Hey everybody! As promised, I haven't given up on you or this story. And as usual, my misfortune usually turns out to your benefit. I've had a massive sinus situation that put me out of work for a couple days. BUT, it gives me a few hours to write for all of us. I'll do my best, as always. Enjoy! – JAG

Alex apprehensively moved to the side to let Peter in. She would always protect her sister, but at the end of the day, Kara was an adult who could make her own decisions. If she believed Peter was a real threat, Alex would not have let him inside. But she trusts J'onn with her life, and with her sister's. If he read this guy's mind and came up on the positive end, then she had to accept that.

Peter stepped through the door past Alex with his head down. He nodded, but didn't look up at her. He wouldn't be able to stand the shame he felt if he had seen the disappointment and anger in the agent's eyes. As he glanced forward, he moved slowly toward the glint of blonde hair he caught over the arm of the couch. He took as steadying deep breath and he rounded to the front of the couch to see a tired and weak looking Kara. She was so far away from the invincible hero he so admired, but still the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen.

Kara opened her eyes as she heard him stop in front of her. She forced herself up to a seated position using her arms. She had pins and needles everywhere, and opened and closed her fists a few times as a reflex. Kara looked up at Peter for the first time since she'd see him as a blur on the floor of his own apartment. He was knelt down to one knee about a foot away from her with his eyes fixed firmly on the floor. It was as if he was deeply studying something unseen on the carpet. She stared for a moment, she didn't know how long, but eventually she snapped out of it. She knew she'd have to engage first. She could see he'd panicked and spaced as to what he whatever he had prepared to say. She heard his rapid heartbeat and breathing.

"Look at me. I need to look at your eyes." She started. Peter jolted from the sound of her voice. He was terrified, but he complied. As he looked up, he saw the strength he remembered. The heat of her gaze bore into him, as if she was using her heat vision. He didn't know what to say. He had blanked completely. All he had been thinking over the last day or so was what he'd say to her if he was ever allowed to lay eyes on her again. Now it was all gone. Every apology, and penance.

"Hey…um…. Hi Kara." Was all he could squeak out. Kara nodded toward him as her own silent greeting. She had been staring into his eyes, feeling him out. Trying to read his mind. To feel out his intentions.

"Can you guys leave give us a minute please?" She asked the others in the room, without turned away from him. Peter glanced at them, and then back to Kara.

"Kar…I don't th…" Alex started, but J'onn put his hand on his agent's shoulder to pacify her concerns.

"It's ok Alex, you have to trust me." J'onn insisted.

Alex huffed in frustration and anxiety. Everyone else had already cleared out. She finally relented.

"We'll be right outside. Just call out." Alex said in a soft, but warning tone.

As Kara heard the door click closed, she suddenly did something even she wasn't expecting. She smacked Peter right at his jaw line. Not too hard. Not with superstrength. She hadn't been thinking about doing it or anything. It just…happened. His face turned with the slap and stayed in place. Turned a half-turn to the right. It wasn't that he was shocked, but he wasn't entirely expecting it either. Kara had also shocked herself. She had never hit a human out of anger. At least not someone who wasn't about to inflict harm on another person. Her hands flew to her mouth in surprise.

"I…I'm…I didn't mean to do that. I'm sorry." Kara said through her hands. Peter just shook his head and looked at the ground again.

"I deserved it. I deserve anything you could ever do to me. Kara, I'm so sorry. Wha..what I did…it's…" he took a shaky breath. "It's inexcusable." He finally looked back up at her eyes. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears. Tears of her own shame for striking out at who she knew was a victim. A HUMAN victim. She knew in her heart that if someone had threatened Alex, or anyone that she loved for that matter, she'd do anything to save them. She has had those thoughts in the past. When Alex was kidnapped, or when Lena was in it deep with Edge. She had serious thoughts about killing the bastards who did horrible things to the people that she loved. Luckily it never came to that, but she can't be sure she wouldn't have done it. Her vow not to kill be damned.

"Peter, you were a victim. You were acting under duress. Yes, you did…horrible things to me…but you also saved my life. More than once. And for that I'm grateful." Kara choked out. It was hard for her to say, even though she knew it was true in her heart. She was still hurting, and still afraid of things that weren't there. Things that only she saw. And though it wasn't Peter's fault, he HAD done it to her. Albeit unintentionally.

"Don't…pretend. You're angry, and you have every right to be. I'm…I'm a coward." Peter admitted.

"I am angry. And I'm hurt, and betrayed. I feel all of those things. But I'm not angry at YOU. That slap notwithstanding. I think my body just needed to strike out at something real. Something I could see and touch. You were at the wrong place at the wrong time I guess." Kara admitted. "But I see you. I believe that you are a good person. My friend believes you're a good person. And that's good enough for me." Kara paused to really consider her next words. "I forgive you."

And with that, the two tears that had been waiting in her watery eyes finally fell down her cheeks. Peter let out one choked sob, and subconsciously reached to hold onto Kara's hand for support to ground himself. The nerve endings in her hand lit up like something hand burned her skin. She flinched, but didn't pull away. She'd have to accept that the pain may never go away, she could only hope that it would subside some in time. Peter felt the flinch, and almost fell backwards pulling away. He was horrified at the fact that he'd possibly hurt the woman in front of him that he cared so deeply about in such a short amount of time.

"Hey, hey, it's alright. It…it's kind of my new reality now. So, I'm…gonna to have to get used to it sometime." Kara reached out to grab his hand back. She now needed grounded as well. The whole conversation had gotten very emotional, VERY quickly. Even Kara surprised herself with some of the things she said and felt. Peter hadn't said much, but to her, he didn't have to. She could see right through him now. The man wore his heart on his sleeve. She wondered how she'd missed the fear and anxiety before, when they'd first met. In hindsight, all the signs were right there. She supposed she had never expected the man who saved her life had also been somewhat responsible for the attack to begin with. Kara shook her head slightly at the thought, not responsible. A pawn. He was being used just as all the other innocent people and aliens had been. The real assholes were Lex Luthor and that other guy, who's name she never quite caught. But he was dead now either way, and she was grateful that Peter had made it out of the DEO unscathed. A thought suddenly popped into her head.

"Hey! How's your brother?! Alex said that they had moved him. Is he ok?" Kara stumbled, remembering how much Peter had been through.

"Yeah, the uh…they moved him to a different secure facility. He was put in a protected unit, in a different state. Hopefully Lex Luthor's network can't get to him. But we just have to pray that he'll…" Peter trailed off.

"He'll be ok. The DEO will do everything in their power to protect him from that monster." Kara assured. "Speaking of, I better call Alex back in before her head explodes outside with worry." Kara smiled. "You guys can come back in, we're all good in here."

Peter smiled just slightly. His first smile since that fateful day at his apartment. But when he looked up at Kara's face, the smile fell clean off into horror.

As Alex and J'onn walked in, Kara looked up to greet them with a smile. But she saw none other that Lex Luthor himself, walking side by side with his mother, Lillian. She whipped her eyes back to Peter, and saw his eyes turn to fear at her expression. As fast as her superspeed could move them, she pulled Peter behind her back protectively.

"STAY BACK! I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU COME ANY CLOSER!" Kara yelled threateningly toward the man and woman who were responsible for some much of her family's pain and suffering. Not to mention all the innocent people they threatened into doing horrible acts. Her eyes glowed with her heat vision, ready to strike at the first threat.

"Whoa Kara, what's going on!?" Peter yelled. Kara just put her hand behind her over his arm to keep him behind her.

"This is them! The ones responsible for putting your brother in danger! STAY BACK!" Kara warned.

Peter looked past Kara at a very confused, and horrified Alex and J'onn. He saw no threat. He'd heard that Kara had suffered hallucinations due to the exposure of the powder, but seeing it close up was heartbreaking.

"Kara! Kara it's me, it's Alex and J'onn! You're ok! Listen to my voice, it's not real! Whatever you're seeing, WHOever you're seeing. It's not real. It's us, it's your family! You're safe."

Kara was confused. She had let her guard down. She had lost her grip. She could clearly see Lex and Lillian Luthor in front of her, just standing inside the door, smiling smugly. But she heard her sister. Her sister was telling her she was OK. Logically, Kara knew that she had been having hallucinations, but this seemed so real. 'Just like the others seemed real', she thought to herself. Just when she was about to turn off her heat vision, she saw Kal fly in from Cat's balcony. Except he wasn't the Kal she remembered. His face was swollen, and an unnatural gray. His suit was torn, and was riddled in bloodstains. His eyes were glazed over white, with blood dripping down his face. Her heat vision fired up again, ready to strike.

"KARA! LISTEN! IT'S IN YOUR HEAD! IT'S THE VIRUS! YOU'RE SAFE! PLEASE KARA!" Alex said firmly, she didn't want to shout and startle her sister more, but she needed Kara to hear her. She needed to break through.

Peter suddenly stepped into Kara's line of sight, between her, and Alex and J'onn.

"Peter! Get behind me!" Kara went to pull his body around again, but he avoided her grasp.

"Hey! Look at my eyes! You were just looking at them 2 minutes ago! Remember? You said you saw me. Do you see me now!? Do you trust me? Do you trust your sister, and your friends!?" Peter pleaded.

Kara held on to him protectively, still on guard, but she nodded yes. She did trust him.

"OK, trust me when I say to listen to your sister. Listen to her voice. She's right, there is no threat. Nobody is here but us. Me, you, your sister, Director Henshaw, and apparently…Superman." Peter chanced a quick glance toward Metropolis's caped crusader, but immediately went back to holding Kara's gaze. She was crying now. Tears were streaming down her face. The skin around her eyes was still glowing hot, like she was fighting every cell in her body to not be blasting her fears to dust.

Alex slowly risked taking a couple of steps forward, with her hands raised nonthreateningly

"That's good Kara, just calm down. Listen to me, you KNOW me. Listen to my heartbeat. You said once that they are all unique, like each human's own personal 'heart snowflake'. Do you remember? I laughed so hard at how cheesy you were being. But then we started using that term every time someone we know would be walking up that you knew. Before they even knocked on the door, or whatever, you'd lean over into my ear, and tell me who was there. And I'd whisper back 'heart snowflake.' It was like a sister secret code. Who else would know that but me? Please, Kara. Come back to us." Alex pleaded. She stepped forward little by little, getting closer to her sister. She could tell from Kara's face that she had listened to her. Kara was listening to her heartbeat.

Kara was so scared, and her mind was jumbled. She tried to just focus on Alex's voice, although it was coming out of Lillian Luthor's mouth. She heard Alex tell her cheesy, embarrassing story from when she was a kid. She would normally have gotten pissed at Alex for revealing such an intimate detail of their relationship. They never told ANYONE else about stupid 'heart snowflake'. It was theirs, just like a lot of things were just theirs. Her's and Alex's. She listened like the voice said. She listened to all the heartbeats in the room. She knew Kal's unique Kryptonian heartbeat. It was like hers, different than a human's. She heard the intense pounding in Peter's chest right in front of her, it was slower than normal for someone in distress. A sign of his physical fitness. The she heard J'onn's, his Martian heartbeat very unique comparatively. Finally, Alex. The quick flutter of a smaller human, clean beating from her constant training. But the micro-fraction of a natural arrythmia she's had since they were kids. She assumed her sister was born with it. It wasn't pronounced enough to pick up on any of Earth's human made heart-monitoring medical devices, but she could always tell. She could always hear her sister's heart, and it always soothed her. Since she had her first nightmares on Earth, in the Danvers' home. She'd wake up, and the first thing she'd hear was Alex's slow, sleeping heartbeat. Always calm and steady. Kara remembered using the unique beat to focus on the present, and to be able to coax herself back to sleep on her new planet.

Kara closed her eyes, and blocked everything else out. Anything she saw, anything she heard, and focus only on her sister's 'heart snowflake'. She took deep breaths in and out, mimicking those of Peter in front of her. He was scared, she was scaring him. She was scaring all of them. She was scaring herself. She had to get out of there. Had to be alone. Tears fell from her face, which was flushed with shame. She opened her eyes, and saw everyone in the room. She saw Alex, and J'onn, Peter in front of her, holding onto her arms, and she turned around to see Kal. Kal who looked just as normal and healthy as ever.

She was so embarrassed, and ashamed. She couldn't stop what was happening to her, and she'd almost hurt the people she loved the most. Kara shook from Peter's grasp, and covered her eyes with her fists. She screamed in anger and frustration, at herself, and at her situation.

Alex went to move forward again, but J'onn tugged her arm to coax her into holding her position. He could tell Kara needed some time.

"Peter, why don't we go get you settled back into your apartment. We'll come back in a little bit when we're done." J'onn commanded. "Alex, I need you to come with us to discuss some of the ground rules of Peter's release."

Alex whipped around, "J'onn are you kiddin-", she was cut off by Superman himself.

"I'll stay here Alex. I need to catch up with my little cousin for a bit. Can you give us a couple hours? I'd owe you one….Well….one more." Clark pleaded. He figured it would make Kara more comfortable to be around someone that she couldn't hurt by accident if she got scared or confused.

Alex was NOT happy about the situation, but saw the logic in it. It didn't mean that her emotional bond with her sister wasn't screaming for her to stay, and hold her favorite person in her arms until her fear and sadness went away. But for now, she was persuaded that the right thing would be to give Kara some space. She nodded, and turned briskly toward the door. She whispered an 'I love you' to her sister, that she knew Kara could hear, and walked out as quick as she could. She had to get out before she changed her mind. J'onn held Peter by the shoulder, and turned him to head out the door as well.

When the door closed, all that was left was Kara and Clark. Kara, who was still standing tensely in the middle of the room, her eyes still covered as tears trickled down her face. Clark came up behind her, and asked if he could touch her. She nodded slightly, and he pulled her into a gentle hug. She accepted it, and wrapped her arms around him, holding on as tight as she could. She was relieved to not have to worry about hurting a human, and just be able to hang on for dear life.

"I'm broken Kal. And I'm not getting better. Please, tell me I'll get better. I can't live like this." Kara cried into his shoulder.

"You will. You WILL get better. I found something that can help. I found a cure Kara." Clark stated, as Kara looked up at him in shock.

"What?" was all she could choke out through her tears.