Alex sat on her couch, as she listened to her mother. Eliza had showed up at her door, along with Kara, bright and early that morning – a little too early for Alex's tastes. She had slept ok, but not great the night before, having woken up a couple of times during the night. Cassie had stayed until around 10:30 or so, and then Alex was all alone once more.

She had gone into her bedroom and laid down, but sleep had been a long time coming. She had played some music through her phone for awhile, hoping it would lull her into sleep, but it hadn't.

Kara had brought her some coffee at least along with a bagel and cream cheese. She had already eaten and Kara had left to go to work, leaving her alone with her mother.

Currently, her mother was talking about some practical matters – such as making sure Alex had more than one pair of the new glasses, and also suggesting that she could arrange to stay there with Alex for a little while.

"I appreciate the offer, but I don't think it's a good idea," she said. "I have to learn to do things on my own and I can't do that if you are here doing things for me. I need to figure out all of this stuff – how to prepare meals or pick out clothes that match. For every one thing I think of I'm sure I'm not thinking of five others I should."

She had talked through some of the things with Cassie last night. Cass had offered to help her with anything Alex felt comfortable with her helping with – making it clear that she didn't want to overstep.

Even though they hadn't known each other that long, Alex knew it was the truth. Cass had a big heart and while she may be ruthless in the courtroom, she was still a softie at heart.

The truth was Alex didn't even know where to begin with all of this.

"I understand that," Eliza said. "But right now, it's not just your eyes. You have other injuries and don't try and tell me that you aren't in any pain."

Her mother wasn't incorrect as part of the reason she hadn't slept well was because her body ached. She could only imagine what she looked like. Cass had said it wasn't bad, but she also didn't expect her to say anything different.

The side wound – the bandage would still need to be checked every day – was still very tender.

She had been pinned under the collapsed wall, not just from the rebar that had punctured her, but from the weight of the building materials that had fallen on her.

"It does hurt," Alex admitted. "But if you stay here with me then it's not much different than me being at the DEO. You're going to want to help and I get that, but I have to figure out this stuff on my own, figure out how to do things on my own."

She heard her mother moving toward her and then felt the couch sink at bit as her mother sat down. She waited for the inevitable touch, but it didn't come.

"I understand that you need to figure a lot of this out on your own, that you need to create your own new comfort level," Eliza said. "But tell me Alex, when did you asking for help become such a bad thing in your mind?"

Alex looked off to the side, away from her mother. She didn't know that she had an answer to the question. It's not that she didn't think that asking for help was a bad thing, but always saw her role on the other side of it – the one willing to help, not the one asking.

Hell, she had been helping Kara since she first came to this planet. After joining the DEO, she had done everything she could to excel – to show her worth and that worth was in part defined by not needing to ask for help.

It was how she saw herself, she realized. She was the one who could swoop in to lend a hand, but she wasn't the one with her hand out to ask for assistance.

She wasn't ready to give that up despite her blindness.

Turning back toward her mom, she said, "I just need to do this by myself."

She heard her mother sigh in resignation. "Ok," Eliza said, standing up.

Alex immediately felt guilty because she knew her mom really did just want to help.

"Well there is something that you could help with," Alex said.

"What is it?"

"Light, there is still light coming in the apartment," Alex said. "And it's not a big deal when I have my glasses on, but even with the blinds closed on the windows light is still getting in because of the curtains. I think I need blackout curtains."

"Can you actually tell there is light coming in?" Eliza asked, clearly in her scientific voice, not her mom voice.

"Not with the glasses on," Alex said. "But I can't wear them at night when I sleep so when I woke up this morning, I think maybe I could tell there was light coming in, but I'm not certain."

The bedroom didn't get a lot of light anyway because of its position and the lone window, which was one of the things Alex liked about it. Sometimes if missions went late in to the night or early morning, or if she was returning from a trip, she might have to catch her sleep during the day and her bedroom was the darkest part of the apartment.

When they had finally figured out it was the light that had been hurting her, she had given it some thought about why it had taken so long for it to hurt her. Her blinds and curtains has been closed and she had spent a lot of her time in her bedroom and a lot of time with her eyes closed.

It wasn't until that morning that Maggie had opened the blinds and curtains that Alex had gotten direct sunlight.

"Did you have a headache this morning?"

"A small one,"

"Alexandra, when I asked how you were feeling when I got here, you should have said something."

"It was a small headache, not a big deal," Alex responded, thinking this was exactly why she didn't want her mother hovering around her 24-7.

"We don't know enough about what happened to you to dismiss anything, even a small headache," Eliza responded. "Now do you still have the headache?"

"No," Alex said. "It's been gone since I took the pain meds this morning."

"Good," Eliza said. "Now if you keep getting these headaches you have to speak up."

"Yes mother."

"Don't roll your eyes at me Alexandra."

"I wasn't," Alex said, even as she lowered her head and wondered if her mom did somehow know she had rolled her eyes.

"Alright, if I am going to get you some blackout curtains, is there anything else you need immediately?" Eliza asked.

Alex thought about telling her to pick up a couple of bottles of bourbon, but knew that would not endear her to her mother.

"No, nothing I can think of," Alex said.

"Ok," Eliza said and she came over and kissed Alex on the top of the head, which Alex was not expecting so she gave a slight shudder. "I will go pick some up, but you call me if you think of anything else that you need or want."

"I will."

She listened as her mother gathered up her purse and left the apartment. As soon as she was gone, Alex picked up her phone from where she had it sitting just under her leg, and asked for the time. It was past 11 already so she missed the chance to speak with Cass before she had to be in court so she sent a text.

"Did you get it?" was what she wrote. She had thought Cass might have texted her after her meeting with her boss but she hadn't heard from her so she hoped that didn't mean Cass didn't get it.

She wondered what she should do now. What could she do?

She ended up standing and going to her room, placing her phone down on top of the dresser. Then she opened her closet and grabbed the first piece of clothing her hand touched. Pulling it out, she laid it on the bed and then she felt it.

It was a long sleeved, button up shirt – probably one of the dress shirts she would wear when going undercover as an FBI agent. But she couldn't tell which one specifically it was. It could be blue or white or some shade of red. She had no idea so she sat it aside and pulled out another shirt, repeating her actions from before, to figure out what kind of shirt it was. Again, she could only get so far with identifying it.

She would need some sort of system, a way to tag the clothes to help her identify them. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she started to think about what kind of system she thought might work for her. She was sure she wasn't the only blind person who had to come up with a system and it probably wouldn't be too hard to get some suggestions but she wanted to think this through on her own.

Maybe her mom was right, maybe she did have a problem with asking for help. Maybe she needed to rethink this.

Her phone beeped and she went over to the dresser. It was a text from Maggie asking her how she was. She didn't answer immediately – instead going back to sit on the bed. She wished she had something to say or talk about with Maggie other than how she was. She wished she could speak with her with ease, but ever since she realized she had feelings for her, that hadn't been possible.

But Maggie did want to be her friend and maybe that is what Alex needed right now in her life, she thought. Of course, right after thinking that, her mind went to being in the shower with Maggie.

….

Maggie was waiting at the bar for Brandon to get there. He had texted her earlier in the day to let her know he might have something on the alien that had injured Alex. Maggie wanted to know immediately, but Brandon put her off, telling her to meet him at the bar that night.

The waiting was like a small bit of torture. Alex had gotten released from the DEO hospital yesterday and had gone home. She had found that out from Kara, who had promised to keep her in the loop about how Alex was doing.

After Brandon had texted her, she had sent a message to Alex to ask how she was. She wished she had something better to talk to her about or ask her, but she didn't. Alex had responded that she was fine and the new glasses were working well. Then Alex had told her that she had decided to take her advice about not letting this stop her from living her life. That part had made Maggie feel a lot better. She was worried that Alex, despite how strong of a person she was, would let this drag her down too much. She had already seen touches of that depression in Alex so she had been concerned that Alex would struggle more with this than what she would probably let on.

She had spoken with Eliza when she was at the DEO, and when Eliza had told her that it would be more helpful if they knew exactly what this alien's powers were and how it worked, Maggie had become even more determined to track it down.

Finally, Maggie thought, as she saw Brandon come in. He came and took a seat next to her.

"What do you got?"

"What no hi, no how are you?"

"Hi Brandon. How would you like me to shoot you if you don't tell me what you got immediately?"

"Jeez, tough crowd," Brandon said. "I was just getting to it, but I want a drink first." He signaled the bartender and ordered a drink all while Maggie resisted the urge to slam his head against the bar to get him to talk.

She tried to calm herself, telling herself that he would tell her the information and she shouldn't be getting this upset. She knew she was only getting upset because she wanted so badly to do something, anything to help Alex.

His drink was finally brought over and he took a long sip of his beer before he finally spoke. "Weird one this is," Brandon said. "Can't say I can make much sense of this one, but your K'artr hit up that clinic to take drugs."
"Yeah I know that. I read the police report about what was missing."

"Yes, but did you know that while they took a shitload of drugs, the only drugs that they were actually after were prenatal ones."

"What?" Maggie asked.

"Yep, prenatal drugs, which of course is ridiculous because what would a non-human need with prenatal drugs."

"Unless those kinds of drugs do something different for him and his kind," Maggie conjectured. It wouldn't be the first time she had heard of alien species using human drugs for other means than what they were intended for.

"Could be, but whatever it is, I don't have a clue. And apparently that clinic didn't have what he was looking for so he has been contacting other means in order to get it. Underground stuff, you know," Brandon said taking another drink. "Word is he felt the heat after that raid when some of you law types tracked him down – alien hunters of some sort. Anyway, he is laying low because of that but he still needs the drugs."

"So which supplier is he working with?"

"They call him Downtown Eddie."

"Eddie, of course."

"You know him?"

"Yeah," Maggie said. "Our paths have crossed several times before."

She disliked Eddie mostly because the man did not know how to tell the truth. Everything with him was an embellishment or completely made up. He was not reliable as a source. It was news to her that he was now supplying human drugs to aliens. The last she heard he was still dealing with stolen goods not drugs.

"Anything else you need?" Brandon asked her.

Maggie shook her head no. "Thanks for the assist. Next round on me," she said putting some money down.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Why is this important to you?"

If you had asked her afterward, Maggie wouldn't have had an answer for why she said what she did to Brandon.

"This alien hurt someone who is special to me," she said. "He blinded her with his power, and she is struggling with this new normal of her life and I feel like this … tracking him down is the only real thing I can do."

"And what are you going to do if you find him?"

She looked at him, realizing what he was asking her. "I'm going to bring him in so he can answer for his crime."

"Then you aren't looking for revenge?"

"No," Maggie said. "I want to know why he broke into the clinic. It's easy to just lump every alien into the same category and I have colleagues who are like that. They think that none of you should be here regardless of if you are doing anything wrong or not. They don't want to look beyond anything other than the fact you aren't human. I don't subscribe to that kind of thinking. There is a story behind how everyone of you got here, and I think we are doing a disservice if we don't recognize that. There is a reason my friend is now blind, and I want to know what that reason is."