Time slowed to a crawl. The fire alarm screeched. Winn's security system blared. People surged into the hallway.

Yet, nothing exploded.

Winn began to wonder if he'd made a mistake. If he'd sleepwalked out to the living area and nuked something himself.

A hand wrapped around his shoulder, pulling him upright. Winn barely managed to keep his grip on his laptops as Johnson dragged him down the hallway.

Then, he was on the ground again, air knocked out of his lungs. Johnson was splayed over him and yelling for everyone to get down.

There was a loud rumbling from his apartment, then a crash of glass and the very distinctive sound of Kara's freeze breath.

They were safe. He could relax. At least, in theory.

Someone trod on Winn's hand and he shifted to pull it under his chest. Johnson pushed himself off Winn and planted himself between his charge and rest of the hallway, as his neighbors got to their feet and sprinted for the stairs. Heart pounding, chest heaving, muscles locked, Winn could do nothing but press himself against the wall and clutch at his laptops.

"Winn!" he heard Kara shout.

"Over here." It was little more than a whisper, but a moment later, Kara, dressed in her pajamas, pushed her way through the crowd and past Johnson. Her face broke in relief as she crouched down next to Winn.

"Are you okay?" she demanded, looking him up and down with what Winn could only assume was her x-ray vision.

He nodded shakily. "Thanks," he sputtered out, only then realizing his teeth were clattering together… and that he was trembling so hard that his laptops were banging into his chest with each breath.

Kara dropped to the ground beside Winn and pulled him into her side. "You are definitely not spending the night alone again," she said, rubbing her hand gently up and down his right arm.

"Don't say that too loud," Winn mumbled into her shoulder, "someone might get… the wrong idea."

"Let 'em."

They stayed like that until a group of firefighters stormed up the stairs. "I'll be right back," Kara promised, making sure Winn was propped up against the wall before she flew off. She returned almost instantly in her full Supergirl attire and met the firemen at the stairwell.

"Gentlemen," one said to Winn and Agent Johnson, while the others headed into Winn's apartment, "you need to get out of here."

"With all due respect, the bomb was in W—this man's apartment." Kara tipped her head at Winn, who was still sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest. He should have stood, but his body had other ideas. Like staying right where he was.

"I'd like to keep him in my line of sight," she continued, "in case whoever planted it is still here."

It took a moment, but the firefighter nodded unhappily. "Keep him on the far side of the floor until we've cleared it."

"No problem, sir."

The firefighter then followed his team into the apartment but returned a second later. "And if you wouldn't mind…"

"Scanning the rest of the building for devices like this one? Not at all." Kara squinted then looked slowly up and down, eventually turning in a circle while she did so. "None that I can see."

The firefighter nodded. "Thank you, Supergirl." He looked back in the apartment, then again at Kara. "Can you tell us what you saw?" he asked.

"I was flying by, on one of my sweeps. Heard the start of an explosion and changed course. Broke the window and extinguished it. Thankfully, Agent Johnson here," she gestured at the man in question, "had already pulled the fire alarm and started evacuating the floor."

Another day, Winn would have been impressed by how easily Kara, who turned red at the slightest embarrassment, was lying. Today though, it was taking all he had to continue following the conversation.

"It's a good thing you did," someone said from inside the room. "A bomb of this size could have easily taken out the entire complex."

The world got a little bit fuzzy then, and when Winn's eyes focused again, Alex was kneeling in front of him, taking his pulse.

"You back with us?" she asked, with thinly veiled concern.

"Yeah." That was when Winn realized a shock blanket was draped over his shoulders and that he was clutching it closed with the arm that was still pinning his laptops to his chest. His other hand held a piping hot to-go cup of tea. And it was quiet. He could hear Alex without her needing to shout.

"I don't… How did I…"

"You zoned out," Alex said, pointing a penlight at Winn's eyes and making him wince. After making him follow it without moving his head, her expression softened. "And you were mumbling to yourself."

Oh no.

He must have looked panicked for Alex quickly added, "Don't worry, you were barely audible." She then gestured to his leg. "Did you hurt your knee again?"

Winn was still so numb he had no idea. "Maybe?"

Alex gently manipulated it, but the pain, if any, was floaty and hard for Winn to quantify. It wasn't long before Alex decided she'd need to scan it when they got back to the DEO.

Winn blinked. "The DEO?"

"The DEO," Alex repeated, somewhat apologetically. "You'll be staying there until we catch this guy."

He didn't love the idea, but he didn't have the energy to argue the point at the moment. He let himself drift slightly, while Alex checked the rest of him, only jolting back into full awareness when a thought struck him: "The cameras!"

He practically threw down his tea as he slid his laptops onto his lap, popped the first one open and began typing furiously.

"You said you didn't have cameras," Alex said, as she scooted over next to Winn so she could see his screen too.

"I installed them this evening. Contingency of J'onn's."

He couldn't access his security footage directly, since he was outside of the range of his Wi-Fi, but since he'd bolted from his bed without his phone, he used it to piggyback the signal from his laptop, so it seemed like it was in the room, and presto!

With a few more clicks, Winn had pulled up the security footage from the past few hours, and set the speed at 3x. He and Alex watched as his past self checked the locks on the door and windows one final time, then hobbled to bed. And then there was no change until…

"Rewind that!" Alex demanded.

Winn did, and played the footage at regular speed. About an hour ago, the lock on his window popped open, which somehow didn't trigger his security system, and a small bundle floated its way across the room. The microwave opened on its own and the bundle settled itself on the turnstile. Then the microwave door clicked closed, the window slid shut and locked itself, and the microwave turned on for a 3-minute cook.

"The hell?"

Winn was already typing, trying to figure out if he'd been hacked, when Alex's hands landed on his, pressing them into the keyboard.

"Get off," he snapped, throwing his weight left to dislodge her. It did, briefly, but then the laptop screen closed on his hands.

"Not here," Alex said, quickly standing and lifting Winn to his feet. "Supergirl!"

Kara was in the hallway in an instant.

"We need to get Winn to the DEO. Whoever planted the bomb is invisible to security footage."

"I can fly him there."

Winn shook his head and held out one hand for some forced distance—not that Kara couldn't brush by it faster than the blink of an eye if she was so inclined. "Driving is fine. I assume that's how you got here?" he asked, turning to face Alex.

"We can drive Winn to the DEO and send a team back to investigate the scene," Alex said, to which Kara nodded. "Johnson, you and Smith hold post. Preserve the scene, keep people from coming and going. CSI should be here shortly, and I'll return for a full update when I can."

"With all due respect, ma'am," Johnson, who had been hovering just over Alex's shoulder this entire time, said, "Smith should go with you."

Alex considered this for a moment. "He can follow us in case the perp tries again. But you will stay here and hold down the scene."

"Copy that, Agent Danvers," was Johnson's final comment before he righted the folding chair beside the door to Winn's apartment and took a seat.

It was decided on the way to Alex's car—both Danvers' sisters ignoring Winn's insistence that this was most likely overkill—that Kara would fly overhead to identify any threats, while Alex drove. Winn would be sitting in the backseat, like a child… or a criminal.

"It was safer," she assured him. And while it did feel a bit demeaning, he trusted her.

The drive, which in reality wasn't very long because they had mostly green lights, felt like it took years. Every little sound, every honk, every shout of a drunken group heading home after last call, had Winn's heart racing as he whirled around to clock the source.

Someone had tried to kill him. It was only now starting to sink in.

And that person was invisible to security cameras, which meant either they could turn invisible in real life—which was far more terrifying—or they were just hidden on camera. Or, he supposed, they were super Force-sensitive. But what that meant was an alien, a meta-human, or a Jedi was out to get him. Sure, Winn had assisted in locking up quite a few of the first two options while working with Kara and recently as an agent of the DEO, but he was just an analyst. He doubted any of them had seen his face. And those that had been committed after few cases he'd testified at were still firmly in prison. He'd confirmed that yesterday, just to be safe.

The fear from earlier was rapidly dissipating, leaving a wave of anger in its place.

Someone had tried to kill him.

And they were going to be sorry they tried.

"When do I get my phone back?" he asked.

"As soon as it's cleared."

"Okay, then I need yours." Winn reached over the front seat and waved his hand. "Someone just tried to kill me, so I think it's safe to say I'm working the case. I don't care what the protocol says."

Alex grumbled something under her breath but then pulled her phone from her pocket without looking away from the road and handed it over. "Don't read my text messages okay?"

"I have no desire to learn what you and Maggie get up to in your free time," Winn stated. "I just need a hotspot."

Alex glanced up at Winn in the rearview mirror. "Don't you need—?"

"Your password? No."

Somewhat guiltily, he looked up and met Alex's gaze. "You should really stop unlocking it so publically. Also, turn off the lock trail. Makes it far too easy to see."

Alex was quiet for a moment. "Can you—"

"Already done." Winn had needed to go into settings anyway to activate the hotspot; turning off the trail took exactly another second. He then pried open one laptop and connected to the new network. It wasn't going to be great speed, but it would be good enough for now.

"Have we had any breakouts?" Winn asked as he logged into the DEO VPN then checked the footage of the containment unit. All the prisoners that were on the record were there, the timestamps were accurate, and the small movements were random and not repetitive, showing it wasn't being looped.

"No," Alex replied, "but Demos is manually checking now."

"What about the families of the people my dad killed? Are any of them associated with registered aliens?"

"We're checking."

Did he have to do everything around here?

Winn pulled up a new tab then began a modification of the search he'd run earlier. Despite being officially removed from the case, he had sudo'd in as another analyst to check out the families of the seven people his father had killed, as well as Chester Dunholtz. None of them lived in National City, nor had any of them taken a plane, train or boat here within the last month. Which meant they either had connections here or—

Alex's car slowed to a stop and Winn looked up in a panic to find them at the DEO garage. Alex showed the on-duty security officer her badge and explained the situation. They were let through not long after.

Winn had to leave his laptops at IT to be scanned before he could bring them into the command center, which he supposed was fair, and something he probably should have checked before firing up his searches. He hadn't seen the invisible being approach his desk though, or turn on his equipment, but if they were invisible to the security cameras and his motion sensors, who knew what they could do with the computer turned off.

Alex didn't even bother changing into her DEO uniform before she escorted Winn to the elevator and up to the wing of bunks. They were meant for agents on assignment to catch a break, or to house witnesses until a safer alternative could be found, but Winn knew they saw much more regular use.

"I want the one closest to the elevator," he said, as the elevator groaned into motion.

"It would be better farther away," Alex protested. "You'd have more—"

"I've seen what people get up to in these rooms," Winn retorted, before shaking his head rapidly to try to dislodge the mental image. "The one closest to the elevator is the least used and therefore the cleanest."

He looked over at Alex. "Besides, you're going to have someone posted outside my door anyway, right?"

She nodded.

"So I'll be fine."

It was only then that Winn realized he was still wearing his pajamas—an old T-shirt and a pair of thankfully solid-colored pajama pants (yes, he actually wore the Superman pair he'd been gifted for Christmas one year. They were hella soft, okay?)—beneath the shock blanket that was still draped over his shoulders. He didn't even remember putting on the socks and sneakers he was currently wearing. Or the knee brace. He was pretty sure he hadn't fallen asleep with them on.

"So is all my stuff evidence or…"

"It is. I was going to grab you some stuff on the way back from your place. You'll have to give me your sizes."

Winn nodded as the elevator doors opened onto the bunk wing. He made his way to the closest room and motioned for Alex to swipe her badge to open it.

"I assume I'm either going to get a clone of my badge, or some sort of guest access?" he asked, knowing his was back at his apartment, and apparently now evidence.

"IT is already on it," Alex said as she let them into the small concrete room. A twin bed was pushed against the right wall and a chest of drawers sat next to it, also serving as a nightstand. The bathroom, separated by a wooden door, wasn't much bigger, just a toilet, sink and shower arranged in a small rectangle.

"Home sweet home," Winn deadpanned as he dropped the shock blanket on the chest of drawers then carefully turned and walked out of the room.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Alex asked, stepping out in front of him before he could punch the button for the elevator.

"To work. Someone just tried to kill me and the rest of my building, Alex. I'm not going to give them a second chance."

"We're on the scene at 1st and Langley," a peppy blond twenty-something enthused into a ZNN's news camera, "where we've just received word that an explosive device was planted in a third floor apartment. According to the arson investigator, the charge would have been enough to level the entire building. It's lucky Super—"

Josh's cell phone rang a split second later. Recognizing the number, he groaned then clicked off the TV. It was going to be better to answer the phone now and get the impending conversation over with.

"What did you do?" his father demanded the second Josh picked up.

"It was only supposed to cause a slow-burning fire, not take down the whole place."

"That's not what it did."

"I know that now, dad." In hindsight, Josh should have known that the instructions from the dark web were probably meant for something more nefarious than a little apartment fire.

Before he could continue his defense, his father spoke up again. "I'm taking it from here."

"Dad, you can't—"

"I can and I will. What are their names? The ones who testify against me?"

"Dad, I really don't think—"

"Tell me!" his father shouted, so loudly and with such rage that Josh actually had to pull the phone away from his ear for a moment.

"It's really only the one analyst: Winn Schott Jr," he said unhappily. "His testimony about your alibi is the one that really sways the jury."

"Why do I know that name?"

"His father is Toyman. I was playing that up to draw suspicion away from your case."

"And how's that working for you?" His father's tone was cruel and callous, and he didn't wait for Josh to respond before continuing. "I'll take it from here, son. It's your turn to lay low. I'll call you when it's done."

"You're not going to… murder him, are you?" Josh asked, the word in question barely a whisper.

"No, but I will make sure he can't work my case. I'll call you when it's done," he repeated before hanging up.

In the silence that followed, Josh pulled the phone away from his ear again and stared at the blank screen, feeling not for the first time that the whole situation had spiraled violently out of control.