to the monitors, where they could see Maggie still working her magic on Lena's assistant. "You've definitely got a keeper there, Danvers," she grinned. "Think she'd be willing to come work for us now that she's left the NCPD?"

"Already made my pitch. She's not interested in joining the DEO on any sort of permanent basis. I kind of think she's hoping that maybe she can get her job back once Lord is dealt with and someone reasonable is put in charge of the police. But she's also looking into getting a Private Investigator's license, just in case."

"Fair enough," Lucy shrugged. Before either of them could say anything further, an alarm started blaring – one Alex recognized as coming from the med bay.

"Shit!" she spat. "Tell Maggie to meet me in Kara's room when she's done." Without another word, Alex sprinted through the halls back to her sister. Kara's body was shaking like she was having some kind of seizure, and Lena was attempting to fiddle with one of the machines attached to the Kryptonian. Alex grabbed the CEO and shoved her back. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"I was just trying to help!"

"Well, don't. Leave it to those who actually know what the fuck they're doing." Pushing past Lena, Alex grabbed a syringe from one of the supply drawers and injected a dose of phenobarbital into Kara's IV to calm the seizures. Once they stopped, the immortal started looking over the various machine readouts and running tests to figure out what had just happened.

"Is she going to be okay?" Lena ventured, far less calm and collected than she usually appeared.

Alex frowned. "Her body is starting to reject the medication we've been giving her to keep her under. We knew this might happen eventually. Human medicine and Kryptonian healing don't always mix."

"Is that bad?"

"If it had happened last week, I'd say yes. But at this point, her body has healed enough that the coma may no longer be necessary. Perhaps this is just her way of telling us she's ready to wake up." As she spoke, Alex made adjustments to the machine feeding Kara the sedatives. Normally, the patient would have to be weaned off the drugs gradually, but under the circumstances it was probably less dangerous to just cut them off. Alex wasn't sure Kara could handle more seizures. "Now, we just have to wait." She dropped down into her usual chair, not even complaining when the youngest Luthor did likewise on the other side of the bed.

Alex must have dozed off, because the next thing she knew, someone was poking her in the arm. She cracked her eyes open to find Maggie standing over her. "Wake up!" the ex-detective hissed.

"Wha…?"

"Look!" Maggie pointed to the bed, where Kara was clearly starting to stir. Lena was already standing at Kara's bedside, and – not to be outdone – Alex stood up on her side, moving next to her sister's head. After several long moments, the Kryptonian finally opened her eyes.

"Lena?" she rasped, turning towards the CEO. Seeing her sister turn to someone else – a Luthor, no less – before her made the elder Danvers feel as though she'd been stabbed right through the heart yet again.

Seemingly oblivious to Alex's inner turmoil, the youngest Luthor smiled, brushing the hair away from Kara's face. "I'm here, Kara."

"W-what happened?"

Lena sighed. "Someone tried to kill you with Kryptonite bullets. You've been in a coma for nearly two weeks. Alex…she saved your life. I think she missed her calling as a surgeon." The CEO met Alex's eyes as she spoke, her expression one of pure gratitude and relief, and for a moment the immortal couldn't bring herself to hate the youngest Luthor. Kara followed Lena's gaze with a look that Alex couldn't quite read, despite how well she knew her sister.

"Alex?"

"Yeah," she smiled, brushing her fingers along Kara's cheek. "No way I was letting you die on my watch. Mom would never let me hear the end of it."

Kara actually laughed a bit, then winced, a pained expression crossing her features. "How bad was it?"

Alex sighed. "Bad. You were damned lucky that none of the bullets went near your heart. As it was, we nearly lost you several times on the table." Her voice caught, and she quickly brushed away the tears that had slipped out before composing herself. "Most of the damage seems to have healed, but you're still going to have to take it easy for a while so the process can finish. Though with Lord on the warpath, maybe that's a good thing."

"Warpath? What's going on?" She looked to Lena, who shook her head.

"Perhaps I should let you two talk."

Kara pouted. "You don't have to leave, Lena."

"It's okay," Lena smiled. "I have an assistant to reprimand, anyway."

Alex's eyebrow shot up. "Reprimand?"

"You know what they say about keeping one's enemies close." She leaned down and kissed Kara on the cheek, making the Kryptonian's eyes light up in a way Alex hadn't seen in quite some time. The elder Danvers still wasn't sure exactly what was going on between the two, but it was getting harder to argue against letting it play out. "I'll be back later," Lena assured Kara. With a slight nod to Alex and Maggie, the CEO turned and left. A moment later, the ex-detective pulled her girlfriend into a quick kiss.

"I'm going to go, too…make sure Winn isn't going too crazy with our project."

"Okay," Alex nodded. She kissed Maggie one more time before letting her girlfriend follow Lena out the door. Without the other two women to act as buffers, the Danvers sisters lapsed into a somewhat awkward silence for several long moments before Kara finally spoke up.

"What's going on, Alex?" she asked softly. The immortal sat herself down on the edge of the bed, taking her sister's hand. She half-expected Kara to object to the contact, but the Kryptonian didn't complain once.

"We can't prove it yet, but I'm positive that Mayor Lord was behind that attack. The shooters were hired guns, Lena's assistant was tricked into tipping him off about your location, and on that same night, Lord brought some of his friends on the police force to the bar Maggie and I had gone to – the one Lucy's uncle owns – and had them arrest me on a bullshit assault charge and haul me off to jail. By the time I got out, you had already been brought to the DEO in critical condition. And right before the officers shoved me into the squad car, Lord said he was trying to send you a message about crossing him. I'm guessing the arrest and the loads of red tape I had to deal with to get released were to make sure I couldn't interfere."

Kara frowned. "So Maxwell Lord tried to have me killed because I wouldn't play his stupid game? I'm guessing I missed his deadline."

"Yeah," Alex nodded. "He's been on TV crowing about it almost every day since. And because we can't go public with what actually happened without compromising your identity, the people of National City are convinced that you chose to abandon them rather than follow the law."

"I have to go," the Kryptonian muttered, attempting to sit up. Alex quickly left her perch on the bed and moved to settle her sister back down.

"Sorry, Sis, but you're in no condition to walk out of here today. We don't even know if you still have your powers." Kara let loose with a burst of heat vision, narrowly missing her sister's foot. Alex glared. "Okay, so the powers are there…some of them, at least. But your body is still healing, and even if it wasn't, you don't just get up from a coma and walk out like nothing happened. I don't care what planet you're from." As she spoke, Kara tried once again to sit up and ended up crying out in pain. She dropped back down to the bed, looking at Alex in confusion. The elder Danvers immediately moved to the other side, gently rolling her sister onto her right side and lifting the hospital gown. There weren't any marks left on Kara's flesh, but Alex remembered the surgery as though it were yesterday. "Tell me when this hurts," she instructed, pressing against her sister's left kidney. Kara yelped almost immediately, and Alex pulled away, returning her sister to her previous position on her back.

"What's wrong with me? Why am I still hurting?"

Alex sighed. "Most of the bullets we removed were intact, but the one that struck your kidney shattered on impact and we had to dig around to retrieve all of the fragments – almost a dozen. I'm 99% certain we got them all, but if your condition doesn't improve soon we may have to go back in and take another look."

"Are you saying I might still have Kryptonite inside of me?" Kara frowned.

"I'm saying that it's possible a small sliver may have escaped our notice during the original surgery. Hopefully, that's not the case, but we still need to keep an eye on things for at least a few more days to be sure."

The younger Danvers sighed in apparent resignation. "Fine." She reached up to scratch at her nose and seemed surprised to find something coming out of it. "What the…?"

"We had to feed you somehow," Alex explained. "Hang on." The immortal carefully helped her sister sit up, then removed the tape holding the feeding tube in place as gently as she could. Setting the used tape aside, Alex grasped the tube itself. "I need you to take a deep breath for me," she instructed. "Nice and slow." Nodding, Kara breathed in, and as she released that breath the elder Danvers drew the tube out and set it down with the discarded tape. "Good job," Alex grinned as she helped her sister lay back down. "Now, it'll be a few days before you can have anything like pizza and potstickers, but if you're good I might be persuaded to bring you a chocolate milkshake from that ice cream place you like on 6th and Siegel."

Kara raised an eyebrow. "Is that a bribe?"

"More like an olive branch," the immortal nodded, sitting on the bed once more. "I really am sorry about that whole holding cell deal, Kar. For all my good intentions, I still couldn't protect you from Lord when it counted. Turns out he didn't even need provocation to go after you."

The younger Danvers stared at her big sister for several moments before shaking her head with a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry too, Lexie," she admitted. "Angry as I was about being locked up, the more I think about it, the more I realize you were right. Wrong in execution, but right on everything else. If I'd gone after the Mayor in that state…if I'd let my anger get the best of me and killed him…I would've regretted it for the rest of my life. He may be an arrogant jackass with a god complex, but whether he lives or dies isn't my call to make. So…thanks, I guess."

"Anytime, Sis. But I'm curious…what brought on the sudden change of heart? Before the attack, you were pretty firm on giving me the silent treatment."

"Lena."

"Of course," Alex muttered.

With a slight roll of her eyes, Kara continued as though her sister hadn't spoken. "We got to talking about our families, and Lena pointed out some of the horrible things Lex has done, supposedly in the name of protecting her. You may not be perfect, Lexie, but after hearing her story…well…I guess I realized just how lucky I am to be a Danvers. At least you've never used the excuse of protecting me to disguise more sinister motives. Your intentions have always been pure." She sighed. "Point is, after talking to Lena, I realized that I was really mad at myself for letting my temper get the best of me that night, and I was taking it out on you for trying to keep me in check because it was easier than admitting how dangerously close I'd come to losing it. If I hadn't been shot, I probably would've gone by your apartment to talk after dropping Lena back at her penthouse. And I hadn't answered your texts because I thought it would be better to break the silence face-to-face."

"And yet Lena called Winn instead of me when you went down."

"She didn't know I was thinking about going to talk to you that night. I was going to ask her advice once we were someplace more private."

"Right," Alex nodded. Kara reached towards her, so the elder Danvers helped her little sister sit up long enough for a hug. She felt a couple of ribs crack when Kara squeezed – clearly, at least some of her superstrength had returned – but managed to keep from alerting the Kryptonian to that fact. A few temporarily broken ribs were well worth it to have things back to normal between them, more or less. "So…" she continued, once Kara was laying down again. "You and Lena. Anything I need to know?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Kara muttered, looking away.

It was Alex's turn to roll her eyes. "Sure you don't."

"We're friends, that's all. Just friends."

Shaking her head, the elder Danvers carefully nudged her sister over enough that she could stretch out on the bed next to her. She lay facing the younger Danvers, propping her head up on her arm so that she was looking down. "I saw the way you looked when she kissed your cheek. Last time you were anywhere close to that happy was when you thought you wanted you-know-who, back when you first put on the cape."

"Does it matter?" Kara sighed. "There's no way someone like her would even be remotely interested in someone like me."

"Don't sell yourself short, Kar. You're one of the most awesome people I know, with or without the cape. And if Lena wasn't interested, she wouldn't have been in here every single day, driving me up the fucking wall while waiting for you to recover."

Hope filled Kara's eyes once more, making it even harder for Alex to hate the youngest Luthor. "Really? Every day?"

"Yep." Alex sighed. "If you're worried about me judging you for liking Lena, don't. We had this talk back in high school, when I came out to you and you couldn't understand why it was such a big deal because, on Krypton, gender didn't matter when it came to finding a mate. I know about Barbara (sort of), not to mention the ginormous crush you had on Cat Grant before you started working for her."

"Yeah," Kara chuckled, wincing a bit when the pain in her side reasserted itself. "Having her as a boss kind of killed that whole thing. Don't get me wrong…she's an amazing person and an awesome mentor. Not to mention a friend to both identities. It's just hard to think of her like that now that I've gotten to really know her."

"Of course. Anyway….if you are interested in Lena like that, I say go for it. Screw the whole dating moratorium."

"So you don't have any problem with me possibly being involved with a Luthor? Hypothetically speaking, of course."

"Never said that," Alex frowned. "But if she makes you happy – hypothetically speaking – I'll try my best not to strangle her in her sleep. Though she and I will definitely be having the shovel talk – Danvers style."

"Can't we just skip that part?"

The immortal shook her head. "It's my duty as your big sister to ensure that all potential romantic partners understand the consequences of hurting you. Especially when that person is related to Lex fucking Luthor."

"Lena isn't Lex, Alex. She's a kind, compassionate, decent person who just happens to share a name with a criminal mastermind. Lena isn't responsible for her brother's crimes any more than Winn is for what his father has done."

Alex opened her mouth to argue, only to shut it again immediately. Like it or not, Kara had a point. "Fine," she finally muttered. "But she's still getting the shovel talk. That part's mandatory."

"Whatever," Kara grumbled. "So…anything else I need to catch up on? What's going on at CatCo? Is Snapper pissed about me missing so much time?"

With a sigh, Alex got up from the bed and went over to a drawer to retrieve something. "This came for you while you were out," she said, helping Kara sit up a bit and handing her a sealed envelope bearing the CatCo logo. The Kryptonian opened the envelope and read through the contents several times before incinerating the paper. "I'm guessing the news isn't good."

"James fired me. Officially, it's because I haven't been coming in and didn't give any notice."

"Bullshit," Alex spat. "I called Snapper myself and told him you were in the fucking hospital." She shook her head. "So what's the real reason?"

"Because I failed to comply with that stupid registration law. He says that as the person in charge of the Alien Registration Agency, he can't knowingly have an unregistered alien working at CatCo." Kara sighed. "Please tell me you found a way to get our James back."

"Sorry, Kar. We're trying, but disabling that fucking 'technosite' without killing him is way easier said than done. I've found a way to identify the infected even before the 'technosite' is active, and if we can convince one of them to come in voluntarily I may be able to figure out how to disable it. We'll start looking as soon as you're better. I promise."

"Okay," Kara nodded, stifling a yawn.

"Looks like someone needs her rest."

The Kryptonian shook her head. "No way. I just spent the past two weeks in a coma."

"Which isn't the same thing as normal sleep. Listen to your body, Sis. If it wants rest, then rest. Fighting it will only mess with your healing process. Do you want me to give you something?"

"I don't want sleeping drugs. But I wouldn't say no to something for the pain in my kidney."

"Coming right up." Alex grabbed the appropriate medication and loaded it into a machine that would control the dosage. She swapped that machine into place where the one with the coma drugs had been and hooked it into Kara's IV, then explained to her sister how to use it. "I'm going to go now…make sure Maggie and Winn aren't bankrupting the agency with their mystery project. I'll be back to check on you later." She kissed Kara on the forehead and left the room, almost running into Lena on the way through. Alex immediately grabbed the CEO and backed her into the nearest wall out of Kara's sight. "Let's get one thing straight, Luthor. I'm willing to tolerate you being around my sister because, for some unknown reason, you seem to make her happy. But if you hurt Kara in any way, you'll find out firsthand exactly how well-versed I am in the art of inflicting pain. Am I making myself clear?"

"Perfectly," Lena nodded, seemingly unfazed by the threat. "May I see her now?"

Alex grudgingly released her grip. "For a little while. But she needs her rest."

"Of course."

"Enjoy the rest of your visit," the immortal grumbled, watching the youngest Luthor move to her sister's bedside. Reminding herself that Lena wasn't their enemy – not yet, anyway – she somewhat reluctantly turned and headed for the R&D lab to check up on her girlfriend.

TBC (See you Friday!)