.
.
Things were supposed to be different.
She was the one who was supposed to be different—
Kara bows her head, grimacing and pacing her unlit apartment. Her fingernails dig into the large, purplish rash on her arm.
No matter what kind of emergency, or what kind of natural disaster, or what kind of apocalyptic catastrophe loomed on the horizon, Kara /had/ to be the hero. Everyone in National City, friend or foe, knew Supergirl would do anything to save them.
The paragon of Hope… dying?
She's dealt with magic, and violently huge spaceforms, and even an interdimensional virus or two.
This one—it's different.
Nobody was prepared for the consequences of bringing Kara back.
Brainy was the first. Exposure to the Phantom Zone transferred something inside Kara, but not her father or Nyxly. Or so it's believed. Whatever it was passed onto her family and friends, but laid dormant in her. Brainy complained his headache, discovering it was aggravated by bright lights. The next symptoms were his swollen throat glands, muscle aches, and chills.
Twenty-four hours later, Brainy had enough rashes on him that it was concerning. J'onn ordered him to stay in the med-lab.
He never left.
Nia pleaded to see him, bursting into tears and collapsing into J'onn's arms when he informed Nia of why Brainy couldn't be seen. They quarantined off the Tower, monitoring themselves. Not long after, Alex couldn't hide her whole-bodied shivers.
Kara defied J'onn's orders, doing her medical research via video-call with Lena while staying with Alex.
Alex's hand never let Kara's go.
(It was only after Kara noticed her headache that she left.)
Forty-two hours.
That's how much time she has.
Kara noticed her symptoms were /stranger/ than the others: her bruising rashes appear wrinkled, stretching gummy-like between Kara's fingers pulling. Her natural Krypton bioluminescence reacts on a cellular level, deteriorating, glowing bluish.
She stares down expressionlessly at her wrist-veins.
Blood, paling its glow, trickles thinly out of Kara's right nostril.
A knock sounds on her apartment door. She considers ignoring it, but her curiosity outweighs Kara's good judgment. Using the peep-hole, Kara discovers someone familiar outside her apartment-door, her mouth dropping. "Lena?" she breathes, terrified.
No…
"Kara, open up," Lena murmurs, folding her arms. "We both know you're there and can hear me."
A shiver seizes her, following the ice-cold chill. Kara chews on the inside of her cheek, muffling a groan.
"I'm not letting you go through this alone. I'm not letting you say goodbye, Kara."
"There's nothing you can do…"
A scoffing noise. "You're talking to a Luthor," Lena retorts, and Kara's lips curl up in despair. "Open the damn door. Now."
She shouldn't. She shouldn't have been listening in and walked away from the door. But there was never a time in existence where Kara would walk away from Lena. So fiercely beautiful and intelligent and good unlike Lex or Lillian.
Kara unhooks the door's chain, twisting the lock and blocking the apartment's entrance.
"Lena, I don't—"
A soft squeal draws out of her. Kara feels every muscle locking in place, her eyes bugging out. Lena's mouth feels irresistibly warm. She kisses Kara with slow and careful intent, Lena's palms holding Kara's face. Panic sirens through Kara.
"No, no—" Kara chokes out, separating them, taking handfuls of Lena's dark crimson cashmere-jacket. She remembers what J'onn said about avoiding contact with bodily fluid. Avoiding people in general. "Lena, no—you have your life ahead of you—"
Lena frowns. "Tell it to this," she says, lifting up her white camisole. A purplish bruise-rash glares above Lena's hip bone.
Kara shudders, gawking down at it. She whimpers, hating how pitiful it sounds.
"No—"
Lena tuts, scrubbing the bluish-glow blood off of Kara's chin.
"Kara, look at me," she mumbles. "There's a cure if we work together on it. I'm not giving up—and I'm not giving up on you."
Tears spring to Kara's eyes.
"It was nice."
After a long moment, Lena realizes she means the kiss. Or at least Kara supposes. She tugs Kara in, gently placing her lips over hers, savoring the closeness. Lena's laugh echos against her. Kara presses against her, fighting back a smiling sob.
Things are gonna be different.
With Lena.
.
.