Maggie read over all the mission reports twice at a work station that Winn set her up on. This alien they had been hunting was one from this space prison that had landed on Earth. It was the only one of its kind on the prison when it crashed – another one having died earlier, according to the report.

They hadn't been able to recover all the data from Fort Rozz and it would appear part of that missing data included whatever this alien had been sentenced for in the first place. There was information however including its picture and a listing of its power – a rare ability to manipulate light.

The reason it had gotten on the DEO radar was because it had apparently used that ability to raid an urgent care clinic. A doctor, two nurses and an orderly had been injured – none were blind like Alex as the alien had not used its power that way. Instead it had relied on its brute strength.

Why it had hit the clinic was also a bit of mystery as the alien's physiology was not conducive to human medicine from what little Alex had been able to cull together.

But the DEO couldn't let the alien roam free if it posed a danger which is why they had gone after it.

The reason they had been caught off guard was because they were expecting this alien to be alone. All the data they had on them showed that they were loners.

The alien was called a K'artr – not one Maggie was familiar with or had ever heard of before. At least she now had something to work with though. The DEO team had its hands full when the building had collapsed that the alien had escaped.

Maggie knew there was nothing she could do to help Alex here, so it was time to start hitting up her contacts to find out more about this K'artr and where it was at now.

Getting up from the station, she went over to Winn.

"Is this all you have on the alien, nothing since this mission?" Maggie asked.

"Nothing. It's like it's gone underground. We've had no reports or sightings," he said.

She nodded. "I need to go. Will you call me with any updates to her condition?"

"Of course," he said, and they quickly exchanged phone numbers.

She was walking out when Supergirl came up behind her.

"You're going after the alien that hurt her, aren't you? If you are, I want in," Supergirl asked.

"No."

"Super hearing – I heard you ask Winn if there was any news on it since the mission," she responded. "And you just spent more than an hour going over everything the DEO has on it."

Maggie stopped walking and faced her. "First of all, you shouldn't listen in on other people's conversations," she said. "Secondly, I am not going after it, at least not in the way appear to be suggesting. That didn't work so well for Alex now did it?"

"Then what are you doing?"

"I'm going to do my job, which means investigating, gathering information, finding out what I can about this alien and hopefully coming up with a location for it. This isn't some going off half-cocked kind of situation. This alien is clearly dangerous, but we also don't know enough about it," Maggie said. "We don't know why it hit that clinic. We don't know why it was apparently working with another alien – an alien the DEO hasn't even identified yet. I'm a detective, this is what I do – I get answers. I don't need someone who is looking for revenge at my side while I'm doing it. Let me do my job and you stay here and do yours – the one you do without the cape. Be Kara. Be her little sister."

"Fine, but if you find it …"

"The DEO will be my first call. I'm not looking to take it on by myself. And you don't breathe a word of this to Alex."
Maggie started to walk away and then turned again. "Kara, you might want to keep an eye on Alex's phone. Cassie called her this morning, wanted to come see her, but Alex told her it wasn't a good time. I think she wanted to figure out what exactly to tell her first. I'm not saying you should tell her about all of this, but she's going to worry if she doesn't hear from Alex."

"She told you about Cass?"

"Yeah," Maggie said. "That's the kind of things friends do, talk about the people in their lives."

She wanted to choke on the word friends, but that is all she and Alex were.

"I don't think she and Alex are that serious," Kara said.

"I don't really know," Maggie said. "But Alex was clearly worried about how to tell her about her eyes, so she should be given some consideration."

Maggie cut off the conversation after that and left. She needed to get out on the streets, making contact with her sources – anything to keep her mind off of the pain Alex was in before Supergirl brought her here.

…

Kara watched her sister as she slept. The doctor had taken her off the medication that was keeping her sedated, but she hadn't woken up yet.

The only lights on in the room were those from the monitors, but Kara didn't need those monitors as her hearing had been tuned to the steady beat of her heart since she came in there.

When she did wake up, Kara was unsure of how to talk to her about what the doctor had told her. She had told J'onn she would take care of it as neither of them figured she would take it well.

She hadn't heard from Maggie since she had left the DEO. Kara had spent most of last night flying around the city, trying to find the alien that had done this to her sister, but had come up empty. It wasn't the first time she had gone looking for the K'artr.

When she had returned from that other Earth, it had been after Alex had already been pulled from the rubble and was in surgery. J'onn had filled her in on what happened and the guilt she felt was nearly overwhelming. If she had only been there then maybe this would never have happened.

But it had happened and that first night Alex was in the hospital she had kept a vigil like this.

Then the night she had taken Alex back home and left her there, she had gone out on a hunt. She hadn't wanted to leave Alex that night but Alex had sent her away. She had gone to the site of the collapse – seen the rubble that was left.

While it was the Danvers that had taken her in all those years ago, it was always Alex that had made her feel like Earth could be her home.

A part of her hoped that Maggie found the K'artr before she did because she wasn't sure what she would do if she found him first.

Alex's head moved to the left, and Kara leaned forward, but she sat back a moment later when there were no further movements. The doctor said it could be hours before Alex woke and it had already been a couple of hours.

Winn brought her some food after another hour and it was shortly after she was done eating, Alex moved again. Kara again leaned forward in anticipation. It was another few minutes before Alex opened her eyes, blinking several times before keeping them open.

"Maggie?"

"No, it's me," Kara said, reaching for her hand.

"Kara, what happened?"

"You don't remember? You were at your apartment and you were in pain, you said your eyes hurt."

Alex pulled her hand away from Kara's and rubbed her forehead. "Yeah, I remember now," Alex said. "What did the doctor say happened?"

It was so like Alex to jump right into it, Kara thought. When the doctor had first updated her and J'onn about the results of all of their testing, Kara had thought they had to be wrong. And she was certain Alex would also disagree with their assessment.

"Nothing," Kara said.

Alex sat up in bed, wincing as she did so and off kilter as she only had the one arm to use to prop herself up. They had taken her sedation as an opportunity to check all her wounds and rebandage any that needed it. Her shoulder was once again taped up and secure as Alex had managed to tear the other tape job when she was trying to block her eyes.

She had been conscious during the flight to the DEO and Kara had be even more careful with her as Alex wouldn't stop moving in her arms.

By the time they arrived, Alex was still in pain and they almost immediately sedated her. The way Alex had been, Kara had expected to see some difference in her eyes – maybe even just some redness, but they looked as they always did.

That was one of her first thoughts when Alex had woken up blind. She knew it was stupid, but she had thought how could her sister possibly be blind when her eyes looked the same.

"You mean they haven't found a cause for it yet," Alex said.
"No, there was no cause for it," Kara said. "There is nothing wrong with your eyes, I mean beyond, what happened before."

"What do you mean?"

"The doctor called it psychosomatic," Kara said. "That the injuries you already had were …"

"I know what psychosomatic means," Alex cut her off. "It means the doctor thinks I'm crazy."

"That's not what he said."

"No, I'm sure he said something about the stress of my situation triggering an episode where I created more pain for myself."

"Something like that."

"Well, he's an idiot," Alex said. "And I'm not going to stay here under his care." She started to get out of bed, but Kara stopped her.

"You have to stay here," Kara said. "At least for a couple of days. They are going to run more tests and they're going to figure this out."

"Forget that," Alex said.

"Alex," Kara said more forcibly. "You can't leave, not this time. Please, for me."

"I can't see your pouting face so it's not going to work on me."

"But you know I'm giving you the pouting face so it's got to have some effect on you."

"Fine," Alex relented.

"Besides, J'onn went to go pick up mom at the airport and they should be on their way back."

"What? Kara, you said you wouldn't call her."

"Technically I didn't, she called you – had called you several times and you hadn't returned her calls over the last few days so she called me," Kara said. "Once she was on the phone, well, I couldn't not tell her since you were lying here in the medbay and we didn't know what was wrong with you. She said she was catching the first flight out here."

Alex leaned her head back against the bed. The last thing she needed was her mother around.

The only good thing was that her headache was now gone. She had never had a headache get that painful that fast. It had incapacitated her and she knew that had nothing to with psychosomatic symptoms.

If she had to she would make the doctor read over every test result she had been given while sleeping in order to hear the results.

"How long was I out?"

"Nearly 29 hours. They kept you sedated for 24."

"I remember you flying with me," Alex said. "Did … did Maggie …"

"She came here immediately to check on you, but she had to leave. I think she went back to work. She also knows I'm Supergirl."

"How?"

"She called me when you collapsed and then I flew into your apartment and well, she is a detective, it apparently didn't take much to put the pieces together."

"She will keep it a secret," Alex said with all certainty.

"There is probably something else we should talk about," Kara said. "You had a couple of other calls while you were asleep. Cass called three times."

Alex momentarily closed her eyes. She had no idea how she was supposed to deal with this situation while she was stuck in the DEO's medbay. But she didn't want to ignore her either.

"Do you have my phone here?"

"Yeah,"

Alex held her hand out for it and once it was in her palm, she asked, "can you give me some privacy?"

"Are you sure you want to call her now?"

"No," Alex said. "I need to though."

"Ok," Kara said, getting up. "I'll wait upstairs."

Alex waited until she heard the door shut and waited still for a few more moments before unlocking the phone and listening to the voicemails first. The first one was a typical Cass kind of message – she always seemed to start off like she was leaving a professional message before she would realize that she wasn't leaving a message for work. The second one had a small bit of an edge to it, but Cass said she was concerned.

The third was a voicemail that Cass left while standing outside of Alex's apartment – apparently she had come over to check on her.

Once she got through the voicemails, she gave the command to call Cass.

"Hello," Cass said upon answering. Alex shook her head a little – she couldn't even answer the phone without that professional tone even if she knew it was just Alex.
"Sorry," Alex said.

"I was beginning to think I wasn't going to hear from you," Cass said. "Our last date wasn't that bad was it?"

She could tell Cass was trying to joke, but Alex could hear the worry in her voice. For someone as self-assured as Cass was, Alex had already noticed that was often a front she gave to people.

"No, of course not," she replied. "It's just … I need to tell you something and I wish I could do this in person and not over the phone … Cass, I don't even know how to say this so I'm just going to say it … I was injured on this last mission."

"I know, you told me that. You said it was a sprained shoulder," Cass jumped in before Alex could finish.

"Sorry," Alex repeated. "I should have been more upfront with you about the extent of my injuries. It's why I didn't want you coming over. I was hurt pretty bad – we were looking for a fugitive and things went south."

"Alex, are you ok?"

Alex hesitated before saying, "no."

"I want to come over," Cass said immediately.

"You can't," Alex said. "I'm not even there. I'm in a hospital."

"Which hospital? I can be there quickly. I just want to see you and make sure you are ok."

"You can't," she said again. "Where I'm at, well it's complicated and it's classified. I can't really even say where I am. Again, I'm sorry. I just woke up from being under sedation for the past 24 hours but I didn't want you to think I was ignoring your calls. Look, like I said, I don't really know how to say this, but I'm blind."

"What? How?"

"I can't explain it but it's … it's permanent. I'm never going to be able to see again."

Saying it out loud, even though she had told Maggie it was permanent, somehow felt different in telling it to Cass.

"Oh God," Cass said. "I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how you must be feeling right now. Is there anything I can do?"

"No, it's something I'm going to have to learn to live with," she said. Even as she said it, she wondered – not for the first time – if this was indeed something she could learn to live with.

There was a knock at the door, "Agent Danvers," the doctor said as he came in and Alex indicated that he needed to wait.

"The doctor just came in, can I call you later?"

"Yes, of course, call me as soon as you can."

"Ok, bye."

"Bye."

She sighed as she hung up the phone. Drawing out this conversation was not what she wanted but at least Cass knew now about her blindness. By the time they talked next she was sure Cass would have come to the same conclusion she had – that their relationship was over.

"How are you feeling?" the doctor asked.

"Is that you Jeffrey?" Alex asked, although she was sure it was him. At least it wasn't Charles whom she had apparently broken his nose the other night.

"Yes, now how are you feeling?"

"Better," she said. "Still kind of tired, but that is normal after having been sedated for so long. What kinds of tests did you perform while I was unconscious."

He went through the litany of tests, which she had to admit was pretty thorough. She asked questions about all the test results and even went as far as asking about the testing methods themselves to make sure nothing was overlooked.

"Now that your awake I need to check your eyes again," Jeffrey said. "I'm going to lift each eye lid and shine a pen light to see if there is any reaction, ok?"

Alex nodded yes, trying to mentally prepare herself for this. If there was one thing about her blindness that she hated so far it was being touched. She never thought about how many times during the day a person touches another person even casually. Now most touches caught her off guard.

Jeffrey started with her right eye and if it weren't for him holding her eyelid up she wouldn't have known he was doing anything. Obviously, she couldn't see the light yet she felt like he kept her eye open a long time before moving to the next when all she wanted to do was blink.

"There's been no change," he said, as if she didn't know that on her own.

She bit her tongue to keep from telling him that she didn't need him stating the obvious. She knew he was just doing his job.

"Can I get some Tylenol or something?" she asked.

"What's wrong?"

"Slight headache," she said, not adding that it started with him entering the room.

"What can you tell me about this pain you felt in your eyes before you were brought in?"

"Not much," she said. "It felt like they were burning."

"Had you experienced any sensation like that before that instant?"

"No."

"How would you rate the pain in terms of intensity on a 1 to 10 scale?"

"35."

She had been injured many times but nothing had accounted for the pure amount of pain she had been in when her eyes were burning. She didn't know any other way to describe it.

It had started out as a headache, but if she was being honest she had a reoccurring headache since she had woken up. The only time it seemed to go away was when she was had been lying down in her room. Given her concussion, she knew headaches were post-concussion symptom that could linger for a long time.

But the intensity in which she felt this pain was not something that would come on so quickly – at least not without a cause. She refused to believe that cause was her own mind.

"I will have someone bring you in some Tylenol," Jeffrey said. "For now, just rest and we'll discuss some other tests we can do later."

Alex nodded her head and after he left she got out of bed. The first thing she did was bump into one of the monitoring machines. She was not used to the set up in Medbay – at least not well enough to make it around blind like she could in her apartment.

When she had gotten into the advanced part of her training to be an agent J'onn had her undergo sessions in blind combat. They would practice techniques while blindfolded and part of that was spending time at her own place with the blindfold on. He had stressed the need to know your surroundings through and through because while they took care to protect their agents' identities it wasn't always possible. And no one should be able to ambush you in your own home because you should know it better than anyone else.

While it had been a while since she had even done such training she still remembered the lessons and remembered her apartment's layout well enough to navigate it. Despite all the time she spent at the DEO, she wasn't sure she could get around here as well without her sight.

She felt around for the machine that she knew was connected to the sensors she could feel on her body and finding the off switch, she deactivated it and began to pull the sensors off.

Thankfully, she didn't have an IV in her to pull out. They must have removed it when they took her off the sedative.

She wondered what they did with the clothes she had been wearing as she was wearing a medical gown. Even if she could get to her locker, it wouldn't do any good as she had gotten the spare clothes the other day when she first went home.

She was torn between wanting to leave and her inability to do so. She wasn't about go out there wearing what she was wearing, and she also didn't want to go stumbling around the DEO.

Then it hit her, there really was nothing she could do.

She was stuck in here without assistance.

Getting back into bed, she laid on the one side she could do somewhat comfortably, which thankfully meant she could face away from the door. She lay like that with her eyes open until she heard someone enter the room and she shut her eyes to give the appearance of sleep.

"Alex," came the whispered voice of Kara.

She gave no reaction, hoping her sister would leave her alone. Hearing Kara come around the side of the bed, she assumed her sister was standing there looking at her, but she made no move to sit down.

Alex opened her eyes with a sigh. "Stop staring at me like that," she said, again sitting up and hoping she was actually facing her sister. She heard Kara sit down so she had a better idea of where to look. "You aren't responsible for this. You have stop blaming yourself for it."

"I should have been here," Kara said softly.

"I was a DEO agent before you became Supergirl. I got injured before you became Supergirl," Alex said. "It's the nature of the job. We aren't stopping our work here based on your availability to help us out. Even if you had been there, there is no guarantee that the same thing wouldn't have happened."

"I can't help it," Kara said. "Every time I look at you, I think, if I had been there that you wouldn't be in that bed right now. I came out as Supergirl because you were in danger. You were on that plane and all I could think of was that I needed to save you and this time I wasn't even here to try and save you."

"No, you weren't because you were out being a hero to other people and there is nothing wrong with that," Alex said. "I don't get to keep you as some personal superhero. Supergirl belongs to National City, to the world, to other worlds. I accept that. And besides, I'm the big sister here so I'm the one who has to look after you, not the other way around. It's in the sister contract."

"There is no such thing."

"Yeah, but you didn't know that when you first came to Earth. Got you to do my chores for like what two whole days before mom noticed."

"Didn't you do that so you could sneak out to meet some boy?"

Alex groaned. "Seth Miller, don't remind me. God, how did I not know I was gay back then?"

Kara laughed, "maybe it just took meeting the right girl."

Neither woman said anything for a moment. "She was really worried about you," Kara said. "Maggie, I mean. She cares about you, a lot."

"She cares about me like a friend because that's all we're ever going to be," Alex said. "She pretty much affirmed our friendship status yesterday morning before all of this."

"Are you sure it's not more than that?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Alex said. She wasn't willing to allow herself to believe otherwise. She had turned the corner on her feelings for Maggie – or so she told herself.

"How did it go with Cass?"

"Fine. She wanted to come see me, but I told her it wasn't possible. We didn't talk long so I'm not sure it fully hit her when I explained that I was blind. Once she understands, that will probably be the end of that."

"You think she will break up with you because you are blind?"
"No, I think I will break up with her because I'm blind," Alex responded. "I can't even think about being in a relationship and being like this. There is too much going on in my head right now. I don't know, maybe the doctor is right and maybe this is some sort of psychosomatic response."

"Alexandra"

Alex turned toward the voice that was coming in, but even though she recognized her mom's voice, she was still unprepared for her mother apparently leaning over the bed and hugging her. The unexpected contact caused her to tense up. Before she could say anything, her mother had released her and had pushed her chin up – most likely because Eliza was taking a look at her eyes, Alex figured.

"That's odd," Eliza said. "There doesn't seem to be any difference in how your eyes look. They are the same color, no fading, no irritation or redness."

"Hello to you too mom," Alex said pulling away.

"You should have called me immediately."

Alex was about to give her some sort of apology, figuring it would be easier than arguing with her, but then she heard Kara say, "sorry," and she realized her mom wasn't chastising her for not calling.

"I asked her not to," Alex said, unwilling to let Kara be the target. "And before you say anything, I'm sorry too, but I needed some time to get used to this. It's not like I could have hidden from you forever."

Although she wished she could.

"J'onn has filled me in on what happened, but I want to see all the medical reports," Eliza said. "And I want to know what happened that you are here in the hospital wing. Is this some sort of after effect? Can we expect more of these episodes? Do we know anything about what this alien did to you?"

Alex wasn't sure if this was mom mode or scientist mode or some combination of it. What she did know was that her mom wouldn't be satisfied until each of her questions were answered.

She heard some movements, her mom going away from her, but then she heard a scraping noise and she figured it was the clip board with her medical reports being slid out.

"Kara, be a dear and turn on the lights so I can actually read these," Eliza said, as her voice began to drift to the side Kara had been on. The sound of the chair moving slightly gave her the idea that Eliza was now sitting there.

She also heard Kara moving and then the flick of the switch. She hadn't even known the lights weren't on. Her headache was still there and was starting to get worse.

"Kara, can you ask Jeffrey for some Tylenol, he was supposed to have someone bring a few?"

"What's the Tylenol for?" Eliza asked.

"Just a headache," Alex answered, hoping that would be the end of it.

"Are you sure it's just a headache? It says here you also had a concussion. Is it related to that or related to your eyes?"

"I don't know, concussion probably," Alex said. She was already getting tired of this conversation and her headache wasn't making matters any better.

"Here is the Tylenol," Kara said. "And some water."

Alex held her hand out for it and put the tablets in her mouth and held her hand out for the water and swallowed the aspirin. Hopefully, it wouldn't take too long for them to kick in.

She yawned, making a bit of a show of it. While she was a little tired, despite being asleep for an entire day, but the truth was she was tired of this conversation.

"Alexandra, honey, why don't you get some rest," Eliza said. "I'm going to talk with your doctor. We'll leave you alone."

Her mother gave her another hug and then she heard them leave and turn off the light. Once she did, she laid back down, but not to go to sleep. She held her phone in her hand considering if she should call Cass back.

Unlocking the phone she used the voice command to send a text instead to Maggie.

"Thanks for your help."

Then she waited.

When she got no response after 10 minutes of waiting – she kept asking the phone what time it was – she turned it off entirely, sat it down and turned back onto her side. At least her headache was receding.