Alex opened her eyes with a quick exhale of breath. Was it another nightmare, an errant sound or another ache that had woken her, she didn't know, but the opening of her eyes was enough to bring it all back to the forefront of her mind.

Sitting up, she felt those aches more acutely. She had been injured on missions before, but even without her eyesight she felt like this one was different. She wasn't even sure why, just that it all was weighing on her more than any of her previous injuries.

If this had been like any other time she would have returned to work already even with her arm in a sling. She would have bullied her way into the lab to do work at the very least.

Everything about her life was different now.

She didn't even know what time it was in order to know if she had slept long. She didn't feel particularly well rested and should probably just lay back down but her head also ached. She seemed to have a constant headache now and she wondered if that was related to her concussion or what happened to her eyes.

Reaching for her phone, which she had managed to plug into the charger on her own, she unlocked it and asked what time it was. When the phone responded that it was only 10:43 a.m. she nearly threw it across the room.

She hadn't been asleep long at all.

Tossing the phone down on the bed, she got out of bed slowly, each movement hurting. The injuries plus her inactivity had made her entire body feel stiff.

Well, she thought, a stiff body deserves a stiff drink.

Now she just had to hope Maggie hadn't thrown out the rest of her stash and that she wouldn't stop her from having one or two.

Maggie. She still wasn't sure why Maggie was being insistent about being here. She knew after all the time that passed that any interactions she had with her would be awkward and this situation made it even worse.

She had tortured her own mind over and over again since that night she had kissed Maggie and then been rejected. Just friends – that was all Maggie had wanted from her and based on their conversation this morning that was all she still wanted from her.

But she had missed Maggie too. Missed their time together. No one had ever made her feel like Maggie did.

When she had first woken up in medbay and discovered her sight gone she had begun thinking about all the things she would never see again. Maggie's smiles and those dimples had been one of the things she had thought of.

She hadn't thought of Cass at all, except in terms of how to now deal with her.

They had gone on several dates now but Alex wasn't sure she felt anything for her beyond maybe friendship. She had needed to get out there and date though and it was happenstance that she and Cass had met – much like how she met Maggie.

Honestly, she hadn't given Cass a second thought after first meeting her, but Alex had given her the fake FBI card she used for business purposes and was surprised when Cass had called her to ask her out for drinks. Alex had hesitated, having been caught off guard by the asking, but had agreed.

Their first date if it could be called that had gone well, as both women had found plenty of things to talk about – although Alex was always mindful of each lie she had to tell. Usually, she would use the standard "top secret" and "I can't talk about it," kind of lines, but if she hadn't been pretending to be an FBI agent at the time she wouldn't have met Cass.

Just like she wouldn't have met Maggie if it hadn't been for their jobs.

"Fuck it," she said to herself, whether Maggie was there or not, she was going to have a drink.

She opened the door and immediately heard typing stop and another sound, she wasn't quite sure what it was before hearing Maggie say, "What are you doing up, you've barely slept."

Alex didn't respond, just reached out for the wall, letting her fingers barely touch it to establish her bearings and began to walk. She got to the end of the small hallway and turned toward the kitchen, going slow and mentally counting her steps. She heard Maggie move behind her somewhere.

The more she moved, the more her headache seemed to increase, so she went a little quicker, reaching the counter and feeling around for the bottle they used last night. Not feeling it anywhere, she turned toward Maggie whom she heard move closer to where Alex was fairly sure she was now standing right outside the kitchen area.

"Where is the bottle?"

There was a slight rustling of clothes, perhaps Maggie had shifted her weight or crossed her arms Alex thought.

"Danvers, we've been over this. I shouldn't have let you have that one drink last night."

The pain in her head was getting worse and she couldn't figure out why it had increased so much from just leaving her room.

"I don't care," Alex said, with more force than she had intended. "This isn't your place and you have no right to be here or dictate what I do."

"I'm not going to let you drown your sorrows in a bottle of bourbon either," Maggie said. "You know you can't be drinking when you are on pain medication."

"The pills aren't working."

"What do you mean?"

"Just tell me where the bottle is or I will find it myself." The pain was moving from her head to right behind her eyes and she closed them. She didn't want to open them back up – not just because of her eyesight, but the pain was preventing it.

"It hurts," she said, the pain in her head and eyes now making her nauseous. It was so distracting she didn't hear Maggie move closer to her, but she felt a gentle touch on her arm that still managed to make her flinch.

"Come on, let's get you over to the couch," Maggie said softly.

She let Maggie lead her, feeling like lying down might be her best option right now. They got out of the kitchen and turned toward the main room but as they did the pain flared up, forcing Alex to cover her already closed eyes with the palms of her hands, more pain barely registering from her shoulder from the strain she was putting on it, but she didn't care, she just needed her eyes to be covered.

"Alex, Alex, what's wrong?" Maggie asked. But Alex wasn't answering so Maggie tried to get her moving again toward the couch, but they got only halfway there when Alex collapsed to her knees, crying out in pain this time.

"My eyes," she choked out. "They're burning."

Maggie ran to where she left her phone on the couch and dialed Kara's number as she went and knelt beside Alex who was doubled over now, gasping from the pain and keeping her eyes shielded.

"Kara, something is wrong with Alex," Maggie said, not giving her a chance to even give a simple greeting. "She's in a lot of pain. It's her eyes, she says they're burning. I think we need to get her back to the DEO or a hospit…"

She didn't even finish the sentence when Supergirl came flying in. She didn't wait for an explanation from Maggie, only picked up Alex and flew right back out.

Maggie stood up, looking at her phone and then at the window that Supergirl just left from. Her call had ended anyway and she knew there was only one place Supergirl would be taking Alex and she was out the door a few moments later.

….

Maggie was not pleased when she got to the DEO and was forced to wait until they gave her clearance to come in. Winn finally came up to get her and escort her.

"How is she?" Maggie asked.

"I don't know," Winn said. "Supergirl brought her in and she's been in the medbay ever since, but no one has come out to give any sort of update yet."

They were walking at a brisk pace and when they reached the medbay, J'onn and Supergirl were there waiting outside – J'onn leaning against a wall and Supergirl pacing.

Maggie walked right up to her, causing the girl of steel to stop, "hello Kara."

She had put two and two together on her way over and felt more than a little foolish that she hadn't seen it before – that Kara and Supergirl were the same person.

Kara glanced at J'onn who merely shrugged. Maggie learning her secret identity seemed minor now.

"We don't know anything yet," Kara said to her.

"Can you tell us what happened?" J'onn asked.

Maggie explained as best she could what happened, but she didn't know that any of it was helpful. All she knew was Alex was in a lot of pain and it had something to do with her eyes.

"You all should never have let her out of the medbay in the first place," Maggie said. "What were you even thinking?"

"We were thinking Alex needed to be a familiar setting that might bring her some comfort," J'onn said. "And that's on me. I thought since she knew how to navigate her own apartment that it might makes things easier on her."

Maggie had to admit Alex did move around her place with surprising ease. Still, Alex was probably just as familiar with the DEO as she was her own home.

"She shouldn't have been left unsupervised," Maggie continued. "What if I hadn't have been there?"

"But you were there detective, and we are all grateful for that," J'onn said.

Maggie wanted to tell him where he could stick his gratitude but refrained. She knew she was running on emotions at this point – her fear over Alex causing her to lash out at any available target. And now that she knew Supergirl was Kara, she had to ask.

"Where were you? When she was buried under some building, where were you?"

Kara again looked at J'onn who merely said, "tell her."

What Maggie wasn't expecting was the story that unfolded next – one about alternate earths and traveling between them to help another superhero. She also realized the guilt Kara felt over it. She had been helping others so she wasn't there to help her own sister.

By the time Kara was done telling the story, she had tears in her eyes, so Maggie did the only thing she could think of – something she was sure Alex would do in her place – she hugged Kara tight to her.

There were no words once they separated.

Both women took seats next to Winn who also appeared unwilling to leave this vigil until there was some update.

They didn't wait much longer as the doctor came walking out and went up to J'onn.

"She's heavily sedated," the doctor said. "We're going to keep her that way for the next 24 hours while we run some more tests. She was in so much pain that we couldn't get a clear idea as to what all her symptoms were, but the pain seemed centered on her eyes. So far, we have found no cause for it."

"I want updates every hour," J'onn said.
"Can I go see her?" Supergirl asked before looking over at Maggie. "Can we go see her?"

"Yes, but you will need to keep it brief," the doctor said.

Supergirl led the way and when they saw her, Maggie's first thought was that despite it all, Alex was still beautiful. Supergirl took Alex's hand in hers and leaned over and kissed her forehead. "You're going to be ok," she heard Supergirl say. "You have to be. I can't do this without you. I need my big sister."

Kara moved out of the way for Maggie, who asked her if she could have a moment in private. She knew it was probably unfair of her to ask but Kara still granted it.

"Hey Danvers," Maggie said, trying and failing at sounding casual. She didn't know what to say though. Mirroring Kara's actions she took a hold of Alex's hand and leaned over – but instead of kissing her on the forehead, she kissed her on the lips.

"Maybe one of these days, we will get our timing in sync," Maggie said. "Or maybe we can get your DEO science geek friends to invent a time machine and we can go back to that night and this time I won't throw away my chance. You just hang in there until then."

The doctor came in and Maggie merely nodded at him before walking out. This time she went straight over to J'onn.
"I want to know about this mission she was on and about the alien who did this to her."

"Ok, detective."