Maggie stayed back against the wall of the medbay – out of everyone's way – as she watched Eliza and two of the DEO doctors presumably checking all of Alex's vitals. None of them had said much that she understood outside of confirming that she was fully sedated. They had hooked up an IV to her but Maggie didn't know if that was for keeping her sedated or for some other purpose.

The only time Maggie looked away from Alex's sleeping form was to glance at the heart monitor which was again connected to her. It showed a steady beat and Maggie felt comforted by that if nothing else. She was so focused she hadn't even noticed that Kara had come up to stand next to her until she spoke.

"I'm sorry," Kara said. "I'm sorry that we didn't come and tell you sooner."

"It's ok," Maggie said. "I understand why I wouldn't be … besides I'm sure you had more important things on your mind."

"Still," Kara said. "We should have sent someone. You deserved to know."

Maggie didn't respond. Did she deserve to know? What was she to Alex besides her ex-fiancée? Eliza had said that Alex hadn't stopped loving her, but did that mean anything now?

"That alien down there, J'onn said that the Kryptonians didn't know much about it. How is that your people caught it then?"

"We didn't," Kara replied. "He was brought to us from another race who had asked us to imprison him. He was listed as one of the high-priority prisoners at Fort Rozz because of how dangerous he was. He was imprisoned in a solitary cell where he was not allowed to have any access to any living being. There wasn't much in his file beyond this ability to put his victims in a coma before they died."

"Maybe Alex will be able to tell you more once she wakes up," Maggie said, moving off the wall.

"Where are you going? Don't you want to be here when she wakes?"

"To work," Maggie lied. She had taken the day off once she had decided to come here that day, but she no longer wanted to be there.

"I will text you and let you know how she's doing once she wakes up," Kara said.

"Will you check with J'onn to see if I can get access to the files of the other victims?"

"I'm sure he'll be ok with you reviewing them, but what do you think you will find?"

"I don't know," Maggie said honestly. "I keep going back to what that alien said about there being something about Alex that made it want to target her. Maybe there is some pattern there."

…

Alex gasped as she woke as if she didn't have enough air to breathe. Unlike before she didn't sit up or move much, but she was blinking her eyes a bit before they focused.

"Alex," Eliza said coming to her daughter's bedside.

"Mom?" Alex said, before yawning. She moved like she was about to sit up and then thought better of it.

"You're going to be ok," Eliza said, taking her hand. "Just take things slow."

"What happened?"

"You don't remember?"

Alex yawned again, and Eliza thought maybe she was about to fall back to sleep, but she blinked several times. "Can I get some water?"

Eliza moved to pour her a drink, but Alex's hand was shaking so she had to help her daughter with it.

"My throat hurts," Alex said.

Eliza knew that was from the ventilator tube and was about to explain it when Alex did fall back asleep. She knew her daughter was probably in no condition to be awake for long – after all, she had technically died, but she couldn't help but wonder how Alex had managed to leave the bed and find that alien, only to attack it.

This time she was the one who was yawning as she took a seat next to the bed. She had barely left her daughter's bedside since she had come in from Midvale. As her condition had worsened, Eliza had felt more and more helpless and when it came to making the decision, she knew she was doing what Alex wanted, but she wasn't sure she could do it. Yes, Kara too was her daughter, but this was different, this was her Alexandra, the one she had held in her arms moments after she was born. Jeremiah was there beside her, beaming down at this newborn baby who they knew they would do anything for.

She had barely registered that the alien had taken Alex's form when she had entered the room to sedate her. J'onn told her later what had happened when Maggie had gone to confront it.

Maggie. She wished that things had worked out between Maggie and Alex as she had never seen her daughter so happy as she was with Maggie. But Alex wanted children and Maggie didn't and in the end, that wasn't something Alex could get past. Yet, ever since breaking things off with Maggie, Alex had done nothing to try to move on with anyone else. To Eliza's knowledge, she hadn't dated anyone.

There was a sadness in Alex now and it pained Eliza that she couldn't do anything to ease that for her daughter.

There was a knock on the door frame, and Eliza looked to see J'onn standing there.

"Why don't you head home for a while? I can keep vigil," J'onn said. She had been staying at Alex's place since she had gotten into town.

"She woke a little while ago," Eliza said. "She was too tired to be awake for long. But she asked me what happened."

"She doesn't know?" he asked coming further into the room.

Eliza shrugged. "It could be she just wasn't awake enough to know what was going on."

"You're nearly as exhausted as she is," J'onn said. "I will have one of the agents drive you home so you can get some rest."

Eliza didn't want to leave, but she also knew she couldn't stay awake much longer. She nodded as she stood up. "If she wakes again for anything longer than a couple of minutes …"

"I will send someone for you," he said.

"Thanks," she said, and she bent over the bed and kissed Alex on the forehead. She approached J'onn. "That thing, does it still have her form?"

"Yes," he said. "It hasn't reverted to its form since making the change."

Eliza looked back at Alex and then thanked J'onn once more before leaving.

…

Maggie sat at her desk reviewing the files that J'onn had let her access concerning the five homicides, along with what little they knew about the alien which wasn't much.

Kara had let her know that Alex had woken up a couple of times, but neither for anything more than a minute or two. Alex had now been asleep for more than 13 hours straight without waking and it was worrying Kara (and Maggie) that perhaps she wouldn't wake again. Eliza had tried to assure Kara that Alex's body needed time to heal from the ordeal it had just gone through.

While Maggie understood that she couldn't help but think back to Alex attacking the alien with a vicious purpose. There had been nothing weak about Alex's body at that point.

The alien, according to its file, had been called Evo from its captor. There was no explanation for why it was identified that way. Its origin was listed as unknown as was pretty much everything else about it. There was a notation in the Kryptonian files that the Kryptonians had wanted to study his genetics, but its captor wouldn't allow it, warning them that the longer he was uncontained or around others the more dangerous he would be. One sample had been taken from it – and it was that sample that had helped the DEO know what it was hunting for once they made the connection between the murders.

But the alien and how it killed the others seemed to be the only connection. In reviewing all the files, Maggie wasn't seeing any common thread between them and Alex. Yet, Evo had said there was a reason for targeting Alex.

There had to be something she was missing, and she knew then that she would need to delve deeper into each of the victim's lives to see if there was a connection.

A part of her wondered why she was even bothering. Evo was safely detained at the DEO. Alex hadn't died. If this was a normal murder investigation it could be considered case closed. But this wasn't normal and if there was a chance that Alex wasn't safe Maggie had to do something.

Kara had asked her if she wanted to come back in and see Alex, but Maggie had told her no. Thankfully, Kara hadn't pressed the issue. It's not like she didn't want to see Alex and make sure she was doing ok, but too much had happened between them.

What would she even say to Alex – 'glad you aren't dead or hey, I'm still upset that you threw what we had away.' No, she had decided after their breakup that the best thing for her would be to keep her distance and move on. Not that she had accomplished much in terms of that.

After all, she still loved Alex.

…

It was 21 hours before Alex was awake for more than a couple of minutes. She woke to a darkened medbay, vaguely recalling waking before.

"Alex?"

She looked over to see her very sleepy-looking mom in the bed next to hers.

"Mom, you ok?"

Eliza smiled as she sat up and walked over to her, "yes, honey, I was just taking a nap, waiting for you to wake. How are feeling?"

"Tired."

"Well, try to stay awake, just for a bit ok?"

Alex nodded. "My throat is kind of sore. What happened?"

Eliza pushed some hair back from Alex's face. "An alien assaulted you, but we can talk about all of that later. I just need to know you are going to be ok."

"Can I get some water?"

Eliza moved and poured her a cup, while Alex adjusted the bed so she was sitting up more. This time, Alex was able to handle it on her own and she drank down the whole cup.

"Do you want more?"

"No."

Eliza began to check Alex's vitals and her daughter remained silent throughout, which was a little odd Eliza thought as Alex hated such things, especially when it was coming from her mother. Everything was checking out fine, although she needed to schedule some scans later. A nurse had come in on her regular checks and saw that Alex was awake and Eliza was administering to her, but she left to get the doctor who joined Eliza.

Once Eliza was done, she told Alex she'd be back and she walked out to talk with the doctor in private.

"She doesn't remember what happened," Eliza said. "We're going to need to do some brain scans later to make sure everything is normal, but for now, no one gives her details until I get to talk to her more fully about what occurred."

"Why don't you tell her now?"

Eliza shook her head no. "I want to make sure she can stay awake for longer stretches first. Plus given what happened before, I don't want her to go looking for it in its containment unit, not as long as it is in her form."

When she returned, Alex was still there in bed, which somewhat surprised Eliza. Patience as a patient was not one of Alex's strengths.

"Everything is checking out," Eliza said, approaching the bed again. "We're going to get some more tests scheduled later on. For now, I just want you to rest and take it easy. There is no reason to push yourself."

Even as she said it, she knew her daughter wouldn't abide by it.

"Ok," Alex replied.

…

Maggie walked out of the hi-rise apartment complex where she had just spoken to the husband of one of Evo's victims and she was wondering if she was wasting her time. She had spoken to only two of the victims' families but so far she couldn't see any connection.

This victim came from a wealthy family and married a man from yet another wealthy family so demographically there was no similarity to her and Alex or the other victims. Her husband, who didn't seem as upset over her death as Maggie thought he might be, hadn't been overly helpful. He said there was nothing going on in their lives beyond the norm.

She pressed him on anything that might have been different for her in the time leading up to her death. He at first said there was nothing and then he mentioned almost in passing as if didn't matter that she had been a little emotional as of late. When she asked what for, he had to think about it and she wanted to ask him if he even knew his wife. Finally, he said that it had been the year anniversary of his mother-in-law's death and his wife was still upset and feeling guilty over the whole affair because she had put her mother in a home (against her wishes) and she had died within two months of being there.

The husband felt it was much ado about nothing and Maggie could see nothing in that story that connected to Alex or the other victim she had already met with a family member about. In that case, it was a young woman who was only 20. Maggie had met with her older sister who said that when she found out her sister was in a coma she thought it was because she must have swallowed a bunch of pills. She had always been quiet and sad, her sister said so she assumed it was a suicide attempt.

Maggie asked if there was anything specific going on in the sister's life that had happened recently and she said nothing that she knew of. To be honest, she said that she wasn't that close with her sister (well, her half-sister she then said), and so she didn't know what her life was like.

As she got into her car, Maggie thought about if she should even bother with the next interview she had scheduled for tomorrow. That one was with the roommate of the victim that died just before Alex.

She had spoken with Kara earlier today as Kara had called her to ask how it was going. Since she had only spoken to one victims' family at that point, she didn't have much to say.

Then Maggie asked her how Alex was doing since Kara hadn't offered up the information on her own. She didn't know if Kara hadn't said because she didn't want to say or she didn't think Maggie wanted to know but either way she sensed hesitation on her part.

"She's been sort of quiet," Kara said.

"She did have a near-death experience."

"I know, it's just …"

"Just what? Is something wrong with her?" Maggie asked. Kara had texted her when Alex had first woken up – well when she had woken for more than a minute at a time and had told her how Alex didn't remember what happened to her.

Then she had heard from Kara again when she told her that Alex remained in the Medbay, needing to recover according to her mom and that they had told her what had happened to her. Maggie had asked her then how she reacted to that and Kara said Alex hadn't had much of a reaction at all.

That was a red flag to Maggie, and apparently others, but they had chalked it up to Alex having gone through a trauma.

"That's it, I don't know. She's just … different. She's not pushing to get back to active duty or acting like her normal self."

Maggie tried to reassure her that Alex probably needed some time to get back to being herself, but even as she said it she was bothered by what Kara had said. Alex didn't know how to not push herself so that was yet another red flag in Maggie's mind.

A part of her wished that she didn't care, that she could just walk away from this, walk away from Alex for good, but she knew she couldn't. She had to know that Alex would be ok.

That is why she would go to the next interview.

…

Eliza sat in the chair watching Alex and Kara interact or rather Kara talking to Alex and Alex remaining mostly quiet, only politely responding when needed. They had brought Alex home today and even that was an odd occurrence. Alex hadn't bothered her about coming home, about leaving medbay, about anything and the only reason they were even here now was that Eliza had suggested that maybe Alex would be more comfortable recovering at home now that she no longer needed to be in medbay.

There was something off about Alex and Eliza wasn't sure if had to do with the alien attack itself or that she had died.

Since waking up, the only thing Alex seemed to have more than a passing reaction to was when they were telling her what happened and Kara mentioned that Maggie was there. It wasn't even that Alex said anything, but Eliza had been watching as a storm of emotion seemed to pass through Alex at that moment, but just as quickly as it was there, it was gone.

Alex hadn't asked a single question about the alien either. She hadn't done anything since waking up and that bothered Eliza. She knew her daughter and the way Alex was acting now was nothing like how Eliza expected her to react to things.

"Kara," Eliza interrupted. "You should head back to work, you've missed a lot of time lately."

Kara was about to say something, but Eliza's look halted her and she hugged Alex before saying goodbye. Eliza noticed that Alex barely returned the hug and didn't even say goodbye. Eliza too got a hug before Kara was out the door.

"Can I get you anything?" Eliza asked Alex.

"No."

Eliza came over and took a seat on the couch. "I know this has probably been a little overwhelming for you," she said. "But I want you to know, you can talk to me about whatever you need to."

"Do you mind if I go take a nap?"

"Of course," Eliza said. "You should rest whenever you feel like it. You have been on your feet more today than any time since you woke up. I will be out here if you need anything."

Alex didn't react beyond a small nod and she went to her bedroom and shut the door. Everything about it still seemed wrong to Eliza and she hoped that whatever this was that Alex would snap out of it soon.

…

Alex entered her bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed, closing her eyes and taking a couple of calming breaths. She knew her mom was worried about her, but it's not like she could tell her or anyone else about what she had experienced. When she first woke up and told her mom she didn't remember, she was telling the truth, but by the time she had been awake a few times, she knew exactly what had happened. She even knew about the decision to shut off the machines and let her die.

The actual dying she didn't recall.

And the moment she woke and went after Evo was more than a little hazy but she did remember the rage that filled her.

She had wanted to kill him with her bare hands. Kill him for what he did to her.

The only thing she could do now was keep him from doing it to her again. Because he wouldn't stop coming after her of that she was sure.