A/N: Hello! I'm back :) The poll hasn't been updated because I'm behind right now and my word document with the list is a mess, please forgive me.
For today's chapter I combined two prompts, since they worked together well. So big thanks to a guest and NorthKait for these: Kara saves Alex's life but is really hurt in return / Lillian figures the best way to ensure Supergirl gets hit by a Kryptonite bullet is to aim it at someone she's certain to step in front of to protect (Alex). Or, sniper with lead-encased Kryptonite bullets.
Quick note on the context I've constructed for this chapter- Lena knows Kara's Supergirl (and that the DEO/Alex/Maggie know this, too). Also, Lena's friends with the superfriends... she's a newbie superfriend, because she's lovely and a good person and super smart and she deserves better... okay cool, thanks. :)
I hope you're all doing well and I hope you like this update. Let me know your thoughts!
Supergirl falls.
Supergirl is not supposed to fall. Not from alien hits or brick walls, and certainly not from bullets.
But she does.
Her body tilts, bends as she stumbles, feet suddenly heavy and numbing. Her eyes squint, a hand raising to touch her head. The other drops to her abdomen, fills with thick blood. She coughs, shakes, the strain is too great for her weakening muscles and bones and joints; and then, she falls.
She falls and they realize the bullet aimed at Alex was meant for Kara the whole time.
"Kara!" Alex screams, scrambling off the ground. She pushes up on her hands against the slick pavement as thunder storms overhead.
Kara's just feet away but it feels like an infinity as lighting strikes in the distance and the DEO fights off the remaining CADMUS agents—distractions from their real mission, the DEO is realizing; as the screams of citizens echo in Alex's ear, a harrowing, distraught sound; as Kara whimpers and curls on her side, and panic thumps inside Alex, pushes her legs forward until she's dropping beside her sister.
"Kara, hey hey hey Kara, look at me," Alex says, kneeling across the blonde and patting her cheek, trying to get those blue eyes to open again.
A watery gargle bubbles from Kara's mouth and she leans over, spitting up blood. "Help!" Alex screams, moving to face the pack of DEO vans. "Supergirl's down, we need a medevac stat!"
She turns back to Kara where the red has mingled with the crimson puddle clotting on the street. "Damn it," she murmurs as she yanks off her jacket and pushes it against Kara's stomach.
The blonde writhes under the pressure, eyes closed, muttering incoherent words as tears streak her cheeks. "You shouldn't have done that," Alex says, cries choke through her words. "You shouldn't have stepped in front of that bullet, Kara."
Water sprays Alex's back and she turns around, sees boots splashing through puddles as they rush over. The medics flood her vision, drown out Kara's mumbled slur of a response, push Alex away and tug Kara from her grasp.
Three hours ago and they were at Alex and Maggie's apartment, cleaning up and flipping through TV channels, trying to find ways to waste time before Maggie's last few hours of the work week would finish.
Three hours ago and Alex's hands were full of blankets, not blood; and Kara's abdomen did not have a hole in it.
Three hours ago they got a call to come in to the DEO. A quick fight, easy, no longer than half an hour—she can still hear the voice resounding in her head. Supergirl wasn't even supposed to be there, she was supposed to be home, she was supposed to let Alex handle it, but she tagged along anyway and Alex had let her and now they're here and Kara is bleeding out and Alex somehow finds that she's entered a vehicle and they've arrived at the DEO and she can't breathe.
"Agent Danvers, let's go!" Someone yells, their voice is muffled and cloudy in her head but it forces her to blink and then it forces her to pull air back into her lungs. She's out of the van in a second, following behind her sister's stretcher three strides later, counting the steps until she's focused on Kara.
Kara is the only thing that matters right now.
/
"Hey, babe," Maggie calls, closing the door behind her and dropping her bag on the counter. "Alex?" she says as she steps further into the apartment, glances around the empty room and takes in the lack of response despite the TV playing in the background.
"Kara?" she tries, peering into the other rooms before returning back to the living area. She tugs out her phone and double checks Alex's texts from earlier. At 4:38 PM Alex had said that she and Kara were at the apartment and would be hanging out there until Maggie got home from work, asking what she wanted for dinner.
Maggie calls Alex and is met with voicemail. A sinking feeling of dread knots in her stomach, beginning to curl over the confusion she'd first experienced.
"…Supergirl has not been spotted since just a few hours earlier when…" Maggie spins around at the sound of the newscaster's words. She turns just in time to catch footage of the fight when it cuts to a grainy cellphone video zooming in on Supergirl.
Maggie's phone slips from her hand when a shadowed figure points a gun at a DEO agent, at Alex Maggie realizes, and the detective's frozen in place, fingers curling tightly into her palm and ears falling deaf to the commentary as the scene plays out. The trigger is pulled and Maggie's certain she's about to witness the murder of her fiancée when a blur of blue and red tears across the screen, takes the bullet instead.
Maggie breaks into a smile, drops her head into her hands with a breathy laugh of relief that Kara was there. That she's bulletproof and fast enough to break the sound barrier. She picks up her phone to text Alex, tell her to hurry home from the mess of paperwork she's sure accumulated at the DEO.
"…What happens next is interesting. Instead of reflecting the bullet, we see Supergirl fall, bleeding…"
Maggie's head snaps back up, relief plummeting into guilt and worry. Kara slips, sinks into blood and Alex rushes toward her, kneels over Supergirl and the camera shakes and shuts off once Kara's out of view.
A vibration drags Maggie's attention away from the TV now airing commercials as if she didn't just see two of the most important people in her life skirt around death, as if she didn't just see a woman who's become a little sister to her take a bullet when she's supposed to be invincible. As if the apartment's not empty and Maggie's head is still reeling around the image of Kara bleeding out onto the street.
The vibrations are incessant, shaking in her palm and Maggie finally looks down. James' name flashes across the screen of her phone.
"Maggie, there's been—"
"What the hell is going on, James? Just cut to it, because a minute ago I walked into an empty apartment and saw my fiancée almost die on the news before I see Kara in a puddle of her own blood. So honestly James, what the hell happened?"
"We don't know for sure, Maggie. It all-"
Maggie huffs and drags a hand through her hair. "Alex. Is she okay?"
"Physically, yes."
"And Kara?"
"I think you should come in."
Maggie's already in the elevator, nearing the ground floor when he says it.
/
She speeds on her way over and blows through a stop sign in the parking lot, slams her car door as she gets out. Deep in the muscles of her legs something twitches, drives her into a jog through the parking garage and into the elevator.
She taps her thighs, groaning as the lift meanders up the floors—stops to let people on, let them off. She throws her head back against the wall when it's finally empty again.
She's pissed at Alex for not calling. For not telling her she was going, for not saying she was okay, for not letting Maggie know that Kara was in bad shape because damn it, Maggie cares about Kara, too.
The doors crack open and Maggie shoves through them, jamming her hands in her pockets as she walks the too familiar route to the med floor.
The speech she practices in her head screeches to a halt when she sees Alex bent over a tablet, knees pulled forward to her chest in the chair. She looks so small, like the space is swallowing her up.
"Al?" Maggie whispers softly. "I heard what happened."
Alex uncurls herself, turns to Maggie with a smile offsetting the tear tracks so evident beneath her red rimmed eyes.
"It doesn't make sense," Alex says, brows raised and lips still quirked upward.
"Yeah, you could say that," Maggie deadpans, frustration leaking back in.
"I mean, surgery was quick. It was easy. The bullet looked a bit strange, it was embedded with kryptonite—that's how it penetrated her skin. The scans aren't functioning, something about the metal and Kara's powers is screwing with the machines, but she's been under the sunlamps and she's talking, says she feels fine—good even. They all say she's okay," Alex tilts her head toward the operating room Kara had previously occupied.
Maggie rubs her forehead where a headache begins to form. "So, Kara's fine?"
Alex nods.
"And you're okay?"
Alex nods again, looking up at Maggie with those bright brown eyes.
"Oh thank god," Maggie murmurs, pulls Alex into a hug, holds her close. "I was so worried, when I got home, I saw…" she swallows and blinks. "I saw it on the news I thought you were going to die, but then Kara saved you and I felt so much relief until the video continued and then Kara…" Maggie sniffles, buries her head into Alex's shoulder. "Kara was bleeding and that was so much scarier than I ever thought it would be."
"I know," Alex soothes, runs a hand over Maggie's hair. "I know, but she's okay. We're all okay."
Maggie nods, wipes her cheeks.
"Kar still wants to have movie night if you're up for it? It'll be good that way, so I can keep an eye on her tonight and make sure everything's okay. She convinced J'onn to let her out now if she takes a sunlamp to the apartment with her."
Maggie laughs. "Sounds good."
"Perfect," Alex grins. "Let's go grab Kara."
/
After another hour under the newly portable sunlamp while the trio eats, Kara's eyes droop a little as she pushes her plate away. She eats half as much as usual, which is still more than double what Alex can, before resting her cheek in her palm.
"Done?" Alex asks and Kara nods. "How about you go hop in the shower real quick? Maggie and I will clean up and get the TV ready."
"Okay," Kara says through a yawn, shivering slightly as she stands.
They get the leftover pizza put away and the table wiped down, TV set up and blankets pulled out, are spending time snuggled on the couch waiting, when Maggie's phone rings.
She looks down. "It's work. I'll be right back, I have to take this," she says apologetically before standing.
"Yeah, of course. I'm gonna go change into something more comfortable," Alex says, getting up with Maggie and kissing her cheek before the detective disappears outside the door for a moment.
When Maggie comes back a few minutes later, Alex is emerging from the bedroom, clad in sweatpants and a t-shirt, glasses on. Maggie smiles, but her expression falls when she sees Alex look underneath a blanket before dropping it, huffing.
"What's wrong?"
"Do you know where Kara's phone is?" Alex asks. "It rang six times while you were outside."
Maggie shakes her head, joins in the search just as the ringtone goes off again and Alex fishes the phone from between two couch cushions.
Alex face contorts into confusion. "Lena Luthor?"
Maggie's brows jump up. "Nuh-uh."
Alex laughs and shrugs. "I'll see what's so pressing. Would you mind checking on Kara, the water went off a few minutes ago but I haven't heard anything since then."
Maggie nods. "Sure thing, but you gotta tell me what Luthor wants."
"Deal," Alex says as she picks up the phone and Maggie steps away.
"Kara?" Lena's voice floods through the line, Alex has never heard it this way—free and unrestrained as it lilts with relief. "Kara, thank god you're okay."
"This is Alex, actually."
Lena stomach turns, sickening with worry. "Listen, you need to trust me right now. I was on an international flight and just saw the news now that I've landed. Kara's in danger. The bullet my mother used isn't normal and it could kill Kara."
"She's fine, it's been surgically removed already and she spent time under the sunlamps. She—"
"No!" Lena's voice is sharp, the yelp of frightened animal. "The sunlamps make it worse, the UV rays service as a catalyst for the chemical reaction creating the toxin. The bullet spread an infection, think…umm, like sepsis, maybe? I—it's not exact—it was Lex's design, I haven't heard of it in years but you need to get Kara back to the DEO. I'll meet you there with the information I can gather. If Kara's still feeling well, we're not too late; but once she experiences symptoms, it gets risky and her state will rapidly deteriorate if the bullet's anything similar to what Lex's notes relayed. You need to—"
"Alex!" Maggie's voice yells from the bathroom and Alex freezes, wrenched between Lena's news and the worry loudening Maggie's words—feels like she's strung between and watching from the outside. It's the sudden sharpness in Maggie that pulls her to the reality of their apartment, paired with Lena's information that spikes adrenaline in her veins. Maggie calls out again. "You need to get in here, something's wrong."
Alex feels tears prick in her eyes with dread and exhaustion. She turns toward the bathroom and keeps Lena on the line. "DEO. Thirty minutes."
Lena's words are a watery mess. "We have to be faster than that. We— she doesn't have much time, Alex. Not if she's already hurting."
Alex's heart thunders.
Maggie screams again. "Alex, hurry!"
A/N: Surprise! This one's a two-parter ;)