When Lena wakes up for the second time, still groggy and a bit unsure of anything but the presence of Kara, the room has been plunged into darkness, and everyone is asleep. The atmosphere is peaceful, more peaceful than it ought to be in a semi-secret government organisation and though it still hurts to swallow and she can feel hairline fractures on every single one of her bones, she feels safe, and protected.

It takes her a while to gather her bearings enough to realise it isn't just Kara in the bed with her, but that she's sandwiched between two unnaturally warm bodies ; her favourite Kryptonian, and, the sturdy young frame of her child. The very child who saved her life, who snatched her away from a sure death officially tallying up at two the number of Kryptonians who have done stupid things for her. She's absolutely sure, and would swear it on the closest available holy thing, that Taylor had lost their flight ability up to the moment they jumped after her. She's heard of adrenaline kick starting Kryptonians before, but it doesn't mean she can forget that they both should be indistinguishable mangled corpses right now.

It's weird, not in the sense that this a very peculiar situation, though it is on so many levels ; but because Lena should be panicking about a variety of things right now and she isn't. First, there's the fact that she woke up in a foreign bed and she usually hates waking up anywhere but at home. Then, there's the fact that for the first time in her long list of near death experiences, she's more upset by the fact that she almost died than by the fact that she didn't, which, her brain helpfully supplies, probably means that she's gearing towards becoming a normal person. And finally, she vividly remembers telling Kara she loves her which would normally make her want to jump out the nearest window but instead makes her feel serene and complete.

She should be out of her mind right now but instead shuffles to give herself a tiny bit more space on the narrowest bed in the world, buries herself further against Kara and falls back asleep.

When she wakes up again, somewhere between a minute and ten hours later, she's in a much less pristine condition. Everything hurts like hell ; like someone took a sledgehammer and meticulously knocked sideway every bone in her body and then reset them improperly. She isn't too keen on dying, but it does seem like a reasonable solution right now. Someone pokes at her arm and an undefined moment later the sharp pain subsides in a hazy fog leaving her untethered and unbothered by it.

"Alright lovebird," a surprisingly clear voice says next to her, "out of her bed, I need to run some checks."

The massive hunk of warmth that previously rested next to her starts moving away and Lena focuses all her will into moving her arms to keep Kara close to her. "Noooo," she whines, her voice nothing more than a pitiful croak, "don't goooo."

"Sorry Lena," the previous voice says, Alex's, she realise belatedly, "but I do have to make sure everything's in order."

"I'm dyyying," Lena hears herself say, distantly, a bit like her head has been stuck in a basin of muddy water.

"Not you're not." Lena can practically hear Alex rolling her eyes. Or maybe she developed super powers and can now see with her eyes closed ; that would be nice, though a bit headache inducing. "And don't say shit like that, or everybody's going to start crying again and I'm too tired for that."

"Alex !" Kara scolds, her voice angry and warm like butter on one of these spiky Swedish toasts Sam always has in her kitchen. That's a weird thought to have ; Lena feels very weird.

"Tough love," Alex grumbles, her voice doing a little shrug as if it's now a thing voices can do.

Lena feels very floaty. Whatever happened to her, she's sure it's made her a cloud.

"I do not have a body," she decides to share aloud. Alex needs to know that if she's to perform a medical check up on her absent limbs.

"What did you give her ?" a third voice asks. "She's tripping. I'm so filming that."

"I'm am not on any trip of any kind," Lena replies, intent on explaining that her current situation does not involve a journey at all. "I am very much there." Someone laughs ; her ? "Or am I ?" she adds to herself, very loudly.

"Wow," the same voice whispers. "She's gone gone."

"I'm right here !" Lena shouts softly. "Birds," she then says as it's an information relevant to the current situation.

"Yes Mum," the third voice says, "birds are a thing that exists on this planet."

"Planet," Lena repeats. "I am a planet."

"No you're not my love," Kara apologises, "you are on a planet."

That doesn't make any sense but Lena doesn't want to upset Kara so she nods, her head bouncing up and down as she doesn't move at all. "I love you my Swedish toast," she says with all her heart.

"Alex," Kara whisper-shouts, "what did you give her ?"

"Regular painkillers," Alex murmur-yells back, "but I may have overdone it a little."

"A little ?" Kara hiss-roars, "she called me her Swedish toast. What's even a Swedish toast ?"

"I don't know," Alex mumble-screams, "rich people stuff ?"

"It's sort of a spiky rusk ?" the third voice interrupts tentatively. "With cardamom in it. Aunt Sam eats that a lot."

"I am supremely rich," Lena says, happy of her important contribution to the conversation.

"Alright I'm all done," Alex says. Alex ? Yes it's Alex. "Lena, if you can understand what I'm saying in some distant part of your brain, I'm going to give you something for sleep and when you wake up, you'll be able to go home. Does that work for you ?"

"You're done ?" Lena asks, confusion repeatedly stabbing her softly between the eyes. "But you didn't check me out ?"

"Lena," Alex sighs, "Lena. Will all the respect in the world, I will never check you out, my sister, Kara, the love of your life, would gouge my eyes out and then I wouldn't be able to check my actual girlfriend out."

"Valid," Lena cuts. "I respect that. I will gouge Kara's eyes."

"Please don't do that," the third voice whispers.

"I did however," Alex continues, rudely ignoring her interruption, "give you a check up, and you are in working order."

"Noice," Lena hears herself say very very distantly, a bit like her mouth is speaking from somewhere in Europe and her ears are still wherever she is right now. "Noice," she repeats for good measure as this is a word that deserves to be shared twice.

"Sleep tight you weirdo," Alex laughs.

"I'm not a weirdo, I'm a planet," is the last incoherent thought to leave Lena's mouth before she gently drifts back to sleep.

Lena wakes up a third time sometime that same day but can't really tell how long she's slept. The world outside the sole window of the med bay is a depressing grey and it seems to be pissing rain if she's to believe the splatters of water on the glass. Her head is violently pounding, her brain is trying to escape the confines of her skull, but the rest of her body aches less which she supposes can be considered as a win. Still groggy, she's got a limited range of movements, but she makes the most of it to survey the quiet room. As was to be expected, she's not alone.

Kara is sitting on the uncomfortable chair next to the bed, body slightly angled towards her and legs sprawled before her, stretching beyond Lena's sightline. She's dressed in skintight dark heather grey sweatpants and for some reason, Lena can picture her wearing fluffy socks, of the type one uses exclusively to slide on hardwood floors. As for her torso, it's clad in a blue-green Aran sweater, a bit too short on the sleeves, that Lena is almost certainly sure is hers. A soft looking white t-shirt peeks from under the collar, half hidden by Kara's cascade of blond curls. She's not wearing her glasses, and her eyes are closed, a deep crinkle firmly set between them. Whatever she's thinking about is probably not very pleasant.

Lena attempts to reach out but finds her hand tangled in a mess of tubes and wires. It's still enough to get Kara's attention and she lifts one eye open, then the other, her brow smoothing instantly as a smile stretches on her face instead. "Lena," she breathes out, saying her name in that way that does unspeakable things to her, "you're awake."

Lena attempts to reply, to simply breathe out Kara's name in return, but her throat is dry and uncooperative and she can barely produce an undignified croak. Unprompted, Kara slides a glass of cool water in her hand and Lena gulps it down in one go, refusing to pay attention to the fact that half of it spills down her front. Only when she's sufficiently hydrated does she manage to speak, her voice a little crooked, a little raw, but there nonetheless because she escaped death once more and she is alive. "Kara."

"How are you feeling ?" Kara asks, her voice still breathy and wonderful. Under her gaze, Lena feels like a precious stone, like a priceless jewel sculpted for the sole purpose of being admired by Kara. Realistically she knows she must look like absolute trash, but she's never felt so beautiful.

"My head hurts a little," Lena admits. "But I'm fine," she has to add hurriedly when Kara's face scrunches up again and she starts rising from her seat. "Really. Where is everyone ?"

The unspoken question here is, is everyone okay ? Lena thinks she remembers seeing them all, her friends, her family, in this very room at some point, but she also has the distinct memory of falling from very very high and she's afraid she's hallucinated the better parts of the last twenty-four hours.

"Nia and Kelly are at work," Kara says quietly. "Alex is interrogating our new prisoner and Brainy is with her to make sure she, you know, doesn't rough her up too badly." Something in the set of Kara's jaw makes Lena thinks that she would gladly turn a blind eye if Alex were to mess up the witch a bit more than necessary. "Taylor and Ghim left not long ago. I heard something about arm wrestling."

"You love arm wrestling," Lena crooks.

"I do. But I'd rather stay with you if that's okay."

"Stay then," Lena whispers roughly.

Damn. She's been through the wringer.

"Alex said you'd be able to go home once you'd woken up," Kara says, fluffing up her pillow so she can sit mostly upright. "Do you want me to call her ?"

Lena muses over this for a moment, the weird brand of embarrassment suddenly nagging her at the back of her mind. "In a minute," she decides eventually. "Why do I feel like I've made a fool of myself ?" she asks slowly, deliberately, when the annoying feeling doesn't go away.

Kara blushes beet red. "In your defence," she says very softly, almost inaudibly, "Alex overdid it a little in the pain med department and you were high out of your mind."

"Kara," Lena drawls, "what did I do ?"

Kara squirms under her stare and Lena knows she's got zero resolve and is going to crack. "Well for starter you thought you were a planet. And, um, you compared me to a Swedish toast ? Not sure why."

"Okay. That's. That's manageable." Not quite as embarrassing as Lena thought, though it's a little bit incomprehensible. Swedish toast ? Why ?

"Alex probably took notes and is going to bully you forever," Kara adds very quickly.

"Fuck."

"But in a loving way because she cares about you." Kara marks a pause here and Lena should expect for something evil and twisted to come out of her mouth but she doesn't because she trusts her. "My sweet biscotti."

Lena gasps which is a bit painful but she needs to convey her ire. "How dare you ?"

Kara shrugs. "You started it."

"I hate you."

Kara shrugs again and says very softly, reaching out for her hand, "no you don't. But I can temporarily forget about that if you want me to."

Lena recognises the out she's being given and doesn't take it, instead taking a big breath to barrel through. "Don't," she says. "Please. I never want you to forget that I love you."

Kara's lips brushes her hand, a smile painting itself on her knuckles. "Then," she whispers, "it is the only thing that I shall ever remember."

When Lena wakes up for the fourth or fifth time, she's starting to loose count but considering she did almost die, she's alright with giving herself some leniency ; she's in her bed, in her new home, and again, she isn't alone. The mattress dips where Kara's body rests, completely lax and malleable, a sliver of moonlight crossing the room from the improperly closed curtains to land right on her ass. She's snoring faintly, head smashed into the pillow and hand extended across the bed to rest lightly on, well, on Lena's boob.

She takes a full minute to assess the situation. Now that she's noticed where Kara's hand is, she can't unnotice it and frankly, it's quite distracting. She doesn't think she'll be able to fall back asleep. She isn't sure she wants to fall back asleep, and not just because she's spent the entire day in slumber. Her whole body feels hot, on the brink of overheating, not in an unpleasant way but it certainly is inconvenient. There is no way Kara will not feel completely embarrassed if she wakes up like this and she will insist on going back to the couch and they will fight about it and Lena's boobs will definitely not get consciously touched.

She sighs, then chastises herself for sighing because this is definitely the sort of minute sound that Kara will pick up even in her sleep, and proceeds to shuffle away. As soon as she starts moving however, Kara's hand squeezes.

She's definitely not getting out of this unscathed.

Mentally, she starts listing all the bad things she's ever done that could have led the universe to put her in this position but if she's being honest with herself her list of offences goes back to infancy and it's a bit too late to achieve absolution. She has no choice but to deal with Kara's mortification upon waking. Maybe she can coax her into a light make out session to take her mind of it. She is aware that this plan is dubious at best, but she still wholeheartedly jumps on the fantasy train, dozing on and off as the hours creep closer to the morning. When Kara wakes up, her hand hasn't moved one bit.

Connected as they are, via boob holding, Lena feels her stirring long before she actually arises but she could never have had enough time to prepare herself for the new sight of Kara Danvers waking up in her bed. She groans a little, which should not be cute but is, and blinks owlishly in the semi-darkness of the room, raising her head a couple of inches before letting it drop deeper into the pillow mumbling something that might be, "too early," and then a couple of syllables that could be Lena's name if they weren't completely muffled by the fabric.

Then, because the universe absolutely despises Lena, Kara starts absentmindedly thumbing at her nipple. Calmly, though this has to be taken with a grain of salt, Lena starts counting back from ten. Kara jumps out of the bed on three. Her Kryptonian complexion does nothing to hide her blush, she's beet red from the neck up, and frozen, coughing and sputtering like a complete idiot.

"It's okay," Lena says, preparing herself to put out into the world words she never thought she would ever utter. "I've always known you're a boob girl."

"I. What ?" Kara shrieks, clenching and unclenching her treacherous hand. "What ?!"

Lena sighs, pats the bed next to her and when it becomes evident that Kara is not ready to rejoin her yet, she shuffles up against her pillow, discreetly tugging her night shirt down. As predicted, Kara's eyes immediately zero in on her cleavage. "Kara, darling, you've been holding an intense conversation with my tits for the past three years, did you really think I wouldn't notice ?"

"Tits," Kara repeats, the word halfway between a shameful yelp and an animalistic squeal.

"Yes, tits. Breasts. Boobs. Cleavage area. Bosom. All synonyms for things that I possess."

"I'm sorry," Kara squeaks.

Lena sighs almost immediately, her exhale swallowing the end of Kara's undignified little noise.

"It's okay," she says, slathering her words with reassurance to the point they stick a little to her mouth. "I want you to look at my boobs. I want you to look at me. It's nice to feel, it's nice to feel desired."

Kara says something indistinguishable then coughs awkwardly, her face somehow even redder, to the point Lena grows concern she's going to burst into flames. "Really ?"

"Yes really. Now come back to bed, my boobs are lonely."

Kara freezes, marble-like in her sweet awkwardness ; but before Lena has the time to take anything back, to voice the fears that she's been successfully keeping at bay since she woke up, too much ? too soon ? Kara marches to the bed in a blur, straddles her and Lena's brain swiftly departs for another realm when swift thumbs find a new home on her nipples. Suffice to say Kara has been thinking about this for a long time, and Lena's breasts do not get neglected, to everyone's enjoyment.

By the time the sun has fully risen, t-shirts have long since been deemed unnecessary garments and Lena is well set on never leaving her bed again. That is, of course, when her phone decides to start ringing. The shrill of her ringtone pierces her eardrums, sending her a not so gentle reminder that she technically is still injured and on bedrest and should probably not be exercising.

"Whoever that is," Kara grumbles, lips temporarily leaving her skin to issue her complain, "tell them to fuck off."

"Could be work," Lena exhales, years of discipline leading her to blindly reaching for the offensive device.

"You almost died," Kara points out grumpily, sitting back on her thighs. "Tell them you almost died and hang up."

Lena gulps, her brain briefly blanking out faced with Kara's taut body hovering over her. She blinks, feels herself doing so very slowly, like she's been blasted off to another dimension in which time is a different concept entirely. Kara's face is flush, flyaway hair sticking to her forehead, and in the sharp morning light flooding the bedroom, her eyes have never seemed so dark. The phone stops ringing, only to start again vigorously after less than a second. Clearly, there's no escaping this.

"I'll tell them to fuck off."

She squints at the screen, an unwelcome indication that she needs glasses, and answers with the firm intention of being done with whoever is calling in less than a minute.

"Good morning Lena. Good morning Lena's boobs, long time no see !"

Simultaneously but belatedly, Lena realises two things. One, she's on facetime and two, this isn't work. She's very grateful for the latter ; she isn't sure how much she'd have to raise Jess' salary to make her forget the incident. She allows herself a second to compose herself, yanking on the sheets to cover herself, then squeals in acknowledgement of her caller. "Sam."

Kara's weight disappears from her lap. "I'll go make breakfast," she mouths, grabbing Lena's t-shirt to cover her torso. Lena blanks again and she doesn't have enough brain power to be embarrassed. Kara Danvers' discarded sweatpants have uncovered boxer briefs and this isn't something she's had nearly enough time to prepare for.

"Good morning Kara !" Sam chirps from the phone which baffles Lena for another reason entirely. Kara isn't in frame and she didn't speak nearly loudly enough to be heard. "Long story," Sam cuts, her face blurring momentarily as she waves her phone around. "This isn't why I'm calling though we are definitely talking about what Kara is doing in your bed. But see, I had to call Alex eleven times and when I finally got through to someone it was her girlfriend which, no thank you, so I'd like to be added to the -Lena almost died- mailing list so when I see you getting wrecked on TV I at least know that you're still alive."

Lena forces her jaw shut, effectively ceasing her imitation of a fish out of water. She oughts to say something because Sam looks like she could go on for hours but her extensive vocabulary refuses to cooperate and what she ends up saying is just about the dumbest thing she could have replied. "I told you you should have called Alex sooner."

"It was a one time thing ! I had no reason to call her !" Sam exclaims, switching from one outrage to the other.

"I distinctly remember you saying it was two time thing," Lena muses, propping her phone up on her nightstand as she looks for a shirt. It's not like it's anything Sam hasn't seen before.

"Do not distract me right now," Sam replies just a bit harshly, picking herself up to drop herself back on track. "You almost died ! Again !"

"I got abducted by a witch," Lena replies matter-of-factly, "that's hardly my fault."

"How," Sams sputters, "how did that happen ?"

Lena shrugs, realises her shoulders are hidden by the sweater she's stuck in and says instead, "I'm not very clear on that myself. I think I was used as bait for Supergirl."

Sam sighs, longly, very longly, emptying her Kryptonian lungs of all air before she takes another breath. "I'm happy you're alive."

"Thank you," Lena deadpans, emerging from her sweater with static hair and picking up the phone again. "Dying would have been very inconvenient."

Sam sighs again, shorter this time. She puts her own phone down, picks up a coffee mug instead and her kitchen appears behind her. On her counter is a pack of Swedish toasts which Lena promptly decides to unsee. "How are you feeling ?"

Lena stops for a second, taking stock of her body. Her legs are tensed, her shoulders hurt a little but otherwise she doesn't feel like she's dying anymore which is a major improvement. "Fine I suppose," she says just as the beginning of an unfortunate headache starts to form behind her eyes. "I don't know what they gave me at the DEO but that's not over the counter medicine."

"You've got your headache face," Sam points out almost immediately. "Did they check you for a concussion ?"

"They did. I promise you everybody's taking really good care of me." Sam's features relax imperceptibly, her eyes softening just the slightest bit. "Kara's staying with me," Lena adds, "you know she won't let me die."

Sam shakes her head, a soft smile lightening her anguish considerably. "You know I worry," she says, punctuating her sentence with a dismissive laugh.

"I know you do. Worrying is your default setting."

This brings out a genuine laugh from her friend, her shoulders definitely dropping and her whole demeanour lightening. "Like it's not yours ?"

"I have anxiety."

Sam rolls her eyes, takes a sip of coffee and, after wiping the beverage moustache from her upper lip, asks, "she's taking good care of you at least ?"

"Yeah," Lena breathes out, hoping this single syllable will be enough to convey absolutely everything that's transpired between Kara and her lately.

"Good. Tell her I'll beat her up if she breaks your heart again."

"I will," Lena assures, stepping out of her bedroom. She coaxes her head to the side and on the phone's screen, Sam mirrors her. Kara is singing in the kitchen. "But she won't," she adds ; and in this moment, she knows it's the absolute truth.