Kara is very, very, very upset. She was having a good morning, taking in consideration her little religious crisis, and there was no reason at all for it to be interrupted by an inter-dimensional asshole, again. The fact that she did everything right, that she put all the chances on her side to have a good day only to end up flying at high speed towards danger with Alex screaming in her ear about prisoners transfer and dimension breaching weapons is proof, if she needed one, that she will never be able to rest.

"Alex," she tries to cut, "Alex ! Slow down ! What's happening ?"

"The axe dude," Alex pants in the comms.

"Persuader," Kara corrects half-heartedly.

"Apparently he can call his axe to him and escaped during prisoner transfer."

"Why are you transferring prisoners on a Sunday ?!"

"Paperwork. Takes. Time. To go through !"

"Okay," Kara sighs, stopping midair to exhales longly. "Okay. I'm going to retrieve the prisoner, get him back to you and then we're destroying that stupid axe. Quickly, because I was in the middle of something that I would like to get back to."

"Well I'm sorry for interrupting your date," Alex grumbles with a bit too much snark than what Kara can handle right now.

"Not a date," Kara mumbles, picking up speed again and taking a sharp turn around a building. Persuader comes into view, standing on top of a high building, his axe slicing through the air to widen the portal. It doesn't seem to be doing much for now, apart from spouting occasional lightning bolts that have taken out the power in the entire block.

"Right," Alex snickers, "not a date."

"Shut up," Kara groans. Just then, Persuader notices her. "I'm going to punch him. Be there to pick him up, I don't have all day."

"Hey ! My plans got messed up too."

"I know," Kara says, slipping a hint of apology in her voice. "Just pick him up, okay ?"

She knows it's not Alex's fault, but she would have rather not have to abandon Lena in the middle of breakfast. They're trying, both of them, but she's afraid that Supergirl could still be a touchy subject and she'd rather ease Lena into it little by little rather than constantly shove it in her face. It seems though, that she never gets to do things the way she wishes she could do them, and it's getting really old.

Fuelled by a persistent spike of annoyance she pushes harder, breaking the flow of air in front of her to propel herself towards Persuader at high speed, both fists extended in front of her, with the semi-conscious desire to crack his skull open. Just a little, in a non life threatening way and only to make him understand that escaping on a Sunday is not cool.

"Hey !" she yells when she's close enough for him to hear her. "Did anyone ever tell you your timing sucks ?!"

Just when she's about to connect with his face though, he sidesteps her, and her own momentum has her crashing right through a billboard.

In a flurry of cape, limbs and wood chips, she makes a sharp u-turn, ready to tackle him and already calculating the angle at which she'll have to grab him to pummel him right at the feet of the DEO agents only now pulling up under the portal to clear the perimeter. She'll have to talk to Alex about her team's tendency to lateness.

Taylor is arriving too, hood up to cover their face and boots fuming from their speed. They make a weird motion, like a broken dance, and in the time it takes Kara to understand they want her to send Persuader their way, the cheap villain of the week is already raising his hands in surrender, axe held in a dangerously loose grip, a conspicuous devious smile on his face.

"Supergirl," he drawls in his low rumbling voice. "You're right on time."

"Right on time for what ?" she growls, tired and refusing to be puzzled by the situation as she brutally grabs him by the waist to hurtle both of them to the ground.

She feels it more than she sees it coming. A growing weakness, a rolling wave of nausea, a sharp beam of Kryptonite hitting her square in the back.

The concentrated shock sends her sprawling away from Persuader and she tumbles towards the ground at high speed, the world around her going too fast for her to consider doing anything but hitting her chest repeatedly to activate her armoured suit.

Things slow, they become dull and muted, and for a moment, Kara's world narrows to the pain burning through her veins. Just when she expects to hit the concrete however, her suit finishes unfurling, mercifully sucking the Kryptonite away, and she stops her descent an inch away from the ground, the display in her helmet unhelpfully providing her with the composition of the dust she almost crashed into.

"You okay there Supergirl ?" Alex asks with just a hint of sisterly concern.

"I'm fine," Kara groans, righting herself in a flash and tackling Persuader before he can even begin to consider harming anyone.

He's not anyone's main concern anymore though. The bright glowing green orb in the sky is.

"The fuck ?" Taylor mumbles under their breath.

Kara doesn't bother with correcting their language ; the expletive is even a little lax considering the situation.

Sensing another blast incoming Kara abandons her prisoner to duck out of the way, taking Taylor with her and rolling with them behind a van. Glancing back, she finds a small crater where she was standing moments ago, a glowing green web spreading in the cracks of the pavement.

"You need to get out of here."

"What ?" Taylor protests immediately, trying to get out of the hold Kara has on them. "No. You need help !"

"Alex has my back. You, on the other hand, are not Kryptonite proof so you need to get out of here. I can't fight whatever that is if I have to..."

Kara's rant is interrupted by the van bursting into flames.

She digs her heels in the ground just in time to withstand the blast, shielding Taylor from the Kryptonite with her body and cursing her lack of cape. She's grateful for this version of her supersuit and it has saved her butt numerous times but the absence of her cape always leaves her slightly unbalanced. And not just that, but her cape has always been her shield, she's saved numerous lives just with it and it would be really helpful right now.

"You need to go."

Though slightly dazed and with green veins popping out on their forehead, Taylor still opens their mouth in protest.

"Lor-El I'm serious," Kara groans. "This is dangerous."

This seem to be the right card to play because Taylor finally takes a step back getting themself just out of range of an incoming blast that catches Kara right on the shoulder.

"Somebody get me a gun !"

"A gun ?!" Kara repeats, "are you mad ?! You have heat vision !"

"I can't fly ! What makes you think I can shoot lasers with my eyes ?"

"And what exactly are you planning to do ?" Kara asks, trying to keep her breathing measured even if the helmet seems to be getting smaller and smaller around her face as the world around her gets increasingly louder.

"Get out of range and shoot at this thing !" Lor-El yells, already a dozen of feet away. One handed, they catch a machine gun that Alex provided out of nowhere and plain and simply start shooting at the sky orb.

To say it doesn't have the desired effect is an understatement.

The bullets just bounce back on the ball, raining down on the agents standing below, and, the orb blinks.

"Is it," Kara mumbles to herself, "is it an eye ?"

She doesn't really have time to draw any conclusion from this before a different kind of beam shoots from the eye/orb/alien thingy and she's snatched of the ground, limbs flailing uncontrollably.

She tries to push against the beam to get out of its field but it's no use ; she's trapped, and the more she wrestles against it, the tighter the beam presses against her. Which is great. Awesome even. Just what she was missing on this fine Sunday morning ; being abducted.

Why is it always her ? She's just so fucking tired.

On the ground, Lor-El resumes their useless shooting and Alex starts running. She gains speed, jumps on the hood then the roof of a car, launches herself on a building at a decent height in an almost flawless move, bounces back from it and snags Kara's boot. The added weight slows the climb considerably and almost dislodges Kara from the beam but it's not enough, and before Alex has time to catch her breath, they are both ascending in the green light.

"That was stupid," Kara berates, helping her sister climb up so she's in a more comfortable position for their kidnapping.

"I'm a little out of my depth here," Alex replies through gritted teeth, "but I'm trying."

"I know," Kara sighs. "I know. Any idea how we can get out of here ?"

"I can shoot at it ?" Alex offers, contorting to reach her gun.

"Because that seems to be working," Kara snarls under her breath.

Thankfully, Alex disregards her comment and starts sending precise blasts above their head. Against all odd, it seems to be working, and each burst of her gun pushes them in the opposite direction. It also has the unfortunate effect of tightening the beam around them as the giant alien eye struggles to keep their grasp on them.

They're almost back on the ground, Alex's aim less and less precise as her face grows red from lack of air and if only Kara could grab something, anything, to anchor them away from the beam, they would be fine. There's a torn lamppost just outside of her reach and she struggles in this direction feeling the supersuit crack under the pressure.

Alex goes slack against her.

Kara pushes and pushes but her hand is stuck inside the beam and she starts ascending again. She feels her lungs tighten, knows she could hold her breath and be fine for far longer than Alex, but her brain instructs her to breathe and she chokes. Just then, a burst of bright blue light cuts through the beam just above her head and she drops several feet down.

"Sorry I'm late !" Dreamer shouts, sending another blast of dream energy. "Time to put you to sleep," she adds cornily, sending a burst of light towards the alien.

The ground hurtles towards Kara's face at an impressive speed and giving up on trying to fly she twists midair, intent on landing on her back to shield Alex as much as she can. She doesn't collide with the concrete however, but with Lor-El who jumps to catch her and gets her away from the fight.

"You good ?" they ask.

"Alex..."

Lor-El fumbles for an excruciating moment but Kara barely registers what they're doing, mildly aware only of the disappearance of the weight in her arms, and when they speak, it comes muffled through the ringing in her ears. "She's got a pulse. She's okay Kara. She's got a pulse."

Relief washes through Kara and she rips her helmet of her head. On the ground, Alex coughs and sputters, grinning lopsidedly when she catches sight of her sister. Her smile disappears quickly though and she groans as she brings a hand to her chest.

"Just one peaceful weekend," she moans. "Just one. That's all I ask for."

Kara cannot agree fast enough.

As she watches Kara, and then Taylor, disappear through her window, Lena tells herself it comes with the territory, and that she'd better get used to it. At least now she knows. Kara isn't talking nonsense about flying buses or taking care of cats that, as it turns out, don't exist. It used to make her feel terrible, almost worthless, Kara bailing on her all the time for no reason only to text her later, loving as always.

Of course, knowing where Kara is right now doesn't do much to alleviate her anxiety. It only trades it for something more deeply rooted, a tighter knot that settles at the base of her throat and makes it hard to breathe. It was one thing when it was Supergirl, her sometimes coworker, rarely friend, risking her life to protect the city ; it's different now that it's Kara, her everything.

And it's not like she can ignore the threatening inter-dimensional portal that tore the sky open just a few blocks from where she is. It's not like she can not see it, or not hear the screams of the people whose Sunday brunch was interrupted by yet another enemy of Supergirl. She wonders how they all feel about her ; right now specifically, when she isn't saving a python from a tree but fighting against a threat that wouldn't be there if it weren't for her. Maybe they don't realise, or maybe they don't care. After all, Lena doesn't care about the dangers that come with Supergirl, she loves her anyway ; she does have to admit though that her situation is radically different from all of these strangers.

She gulps down the last of her cold tea, tries to drown her fear in another cup before she decides to make her way to the DEO. There's no doubt this is where Kara will go when she's done with her accidental Sunday workout. Paperwork always follows the punching ; something Lena can't help but find funny. Kara hates paperwork, and she likes to think it's revenge enough, for all the lies. She doesn't care if it's petty, she's allowed to be, and it distracts her from the worrying for a minute or so.

By the time Lena gets to the DEO, it's pretty much empty and Kara isn't here yet. Just in case, she makes a beeline for the med bay ; at least she'll be here already if something happens, and this way, she doesn't have to watch the fight live on the wall of monitors. These villains have truly terrible timing. She had a hard time, getting herself to invite Kara over and now it's ruined. And granted it was just breakfast, and Taylor was here too, but for Lena, it's a gigantic step out of her comfort zone, agreeing to lower her walls to let Kara in like that after everything, and she wishes they could have seen the morning through, that she could have walked Kara to the door and watched as she would have hovered there awkwardly, not quite ready to go but aware of all the boundaries she isn't allowed to cross yet. Instead she's here, shivering, trying to hang on to the lingering warmth of the morning, and torn by the terrifying fact that for Kara, every second of worrying is worth it.

She doesn't know how much time passes, how long she waits in the med bay for Kara to make her appearance. She just knows it's long enough that she wouldn't be surprised if she were to become one with the chair she's sitting on. With how much time she's been spending here lately, glued to this very uncomfortable chair, she really should consider bringing a throw blanket and a pillow, though some might argue, including herself, that it'd be pathetic. It's just that spending time with Kara has aroused in Lena a new understanding of what comfort is, and this place is everything but homely. It reminds her of her old apartment, before she met Kara and after she shot her out of her life ; cold, and inhospitable.

Idly, she promises herself that the next time she swings by to visit Red Daughter, she'll bring her a nice blanket, maybe a thick knitted throw, like the kind Kara likes. It's as she thinks about this, absentmindedly picking at a loose thread on her jeans, that Kara walks into the med bay, carrying a fretting Alex in her arms. She misses a step when she catches sight of Lena, smiles at her softly in a way that lights up the whole room.

"You don't need to carry me Kara, I'm fine," Alex grumbles. "You can put me down."

"Oh I'm going to put you down," Kara replies under her breath. "On the bed."

"I'm fine !"

"No you're not. You stopped breathing."

"For less than a minute !" Alex fires back. Still, she lets her sister push her back on the bed and begrudgingly agrees to be hooked up to a monitor. "Is this payback for all the times I poked you with needles ?"

"No," Kara replies, fluffing up her pillow. "A little," she admits a beat later.

"Can you at least call Kelly for me ? Let her know I'm here."

"Already done," Taylor says before Kara can answer, strutting in the med bay with a disproportionate gun in their hand. "She's on her way."

"You need to be checked over too," Alex says sternly. "Both of you."

"I'm fine," Kara dismisses, echoing her sister's previous words flippantly.

"You were almost abducted by a Kryptonite space eye. There's no way you're fine."

Lena rises of her seat in an uncoordinated flurry. "Excuse me what ?!" she cuts in a shriek.

"I'm fine," Kara repeats, shooting an admonishing look to her sister. "Your suit protected me," she adds with an unfairly radiant smile.

"How," Lena starts, exhaling forcefully through her nose, "how exactly are you fine after being abducted by a space eye ?"

"Almost abducted," Kara corrects.

"Kara !"

"Fine," Kara mumbles, looking down out her boots sheepishly. "I'll go lie down under the sunlamps."

Alex gasps in mock offence. "So you'll do it for her, but not for me ?"

"Alex..." Kara threatens under her breath.

Next to the door, Taylor is bent over laughing, leaning heavily on the massive gun as tear streams from their eyes. Lena will have none of it. Putting on her sternest look, she nods sharply towards the other sunbed. "You too."

Taylor sobers up in a flash, straightening up almost comically at Lena's tone. "I wasn't abducted by anything," they complain.

"Taylor..."

"Fine," they grumble under their breath, dragging their feet all the way to the bed before they plop down on it dramatically. It's Alex's turn to snicker and Kara and Taylor throw her a twin offended look.

"The lot of you are insufferable," Lena grumbles, dropping down on her chair heavily. She's going to have to start spiking her morning tea again.

"But you love us," Taylor sing-songs happily, their voice lilting around a statement that has to be familiar to them.

At their words, a suffocating blanket of silence falls over the room. Their mouth hangs slightly open, horrified, like they're trying to compute what could possibly have compelled them to say that. Lena struggles to breathe as she watches their fists clench and unclench around the frail sheets. She has to say something, she knows that, but her body is rapidly entering shut down mode, and she feels her skin scorching under Kara's and Alex's stares ; she can't speak. So she nods, it's the best she has to offer. She looks at Taylor, at Alex, and finally at Kara, keeping her eyes on her the longest, and she nods. I do. I do love you.

Kelly barges in shortly after that, dishevelled and with two different coloured socks peeking from under her slacks. Her worry and light scolding don't leave much place in the room for anything else and Lena is ever so grateful for that.

If they weren't surrounded by so many people, Taylor would just kick themself. Repeatedly.

They try to be kind with themself ; or even just to breathe. It's the adrenaline of the fight that caused them to slip, Lena isn't mad, she's smiling, and Kara is too. It's okay. Except it's not, not really ; and there's a deep pressure in their chest that's on the side of hurting just a bit too much. Kara shuffles awkwardly and after a bit of rearranging, manages to extend her hand about halfway across the gap between the two beds. Taylor hesitates, but not for long, and they too extend their hand to squeeze Kara's briefly.

Kara's hand is warm and smooth, strong also, and it stays wrapped around Taylor's at just the right pressure for just the right amount of time. On its way back, it's snatched midair by Lena who seems surprised by her own gesture and blushes furiously, staring at their two hands like they're twin ticking bombs. Kara however, goes with the flow and intertwines their fingers before adjusting so they can both rest in a comfortable position. Taylor averts their eyes ; their clumsiness is almost too intimate to be witnessed.

On the other side of the room, Alex and Kelly are tangled on the narrow bed, Kelly's shoes neatly aligned at its foot. They're whispering sweet nothings to each other, their threaded hands periodically dancing in the air above them as Alex mindlessly gestures around. Taylor tries not to listen in, tries not to breach their privacy, focusing instead on hearts and lungs.

With no one's hand to hold, they feel strangely isolated ; and it's of their own doing, but they wish they hadn't declined Max's offer to come with them. It didn't seem important at the time, it was going to be a quick and easy trip and they'd see each other soon. Now they wish they hadn't refused, they wish she were here, not just to share a tiny hospital bed in a room full of familiar strangers, but to make each day better, to fill each moment with their, albeit young, but so very strong, love. It doesn't hurt that Max would no doubt know how to handle strange Kryptonite space orbs. But it's too late now to bring her in, they missed their window and they won't drag her in now ; no matter how much they miss her. Plus, if they were to signal now, they'd risk everyone barging in and it would be a nightmare. First, they have to make everything right, they have to fix this and figure out how and why a bunch of half-assed villains with a seemingly unlimited supply of Kryptonite followed after her to get to Supergirl. They seem to be missing a piece of information, or several ; namely what the fuck did Kara do to set them on her trail ?

Despite everything, Kara feels warm, and safe ; and it is in no way related to the sunlamp shining above her. Or not entirely anyway. Most of it comes from the feeling of Lena's hand in hers, the way their fingers fit like they were made to do so, the softness of the skin on the back and the slight callousness of the palm. Right now, Lena's hand is her only reason to live ; she was born to cherish this hand, to worship it. She runs her thumb across it, marvels at the way warmth burst in the trail when the rest of the skin is strangely cold. Her own hands are alway warm, almost burning, like the rest of her body ; it's the perfect fit for Lena.

Everything has been turned on its head, things for Kara rarely make sense anymore. She has a child, a comatose clone, an increasing supply of bad guys coming at her for a reason she can't put her finger on (she foolishly thought the -we hate Supergirl- trend was over) ; yet, when Lena is next to her none of this seems insurmountable. It doesn't mean she isn't afraid, doesn't mean she won't panic to the point of losing her breath and her mind the moment she's alone again ; but right now, with Lena's hand in hers, she feels invincible, like she could conquer anything.

She turns her head slightly, just enough to see her without being noticed, and as she takes her features in, as she looks at her like it's the first time or like she could ever forget how beautiful she is, she starts making plans. She wants to take her on a date, wants to make it special because if she stops to really think about it, they might have been platonically dating for a while now, and Lena deserves nothing short of the best. Right now probably isn't the right time to ask, after all, she's just been almost abducted and everyone is a little bit on edge. The heart next to her is still beating just a bit too fast and Kara has no doubt Lena wouldn't appreciate her poor timing. She does consider testing the water, dipping just a toe in to gauge Lena's reaction ; but as she goes to open her mouth, a string of words half formulated and lined up for delivery, Brainy barges in the room.

"Good, you're all here. Red Daughter is awake."