A/N: Thank you for all your nice comments! I haven't had time to respond to recent review, but I'll do my best as soon as I get a moment.
Big thanks to NorthKait for today's prompt: Kara is working a lead with Maggie when she becomes short of breath, appearing to have some sort of asthma attack (latent Kryptonite particles in her lungs). Maggie has to talk her into slowing her breathing and staying calm until Alex/help arrives.
The prompt was supposed to be set after 2x12, but I pushed it up in the future a bit, in it's own time. Hopefully you all enjoy it. :)
I haven't had time to update the poll yet, so if you haven't voted, feel free to head over there.
Also, I'm going to be away for 4.5 weeks, without my laptop and with spotty wifi, so updates will stop for a while. But my inbox/twitter/comments section is always open if you want to talk or leave a prompt, etc. I'll be updating again as soon as I'm back. :)
Thanks again for everything you guys do!
"Too slow," Kara calls over her shoulder with a cocky grin as she flies past Maggie and lands in front of the warehouse, pressing her palm against the metal door.
Maggie sends a glare at the blonde as she walks over, drags out her pace slowly and makes eye contact with Kara the whole time.
"I'm sorry," Kara says, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "I'm just excited… for tonight. Actually" Kara tugs out her phone and looks down. "For two hours… from now."
Maggie shakes her head and puts out a hand to still the younger woman's shoulder. "Easy, Little Danvers. It's not that big of a deal." She steers the woman toward the entrance, away from the streets. They're alone, running down a lead that Maggie swore was urgent, and requiring Supergirl for backup "just in case." The road is beginning to fill with squad cars, detectives and officers making their way over.
Kara genuinely looks offended at the implications of Maggie's words, eyes wide and jaw open, slapping a hand over her heart. "Maggie, of course it's that big of a deal. You're getting honored by the police department for being detective of the year and because you solved the cold case of the century. It's double the big deal it'd normally be."
Maggie fights the smile that inevitably works its way across her face, as she moves to open the locks with the key NCPD obtained.
"Hey, speaking of which, why are we here right now? Shouldn't you be getting ready."
"I'm the main investigator on this case and the scene might give us the break we need to catch the alien theft ring. It'll be quick—thirty minutes tops—and then we can leave." Maggie finally twists the third lock off the door and tugs them open. She looks over at Kara. "This is what it looked like yesterday when you flew by, right?"
Kara nods, peers in around the side of the door and feels her stomach flip. She'd caught word about the possible abandoned headquarters the other day and had flown through to check it out; but, this time, before blasting in, she'd called Maggie, agreed to wait until the next day to conduct a thorough check.
As soon as the doors are opened the place begins swarming with crime scene investigators, bagging evidence and dusting for fingerprints. Kara sways a little, feels her stomach clench and churn as she enters. "I'm—I'm going to fly around outside the perimeter, conduct a quick external check," she says and Maggie nods. "Then I'll hit up tunnels underneath the ground floor."
Maggie turns toward Kara, away from the scientists she'd been directing. "Tunnels? How did you-?"
"X-ray vision," Kara says grinning, tapping her temple.
A quip's about to leave Maggie's lips when Kara squeezes her eyes closed for a moment, rubs her forehead.
"Hey, you okay?"
Kara furrows her brows and takes a deep breath. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Let's get this started so we can get out of here."
Maggie nods and Kara shoots into the sky to erase the hesitance from the detective's features.
/
Maggie's talking to a CSI twenty minutes later when the sound of labored breathing carries through the air. She's just about to turn around when a hand bumps her shoulder, fingers curl around her arm and they're so warm that they have to be Kara's.
"Ka-Supergirl, what's the matter?" Maggie moves to face her, has to duck her head to catch Kara's face, pale and clammy.
She receives panicked breath in response and the fingers tighten around her skin. "Hey, hey, look at me," she says, panic beginning to grip her insides, and Kara doesn't move, so Maggie taps the younger woman's cheek gently. "Slow down, what's wrong?"
"I—" Kara heaves in a large breath, drops her gaze again. "I don't—I don't feel good, Maggie."
Maggie moves a hand to Kara's side, steadies her swaying. The detective excuses herself from the CSI and turns back to Kara. "Come here." She threads an arm under Kara's shoulder and the woman's ribs leap against her side, jerking upward and falling with each heaving breath. Maggie leads her into an empty room, shuts the door behind them.
"Kara, hey, what doesn't feel good? Is there kryptonite here?"
"I think—I think so. My chest is t-tight." She squeezes her eyes closed and a set of coughs take control of her lungs, spasms shaking her diaphragm. The pressures grows in her chest, sends her shoulders lurching and panic building like water filling her lungs, dragging her down.
"I can't—" She pulls in a breath that stutters and whistles on the way out. "I can't breathe. Maggie, I can't breathe," she gasps, doubling over. Her fists clench over knees. Lungs yanking inside her.
Maggie's gentle hand rubs the blonde's back. "Kara, what can I do to help you?"
"A-Alex. Can you c-call Alex?"
Maggie nods and makes the call and her hand never leaves Kara's back, doesn't stop its soothing circles even as Kara's spine lurches under her fingertips. "She's on her way," Maggie says. "Until then, let's just see what we can do, hmm?"
Kara nods, squeezing her eyes closed as tears burn out.
"I'm right here, okay? Do you think you can move and get away from this kryptonite?"
Kara's still for a moment and the only sound is her harsh breaths. "I can t-try."
"All right, good job. There you go," Maggie says as Kara takes her hand, leans heavily onto the detective as she guides them outside.
The sunlight slaps against Kara's face and Maggie turns them into a shaded alley when Kara curls her head into the detective's shoulder. Kara's legs quiver and a cry leaps forward, a frantic, trembling hand grasping at her chest.
"We're going to sit," Maggie says but Kara doesn't move, just wavers as her lungs scream for air and she tries to fill them. Sucks in and pushes oxygen out, until she's hyperventilating, hands shaking out at her sides.
"Okay, Kara, hey," Maggie says slowly. "Let's sit." She puts a hand on Kara's shoulder and gently pushes her down. "That's it, sit upright."
Maggie kneels in front of her and another cough steals the little air remaining in Kara's lungs and once the hacking starts this time it doesn't let go, grasping more tightly around her chest, pressure building, tighter, tighter.
The dark walls blur. Vision swimming.
She can't breathe.
Can't pull air in fast enough.
Kara. Maggie's voice is distant and gargled.
Kara feels underwater. Like she's lapping for air but only liquid comes in.
Chokes down her throat. Drizzles into her lungs and splatters.
It's heavy.
It hurts.
Deep breaths, Kar. Deep breaths. She's so far away.
Kara's lungs scorch.
A phone buzzes. Vibrates against the ground. Danvers, get over here. Faster!
Kara's fingernails are tinted azure. They shake. Maggie takes her hand, squeezes tight. "Kara, I'm with you and Alex is only a minute away."
Kara nods and wheezing breath burns raw through her throat, aches out of her chest and the weight that presses like quicksand and oceans and the gravity of an entire planet.
Her throat gets impossibly tighter. Clenches, closes. She's sobbing but she doesn't know it, can't feel the streams of water pouring down her cheeks and painting the street.
You're okay, you're okay. Maggie says light-years away and somewhere behind her, footsteps slam against pavement, grind against gravel, tear toward Kara. Alex drops to her knees. "Kara, I've got you. I've got you now."
The familiar hands are on her face, in her hair. A band snaps around her cheeks, plastic is pulled over her nose and mouth.
Alex kneels over her. The hands move to stroke her blonde locks, slower this time. "Breathe, Kara. It'll be easier now. Just breathe. The kryptonite was aerosolized and particles got in your lungs, but this will fix it."
She sputters; struggles through one, two, three, four mangled breaths before her lungs fill, open and air floods in, enters the shrieking, weighted cells. Lift her higher, higher, higher; makes her lightheaded and floaty with the alleviation of it all. Her hand tightens around the fabric of Alex's shirt. Maggie slumps back against the wall with a sigh of relief, and Kara promptly collapses, from exhaustion and Kryptonite, into Alex's arms.
/
She blinks awake with dark spots clouding her vision and bright lights pulling her eyelids back into a squint. A murmured slur of sleepy garble emerges from her lips as she tries to push herself up on shaky arms.
"Kara?" Alex's voice cuts through the fuzziness. "Hey, easy there, let me help you." The brunette's hands rub against her sister's back, readjust the pillows upright and ease her down.
"What time 's it? Gotta go," Kara mutters, eyes falling back closed as she rubs them with loose fists.
Alex tilts her head and Maggie stands, walks over to her girlfriend. "What are you talking about, Kar?"
"The thing," she groans, rolls over onto her side and pushes off the blanket, kicking at it with her feet.
"Okay, slow down, hot shot," Alex says and pulls the covers back over her sister. "What thing?"
Kara huffs, eyes still closed. "Maggie's thing. Tonight."
The mattress dips as Alex takes a seat on the edge, runs a hand over Kara's leg. "Oh, Kara, it's three in the morning. You've been passed out for hours."
She shifts upward a bit, blinks slowly this time until her eyes focus. She's more lucid when she asks, "So I didn't go?"
Alex shakes her head.
The mattress dips again as Maggie sits on the other side and pats Kara's knee. "If it makes you feel any better, none of us did."
She shifts her gaze from Alex to Maggie. "How would that-? What? Why?"
"You scared the shit out of us, Little Danvers." Maggie says. "There was no way in hell Alex and I were going to leave you here like that."
"But—"
"There will be more ceremonies and parties, they're rescheduling mine to be part of an event next week. You were more important. It's no big deal."
Kara shakes her head. It feels like a really big deal. She lurches forward, throws her arms around Maggie and tugs her into a hug. The detective stiffens at first, then relaxes with a soft laugh as Kara buries her face into Maggie's neck.
The shoulder of her shirt is damp a moment later and Maggie's brows crinkle, she throws a glance at Alex. "Kara, are you crying?"
She sniffles and wipes her cheeks. "No."
Both older women laugh. "Kara," Alex grins. "What're you doing? Why are you crying?"
"I just love her so much, Alex. She's so nice," Kara whimpers again. "She's perfect for you."
The women laugh again and the sound reverberates through the quiet room. "Kara, you're a mess," Alex teases, ruffles her sister's hair when she finally pulls back from Maggie.
"Can we go home?" Kara asks.
"I mean, technically you're okay to leave, all the tests are clear now, but—"
"Let's go then! We can celebrate Maggie's night with ice cream and movie marathons. It's not too late."
"It's three in the morning."
"Not too late!" Kara says again and somehow manages to herd them out of the med room and back to her apartment, even though her legs are still a little shaky and her chest aches just a bit and she's so tired she falls asleep on the couch between Alex and Maggie, with a spoon in her hand, pressed into a carton of ice cream that never actually reaches her mouth. Her head droops onto Alex's shoulder, sock clad feet tucked under Maggie's thigh.
Alex and Maggie settle on a movie and Alex clinks her spoon against her girlfriend's. She crinkles up her nose and smiles, the cheer that follows makes the detective simultaneously laugh and blush. "To Maggie Sawyer, detective and girlfriend of the year."