"Updates on the search?" Alex demanded as she strode into the DEO the next morning.

"None yet, ma'am," Vasquez replied. "We swept the facility for DNA samples and fingerprints, looked at all the nearby traffic cameras to try to find a facial recognition match, and attempted to track down the person who sent in the anonymous tip, but all of our leads are coming up dry. All that we have is the notes and data that were recovered from the site, but a lot of them are written in code, and all the names are encrypted. We've managed to decode a few documents, but it's slow going." She hesitated before continuing. "If I may, Director, I think that our best chance in finding them is by getting the girl to talk. I understand that she might be wary to offer up any information, but she is the only solid link that we have right now."

"I know," Alex sighed. "I'm just not sure how I should go about that conversation when she doesn't trust any of us yet. Ideally, we would build up more of a rapport before diving into that conversation." She sank into her chair at the main desk, rubbing her forehead. "Keep me updated on the case. Maybe send an agent out to areas with a high alien population like Al's bar, and see if anyone has any information about illegal alien test sites." The agent nodded and went back to her desk as Alex turned her computer on.

She had just barely begun drafting an email to one of her contacts at the NCPD, asking him if he had any potential links to the case, when one of the rookie agents rushed into the atrium.

"Director?" He asked, a note of urgency in his voice. Alex stood immediately and began following him to the med bay.

"What's happening?" she demanded.

"Nurse Collins sent me to get you, she said that the alien patient collapsed." They reached the lab, and she entered hastily, seeing Selah convulsing on the bed.

"What's going on?" she asked, going to the girl's side.

"I think it's a seizure," Collins replied. "My guess is that it's grand mal. We were talking normally, and then her eyes rolled back in her head."

"Heart rate?"

"It's a little bit high, but not too concerning. She's at 93 BPM right now. Her breathing has stayed normal."

"We'll just have to wait it out. When did it start?" The nurse checked her watch.

'Three minutes and twenty-seven seconds ago." Alex pulled a stool over to the bed and sat down.

"Hey Selah, it's Alex," she said calmly. "You're at the DEO, and you're going to be okay."

They sat like that for a few long minutes, the agent sitting next to the bed and quietly talking to the girl while the nurse timed and monitored Selah's breathing and heart rate. She couldn't help but think of when they first brought the girl back from the facility; how she had held her hand on the ride over, gently talking to her just as she was now. It seemed like it had happened much longer ago than a week and a half.

Eventually, the girl's convulsions slowed, and her eyes began to flutter open.

"Hey," Alex said, sitting up. "How are you feeling?" Selah moved slowly, trying to prop herself up on her elbows, but she couldn't quite keep her balance. "Woah, take it easy, okay? I've got you."

"I'm thirsty," she mumbled, her voice gravelly. The nurse got a bottle of water from the fridge in the corner and handed it to Alex.

"Here you go," the agent said. "I'll hold it for you, alright?" Bracing the girl's head, she carefully moved the bottle to Selah's lips, helping her drink. "Slowly, please. If you do anything too fast right now, that could send you back into the seizure, and we don't want that happening." She helped the girl lay back down once she had taken a small drink, placing her head back down onto the pillow.

"My head hurts," she groaned, slurring her words slightly.

"I know. It will pass," Alex replied. "What was the total time?" she asked, turning to the nurse.

"Five minutes and thirty-two seconds," Collins replied. "Stable breath rate and pulse throughout."

"Thank you." Selah blinked slowly and looked around the lab, her eyes bleary.

"Water?" She asked, listlessly moving her hand towards the bottle. She managed to take a drink by herself this time, under the agent's watchful eye.

"How are you feeling?" she asked again. The girl sat up in bed a little bit, wincing at the effort, and Alex moved the pillows to help prop her up better.

"Pretty gross still. It should be better soon."

"Has this happened before?" She nodded slowly.

"It started when I first got to the lab," she said tiredly. "With all of the drugs that I was on. Then they started doing tests with them, I guess. They'd use wires to send an electrical current through my brain to trigger seizures, and then they studied my response to different drugs, and if it changed based on where they put the electrodes-" She abruptly stopped talking, clearing her throat. "It got a lot worse after they put the port into my head for the power dampener.

"Hey," Alex said, putting a hand on the girl's bony shoulder. "It's okay. You're going to be fine." She looked back at the agent, her eyes sad. "How long does it typically take for you to recover?"

"Like, fifteen to twenty minutes, maybe? It took longer at the beginning, but eventually I started getting more used to it, and now I get better a lot faster."

"Okay," she replied. "I'll stay here with you. Is it okay if I take your pulse and check your pupils, just to make sure that everything is going back to normal. No bloodwork, and nothing invasive, I promise."

Selah studied Alex for a second, her head tilted off to one side, before she cleared her throat again.

"Okay," she said quietly.

"Thank you," the agent replied, feeling a wave of relief wash over her. This was the first time that Selah was letting her do anything remotely similar to a medical test, and she knew that it was a huge step towards getting the girl to trust her. "Collins," she said, looking over her shoulder at the nurse. "Can you document this in the files, and record everything that you observed, including any potential triggers?" The nurse nodded and left the lab as Alex pulled out a stethoscope and began taking the girl's pulse.

"I'm sorry about all the fuss," she said eventually. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"I wasn't scared," she replied automatically. The girl tilted her head and raised her eyebrows skeptically. "Okay, I was a little bit concerned," she admitted. "I'm just very glad that you're safe."

"Me too."

"Do you feel any better now?"

"I bet that I can move stuff again."

"That's always a good thing," Alex stated. The cord of her stethoscope began floating up, and she sighed. "Right, you mean psychically. I forgot that you can do that." Selah made the cord bounce up and down a few times before she swatted at it. "I'm trying to count your heart rate, and that is very distracting."

"Sorry," the girl said with a laugh, and the stethoscope's cord dropped back down. "You were at twenty-four."

"Thanks." She finished up the rest of the tests and began filling out a form for her file, as Selah regained her strength and began telepathically opening and closing all of the drawers to the filing cabinets and cupboards behind Alex.

"This is really not helpful," the agent stated as she set down her pen, glaring over at her.

"Oh, sorry," she replied, trying to look innocent. "I really thought that it would be."

"Hmm." She filed the document away and looked over at the girl, who was sitting up on the cot, seemingly fully recovered. "Would it be alright if I took a look at the port that they put in?" Selah's shoulders stiffened, but she nodded tightly, turning around on the bed so that her back was facing Alex. The agent walked over to her and gently directed her head downwards, parting the long hair that hung over the port and revealing the metal circle underneath.

It was small and round, about the size of a quarter, and it was made of a cold metal that Alex recognized as being Nth. The hair around it was cut short, only a few inches long, and she could feel the girl tense up as she gently ran a finger over the metal threads that twisted around the outside of the port's screw. While she didn't have Kara's x-ray vision to be able to see the base that sat on the inside of the girl's head, she could feel a slight bump as she traced the edges of the plate from the outside. She guessed that the plate was about three inches square, and only a few millimeters thick.

"I know what you're thinking," Selah said abruptly, snapping the DEO agent out of her thoughts. She brushed Selah's hair back off of her face and took a step back, allowing her to turn back around again.

"Hmm?" she asked, leaning against the island.

"I know what you're thinking," she repeated. "About the port. Say it." Alex crossed her arms and sighed.

"I think that having a metal bolt screwed into your skull would cause inflammation, changes to the release of neurotransmitters, and interference to the blood-brain barrier. It's well documented that a traumatic injury to the brain, especially one where the skull is penetrated- can cause epilepsy. Even your powers are not enough to stop it from causing problems. In my opinion, that port is absolutely worsening your seizures, and it could very well be the entire root cause of them. The best form of treatment that I can think of is to remove it entirely, and that would be what I recommend we do. Every other treatment would just serve as a band-aid to the underlying issues," Alex said carefully. "However," she added. "This decision is fully up to you. If you want it to be removed, I can do that, but if you want it to stay in, that's your choice. I'm not going to force you to do anything, or pressure you to make any specific decisions. I just want to make sure that you are aware of all of the facts in your situation."

The girl didn't say anything for a few moments, and she kept her eyes fixed on the floor.

"I want it out," she said softly, looking up at Alex. "Can you be the one to do it?"

"Of course," she replied.

.

Kara never claimed that she was the most talented hair stylist in the world, but she was passable. She had worked in Alex's cousin's salon when she was at Stanhope to help pay tuition, and although she had mostly just swept the floors there, she'd picked up a few skills along the way. Plus, when Alex had gone off to college she had to learn how to trim her own hair with the kryptonite scissors, so she had some experience. She could manage quite well, but it was proving to be much more difficult to show that to an alien teenager who had been literally living underground up until a few weeks ago.

"Hey," she said to Selah, who refused to meet her eyes. "You told me that you wanted to do this."

"I said that I might want it to be done in general," the girl corrected, fidgeting with a roll of Alex's medical bandages as she sat on her bed in the lab. "Not that I specifically want you to do it right now."

"Oh, you're right," Kara retorted. "My bad. Why don't I just drive you over to the Quikkie Cutz down the road? I'm sure that they'd do a bang up job. Somehow I doubt that normal scissors would even work on your hair." Selah didn't reply and continued avoiding eye contact.

"Selah," she said, and the girl finally looked at her. "Please. I know that it still hurts, and I want to help you move past it. I can do this for you, but only if you want me to." She looked away again, her face stoic.

"I want you to do it," she muttered finally. "Please."

"Okay," she replied. She pulled a stool out from the island in the lab, and patted it. The girl moved slowly towards it and sat down, her shoulders hunched. "Hey," Kara reminded. "Only if you want to." She nodded as the hero spread a towel over her shoulders, looking at her hair. Some pieces were long and stringy, reaching down near her elbows, but others barely passed her chin, while a few places were sheared off clean to the scalp. The girl had just gotten out of the shower, so water droplets gathered on the ends and dripped onto the floor. Kara combed through it all a few times, looking it over and trying to decide what to do. Her finger grazed over the metal port, and Selah flicked her head away instinctively.

"Sorry," she whispered.

"It's okay," Kara replied. "I'm not really sure what to do with this, love," she admitted. The girl didn't reply, her hands picking at a stray thread on the towel. "You're still doing okay?" She nodded slowly.

"It just reminds me a little bit of there, kind of. I don't love that."

"Only if you want to," she repeated.

"I know. Um," Selah replied. "Can you maybe just take it all off?"

"All of it?" Kara asked. She nodded. "Like, shave it all off?" she clarified. The girl nodded again.

"I can't imagine that there's much else you can do anyways," she said. "Besides, Alex is going to cut my head open in a few days, and I'm sure that will make it a lot easier for her."

"Okay," the hero said. If that's what you want." She opened a cupboard on the far wall, looking for the Kryptonite enhanced clippers that Winn had made years ago when he was (unsuccessfully) trying to convince her to get an undercut. Once she found them, she went back over to the island and plugged them in.

"You're positive?" she asked again, and Selah gave her a glowering look. "Okay, okay. I'm just making sure." Popping a guard onto the clippers, she turned them on, hesitating to give her time to back out in case she wanted to. When no response came, she slowly brought them up to the girl's forehead and pushed back towards the crown, carefully cutting off a clean line of hair. Repeating this several times, she cut off the entire top section of Selah's head, leaving behind about an inch of hair. Then she began on the left side of her head.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, noticing the girl still fidgeting as a long piece of hair tumbled to the floor. She shrugged slowly.

"I don't know," she muttered. "Okay, I guess."

"Yeah?"

"They did this every time before they would cut my head open to do stuff to my brain, so it's a little hard to not have that whole connotation."

"They did more surgeries than just the port, yeah?"

"Surgery is a generous way to describe it. At first I think they were trying to map out the different areas of my brain, so they'd put electrodes onto it to see what everything did. And then they started injecting stuff into it, and poking around. I'm not sure what all of that was for." By now, Kara had finished the left side of Selah's head, and she moved over to the right, pretending not to notice the small tears that the girl angrily wiped away. "Can we not talk about that, please?"

"Of course." She focused her thoughts onto her task, hoping that it would be reassuring to Selah, and she sped up her pace. Once she had finished, she set the clippers down and stood beside her, her hand resting on the girl's shoulder.

"Thanks," she said lowly.

"Anytime," Kara replied, keeping her tone light. "Are you doing okay?" Selah pulled the towel off of her shoulders and set it onto the island, turning to face her.

"I think so." The hero gently brushed a few stray hairs off of her forehead and smiled.

"If it makes you feel any better, you look pretty dope," she said. "Do you want to see?" Selah shook her head slowly.

"Not yet," she said

.

"Update?" Alex asked for what felt like the umpteenth time, already fearing what the answer would be. It was late in the afternoon, almost time for the desk agents to go home, and frustration was beginning to build up in her. There were still no leads about any of the scientists who were running the lab, the only documents that they had decoded were medical summaries, and every time she tried to bring it up with Selah, the girl got significantly more fidgety and would only mutter out a few words. So far, all that she had said was that the lab had three male doctors and two female ones, and that there was a team of security guards- all men- and three people ran the whole facility, referred to only as 'The Directors'.

"We might have something, ma'am," Vasquez replied, walking up to Alex's desk. She handed over a tablet with a blurry photo of a woman on it. "We recovered this from a dashboard camera near the site. This was taken two weeks before we became involved."

"Can Brainy refine the photo to get us a cleaner image?"

"He already did." She tapped the screen and the image shifted into a sharper focus. The woman had light brown hair and dark eyes, and she looked to be in her mid to late thirties. "We're running facial recognition on her right now."

"Excellent," Alex said, studying the woman's face. "Good work, Vasquez. I'll talk to Selah to see if she knows anything about this woman." The agent nodded and she took the tablet, walking back towards the med bay. Her heart was pounding, and all of the frustration that she had been feeling earlier dissipated. Finally they had a lead. Finally something was going to happen.

"Hey," she said, walking into her lab. Selah was sitting on the bed reading one of her old textbooks from med school, which she set down upon seeing the agent.

"Hi," she replied, smiling slightly. She was looking much better lately, she had put some weight back on, so she didn't look quite so skeletal anymore, her cheeks had more color in them, and her newly short hair made her whole face seem much more open and less guarded.

"I have to ask you something," Alex began. The girl sensed where the conversation was going and automatically began twisting the blanket in her hand, looking away. "We got this photo of a woman near the lab while you were still there. Do you recognize her?" She handed the tablet over to the girl, and she looked at it, her face unreadable. "Selah?" She prompted after a minute.

"Yeah," she replied, clearing her throat. "She was one of the doctors."

"Do you have a name?

"They all had code names. Hers was Nova. She did a lot of research and studies on my cells to figure out stuff with my biology, and where all of my powers came from." Alex took the tablet back and turned the screen off.

"Thank you," she said, feeling relief wash off of her in waves. "I will go update Vasquez." Selah picked the book back up, and the agent left the lab, returning to the atrium.

"Vasquez?" she asked as she walked over to the desk, approaching the other agent.

"Yes ma'am?" she replied.

"Selah confirmed that this was one of the doctors. She probably has a background in cell research and molecular biology. Her code name was Nova." Vasquez nodded and began typing on her computer, updating the files. Alex returned to her desk and set the tablet down. Her mind was still on Selah. The girl had become slightly more distant towards her, and she knew that it was because of the upcoming surgery. Alex had told her multiple times that she was allowed to change her mind, but she kept insisting that she wanted the port to be removed.

She knew that the surgery would be more than triggering for the girl; she would have to be put under a red sun lamp to remove her powers, and she would be put under anesthesia while they performed a major operation. Part of Alex was worried that all of the progress they had been making would disappear. Selah was barely beginning to open up and move past all of her walls, and now she had to go right back to where she had started, powerless, scared, and injured. Kara had already promised that she would be there for the entire procedure, and that she wouldn't leave Selah's side, which seemed to relax the girl a little bit, but she still refused to make eye contact with anyone around her when the surgery was brought up in a conversation. Alex just hoped that the trust they had built up would prove to be enough to carry them through to the other side.

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