"Just let me punch you in the face once," said Mon-el, swinging at me while I dodged him.
"What?" I said, "No way."
"It won't hurt! I promise. I've been hit in the face, a lot, on this planet," He came at me with a series of punches, all aiming at or around my head. "It's amazing, you don't feel a thing!"
I blocked his arms before grabbing his hand. I twisted his arm and spun him so he was facing away from me.
"I think I still have it!" I teased, holding him while he squirmed around. I was trying to lower him to the ground when Alex walked by outside the training room. She took my focus away for a second and the next thing I knew Mon-el had his arms free and was using the momentum to flip me over. I landed flat on my back, staring up. I could hear him laughing thinking he had won this round.
"Little rusty?" Alex was standing over me with that grin I was starting to come to recognize.
"Lucky break I think," taking the hand she was offering.
"If you can't beat Mon-el, it's definitely rust," she said, teasing my cousin.
"Hey! I'm a valuable member of the team! I offer critical distractions and lovable, quirky commentary with impeccable timing," he said, placing his hands on his hips.
"Sounds handy," I laughed.
"How are you settling in?" asked Alex, folding her arms.
"Uh, good. Thanks," I said. "Mon-el was able to set us up with a place for when we got here.
"That's good," she replied. "How's Charlie like it?"
"She loves it, lots for her climb on and crawl around," I smiled. "Definitely not baby proof, my mom was working on that with her today."
"Hey, how did that steamy date go I heard about the other night?" interrupted Mon-el, wiggling his eyebrows. I made a mental note to give him a punch for that one.
Alex looked down, shyly before answering. "Yeah, it went fine. Dating is always so awkward, isn't it?"
We both smiled.
"Well, I should go. Just wanted to check in," Alex said, heading towards the door. "Oh, J'onn wants an assessment of your abilities. He did it with Mon-el, I'll send Winn down. Or whenever you get a chance. Up to you. Okay?"
"Okay," I agreed.
Alex smiled again and narrowly missed the doorframe on her way out.
"She seemed frazzled, didn't she seem frazzled to you?" asked Mon-el.
"Maybe because you interrogated her on her dating life," I suggested.
"They're so weird about courtship on these planets, I did miss that about Daxam. It was kind of like an anything with consent goes, not like this at all. It can be confusing down here. You should be careful," he warned.
"I'm not dating anyone. What's there to be careful of," I said, taking a shot at his head.
"Oh my god!" yelled Winn. "What if you didn't have the ability to jump buildings? You just jump off the balcony anyways?"
"I self heal! I would've been fine!" I yelled back up to him. Mon-el was laughing beside Winn.
"I'm going to mark down pain in the as-"
Winn was cut off as J'onn walked into the lobby and made his presence known by clearing his throat. Winn and Mon-el took a step back so they were out of sight.
"Rae, how's the assessment going?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"Good sir, pretty similar to Mon-el, except stronger and smarter, of course, " I answered, managing to get a smile out of him.
"Makes sense, Supergirl and Superman are cousins and they share the same powers and abilities."
I nodded in agreement. He motioned for me to walk with him.
"I'm sure you found yourself a job on earth-1, will you be finding yourself employment here?" he asked.
"Actually, Mon-el said he would be able to set me up at a local bar here in town. He said all I'd have to know was how to make a club soda and I'd be good to go."
J'onn stopped, frowning. "You know, I was pretty impressed with your inhibitors."
"Thank you sir."
"Considering the state of the lab you were working with, you were still able to find all the means necessary to produce what you needed. It makes me wonder what you'd be able to do with a state of the art laboratory," he said, motioning to the labs behind him.
"Director Jones, it's been a minute since I've needed to use my skills as a physician or a researcher. I'm afraid I wouldn't come close to the DEO standards," I answered, honestly.
"Well, I assume it's like riding a bike. We can ease you in and I'd be happy to have our best agent bring you up to speed with your training."
"You're offering me a spot in the DEO?" I asked, flabbergasted. J'onn smiled and nodded.
"Sir, I feel it's my duty to inform you, I was dishonourably discharged from the Daxam army," I said, feeling a roller coaster of emotions from anger to shame.
"I know all about your service. I've read your files and other information that was found. Rae, I don't take the hiring of my staff lightly. My team has all been hand picked. I know talent and skill when I see it. It would be a real shame to see your skills wasted at a bar," said J'onn.
Blown away by what I was hearing, I couldn't believe the opportunity I was being given. "Director Jones, I can't thank you enough. I look forward to working with you and your team."
"Good, be here tomorrow. Oh six hundred. Your trainer will be waiting," he said, walking back to the hub of the DEO.
I watched until he walked away, hoping he wouldn't hear my excitement.
"Hey! What was all that about?" asked Mon-el, creeping around the corner to make sure J'onn was gone.
"Director Jones just offered me a spot in the DEO!" I said, holding up a high five.
He unenthusiastically high fived me back. "Wow. I really had to convince him that I'd be a good fit and a real contribution when I was new."
"Anyways, J'onn said he'd get his best agent to bring me up to speed. Any tips?" I teased.
"You're going to need more than tips if that's the case," grumbled Mon-el.
"Aww, you always did get a little pouty when the girls wanted to play with me instead of you," I said, punching him in the arm. "Let's go train some more! I got all this energy now!"
After a small sparring session with my cousin, I showered and headed home.
"I'm home!" I called out. "Mom? Charlie?"
I was bent over untying my shoes and I heard a sound; it was getting louder and faster. I jumped around the corner and saw Charlie crawling towards me.
"Boo!" I said, her face lighting up the moment she saw me. "Hi baby girl!"
I picked her up and twirled around with her. Her giggle was everything to me. She gave me a big, gloopy kiss and wrapped her little arms around my neck. "How was your day? Were you a good kid for Grandma?" Charlie nodded and put her finger in her mouth. "Still working on that tooth, I see."
Stepping further into the kitchen, I saw my mom at the sink, getting ready to whip up some crazy concoction.
"Hey mom," I greeted her before sitting down at the kitchen table with Charlie.
"Hi Honey," she said. "How was your day?"
"It was actually pretty amazing," I said, giving Charlie a tickle on her side. "Mom you don't have to cook. I can do it."
"I can make a simple dinner, I'm not a thousand. I have a bum leg, that doesn't affect my culinary abilities," she argued.
"Culinary abilities? Did you get those from the yellow sun? Cause I don't remember those," I teased. She swatted in my direction and laughed. "Maybe we should get Alex to check out your leg, now that you're here, it should've began to heal itself."
"Well, you're a doctor. Why can't you just look at it?" she asked. She wasn't a fan of doctors, outside of me, of course.
"Cause I'm not as experienced with this yellow sun, cell regeneration process. Alex is great though; she's super smart. I'm sure she'd be able to help you."
"Who is this Alex?" my mom asked, side eyeing me.
"Agent Danvers? The doctor from the other day?"
"I know which one she is. I just mean, why do you know "Alex" so well?"
"Oh, it's not like that. I was stuck in med bay and a hyperbaric chamber with her. I was bound to pick up a couple things," I said, rolling my eyes. "Plus, she's dating and you know what it's like on these planets. They don't usually run freely with their love like they did on Daxam. It's more strict, they have some sort of rules and they don't usually break them."
"Well, if Miss Danvers is so smart. She should see that certain rules are worth challenging," my mom smiled. "Why was your day so great?"
"Director Jones offered me a spot at the DEO. I'll get to be back in the field, the lab and the med bay. I'll be able to do what I love to do and what I'm good at," I said.
"Well," she said, quickly glancing up. "That's good then."
"What?"
"What what? I said that's good," she answered.
"You hesitated," I replied.
"I just mean, what about Charlie? Do you think that's a good idea?"
"What about her? Can she work in a lab?" I said, making a funny face at Charlie and continuing in a funny voice. "Are you a doctor Miss?"
Charlie laughed.
"I thought this would be good, I'll be making enough money to support us here. You won't have to work, I thought you could look after Charlie?"
"Which I'm more than happy to do. But an agent? Being in the field? It's dangerous, what if something happens to you? It's not just you anymore," said my mom, gently tugging at one of Charlie's wavy blonde curls.
"I know, but I can't really get hurt anymore. Not with the yellow sun. But we're starting slow anyways, just getting back into the groove with some training. Director Jones said he'd send his best agent to train me tomorrow," I smiled.
"Is that Agent Danvers?" my mom cooed.
I ignored her and lifted Charlie into the air, making her giggle.
While it wasn't my first choice, I didn't mind retraining Rae in her certifications. She had a fun, light side that kept things fresh but when it came down to training, the other side of the coin was serious. The past week or so had almost been fun I thought, although, shooting weapons and being at the range was always fun.
"Good morning Agent Danvers," I heard from behind me. I turned to see Rae walking towards me, looking much different from the other times I had seen her in her DEO t-shirt and cargo pants. Today, she was dressed in black dress pants and a low cut dress shirt, with a nicely fitted blazer to top it off.
"Good morning, Agent Gand," I welcomed her. "Did you have a nice Christmas?"
"We did, thank you. Charlie even got a visit from your Santa Claus," she smiled.
I smiled back, picturing her little curly haired daughter, ripping through gifts.
"How about you? Did you have a nice holiday break?" Rae asked, leaning on the desk.
"Actually, we got called in. Someone burnt this into a field and we're not sure what it means," I said, sliding the photos of the image towards her. "I'll bring you up to speed on the way."
I packed up the rest of the file I was reading and paused when I saw Rae hadn't moved.
"I've seen this before," she said, studying it.
"Really?" I asked, happy to finally be getting somewhere with this.
"When we were at war with Kyrpton, I remember my Lieutenant holding an image like this one. He used to make a mockery of their religion. He thought it was some kind of psychological mind play. He probably couldn't even spell 'psychological'. I remember him saying something about being the beast that would bring them down," said Rae, reliving her horrible days in the Daxam army. She looked up at me. "A world killer that would deliver justice."
"A world killer?"
"Yeah, I always thought he meant himself, as in he was leading the destruction of their world. There were always three parts to his plan; the mark of the beast, the work of the beast, and the Reign of the beast. He must have been referencing their religion beyond what I knew. I just took it more literal."
"Well, that's more information than we had," I said. "World killer, three part plan. That's bound to be able to get us a lead."
"I mean, it makes sense if that glyph is marked all over the city."
"Ah, Rae!" called Winn, walking in behind us. "Can I see you for a second? I have some...things, I need to discuss."
"He's trying to convert your lead inhibitor with a program he's created so we can track it and get alerts, should something go wrong," I chimed in.
"Aww, why'd you have to go and spoil the surprise!" he pouted. "How'd you even know anyway?"
"I know everything that goes on in the DEO Winn, when will you learn that?" I teased. I saw Rae smile.
"I'll catch up with you in a bit?" Rae said.
"Sure, sounds good," I smiled.
I was a little disappointed. I was hoping to hang out with Alex, especially if I could be of help in this new case. Winn was a good guy though, and if he thought he could better the inhibitors than that was also important, for Charlie's sake.
"So Boy Genius, you think you've worked out a plan to make my inhibitors better?"
"I believe I have made some upgrades, yes," he said, sitting in his chair. "Don't get me wrong, I saw the lab on your ship and I'm wicked impressed that you could pull that off in those conditions."
"Well thanks, coming from you that's quite the compliment."
"My concerns are this though," he said, spinning in his chair. "Should something go wrong with the device itself, we'd have no way of knowing until you or the others were super sick and suffering from lead poisoning. Ergo, I developed a program that will track every flicker that inhibitor will make. I have made a prototype that I've tested and it seems worthy."
"How confident are you that this will work?" I asked.
"Mmm...I'd say about ninety seven point six percent sure it's glitch free," he answered. "Give or take."
"I'm not implanting something in my daughter that we're not one hundred percent on. We'll test it on me for a bit and then we can switch the others."
"Okay, sounds good. We'll hook you up and then we can go grab some grub? You in?" asked Winn, shooting me his finger guns.
"I've got some training with Alex but yeah, then I'm in."
I went to find Alex. If we could get a more sophisticated inhibitor, then I wanted that for Charlie. But putting her back under a knife to surgically implant it would be hard.
"Hey, everything go okay with Winn?" asked Alex, stopping me with a touch on my shoulder.
"Uh, yeah. Sorry, I was just thinking about how we'd have to put Charlie back under sedation. She's been through so much already."
"Well, if it makes you feel better, we have the best technology on this planet and will be able to monitor her every step of the way," she said, trying to reassure me. "Plus, Winn is the brightest tech agent we have, if he's one hundred percent about something you won't have to worry."
"That's just it, he's only ninety seven percent sure. I told him I wanted it tested on me first," I said.
"Rae, I don't know if that's a good idea. You've already exposed yourself to more lead than you probably should have when creating the first round."
"I can't endanger my daughter by using a device we aren't certain about. It needs to be tested. I'm sure Boy Genius is just being modest, but this way, we'll know for sure."
I was knotting the last stitch in Rae's shoulder after switching her inhibitors. So far everything was online and tracking the way it was supposed to.
"Okay, you're all set," I said, handing Rae her blazer back. "How do you feel?"
"I feel the same, that must be a good sign right?" she smiled.
"You know, with having a controlled inhibitor we should be able to control the inhibition. Maybe that way we can finally get in some fair hand-to-hand combat training."
"Oh, it sounds like you just want to have an advantage so you can finally beat me in something. Maybe a little revenge for those target practice scores?"
I couldn't help but smile, remembering she did beat me in a couple rounds.
"Maybe that's it, guess we'll have to see," I said. "Meet me in the training room, there's a change of clothes in the locker room."
Minutes later, Rae and I were sparring since we were able to lower her resistance to lead by a minuscule amount. Every so often, we'd pause to check how the inhibitor was holding up by checking the remote that Winn had designed. I think Rae was beginning to come around; the idea that it'd be safer for everyone if we could be proactive in monitoring, rather than reactive should something go wrong. Rae threw a punch that I blocked and grabbed her forearm, forcing her to flip over my back. She spun around on the ground and knocked my feet out from under me, causing us to wrestle it out on the floor. I managed to get on top of her but the second I tried to pin her hands Rae quickly used the momentum to roll me over her and she was standing above me with a smirk. Thinking she had won another round, she let her guard down and I made the same move to sweep her feet out. Rae fell backwards, knocking over our stuff and shutting off our music.
"Well there goes our theme music," she joked, as she lay on her back.
"I think I won that round," I teased, slowly getting to my feet. "Point for Danvers!"
I walked over to her and offered her a hand to help her up. But when I got beside her, her eyes were wide as she struggled for breath.
"Rae!" I yelled. I turned searching for her remote. I could hear her gasping behind me as I pushed our stuff out of the pile. Then I saw it, the remote was lying in a puddle of water from a bottle that had been knocked when Rae fell. I instantly reached to my earpiece.
"Winn," I said, trying to stay calm. I made my way back over to Rae as I tried to wipe the remote and turn it back on.
"Winn here. Read you loud and clear," he said.
"Winn, Rae's inhibitor is malfunctioning and the remote is damaged. I need help ASAP. We're in the north west training room."
Rae laid there trying to conserve her breathing. She was trying to be her usual collected self, but I could see the fear in her eyes.
"It's okay, Winn's on his way with help," I took her hand in mine. "Just take slow breaths. It's going to be alright."
"I got it! I got it!" yelled Winn, as he came running into the room. He was out of breath and sweating. He pointed a second remote toward Rae and pushed a couple buttons.
I felt for Rae's pulse on her wrist and found that it was returning to normal. I helped her sit up.
"Guess we found that margin of error," she gasped, reaching for the rest of the bottle of water.
"Uh, yeah. I can see where I may have gone wrong with a hand held remote. Yes. So, I will create a better solution and b-r-b!" he said, as he left the room.
"You okay?" I asked, watching Rae take a second.
"Just a little out of breath," she answered.
"Oh sure, I start winning and you go and pull a stunt like this," I saw a small smile sneak through her lips. "Let me help you up." I felt her leaning on me more than she probably wanted to, letting me know she was feeling the effects more than she was letting on. "Why don't we call it for the day and you let me run some tests?"
"No, I'm okay. I just need a second and we can get back to training," insisted Rae.
"Look, I think we're about to have a real problem with this threat marking the city and we're going to need fresh eyes on it. Take the rest of the day and rest up and we'll start fresh tomorrow," I tried. "I'll get you set up in med bay."
"Well, if it's all the same and I'm just going to be lying around, I'd rather be at home with Charlie."
"I understand, as long as you're taking it easy," I said.
Rae nodded. "I'm just going to get changed, I don't want this to be a thing though. I don't want people worrying over me or this."
"Okay, same. We don't need everyone knowing our best tech agent almost poisoned our newest recruit. I'll meet you at the desk when you're ready."
I watched as Rae slowly walked down the hall to the locker rooms, before heading back to my office. I pulled off my workout gear and changed into the standard black polo. Fixing my hair, I pulled out my phone. There was a message from the next woman I was supposed to meet for dinner. Truth was, I had just booked my nights up so I didn't have to spend them alone in my apartment. As much as I matched with these women on a site, I could never match on an emotional level because I couldn't let myself be over Maggie.
"Okay, ready?" I heard from behind me as I walked back out into the hall. Rae had her bag hanging from her shoulder and was back in her formal suit from earlier.
"Yeah, here. Let me take that for you," I said, taking the bag from her shoulder.
"Oh no, that's okay," Rae tried to stop me. I twisted so she couldn't grab the bag.
"You know, it's okay to accept help every now and again. It won't hurt." Rae smirked and nodded. "You feeling okay?"
"Just a little weak at the moment," she admitted. I opened the DEO vehicle door and helped her inside. I figured getting her to ride on the back of my bike, wouldn't be the best decision, given her current state.
"I appreciate the ride home. I'm discovering that obtaining a drivers license in National City isn't as easy as I thought," admitted Rae.
"How have you been getting to work?" I asked.
"I usually run into work in the morning and mornings I'm running late I take a cab. It hasn't been too bad," she said, subtlety trying to adjust her shoulder where her inhibitor was.
"Why didn't you say something? We can issue you a drivers license," I said, making a note to make that happen. "You've captained a space ship, I think you can drive a car."
"I don't like to make more work for others, I can make my way through the process," stated Rae.
I rolled my eyes. "Eventually you're going to have to see that we work as a team at the DEO. We ask each other for help and favours because we know we can rely on one another and not be putting the other people out when we do," I explained.
"I have seen that. I just wanted to earn my way on to the team before I just start...asking for things," she replied.
"We're happy to help. Plus, you've proven yourself. We haven't seen Supergirl this happy in the last seven months. It should be us owing you," I said.
"Thank you."
The rest of the drive was quiet, I thought I saw Rae's eyes flutter shut every once and awhile. I pulled up to her driveway and came around to help her out of the SUV. When she reached for her bag, I gave her a smirk. She put her hands up and surrendered to my help. We walked to her front door.
"My mother had her concerns about living with inhibitors permanently. I'd hate to have to tell her she's right," implied Rae before opening the door.
"Got it," I said, smiling at the sentiment.
We stepped inside and could smell fresh baked cookies and hear giggles coming from further inside. Then little blonde curls appeared from around the corner.
"Hey Sunshine!" Rae greeted. Charlie peaked around the corner and saw me.
"Hey Charlie," I tried. She smiled, shyly.
"Do I get a hug?" asked Rae, trying to coax her out of hiding. Charlie smiled again and pulled herself up, so she was standing and holding on to the doorframe. "Come give Mama a hug!"
Charlie took a step so she was standing by herself.
"Oh my gosh!" squealed Rae! "She took a step!" Rae turned to me, "did you see that? She took a step!" Rae turned back to Charlie. "Atta girl! Come to Mama! Take another step!"
"What's happening?" her mom came into the hall to see her granddaughter standing by herself.
"Has this been happening all morning? Did I miss her first steps?" asked Rae, holding her arms out to Charlie.
"No! These are firsts!" exclaimed Mrs. Gand.
Charlie took more steps and everyone cheered.
"I can't believe it! Do you have a camera?" Rae asked turning to me. I quickly pulled out my phone to video Charlie's first steps. She was so cute, all proud of herself and Rae was beside herself. Charlie took another couple steps and then fell on her bum before looking at her mom and me, clapping.
"Yay!" I said, waving at her. Rae scooped her up and twirled her around.
"Good job baby girl! You walked all by yourself! What a big girl! Give me five!" The two high fived and Charlie held her hand out to me. I moved closer and high fived her little hand.
"Way to go kiddo!" I said, I couldn't help but share the same huge smile Rae and her mother were wearing. Charlie reached her arms out towards me. I quickly tucked my phone away and reached out to take her in my arms. "Hi rock star! You're a big kid now huh?" She mumbled something back to me and pulled on the collar of my shirt.
"Well, good thing you guys walked in!" said Mrs. Gand. "How come you're home so early?"
"Oh, um," stuttered Rae, trying not to admit that her inhibitor acted up.
"Oh! That's my fault, I forgot I have meetings the rest of the afternoon, so I offered to give Rae a ride home," I said, bouncing Charlie.
"Oh, well that was nice of you Agent Danvers, how have you been?" answered Rae's mom.
"Very well, Mrs. Gand, thank you. Please, just Alex. How about yourself? Have you been settling in okay?" I asked, passing Charlie back to Rae, as she reached for her mom.
"It's been lovely, thank you Alex. It's been nice to see Rae doing something she always enjoyed," she said, walking back into the kitchen. "You guys going to make me eat these cookies on my own?"
"Do you have time for a snack?" Rae asked, putting Charlie back down on her feet.
"Sure," I answered, unable to hide the joy I was feeling. Charlie held one of Rae's hands and reached out for one of mine before pulling us into the kitchen.
I arrived home from my dinner with the match from online. She was nice and seemed super impressed that I worked for the FBI. It was hard having to lie about a huge piece of my life. That was a perk of being with Maggie; she knew everything about me. I could just be me. I walked to the cupboard to grab a wine glass and silently chided myself for once again comparing something else Maggie. My phone buzzed on the table and I saw Kara's name. I sat down to reply to her message about my date. But found myself scrolling through the pictures of Rae and Charlie. I watched the video of her first steps once again. I couldn't tell who was more excited: Charlie or Rae. They both had huge grins. They each took turns looking at the camera during the video and when it ended, I found I had the same smile. This was how I wanted to spend my time, looking into the eyes of someone whose love is unconditional from the start. The way Charlie looked at Rae, I wanted that and I could almost feel that when Charlie reached for my hand. For the first time, I was starting to realize that maybe I had made the right decision.
"Agent Gand, thanks for coming in," said J'onn. "We have just discovered that the recent murders have been confirmed; heat vision. Kara went to see Coville earlier today and he mentioned many of the same aspects that you could recall. We were just wondering if you were able to remember anything else?"
"I wasn't, sorry sir. But I've been following the story, if anything else jumps out you'll be the first to know," I said.
"Coville is a fanatic, not a prophet," stated Kara.
"The two don't have to be exclusive, many of the things he said correlate with what Rae remembers hearing on Daxam. That can't be a coincidence," continued J'onn.
"The moment you start believing in something is the moment you give your power away. I'm not doing that. So what we know about this Kryptonian is that she's a pretender. I beat Kal down to the ground, I'll beat her too."
I saw the look on Alex's face as she watched her sister walk away. I couldn't help but feel the same concern she was feeling for her. This was bigger than anything Mon-el had said he'd seen at the DEO. I walked over to Alex as Mon-el chased after Kara.
"She'll be fine. After all the stories I've heard from Mon-el. Supergirl isn't afraid of anything," I said, hoping to give her some comfort.
"That's what worries me," she told me.
I walked to med bay, wanting to make sure everything was stocked before whatever was about to happen happened. I started pulling equipment and supplies when the call came in. The world killer was waiting for Supergirl. I stepped out into the hall to see agents running and getting into teams.
"How can I help?" I asked Alex, after seeing Supergirl fly off after talking with her.
"Stay here, be ready for whatever we might bring back," said Alex, walking with purpose to head her strike team.
"Ten. Four," I answered, heading back to med bay and gathering supplies to load into an emergency pack, in case I was called out on scene. Once I had everything and felt prepared I walked out to the desks to see Winn.
"Hey, have you heard anything yet?" I asked.
"Yeah," he answered, looking the most solemn, which was a side of him I had yet to see. "It's not going well. She's too strong for Supergirl, I don't understand how she's gaining her strength." He started searching through his computer to find, what looked like, anything.
"It's a battle of wills right now and good always wins," I squeezed his shoulder, hoping to ease his mind. "Just have to stay positive."
He didn't answer and I wasn't sure how much even I believed what I had just said. I started pacing around the desk, until I saw that it was bothering some of the other techs. I excused myself for some air and headed to the balcony that overlooked National City.
"Hey," said Mon-el, leaning against the railing with me.
"Hey, how are you holding up?" I asked, realizing that if I was feeling on edge, he must be going out of his mind.
"I hate being left behind, I should be out there, to have her back," he said, frustrated.
"The person you described while we were up on the ship didn't sound like someone who needed a lot of help. She sounded like a strong woman who got things done."
"I know, but you don't understand the feeling of that one person you truly care about, out there, risking her life. We don't know enough about this threat. She just went in there blind and alone."
"You're right, I'm sorry," I said, leaning against him. "I'm here for you though."
"Thanks, I am glad you're back in my life. I missed having you around."
"Rae!" Winn called, I turned immediately. "They need you ready, ETA is four minutes out."
I nodded and looked at Mon-el before walking towards Winn.
"It doesn't look good," his voice trembled, when we were out of earshot. I grabbed a pair of gloves and headed towards the doors. I didn't have to wait long before agents were everywhere and they were pulling a gurney towards me. Once we were on our way to med bay, the agents thinned out. Alex didn't take her eyes off Supergirl. My motions were all so robotic; I had seen these injuries countless times before. I checked her pulse while Alex began hooking her up to monitors.
"Her pulse is weak," I called out, glancing at the EKG that started beeping erratically as soon as it was hooked up. "She's crashing."
"We need to intubate," stated Alex. I handed her the tools for the procedure and assisted. If Alex was scared, she never showed it. Her hands were steady the whole time, unwavering. Our actions were perfectly in sync, when I passed her the tube she was there to take it. She slid the tube into Kara's throat and I attached the bag to pump into her chest. Mon-el and Winn followed us into med bay and were watching in horror. Their actions couldn't affect us, we had a job to do and that was to save Supergirl.
"Stay with me, Kara. Stay with me," I heard Alex say, softly. We watched the monitors as they continued to run crazy, still pumping the bag methodically; we waited for them to settle. The room had fallen silent and all eyes were on the screens. Slowly, they levelled out and Alex checked her pulse. "Pulse is getting stronger."
I saw Alex take the first full breath of air since she had walked in.
"We need to get her breathing hooked up," she said, watching me pumping the air into her sister's chest.
"Right away," I answered. While I busied myself with that, Alex reached for her sisters' hand. She looked towards Mon-el. "She's stable, for now."
He nodded before leaving. He never was very good with coping. The rest of the agents in the room cleared.
"I want hourly updates," said J'onn behind me.
"Yes sir," I agreed.
Knowing Alex wouldn't leave her beside, I moved to ready a bed with sun lamps. The faster we could get her under those the faster that would aid in her recovery. I wanted to give her a little longer, just to make sure she was stable before moving her. When I turned back Alex was dressing her head lacerations.
"Alex," I said quietly, "I can do that."
She nodded; her will to keep it together was, understandably, fumbling. She handed me the gauze, her hand now shaking. I let my hand linger on hers. "We'll do everything we can, she's going to be okay."
I used the saline solution to wash off the blood that had been spilt during the battle. Supergirl never bled, so I'm sure the sight of it wasn't making this easier for anyone. I wanted to find Mon-el and make sure he was okay, but not now; Supergirl needed us.