Author's Note: Guys legit where do I come up with my ideas. Like I'm trying to figure out where my mind went... one moment, my dad and I were listening to our history book (Assassination Vacation, about assassinations of US presidents), and then the next I was thinking about drowning and hearts stopping and Brainy and Nia and-
There must have been some in between, right? Some connection point?
I mean it is about presidents dying so maybe it was just that.
ANYWAY. Let's story it up :)
Summary: 'After everything they'd been through, Brainy didn't think he'd almost lose Nia swimming.'
Spoilers: You are free to be ignorant of any past Supergirl happenings. AKA no there's no spoilers.
After everything they'd been through, Brainy didn't think he'd almost lose Nia swimming.
It was a broilingly hot day in mid-July, and instead of baking in their respective air conditioned apartments, Brainy, Nia, Kara, Alex and Kelly decided to head a little ways out of the city to Mirror Lake.
Apparently, about a hundred other National City-ians had that same idea, because the lake and beachside were swamped. Brainy, uncomfortable with swimming through a throng of bodies, took off his shirt but just stood about ankle deep in the water, toes sinking into the silt. The girls, on the other hand, threw off their swim covers and splashed in.
"Cold!" Kelly sputtered as her head broke the surface.
"It feels amazing," Nia moaned. She tilted her head back, dark hair floating out behind her in an arc. "Babe, you gotta come in it feels so good."
"I'm alright," Brainy deflected, pulling his feet from the mud with a sucking noise. "But thank you."
Nia let out a labored sigh but let him be, lifting up her legs to tread water. Kara and Alex started up a splash fight, but it was stopped pretty quickly due to the annoyed looks from everyone else trying to cool off in the lake.
"Guys come on," Nia urged, blowing Brainy a kiss just in case he felt lonely. "I'm going to go deep; I hate feeling all of this mud and seagrass under my toes."
"I like it," Kara declared, and through the foggy water they could see her marching up in down in place, squishing her feet through the mud. "It feels cool."
"Just wait until all the leeches creep up your leg..." Alex teased, swimming over to making a creepy-crawly motion on her arms.
Kara swatted her away with a good natured squeal, and the splash fight was briefly renewed. Nia, legitimately shuddering at the thought of leeches, set off towards a deeper part in the lake.
Brainy watched her go, and smiled a little bit unconsciously every time he saw her dark head pop above the water for air.
After that, it was a kind of the perfect storm. A little ways to his left, two toddlers got into a fight and started screaming at each other, and his attention was distracted away from his girlfriend to see what was going on. Kara was still being chased by Alex and her leech-fingers, so she wasn't focused on any noise around her that might signify trouble, and Kelly was floating on her back in a pretty zen state of relaxation.
So no one saw Nia's head bob under the water and then not come back up. No one heard her garbled scream as she strained to get air and everyone's attention, arms flailing through the salty water.
Brainy did notice, however, that he couldn't see her when he refocused on the lake in front of him. "Kara!" he called, and she did hear that, swiveling a head to lift her face in question. "Where's Nia?"
The smile faded into a frown and Kara quickly skimmed the surface of the lake. Brainy took a few quick steps deeper into the water, cringing slightly as his toes sank into the mud. He wasn't a big fan of swimming, but he was prepared to dive headfirst into the silty lake to find Nia if that's what the situation called for.
Kara turned back to him, shaking her head. "I don't see her," she said, a sentence he mostly caught through reading her lips.
It was strange. The world around them carried on like it had a few moments ago, but now the noise was faded. The laughing children and relaxed parents and chatting groups of teenagers were just blobs of paint on the canvass of Brainy's peripheral. He narrowed his eyes, squinting against the glare of the midday sun to try and catch sight of Nia's brunette head of hair.
Then he saw, way out past his friends, a splash and a hand waving in the air. A spark a blue shot into the sky, so faint that no one would have seen unless they were looking.
Dream energy.
Almost before Brainy could process what he was doing, he dove into the lake and began paddling in strong strokes towards the spot he'd seen Nia's hand. He knew that none of his friends were particularly fast swimmers, and Kara couldn't use her super speed without detection. Besides, he wasn't sure if any of them even knew what was going on.
Finding the need to come up for air, Brainy's head broke the surface and he stared desperately around him. It was hard to tell how far out Nia had been when she'd sent up the dream energy, but he had to be close.
Brainy dove into the lake again, opening his eyes against the sting of the water and trying to see in the murk. A moment later, he caught sight of Kara swimming up next to him.
Except, she wasn't swimming, exactly, so much as flying underwater. It was a smart idea, and allowed her to move much faster than Brainy could. He waved at her to get her attention and they both broke the surface. "What's going on?" Kara demanded.
"She sent up dream energy," Brainy replied, rapid fire. He was still scanning the water around them, waiting for another sign from Nia. "Kara, she's been under way too long."
"She'll be okay," Kara said with certainty, and ducked back underwater.
Brainy joined her, pushing himself slowly forward with a gentle kicking motion as he frantically skimmed the ground with his eyes.
And then he saw a body. Its legs were tangled in the thick swathes of seagrass at the bottom of the lake. Dark hair floated around a ghostly pale face in a sort of fanned halo, giving the whole scene an ethereal quality.
Brainy shot forward, breaking the surface once for air before diving down the bottom of the lake and starting to rip the seagrass away from Nia. She wasn't moving, just bobbing a little in the current, and there were no bubbles around her in the water. Brainy ripped more frantically, and a moment later Kara appeared next to him and sliced through the entire batch of seagrass with her laser vision.
Nia began to float slowly to the surface, but Brainy grabbed her and pushed upward, gasping for air and he broke into the sunlight. Nia didn't stir.
"She's not breathing," Brainy panted, tilting Nia's head back and trying to get her to cough up the water she'd definitely swallowed.
Kara glanced back to the shore, which seemed impossibly far away. "Supergirl time," she said, gritting her teeth and shooting into the sky. She was fast enough that no one paid much attention, though everyone was looking when she returned a few seconds later in full costume.
"Help!" Brainy yelled, waving his hand to play into the part of someone who needed saving. "She's not breathing!"
Kara flew towards them, picking them both out of the water and moving at superhuman speed towards shore. The moment Nia was on the half-dry ground, Brainy began pumping her chest.
Her skin was cold, body jerking with every pulse he gave her but otherwise unmoving. In a sudden moment of panic, Brainy rested his head on her chest.
"Her heart isn't beating," he breathed, looking up at Kara. He sat back, trembling all over. "We've- we've-"
"Out of the way!" Alex yelled, dirt skidding as she raced towards Nia and skidded to the ground beside her. She took up Brainy's CPR, pressing in a firm rhythm right in the center of Nia's chest. After thirty pulses, she nodded at Brainy. "Mouth to mouth."
He decided to refrain from telling her that it was too late; that she was gone, and tilted Nia's chin back. He pinched her nose gently between two of his fingers and pressed his mouth to her wet, icy-cold lips, then slowly breathed out.
"Again," Alex ordered when nothing happened, and they repeated the cycle.
After three more attempts, Brainy was unable to stop the tears from spilling out of his eyes. He grabbed Nia's body in his arms and pulled her into his chest, rocking back and forth. Alex sat back on her heels and pushed her hand back through her sopping wet hair, eyes wide with horror.
And then Nia coughed. Brainy almost dropped her in shock, but he and Alex moved quickly, turning her on her side so she wouldn't choke. Nia's body heaved and all of the water she had inhaled came pouring out through her nose and mouth.
"Shhhhh..." Brainy whispered as she continued to thrash, fighting for breath. "I've got you; I've got you."
They had accumulated somewhat of a crowd, though it was tough to say if people were more interested in the woman who had just been brought back to life, or in Supergirl who was standing a few feet away with obvious tear tracks on her face.
Kelly, who was the most clear-headed at the moment, hurriedly kept up her, Brainy, Nia and Alex's part as casual citizens who had needed Supergirl's help, and not her best friends. "Thank you, Supergirl!" she prompted, a little bit theatrically.
"Oh." Supergirl blinked and swiped at her face. "Sorry, that was just so... um. Emotional. I'll be going, now. Swim safe, everyone!"
She flew off into the air and moments later, Kara was rushing down the dirt path, rearranging her glasses on her nose. "Guys!" she cried. "What happened? I saw Supergirl carrying Nia and Brainy from my car!"
Alex just waved her over, not bothering to keep up the ruse and explain. Nia had finally stopped coughing and was now just groaning a little, struggling to sit up. "Relax," Brainy breathed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his chest again. "I've got you."
Nia's gaze was hazy, her hair falling in wet ropes across her face. Brainy took in the flush steadily returning to her cheeks and the way her chest pressed against his every so often when she inhaled.
The fact that she was alive, but that less than two minutes ago she hadn't been hit him like an entire Legion spaceship. As calmly as possible, Brainy shifted Nia into Alex's lap and got to his feet, striding a little ways away.
"Brainy?" Alex asked tentatively, and he could almost feel her eyes boring into his back.
He took a deep breath through his teeth, willing the panic and somewhat delayed grief to stop rising. Kelly walked up next to him and took his arm. "Brainy," she said, giving his bicep a grounding squeeze. "She's alright. You saved her life."
"I'm aware," Brainy said flatly.
It had been a long time since he'd lost someone. Brainy had seen death before, quite often, actually. He had seen those he care about die in front of him, in battle, once at his own hands.
But Nia? Nia Nal, the woman who had gotten a blue bathing suit so she'd match his un-induced self; the woman who had gushed about making sandcastles on the drive over and who had leaned across the seat divider to kiss him on the cheek while he drove because she was just so excited and "loved him so much"? She had been dead, in his arms, and he had really thought that was it.
After everything- the battles and the bad guys and the explosions and the superheroing- that was when he first truly thought he'd lose her.
Brainy didn't realize he was crying until Kelly put her arm around his shoulders. "C'mere," she said, giving him a hug. "That was terrifying, Brainy. I'm so sorry."
"Brainy?" Nia said, her voice coming out as a harsh rasp. She coughed again and Brainy turned around to see her pushing away from Alex and trying to get to her feet.
"Don't try and stand," he warned, hurrying back over because he knew she was attempting to make her way over to him. He cupped her face in his hands and brushed a couple of stray bits of sand that were stuck to it away. "How do you feel?"
"I'm okay," Nia told him steadily, reaching up to grip his wrists. "Brainy... I'm okay."
Brainy felt the hot spill of more tears on his cheeks and he nodded, pressing his forehead against hers. "I know."
Then there was the sound of applause. Nia, Brainy, Kelly, Alex and Kara looked around in bewilderment as the lake-going group around them started to clap. "Uhhh, nothing to see here!" Kara cried, waving her hands in the hopes that Brainy and Nia could get some privacy (with her still watching, of course).
Nia waved, too, but more like an awkward version of a celebrity getting out of a limousine. "Yes, I'm alive, yay!" she said, then turned her head and said in a lower voice. "Take me home, please."
Brainy nodded, ducking his face to press it into her neck. Her skin was cold, but he thought he might have a blanket in the back of his car. Besides, the sun was still high and the day was still uncomfortably warm, even though he hadn't really noticed it until that moment.
"Of course," Brainy said, shifting her into his arms and getting to his feet. "Let's go home."
Author's Note: Ok ok SO I've reeeealized that I do, actually, write angst. Because without angst, you literally don't have a plot arc, and without a plot arc, the story is pretty unwritable if attempted consistently.
That being said... I should probably write a little more fluff... I tend to chill in the hurt/comfort world a lot with these two. Granted, the characters on the show do, too, so...
So yeah. Maybe some more fluff coming up; we'll see :)
