Maggie had a full blown panic attack. And Kara had no idea why.
She looked at the doctor hopelessly, but even he seemed stumped as he threw a look over his shoulder to the woman sitting on the plastic chair. "Ma'am, do you know this woman?"
"I-I've never seen her…" The woman replied shakily.
Maggie was thrashing about, trying to get out of the wheelchair, but Kara's grip on her good shoulder was too strong. "Maggie, calm down, please. I'm taking you home."
"P-Please…" Maggie sobbed. "Get me away from her… Please…"
Kara nodded, and didn't hesitate in taking the detective in her arms carefully, ensuring that her head was tucked into Kara's chest, and that her bad arm would be protected during the flight.
Throwing an apologetic over her shoulder at the woman, she ran outside, and launched herself into the sky.
Leaving the three people in the waiting room behind, all baffled at the scene that had just unfolded. The doctor cleared his throat awkwardly. "I'm sorry, madam. She's been through a lot this evening."
"It's fine…" The woman whispered, shaking her head. Then, she looked back up at him. "Do you know anything about my father? I was on my way to visit him when I got a call that he was admitted here."
"I don't know anything about his condition, but I'll get you some info."
She nodded gratefully, as she watched him disappear.
The flight took slightly longer than Kara would have planned, because she was too scared of hurting Maggie by flying too fast. She heard the woman groan in her arms, and tried to comfort her the entire flight.
She hoped that J'onn would have sensed her distress and gotten everything ready by the time she was there. Because the only place she'd possibly know people that could treat alien burns, was the DEO itself.
By the time she landed on the balcony, Maggie had passed out. Due to pain, or exhaustion, Kara didn't know. But at least her suspicions had been right, there was a med team waiting for her.
Along with a concerned looking J'onn.
"Supergirl." He greeted her in his deep voice. "What happened?!"
"Alex called me. She-… They were attacked by an alien. Maggie got burned, a-and Alex is losing a leg and…" Kara was rambling nervously. She couldn't make sense of it.
The next thing she felt was J'onn's arms wrapping around her. "Calm down. Deep breaths, remember?"
She nodded, and willed herself to take three deep breaths – something Alex had taught her when they were young. She had to stay professional. It was the only way to help them.
"There was an alien. He sprayed poisonous acid, and Maggie got hit in the shoulder. The hospital said they didn't know how to treat it, so I brought her here. Alex is still there."
J'onn nodded. "What alien was it? Did you fight it?"
"I knocked it out, I don't know what else happened. I had to fly Alex to a hospital, she was bleeding out. It wasn't teleporting, it couldn't fly… It looked nearly human, except for a really broad smile." Kara listed off. She was stumped. There had to be hundreds of aliens fitting that description.
"It doesn't ring a bell." J'onn admitted. "…But that doesn't mean we won't find it. We'll take care of Maggie, and analyze the burn pattern, maybe it can help us. You should go back to Alex, I don't want her to be alone."
"Me neither." It broke Kara's heart to know that Alex and Maggie had been through hell, and that they would wake up on opposite sides of the country too. But their wellbeing and safety was more important.
And she needed to know what Alex knew about the alien.
So with another promise from J'onn that he would help Maggie, and keep Kara posted every step of the way, she launched herself back into the sky.
"I have an update." The doctor walked back into the waiting room, making the woman stand up to face him.
He took a seat next to her, folding his hands together. "Your father was shot in the abdomen. The bullet went through, so we didn't have to retrieve it, but it did perforate his stomach, and he lost a lot of blood. The woman making the 911 call did say there was a man shot, but it took police long to find him."
"So…" The woman frowned. It sounded like he was trying to brace her for bad news.
The doctor sighed. "We managed to stop the bleeding, but the risk of an internal hemorrhage is high, so we have to keep observing. We're keeping him comfortable, but… there is a chance that your father will not make it through the night."
The woman's shoulders sagged as she attempted to take in the news. "C-can I see him?"
He nodded, motioning for her to follow him.
As she got up, she cleared her throat. "You said there was a woman making a 911 call about him?"
"Yes, apparently. A detective for the National City police called it in."
"National City…" The woman frowned, connecting the city to the scene from earlier. "Supergirl was in here. Was… Was that the woman? In the wheelchair? The detective?"
"Well, she might have been." The doctor nodded as he led her through a maze of corridors. "She and another woman were admitted shortly before your father."
"And he was shot." The woman clenched her hands into fists, connecting the dots. "With a gun. And a police detective called it in…"
"I don't know the details of the case, I'm afraid." The doctor seemed oblivious to the rage that was filling the woman, making her see red. That detective had shot him. He may not have been the perfect father, but he didn't deserve to die at the hands of police violence.
No wonder that woman – whether she was the detective or not – had been terrified of being faced with the consequences of their actions.
"I want to see her."
"The detective? I'm afraid that's not possible."
"Then I want to see the other woman." The woman was decisive. She had to know what the hell happened. "If my father is going to die, I at least insist on knowing what happened!"
"There will be a police investigation, ma'am." The doctor tried to calm her down as he stopped at a door. "You'll know all the details soon enough. This is your father's room. He's not here right now, as he's still recovering from the surgery, but they'll bring him here soon, you can wait for him."
She thanked him weakly and slipped into the room, but watched him as he walked away through the corridor, that seemed otherwise deserted.
Checking if anybody was paying attention to her, she walked over to the nurse station on the floor, seeing one young-looking nurse sitting on a chair. She tried to look casual as she walked past the glass window, moving to the other side of the corridor.
She slipped into an empty hospital room, checking if there were any cameras, and reached for the 'help' button on the side of the bed. Buzzing it, she ran out of the room, and fished her phone out of her pocket, pretending to be taking a call while pacing through the hallway.
She passed the young nurse taking her time to get to the room in distress, and sped up the second she was behind her. She didn't have a lot of time.
She ran into the nurse's station and activated the computer. Recent admissions…
Bingo. Three of them.
Her father, some woman named Margaret Sawyer and some woman named Alexandra Danvers. Sawyer had been released according to one quick click, so it was Alexandra Danvers left here. Currently in surgery, being moved to room 52.
That was all she needed to know, as she closed the window and slipped out of the station, her phone latched back onto her ear as she headed back into her father's room.
Whoever Alexandra Danvers was, she'd better have a good explanation as to why she or her friend had shot her father. And if she didn't… She would pay.
When Maggie woke up again, she was met with a bright light shining in her eyes. She winced against it, a pounding in her head making it hard to get her bearings.
Someone above her talked – way too loud. "She's awake."
"Maggie." The detective craned her head up to see J'onn standing by her side. Though her vision wasn't all that sharp, her face morphed into a weak smile at the familiar face. She was back. Everything was finally going to be okay.
"Maggie, can you hear me?"
She flinched again, clearing her throat weakly. "C-could you turn off the light?"
"We're taking a look at your shoulder, to see how bad it is. I can't switch it off right now." She felt him take her hand in hers. "But I'm here, okay?"
She nodded, clutching his hand, and wincing at the movement of her head.
"Do you remember what happened?"
Maggie swallowed thickly, trying to distract herself from the pain by talking. It usually worked whenever she was emotional after a case. Talking herself through it. "T-there uh… There was a bear. We were hiking, it made us fall down a slope. A-Alex…" Her eyes widened. "Alex…"
"She's going to be okay. I don't know any details, but she's stable." J'onn interrupted quickly, before Maggie could get worked up.
"… She was hurt. Then there was this guy, Laurent – the owner of the cabin…"
Maggie proceeded to retell the entire story as much as she could. J'onn had the mind to start recording the story so she wouldn't have to tell it twice.
Near the end, when Maggie was telling him how she'd seen Alex lying motionlessly in Kara's arms, she got overrun by emotions. Thick tears streaming down her face. J'onn tried to comfort her, but Maggie was in another place entirely. "A-and I saw Alice… At the hospital. She was there, sitting there, I'm… I think I'm going crazy."
"It might be a side effect of the burns, Maggie. It was likely something venomous, maybe it causes hallucinations."
Maggie took comfort in that fact. He was right, it was probably just her mind playing tricks on her. There had been nobody there, it was just her body coping with the trauma.
"I'm going to get a team on analyzing your burns. In the meantime, there's not much you can do, so rest…" He looked at her sternly. "…I'll send your statement to the local PD over there, to put in their records. And I'll try to get an update on Alex."
"Thanks, J'onn." Maggie whispered gratefully. He nodded, and switched the light above her off, leaving her in near darkness. "Call out if you need anything. I'll be here."
Maggie knew that she wasn't going to sleep. There were too many thoughts running through her head. But instead, she tried to focus on the fact that Alex was going to be okay. That the nightmare would be over soon.
And that was enough to slightly ease her conscience.
Finally, Kara heard the news that Alex was out of surgery, and recovering.
She was quickly sent to the right floor, and opened the door to room 52. Alex's room.
Kara had seen a lot of gruesome things in her life. Crimes that she'd failed to stop, people that she'd failed to save… Not every Supergirl rescue had resulted in success. She'd seen dead people. She'd seen horrible injuries.
But nothing prepared her for the blow to the gut of seeing her sister lying in a bed, the sheet going flat where her right leg and foot should have been.
Kara felt like she couldn't breathe.
And she vowed to kill the alien with her bare hands once she'd get alone time with him.
But for now, she settled on racing to her sister's side, stroking her hair and whispering about how everything was going to be okay.
Because if she'd repeat it enough, Kara hoped that she herself was going to be able to believe it too.
After a few minutes of silence, a weak groan came from the bed, and Kara's eyes wetted with new unshed tears as she watched her sister wake up, her eyes fluttering, before opening completely.
"Hey…" Kara smiled, trying to stay strong. "It's okay, you're safe now."
"Mhmm…" Alex groaned again, a wince overtaking her features. "Hurts…"
"What hurts?" Kara leaned in closer to push a loose strand of hair back behind Alex's ear.
"My leg…"
A second punch to the gut. Kara was speechless. She'd googled 'below the knee amputations', and some of the sites had mentioned something called 'phantom pain', but it broke Kara's heart to see her sister in pain – that she shouldn't feel at all.
She watched in horror as Alex moved her right hand up, and tried to reach for it to stop her, but it was too late.
Alex touched her leg lower and lower… until she finally stopped touching her leg.
Way too soon.
Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open.
If Kara had felt helpless in the waiting room, then this was absolute insanity. Because she knew that there was nothing she could say right now that could help her sister process this.
As she reached for the help button, there was a knock on the door. Grateful that somebody was coming to help Alex properly, she sprinted to the door and opened it.
She was surprised to see the woman from earlier, in the waiting room, standing in the doorway. With a smile on her face that seemed a little too forced and polite to be natural. Yet Kara dismissed it, as the woman was under a lot of pressure waiting for a loved one to be alright.
"Hi, sorry to bother you, Supergirl. But I think the woman from the reception – Rita? - was asking for you. Something about health forms."
"Oh, yes. Of course." Kara smiled weakly. "...But she just woke up, I need to get help first."
"I'll stay here with her and get a doctor. My father is still in surgery. It's the least I can do to repay you for everything you do. I'll make sure she has everything she needs."
"Thank you so much. I'm sorry, I didn't get your name…?"
"It's Alice." The woman smiled. "I'll take care of her, don't worry. You go fill out the forms."
Kara nodded gratefully, and walked off into the corridor.
Alice took a deep breath, as she closed the door behind her, finally alone with the woman that had tried to kill her father.
"Hello, miss Danvers."