Kara groaned as she felt light hit her face. Seriously, it's like nature had no respect for her sleeping requirements. Not that sleep was a huge need for her, but still!

She stifled a groan as she rolled over, but failed to remain silent as she fell with a thud onto what felt like an unnecessarily hard floor instead of her nice, soft, bed.

She flinched in surprise, and her eyes flew open. Blinking rapidly, she looked over her surrounding.

Oh. Yeah.

As her memory of the previous night returned, Kara jumped up, landing heavily on her boots. She turned to the couch, not sure of what she would find.

Lena's body was exactly where she had left it, tucked securely under a blanket. She looked still, almost peaceful, but Kara doubted that it was due to her less-than stellar medical treatment.

She took a couple of steps closer and felt her brow furrow as she realized Lena was not as comfortable as she looked. Sweat on her brow gave her a shiny, mirage-like appearance.

Kara knelt at her side. She took a breath, then exhaled deeply.

"Lena?"

No response. Kara winced.

"Hello?"

When that went unanswered, Kara sighed again. Lena was a light sleeper, and if Kara's ungraceful descent from the loveseat and her words had failed to wake her, then she was further than Kara could travel to rouse her.

She straightened her back. Right then.

Slowly, she untucked the blanket from Lena's shoulders, pausing only once to admire how her features, even in distress, still managed to even out and relax while she was asleep.

After the blanket was gone, Kara worked on removing the bandage from her torso. She didn't remember looping it around Lena's stomach as much as she had, but she was grateful for the extra time to steel herself before looking at the injury.

The last loop slipped off of pale skin, and Kara's breath caught in her throat.

Unfortunately, Lena had not miraculously developed healing powers overnight.

The gash looked angry and red. Blood wasn't flowing, but the ooze of it around the edges of the wound was almost worse. Kara watched as a drop traveled, slowly, like a raindrop on a window, out of it's home, then down around Lena's stomach, snaking around her spine.

Kara shook her head and swallowed. At least the droplet meant that Lena had enough blood for it to be moving, right? Surely that was something.

She gritted her teeth, and against her own wishes, examine the used bandage more closely. To her relief, there were only a small amount of crimson and brown stains. The oozing must have been caused, or at least exacerbated, by removing the bandage.

"Probably have to clean it again," Kara mattered.

Thankfully, the med kit was right where she had left it, and cleaning and wrapping the wound was easier than the first time.

With the injury taken care of, Kara slipped another pain pill into Lena's mouth, still slightly fascinated by how fragile humans were able to swallow such large capsules.

She placed her hand on Lena's forehead to check her temperature, then immediately abandoned her attempt. There was no way her Kryptonian biology would pick up a fever anyway.

Shrugging it off, Kara closed the med kit, then walked over to the kitchen area. Time to call Alex again.

After yanking the phone from the charging cord and dialing Alex's number, Kara waited impatiently. Had the ringing sound of the phone always been that grating? She couldn't remember.

"Kara?"

Kara was pulled from her musing. "Alex!"

"Yes! What's going on? Did you make it to the safehouse?"

"We did, it's actually quite nice. But listen, Alex, Lena's wound looks really bad. I did what I could, but..." Kara let her voice trail off.

Alex sighed on the other end of the line. "I know, it's hard. But you're doing all you can right now, and Lena would be proud of you."

"You think so?"

"Yes." Alex paused to let her sister take in her words. "Kara, I know it's not fun, but can you describe exactly what happened to you, starting with why you were in Kaznia in the first place? And then describe Lena's injury?"

Kara nodded, then remembered Alex couldn't see her. "Uh, yeah. Yes, I can."

As she told Alex what happened, Kara wandered back over to the couch. Lena, for her part, hadn't moved, but the sweat on her brow seemed to have decreased by a bit.

Satisfied with that, Kara wrapped up her story. It took longer than she thought it would because of how often Alex stopped to be overprotective and yell at her for going to a foreign nation without telling anyone else, or whatever. Kara wasn't really paying attention to the yelling parts.

"Kara," Alex stated, "This is not good."

"Definitely had not put that together by now."

Alex snorted. "Lena's injury sounds rough. Are you sure there was no internal or organ damage?"

"Uhhhh..." Kara squinted down at Lena's stomach and let her x-ray vision do its thing. "Maybe?" She asked, stretching out the word.

"Do you know what you're looking for?" Alex already knew the answer.

"No," Kara said, letting it out in a whoosh of breath.

"Okay, listen here: you need to stay with her at the safehouse-"

"Wait, wait, what? Why can't I fly her home?" Kara jumped off the couch and started pacing. "I can do it, you know."

Alex rubbed at her forehead. "Yeah, Kar, I know, but you really can't leave the country. Kaznia's radar at the border is insane. You wouldn't stand a chance of going through undiscovered. Plus, if we don't know exactly how bad Lena's wound is, we can't risk transporting her."

Kara deflated. "But-"

"No buts. You have to stay with her at the safehouse."

Kara nudged at the floor with her toe. "Yeah. Okay. I just want Lena to be safe."

Despite herself, Alex had to suppress a smile. "Good. Now, it's really important that you keep the wound clean. There should be a med kit-"

"Yep, already used it."

"Really?" Alex was shocked. Her sister was no lover of injury-related medicine.

"Yeah, Lena needed it." Kara said it so plainly that Alex almost felt dumb for asking in the first place. Almost.

"Okay, well, awesome. So use the alcohol in there to help kill germs. If you're not cleaning it, keep it dry and covered, okay?"

"Yeppers."

"Call me if anything about her condition changes, and once a day for general updates. Either she'll heal up, or we'll get permission to enter Kaznia. Clear?"

Kara nodded. "Clear."

"Alright, stay safe out there! I love you."

"Love you too, Alex. Bye."

The line clicked, and Kara was left with a rising sense of dread.

On her end, Alex stared at her phone. If Kara had been willing to treat what sounded like an ugly wound, it must be very serious.

She smiled. At least, serious to her sister.

Alex had suspected for some time that Lena had feelings for Kara. As far as she knew, Kara was the first to ever breach her walls, and - well, you didn't invite someone with you to tour your insane brother's warehouse if you disliked them.

Then there were the longing glances Alex had seen at game nights. Lena seemed to have a special soft spot for Kara, and Alex wondered if it was more than friendship.

Nothing confirmed her suspicions, though. But the fact that Kara was willing to patch Lena up indicated some depth of feeling on her part.

In Kaznia, Kara glanced over at Lena again. Still no movement.

She decided that it was time to explore more of the safehouse. Food, specifically, was what she was hoping to find.

She opened the fridge first, sighing slightly when it was empty except for the cheeseboard and champagne from the plane. She hadn't expected much; anything that went in a fridge wouldn't last long enough, but a Kryptonian could always dream.

The freezer was a bit better, but, to Kara's dismay, did not hold gallons of ice cream. The cabinets held enough beef jerky and crackers to last a lifetime, along with other dried goods.

Kara had the distinct feeling this would not be the tastiest trip of her life.

She popped some chicken nuggets into the oven. She could have used her heat vision, but she wanted to poke around a bit more. Maybe the DEO had stashed some puzzles or something somewhere.

She dug around. The safehouse had plenty of weapons, that's for sure, but only one source of entertainment: an old Gameboy Kara thought would maybe fall apart if she blinked too hard at it. She elected to leave it until she was truly bored.

The chime of the oven alarm went off. Kara chewed her chicken nuggets moodily. Helping Lena was off the table - there wasn't anything else she could do. Flying home, or even out of the safehouse, was too risky. The Gameboy could probably start a house fire. Despite herself, Kara was bored.

She sighed again, then rinsed her hands in the sink before heading to the couch. She gently lifted Lena's head, then settled herself into the corner of the couch with a whoosh of air.

Laying this way, with Lena's head on her lap, at least Kara wouldn't have to worry about a sudden change in her condition. She idly ran her fingers through dark hair, being careful not to pinch any.

All she could do was wait.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Have a great day!