A/N: I'm so busy I have no idea how I even got this chapter out. But it's here and I've learned that I have a deep weakness for Maggie big sister-ing Kara.
Quick notes: thank you, poll = updated, thank you again. Also, big thank you to HocruxHunter for today's prompt: Kara and Maggie get kidnapped but Kara gets injured saving Maggie and Maggie thinks that Alex will be mad at her.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Wind whipped across Kara's cheeks as she dipped through the sky and managed a final punch to the chest of a large alien with silvery reflective skin and sharpened spikes. The creature jerked back and fell unconscious into the street where citizens had evacuated from just mere minutes earlier.
"Good one, Supergirl," Maggie said with a smile when Kara landed beside her.
Kara grinned. "Yeah? You like it?" She shot into the air and curled through a quick flip before coming back down. Ever since Maggie had learned Kara's true identity a week ago, the blonde had been ecstatic about it, especially now that she had grown closer with the detective over the past few months of game nights, and movie nights, and accidently crashing Maggie and Alex's date nights when Kara was oblivious of their plans and in need of Alex.
"I do," Maggie laughed and put an arm on Kara's shoulder. "Now settle down, Little Danvers, I don't need Alex getting on me because you accidently crashed into a wall on my watch."
Kara giggled, she was so happy Alex found someone like Maggie. "How's she doing?" Kara asked, referring to broken ribs that had forced J'onn to send Alex home and stay there for the next few days before she recovered.
"She's… well, you know Alex, she's stubborn."
Kara laughed again. "That's true. Hey, J'onn, are we done here?" She turned to the director as she passed.
He nodded. "Nice work today, Supergirl. I'll see you tomorrow barring any more emergencies tonight."
"Got it," Kara said and scrambled off to fall back in step with Maggie.
"Do you want to come over and see her?"
"Do you guys have plans tonight? I don't want to impose."
"Nah, you're always welcome over, Little Danvers. I just told Alex we'd be home in forty five minutes, I have to stop at the precinct real quick," Maggie said, throwing an arm around the blonde's shoulder. She had to reach a bit, stretching over as a result of Kara's height.
"Thanks, Tiny Detective," Kara teased and Maggie playfully jabbed her in the side.
"You better watch yourself."
"Mhmm,"Kara murmured as they turned into a back alley and the sun slipped beneath the horizon, light ebbing away to darkness. She was just about to tell Maggie she needed a second (a literal second) to change from her super suit, when something pierced her side. Kara gaze shifted and her hand shot down. She flinched, doubling forward when the recognizable burn and ache of green kryptonite spread through her body.
"Hey, Kara," Maggie said, her voice soft as she instantly moved closer and put a hand on Kara's back to stabilize her. "You okay?"
Kara used her flickering x-ray vision to register a group of people on the other side of the corner, guns positioned in their hands and vehicle full of duct tape and cuffs and weapons and kryptonite. "Maggie, get out of here. You need to leave now," Kara managed. Her words were tense, voice was no way she was letting someone Alex loved this much get hurt. It would crush Kara, but it could destroy Alex.
Maggie shook her head fiercely. If anything happened to Little Danvers she would never forgive herself and neither would Alex. "I'm not leaving you, Kara. What's wrong? What hap—"
Kara flinched forward again as the men activated something in the kryptonite dart lodged in her side. The blonde felt tears burning in her eyes, felt Maggie's hand cover her own trembling fingers clutching her side.
"Hey, it's okay. You're okay," the detective whispered as she glanced around, trying to find the source of the kryptonite she saw glowing from Kara's skin.
"No, Maggie go—you have to go, you have to get out of here, you—" Supergirl slipped from Maggie's arms and fell unconscious against the asphalt. Before the detective could kneel beside her someone had pressed a rag against her mouth. She flailed and struggled, hitting her attacker until she couldn't fight the heaviness of her eyelids and she too, fell limp into the street.
/
Alex felt the inkling of concern seep through her when Maggie and Kara were thirty minutes late. Then an hour passed, and she dragged herself off the couch, ribs screaming in protest as a yelp split her lips. She grabbed her phone, sending a text to both women. Thirty minutes without a reply compelled her legs to begin pacing the length of her apartment as minutes ticked by. She called and then she called again.
At three hours she pulled out her phone one more time and was relieved to fine at least someone was answering her calls.
"Winn?"
"Yeah, hey Alex. What's up?"
"Have you seen Kara or Maggie?"
Winn twirled in his chair at the DEO, tapping at his computer. "Not since the fight a few hours ago. Why?"
"Listen, I'm coming in. Can you put J'onn on the line?"
"Aren't you, like, not supposed step foot in the DEO for three days at least?"
"Now, Winn," she practically growled as she flinched and simultaneously wrestled her coat over her pulsating ribs while stepping into her boots.
/
"Maggie," Kara whispered, blinking in the darkness as the previous events flooded her memory. She made an attempt to sit up but her arm quivered and she could tell, as her elbow buckled beneath her, that kryptonite was still inside her, stealing her powers and strength.
Kara scrunched her face, features contorting in pain as she propped herself up and crawled the few feet toward Maggie. "Maggie," she whispered again, shaking the detective gently.
A soft sound emerged from Maggie and she sat up, squinting at the figure in front of her. "Kara?"
"Yeah, hey, are you okay?"
Maggie blinked a few times and did a quick mental check. She felt sore, bruised at the worst. "Yeah, I'm fine. But what about you?" Maggie glanced over Kara in the dim light. "You're lookin' a little rough over there."
"It's the kryptonite," she grimaced as she shifted positions, felt Maggie's soft touch wrap around her abdomen and help her sit up. "Thank," Kara murmured. "It dampens my powers and can take them away, makes me sick and vulnerable."
"Well then don't pull any stupid heroic shit while we're here, all right? Let me handle that today." Maggie squeezed Kara's hand and when the blonde looked up, the other woman was giving her a warm smile.
Kara laughed, eyes closing, tilting her head back against the cold, metal wall. "No promises." She meant it.
/
"Anything?" Alex asked, leaning up against a desk with her foot tapping and hands crossed over her chest.
"Nothing," Winn said and J'onn sighed as Winn continued. "Kara's comms went off a block from the scene of the fight and haven't come back on since."
Alex rubbed a hand across her forehead. "And Maggie never made it to the precinct before she and Kara were supposed to show up at my place, so it's likely that they were taken and it's likely that they were taken together… Winn, can you get into the surveillance feed from the buildings on that street?"
"I'm insulted that you even have to ask."
..
"Right there, pause!" Alex reached forward and pointed at the screen. "That's them."
J'onn squinted at the vehicles and armed criminals, each weapon branded with a silver logo. "I know who that is."
Alex spun on her heel to face him, wincing slightly and arm raising instinctively to loosely wrap around her ribs. "Who?"
Her voice was hard and steely and Winn had to fight the urge to flinch.
"An anti-alien hate group—a bunch of cowardly extremists that lash out with violence."
"Do you know where they are?"
"I have a decent idea. They've been relatively predictable in the past."
/
"Don't touch her!" Maggie yelled as masked figures stormed their way toward Kara where she was hunched over painfully on the floor, the strength of their kryptonite embedded in her skin burned and took her breath away. Her vision blurred; the room spun; she felt like she'd be sick. But Maggie was up and screaming and playing hero and Kara couldn't let her get hurt.
She pushed herself forward with fingers caked in her own dried blood.
"Move," the man said, stepping forward and shoving Maggie.
She pushed back.
"Maggie, don't," Kara choked out, fear rising like bile in her throat.
"Listen to the alien," another figure said. "At least it agrees."
Kara blocked out his words. "Don't get hurt, don't provoke them."
"I won't let you touch her."
The man pulled a knife from his pocket, admiring the edge before shifting his gaze back to Maggie with a grin. "I don't really give a damn what you think you're going to 'let' me do. Your life is worth less than shit to me if you're going to stand here and protect this alien—this disease infecting our planet."
Kara's stomach clenched when Maggie didn't falter and stood her ground, keeping her posture straight while her hands quivered behind her back in their restrains and Kara's field of sight. While fear coiled in the detective's chest, her thoughts shifted to Kara and the sting of the man's words and how much she would give to take Kara away from this and hug her and make the jabs disappear.
It was suddenly, in that moment, which Maggie felt she understood Kara and Alex's relationship, felt she understood the brunette herself on an entirely different dimension, because deep inside the detective was a desire, a knowledge, that she would do anything to keep Kara safe as she saw these men spit words like weapons, saw them tear apart the alien who possessed more humanity than they ever could combined.
The detective saw Kara the way Alex so often talked about her. She saw through the smiles and sunniness and Supergirl strength.
"I swear to god, if you touch her you will regret it."
"Make me," the man said, stepping forward so a foot separated him and the detective. "I'll kill you first and then have a little fun torturing E.T., before I kill it too."
Maggie spit in his face and he lunged forward, knife poised between his dirt caked fingers and aimed for the detective's heart.
Panic jolted through Kara's veins like an electrical shock and the adrenaline gave the last spark of energy needed to exhaust her powers. She sprung forward, knocking out the two smaller masked men before just barely shoving her body between Maggie and the cold, sharp metal of the knife.
She forced herself to stay standing, felt the knife like a thud, a pressure or punch. The man stumbled back in surprise, before shoving her to the ground and a snap shook the air. He kicked her ribs before he turned around and dragged the men out and she could hear his voice reverberating through the hall as he retreated. "The kryptonite didn't work," he screamed and she caught the sound of scuffling.
"Kara, your powers came back! Talk about good timing; that was awesome." Maggie grinned, moving to help Kara up.
"Maggie, I—" her voice was breathy and soft, a wheeze burning through her lungs from her position crouched between her elbows and knees. She yelped. "Oh, god, oh Rao." Tears burned in her eyes as blood gushed across her fingers, spilling from her palm to the floor.
Maggie's veins turned ice cold. "Oh God, oh Kara, Kara," she dropped beside the younger woman and gently turned her over, so she was lying on her back. Maggie yanked off her leather jacket, folding it quickly and placing it beneath Kara's head. "Okay, you're okay," she breathed out a stuttered exhale. The brunette gently rubbed a hand over Kara's hair. She let her gaze shift from the hyperventilating, paling cheeks. "Oh Kara, the knife." She didn't mean to say it out loud. The blonde's gaze shifted down.
"No, don't look," she whispered harshly and tears spilled from Kara's eyes, drawing watery paths down her temples. "Hey, hey, let's think of something else, okay?" Maggie said and brushed the tears off Kara's cheeks.
"God, Alex is gonna kill me, huh?"
Kara laughed softly before sputtering and gapsing for air. "If I—If I don't ya know, just remind Alex that I love her, okay? That she did more for me than I could ever thank her for."
Maggie's tears dripped from her own eyes into Kara's hair, dampening the golden blonde to brown. "Hey, don't talk like that. I can't have you getting all dramatic on me, Little Danvers. Now can you tell me if you're hurt anywhere else?"
Kara swallowed and gave a nod. "My ankle and ribs."
Maggie shifted down, gently peeling off Kara's boot and feeling the blonde tense beneath her, a painful hiss penetrating the air. "Sorry, I'm sorry it's almost off." Maggie looked at the ankle, saw the bruised, swelling skin. Broken, she determined. Definitely broken. She ran her fingers over the ribs—bruised, maybe cracked. But none of it seemed life-threatening at the moment so she turned her attention back to the stab wound.
Maggie detached Supergirl's cape, pulled it gently from beneath the blonde before pressing the fabric against the gash seeping blood across Kara's abdomen.
Kara flinched, jerking back so hard her head slammed the concrete. Maggie bit her lip, holding the pressure steady with one hand while using the other to thread her fingers with Kara. "Hey, look at me," she said softly, shaking the blonde's hand until she opened the eyes she'd previously had squeezed shut. "You're okay. I know it's hard but you've gotta try to think about something else. You wanna talk to me? Just say anything."
Kara sniffled. "Okay."
"Good girl," Maggie said gently squeezing Kara's hand and simultaneously applying more pressure to her abdomen.
"Snapper gave me a new article to work on, I get the column all to myself. I'm almost done and I really like it."
"That's awesome," Maggie said, looking over to smile at Kara.
The blonde nodded. "Maggie?"
"Mhmm?"
"You know how Alex likes to act all tough but she's really actually very soft on the inside?"
Maggie smiled. "Yeah."
"When we were in high school she had these combat boots that she liked to wear because she thought they made her look tough, but I was the only one that knew she always had on these dorky socks underneath."
"Like what?" Maggie asked, producing a soft laugh in hopes of soothing Kara.
"Like cats and microscopes—those were the worst, even I was embarrassed by them."
"Maggie?"
"Hmm?" she hummed again.
Kara swallowed hard, more silent tears glossing her skin. "I'm scared."
"It's okay," Maggie said, even though her heart was racing and her muscles were burning with the effort to stop Kara's bleeding. "You'll be fine. Ya know, I had a partner get stabbed a few years ago, it was one of my first few months on the job."
"Wh-what happened?" Kara asked through hiccups, squeezing her eyes closed and tightening her grip on Maggie's fingers.
"He was fine. It took a bit of screaming, an ambulance ride, and a few stitches to get him to chill out but he came out same as before with the addition of a three inch scar and ego twice as big as before."
Kara laughed, then bent to the side, flinching as the movement jarred her injuries.
"Hey, there, take it easy," Maggie said and helped Kara lie straight again just as the doors to the room swung open and agents in dark tactile flooded the room. Yelling and footsteps filled the air and Maggie felt Kara tense beneath her touch.
The brunette gave Kara's hand one last squeeze before standing, putting herself between Kara and the agents. "DEO! Clear!" she heard someone call and as her gaze shifted through the sea of black clothes she caught familiar eyes.
"Maggie!" Alex yelled and tugged off her helmet, pushing through the barricade of people and throwing her arms around the detective. "God, Maggie, I'm so glad you're okay." She pulled back, noted the stoic look across Maggie's features, the blood on her hands.
Alex's heart pounded and she scrutinized Maggie's form for injuries but found none. "Kara," she breathed suddenly. "Kara! Where is she?"
Maggie tilted her head behind her to where agents were already gathered around Supergirl. Alex froze for a moment, eyes caught on Kara's broken limb and blood soaked clothes and the knife jutting from her lower abdomen, before she launched herself into action, calling quick orders for a med evac before dropping down at Kara's side.
"Hey, pretty girl," she whispered softly, brushing Kara's hair off her forehead.
The blonde's gaze shot toward Alex's voice, saw her sister next to her and Maggie behind Alex. Instantly Kara felt her heartrate ease. "Alex," Kara murmured and her voice was twisted in a sob that choked its way through her throat.
"Hey, hey now, you're gonna be okay." Alex brushed another hand over Kara's forehead and leaned down to press a kiss against the skin her fingers had just ghosted. "Just hang on a little longer. I'm here now."
Kara nodded.
"Maggie took good care of you while this was happening, huh?"
Kara nodded again, biting back the tears that sprung at the comfort her sister provided. "Thank you," Alex mouthed to the detective.
Maggie glanced back, awestruck. "Alex, I—"
Alex shook her head. "Accidents happen and I know Kara has a hero thing that's gonna get her in trouble someday, I'm just glad you were here with her."
Maggie opened her mouth as if to protest, but Alex shook her head again. "I mean it. I don't blame you."
The agent turned her gaze back down to her sister. "How're you doing? You okay still?"
Kara's chin bobbed in a small, weak nod.
"All right, good job," Alex smoothed Kara's hair and turned around as the medics entered. "Here we go, we're gonna take you home, okay? We're gonna go home."
/
A few hours passed before Kara was deemed completely safe, stitched and bandaged and passed out in a hospital bed at the DEO with Maggie on one side and Alex on the other. It took another hour for her to come into consciousness but once she did a sleepy smile tugged its way across her tired features at the people seated beside her.
"Hey," she murmured, trying to sit up.
"Let me help you," Alex said and leaned forward to help her sister straighten up. "You feeling good?"
"Feelin' great," she grinned, the removal of green kryptonite and presence of sunlamps was starting to push her powers into action, slowly making her feel a bit better. "And hungry."
"Well good thing we got pizza," Maggie smirked and opened up the box behind her, filling a plate and passing it to Kara.
"Go easy, Kar. You're still mostly confined to human limitations right now."
Kara pouted but took a slow bite. "What was I like when I got stabbed?" she asked Maggie. "I barely remember it."
"You took it like a champ. Barely even cried."
Kara, laughs around her piece of pizza, shaking her head earnestly, looking first at Maggie then Alex. "I sobbed like a baby."
Maggie gently nudged Kara's leg. "That's not true, you're made of some tough stuff, Little Danvers. I think I cried more than you did."
Alex laughed. "Kara, I do think sobbing like a baby might be a natural response to being stabbed."
Kara flashed a cheeky grin. "How would you know? Have you been stabbed before? I think this takes me to a whole new level of badass."
"I wish you'd stop climbing those levels," Alex said, smiling down at her sister. "It scares me too much."
"I'll drink to that," Maggie agreed and she and Alex clinked their bottles of water over Kara's hospital bed.
Kara wrinkled her nose, curling beneath the blanket.
"We love you," Maggie said and Alex nodded in her direction. "We do."
Kara smiled, looking up at them through sleepy eyes. "I love you guys, too."
Alex brushed her fingers through Kara's hair and the blonde leaned into the touch, pushing her finished pizza to the side. "Will stay with me?"
Alex nodded. "Of course."
"Good," Kara murmured, eyes falling closed. "You can come up here," she added, arm emerging from the sheets to pat the space next to her. "You too, Maggie."
Alex shifted onto the bed, wrapping an arm around her sister and holding her close. "Kara, this bed is a bit small—Maggie, you don't have to if you don't want to."
"It's all right," Maggie lowered herself beside Kara. "Little Danvers likes to cuddle like you do, Alex."
Alex blushed and rolled her eyes.
"Be careful of your ribs, Alex," Kara muttered, half asleep with a smile on her face as she snuggled between her sister and the detective.
"You be careful of your stab wound and your broken ankle and your ribs," Alex said back.
"Yeah, well mine will be gone by tomorrow," Kara said.
"She's got a point, Danvers," Maggie said and Alex grumbled.
Kara felt the two women entwine their hands over her stomach. "Thanks for coming and getting me, Alex," she whispered. "And thanks for staying with me, Maggie."
"Anytime, Little Danvers," Maggie said.
"Ditto," Alex said, pressing a kiss into Kara's hair. "Now get some sleep. I love you."
The warmth in Kara's heart matched the warmth spreading across her body as she cuddled between the two women. "I love you," she murmured, feeling her grasps on awareness fading. "Both of you."