Spoiler Alert for S4E21!

Author's Note: This story came to me after watching Season 4 Episode 21, Red Dawn, specifically the scene near the end where Supergirl dies and is resurrected. This is my first attempt at a Kalex story. I normally write Sanvers stories but this one grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go until I wrote it.

I had hoped to finish writing this before I started posting it but I really wanted to start posting before the beginning of the new season. I would have started it sooner except I was trying to finish up the Rizzoli and Isles story I was working on. I do have about three chapters drafted.

I hope you like it, let me know either way, just be nice if you're going to critique it, no flaming please!

Now the obligatory disclaimer: I don't own Supergirl and I don't make any money writing this story, much as I might wish I did on both counts!

*****
Eliza stood at a distance and watched as her daughter's heart shattered into a million pieces. She stood by as Alex knelt beside Kara's still form sobbing and begging her not to leave her, especially not now that she remembered who Kara was. Eliza wanted to go to her, to both of them but she was consumed by guilt.

Then she watched as something miraculous happened. She could feel the energy in the air, sliding against her skin, vibrating under her feet as Kara pulled it to her. And Eliza had no doubt that some how, even from the other side of death, Kara had heard Alex call to her in her heartbreak and devastation and she had responded. She had returned from the dead for Alex.

"Alex," her mother called to her, "she's doing it! She's pulling the sunlight."

Alex looked up in wonder as tendrils of sunlight were pulled from all the plants around Kara surrounding her and suddenly the other woman gasped and her eyes popped.

"I'm here, I'm here!" she assured the hero.

"I missed you so much," Kara gasped.

"I really missed you!"Alex sobbed, once again laying her head on Kara's chest, this time to reassure herself with the sound of the other woman's heartbeat.

Still standing a ways away from her girls, Eliza thanked God or Rao or whoever was responsible for returning Kara to them. They had given her a second chance to right a terrible wrong and she didn't intend to waste it. She just hope the two young women would be able to forgive her.

*****
A few days later, after Lex Luthor's plot had been revealed and all the guilty parties were either dead or behind bars, Eliza called Alex and Kara and invited them to come visit her in Midvale. She told them they needed time to rest, recover, and reconnect away from the National City where the demands of their work were ever present.

If she had thought they would be hard to convince she was pleasantly surprised. They both jumped at the chance. It had been a long and difficult few months since Alex had allowed J'Onn to perform the mind wipe. Even though they had still been together there had been this invisible barrier between them. Just because Alex was unaware of it didn't mean she didn't feel it as strongly as Kara had. So the two women were anxious to go somewhere they could spend time together and heal.

Of course, Eliza had another reason for asking them to visit. She had made a promise to whatever higher power might have been listening that she would make right the wrong she had done to her girls and she intended to keep that promise, even though she feared they might never forgive her.

So it was that after dinner on the second day of their visit she asked them to join her for coffee in the living room. "There's something I need to talk to you about," she told them, wringing her hands.

The two younger women exchanged a glance wondering what had their normally confident mother looking so nervous. "Sure thing Mom." Alex replied as Kara went into the kitchen to get three cups of coffee.

Alex and Kara took seats on the sofa while Eliza sat in an armchair on the other side of the coffee table from them. It didn't escape her notice that with the entire sofa available to them, Kara and Alex sat so close together that their knees were brushing together. When Alex leaned forward to pick her cup up from the coffee table she braced herself by placing her hand Kara's knee and Kara unconsciously covered it with her own, giving it a gently squeeze before releasing it as both women sat back sipping their coffee.

Eliza sat there regarding her daughters and trying to decide how to start this conversation.

When it seemed she wasn't going to say anything Kara spoke. "So what is it you wanted to talk to us about Eliza? Whatever it is you can tell us, we can handle it." Now that she had her Alex back, the one who knew who she really was, she truly believed they could handle anything, together.

Eliza smiled sadly at her then took a deep breath and launched in. "I owe you both an apology. In fact, I'm not at all sure an apology is sufficient." She glanced up from staring at her hands in her lap. Both girls were staring at her in confusion.

"I stole something from you, something precious," she continued. "In my defense, I didn't realize at the time just how precious it was. I mean you were both so young, just teenagers. It never occurred to me that it might have been more than a cr..."

"Mom," Alex interrupted her rambling. "You're not making a whole lot of sense here. Why don't you do like you taught us. Start from the beginning."

"I'm sorry, you're right," Eliza said. She took another deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she began again. "I don't need to tell either one of you that when Kara came to live with us the two of you didn't exactly hit it off immediately. Kara, I think everything was just so new and different for you. Suddenly you had these powers you had to learn to control and you were scared and you weren't ready to open up to anyone. Alex, you were used to having your father and I all to yourself and all of the sudden Kara was there and she needed us so much. Plus she was still learning how to get along here on earth so you were embarrassed because she was so different and acted strangely. Let's face it, teenagers want to fit in not stand out unless perhaps it's in the area of sports. Then we lost your father and that just made everything so much worse."

Alex glanced at Kara, making a silent apology for the truth of Eliza's words. Kara reached over and gave her hand a squeeze accepting the apology. It was true, she had acted very strangely, by human standards, when she had first arrived on earth. She could hardly blame Alex for being embarrased by her actions.

"Anyway, Eliza continued, "all of a sudden something changed. I don't know what it was, although I do recall it was around the time that boy in your class, Kenny Lee, was found dead."

Kara and Alex glanced at each other, then away. They had managed to keep the full extent of their involvement in that case from Eliza.

"After that the two of you started to get along. I was ecstatic. It seemed like every day your bond grew stronger. The two of you became practically inseparable. At first I thought it was a sisterly bond but as time went by it became apparent that it was something different, something more...You were developing romantic feelings for each other." Eliza paused, searching their faces for their reaction to this revelation, what she saw there broke her heart.

Kara looked surprised but also hopeful. Alex's face reflected nothing but fear.

Eliza continued, "When I realized what was happening between the two of you, I was scared. It was hard enough for you, Kara, being an alien and trying to fit in here on earth and even now it's not exactly easy for gay and lesbian youth. On top of that add the fact that technically you were sisters, even though Kara didn't come to us until she was older. I was scared for both of you and, if I'm being honest, I was worried about myself too. We'd just lost your father and I was barely hanging on."

She paused again, collecting her thoughts. She watched as Kara reached for Alex's hand and for a moment she thought Alex might pull her hand away. She was hopeful when, after a moment's hesitation Alex took Kara's hand and held it tightly. But she wouldn't look at the other woman.

Finally, Eliza went on, "So I did what I thought was best. I discouraged those feelings in anyway I could without actually acknowledging them. I encouraged both of you to develop separate interests and to date. I emphasized the fact that you were sisters when ever I could. And, I'm sorry to say, Alex, I made it your responsibility to lookout for your "sister". I blamed you whenever she got in trouble or slipped up and revealed her powers. That in particular was completely unfair.

I swear to you, I thought it was nothing more than a school girl crush for both of you. It wasn't until you went off to college, Alex, that I suspected it was more. Kara was despondent without you, Alex and you fell apart, drinking and partying. If it weren't for J'Onn offering you the position with the DEO I shudder to think where you might have ended up. And it would have been all my fault.

If I'd just accepted what was happening between the two of you and supported it you both could have avoided so much pain and suffering."

"Why then Mom," Alex said, her voice low and angry, "why didn't you say something sooner, like when I was in college."

"I didn't know how, after all that time. And I didn't think you were in a frame of mind to hear it. You were so angry with me all the time, not without reason but I feared you'd reject what I had to say for the simple reason that it I was the one who was saying it. Then you started working for the DEO and Kara started working for CatCo and things seemed to get better. You met Maggie and Kara met Mon El and I thought you'd both gotten over your feelings for each other."

"That's bull shit!" Alex hissed. "You were afraid we'd never forgive you for keeping us apart so you kept your mouth shut."

"Alex," Kara chided gently, using the hand that wasn't holding Alex's to gently rub the other woman's arm. Alex relaxed a little, sitting back and leaning into the blonde.

"No Kara, she's right, that was definitely part of it. I'm still afraid of that even now." Eliza admitted.

"Then why say anything now?" Kara asked confused.

"Because you died." Eliza said bluntly, "and I saw what that did to Alex. Even before that, when Alex had her mind wiped. I expected it to be difficult for you. After all you knew exactly what you'd lost but I could tell that Alex was in pain. She was missing something that she didn't even remember having."

Both of the younger women shuddered involuntarily at this reminder of those months when Alex didn't know that Kara as Supergirl.

"But more than any of that, what really convinced me I had to right this wrong, was when Alex called you back from the dead. She begged you to pull the sun's energy from the plants around you to restore yourself. But you were already gone. There is no way you should have been able to hear her but you did and you came back...for her."

She was looking at them with wonder as they clung to each other on the sofa. "That kind of bond..." she shook her head, "I've never seen anything like it. I cant be the reason that your relationship is less than it could be, less than it should be. Believe me when I say, I have never in my entire life seen two people more meant for each other than the two of you. I will never forgive myself if you don't at least try."

Tears were streaming down her face and she paused to pull a Kleenex out of the box sitting on the coffee table and wipe her face. Kara and Alex did the same.

"You two need to talk," she said finally. "I'm going to go into my lab. I've got some work I can do. I'll be there quite late, maybe even all night." She stood up to go.

"Eliza, you don't have to do that." Kara said, jumping up too.

"I think it's best sweetheart." Eliza placed her hand on Kara's cheek and caressed it with her thumb. Alex stood and placed herself beside Kara. "I'm so sorry," Eliza said earnestly, looking alternately at each of her daughters. "I hope someday you'll be able to forgive me."

Kara nodded but Alex just looked at her. It was a searching look, as if she were trying to find some answer in her mother's face. Eliza started to leave but Alex stopped her, pulling her into a tight hug. "I forgive you." she whispered in her mother's ear.

Eliza was shocked. She had been hopeful that Alex would forgive her but she had expected it to take a long time. Her shock must have shown on her face because Alex went on. "I may not agree with what you did but I can understand it. And I know how hard it was for you to say something now. Like Kara intimated, you could have just kept quiet and we never would have been the wiser. I thank you for not doing that."

Eliza pulled both of them into a group hug then, without another word, walked out of the room and out of the house, leaving behind a deafening silence.