A/N: Since I got a bunch of requests for a followup chapter... here it is! I'm so sorry it took me so long to update. Writing's been hard lately and I don't even know why. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, I'm only half confident about it and rewrote it at least three times, but I figured I needed to get something posted so hopefully it's all right. :)
Also, I low-key forgot that the poll was a thing, so it hasn't been updated. But, I'm going to start working on that soon since it's kind of a mess.
That's all... thanks, have a good night/day, and let me know what you think please (and any new prompts because I think that's maybe what I need to get back on track with writing) :)
"Hey, pretty girl," Alex says, swinging around the doorframe and entering Kara's room in the DEO med bay, two days after they'd had Kara intentionally blow her powers. "How are you feeling?" The brunette asks.
Kara blinks blearily, shifting herself upwards in bed and rubbing a loose fist across her eyes. "Huh?" she murmurs.
"Sorry, Kar, I didn't know you were sleeping," Alex says and steps over to the computers, begins reviewing Kara's stats and most recent tests.
"S'okay. What'd you ask?"
Alex smiles fondly and turns back towards her sister. "I asked how you were feeling." The agent says. The mattress dips slightly as she slides onto it, brushes back Kara's hair. "I know things got rough for a while yesterday but you're looking a little better."
Kara nods, reaching out for Alex, wanting something tangible and warm, wanting the safety her sister always provides. She settles against Alex, curling her arms around the woman and snuggling toward her. Alex reciprocates the hug, pulling Kara closer and knowing this clinginess will last until Kara's feeling herself again—once the fatigue and nausea and lingering fever pass, and it's safe to help her powers return; once the nightmares and cold sweats diminish and fade. Until then she'll just keep holding her tight, for as long as she needs.
Alex can't help but share in some of the clinginess, too. Can't help the fact that having Kara in her line of sight, pressed at her side, quells the panic she feels twisting in her stomach when images of Kara shaking and crying surface in her head.
"I feel good enough to go home," Kara says, looking up at Alex with a grin. "I'm tired, but only a little. Other than that I feel fine, I feel great even."
"Mhmm, that's why you were sick yesterday and slept fourteen hours today, so far," Alex says raising her brows. "And you're still running a fever."
Kara shrugs, gives a sheepish smile. "I feel ready to go home, please, Alex. If we're just waiting out the rest of this, let me wait it out somewhere comfy. You could stay over if you wanted. We could have a movie night! Bring Maggie. I haven't seen her in forever. Every time she comes by I'm sleeping," Kara tilts her head against Alex, looking up at her again with wide eyes. "Please just get me out of here. I'm bored and I'd sleep better at home and honestly I still don't feel super great because I don't have my powers and it would all be easier if I weren't here."
Alex sighs. "I'm only saying yes because your stats are improving at a good rate and I already consulted with Dr. Hamilton and got her approval, too."
"So I can go?!" Kara sits up, a smile lighting up her features, nearly tripping herself as she tries to get out of the bed and stand.
"Slow down, hot shot," Alex says, putting a hand on Kara's shoulder and pushing her back down until she sits on the edge of the mattress, swallowed by the hospital gown and kicking her feet back and forth as they dangled over the floor; looking every bit of the thirteen year old she was when Alex first met her.
Kara just sits smiling, eyebrows raised expectantly.
"I'm staying over for a few days to keep an eye on you and we're coming to the DEO for full check-ups at least every two days, okay?"
Kara nods. "Anything else?"
Alex shakes her head.
"Good," Kara smiles, leans into Alex. "Text Maggie."
Alex smiles and pulls Kara closer. "I will. Should we go pick up that best friend of yours from the lab before we leave."
"Lena's still here?! Rao, what's she been doing?"
"Going over your test results again and again and again, deconstructing the parts of the bullet we pulled out of you, studying the bacteria…. A lot actually."
Kara sighs and nestles into Alex's shoulder. "She works too much."
Alex laughs. "She does. Now are you ready to get out of here?"
Kara nods. Her legs wobble as she stands, the cold tile pressing through her thin socks and the room spinning just a bit. "To Lena!" she declares anyway, raising her arm forward and shifting toward the door, instead she slips and Alex's hands are around her shoulder in a minute, pulling her back up.
"And then… to the couch!" Alex says, grinning as she lifts the pitch of her voice to imitate Kara. "So you can sleep for another fourteen hours."
"Yay," Kara deadpans and even though she grumbles, she lets Alex tug her close, leans heavily into her sister's side as they walk to the lab.
/
"Hey Danvers," Maggie says when she gets home, setting down bags of food on the counter and pressing up on her tiptoes to kiss Alex. "Missed you."
Alex smiles, big and bright. "You too," she says.
"Little Luthor, always a pleasure." Maggie nods and winks. "But I'm surprised anyone actually got you out of the lab, kind of thought we weren't going to see you again."
Lena laughs. "Kara used her puppy eyes," Alex says. "That, and she refused to leave unless Lena came, too and Kar looked like she was going to fall asleep right there on the spot if we didn't get moving."
Lena nods in agreement. "It was for Kara's sake."
"Mhmm. Speaking of, where is that girl?" Maggie asks, pulling out boxes of pizza. "I still haven't had a real conversation with her after everything happened."
"Asleep on the couch," Alex says as she shuffles through Kara's kitchen cabinets for plates and cups. "But I should get her up soon, she needs to eat something."
"I can do it," Maggie says, disappearing around the counter and toward the living room. Affection swells in her chest as she sees Kara sprawled across the couch, lying on her stomach with her face shoved into cushion, breathing softly.
Kara wakes to gentle fingers rubbing circles on her back. "Alex," she groans. " 'm tir'd go 'way."
"Not Alex."
The blonde twists her head around, keeping the rest of her body tucked against the couch, and opens one eye to peek through a curtain of mused hair.
"Maggie?!" she asks, voice soft and lilting.
"Yeah, I-oh." She's cut off by Kara lurching off the couch, throwing her arms around Maggie and hugging her tightly. "Hey, kid," she says through a soft laugh as she runs her thumb over Kara's shoulder blade.
"Sorry," Kara says, blushing slightly and starting to pull back.
"Oh no, absolutely no apologizing, Little Danvers," Maggie says, tugging Kara back into the embrace and swaying back and forth for a second.
The detective feels Kara smile against her shoulder. "I just missed you and I didn't get to say thank you for sticking with me when all of that went down."
"Of course," Maggie says, looking a little like she might cry as she leans back so she can see Kara. She runs a hand over blonde hair. "And I didn't get to yell at you for scaring the shit of me, and your sister, and just about every other person in National City and then some."
Kara smiles sheepishly. "Sorry?"
"Let's just agree that you avoid bullets in the future whenever possible."
"No promises," Kara says and Maggie groans, offering Kara a hand and pulling her up into a standing position.
"Oh, and Kara?" Maggie says as they turn to face the kitchen where Lena and Alex are engaged in their nerdy science talk, hands gesturing animatedly. Maggie shifts, dropping her gaze and twisting her fingers together. "You took that bullet for Alex, which was stupid and brave and so selfless, and I have to thank you for being the reason my fiancée is still here today. But I also have to let you know, that you're… you're like my little sister, Kara… You know, I couldn't stand to lose you either." Maggie's voice cracks on the last syllable and oh, if she wasn't crying before she definitely is now.
She wipes her cheeks harshly and Kara hugs her again. "Maggie, I love you, and you're a really good big sister, okay?"
Maggie laughs, wipes her eyes one more time and the tears are gone. "Thanks. I love you too, Little Danvers. And I think you're going to love me even more when you see that I brought your favorite soup from Noonan's."
"Really?!" Kara's eyes light up and she looks over Maggie's shoulder into the kitchen. "Oh my Rao, you did! Come on," she says, tugging Maggie forward and out of the living room.
/
Kara convinces them to eat on the couch and somehow, with significantly more pouting and pleading, she convinces them to put on Rent for movie night, too. With Lena next to Kara and Alex pressed against her other side, and Maggie only an arm's length away, Kara lets out a content sigh, sinking into the back of the couch.
She gets a quarter of the way through her soup before she lets the spoon clang against the edge, shifts under Alex's grip so she can slide the bowl onto the coffee table, trading its warmth for fully snuggling up against her sister instead. Alex opens up her arm, receives Kara into her side with a soft kiss against her temple and dips her head against Kara's.
"I love you," Alex whispers an hour and a half later, voice warm as she rubs Kara's shoulder.
"I love you, too," Kara says, tilting her head back and looking up at Alex. "I think we're the only ones awake, I might have worn you guys out over the past few days."
Alex's features sober. "Kara, you have no idea how worried I've been… how worried we've been." Her voice falls thick with emotion as she buries her nose in Kara's hair, exhales shakily. "Lena literally didn't leave the lab and Maggie's been at the precinct following up and working every angle, trying to see if there's any information on Lillian's whereabouts, and I… I, well…" She trails off into a shrug and Kara hears the indicative crack in Alex's words connoting that she's about to cry; feels it when the first droplet falls into her hair.
"Well you haven't left my side," Kara finishes for her sister, shifts upward so they're eye to eye. The blonde reaches out, gently brushes tears from Alex's cheeks and feels them stinging down her own.
"Kara, you took a bullet for me," Alex says, a quiet sob cracking from inside her chest. "A kryptonite bullet that you knew could kill you."
"What else was I supposed to do?" Kara says softly. "You're my sister, I couldn't live without you."
"Well I feel the same way about you, Kar. And the world… the world couldn't live without Supergirl, it's more important that you-"
Kara shakes her head, blonde hair shaking across her back. The movement makes her a little dizzy but she forces her eyes to stay open, takes Alex's hand in her own. "No. I don't want to hear you talking like that at all—like… like I'm somehow more significant, like my survival is more important than yours, like-"
Alex pulls her hand away, runs it through her hair. "But it is, Kara, you're a superhero."
"But I wouldn't be if it weren't for you!" Kara exclaims, bolting upright. Beside her Lena stirs, murmuring sleepily and Kara freezes, waits for Lena to curl back into the couch before the blonde looks at her sister. "Listen, Alex, I don't want to fight, please. But I just want to say that you are everything to me and you are everything to Maggie and you are so much more important than you realize. I would take any bullet for you, always."
Alex shakes her head, brushes away more tears that drip down her cheeks as she stands. "I was just so s-scared, seeing you there like that, Kara, it was awful."
"I know," Kara says. "I'm sorry it happened like that."
"I'm just glad you're safe." Alex pulls Kara back into another hug, feels her trembling under the touch. "You're shaking, come on, you said it yourself… no fighting, okay? Let's just snuggle."
"I can agree to that," Kara says with a soft smile, lets Alex lead her back onto the couch and tucks into the brunette's side, smiles softly at Lena's sleeping form, and Maggie's, as the detective gravitates subconsciously back to Alex as soon as she's on the couch again. Kara dips her head onto Alex's shoulder, lets her sister's warmth and steady heartbeat lure her eyes closed; let's her sister's presence envelope and ground her—just like she's done a thousand times before, just like she'll do a thousand times again—this time with two more people snuggled up on her couch. It's what she takes bullets for.
It's all she really needs.