The nurse closes the door behind her, leaving the pair alone and Kara scrambles out of the bed. Her feet aren't fast enough to close the distance, wouldn't be even if she had her powers. The sheets tangle between her legs and send her tripping forward.

She should fall, but instead, Astra's arms are there.

With her Kryptonian strength, Astra easily holds Kara up, pulling her into a hug so that for a moment her feet don't touch the ground and she's freed from the mass of sheets that drops to the ground and settles with a soft thump; for a moment she isn't more than twelve years old. She curls her arms into an embrace around Astra's neck, balanced on her tiptoes and presses her face into the raised line of her aunt's collarbone. Kara breathes in her scent, soaks up the heartbeat pressed against her and fills her fingers with soft curls. With her eyes closed and her sense full of these wonderful, minute, colossal ghosts for just a moment, Kara doesn't have only her aunt back, but her mother, too, her planet. For just a moment, it's enough.

It's enough to make her never want to leave this twisted, titled timeline.

"You remember me?"

"I could never forget you," Kara says, not thinking about the circumstances or context.

"I missed you." Astra's lips brush against Kara's hair and she hugs her closer.

Kara swallows hard, closing her eyes and trying to hold tighter. "You have no idea"

"Little One," Astra begins and pulls back to look Kara in the eyes, brushing blonde hair behind her ear. "You frightened me. I flew as soon as I heard the call."

Kara ducks her head as her face falls, wants to let herself believe for just a second that this part of the timeline is real. A whimper breaks forward and then the tears fall, slip down her cheeks and onto Astra's shoulder in sync with the gentle hand rubbing up and down her back.

"It is okay, Little One. It's okay." Astra murmurs into Kara's ear and it sends her diaphragm heaving in time with the strength of her cries.

"W-what's… Where are we? What happened, Aunt Astra? What's happening?"

"Oh, my sweet Kara. You were here for a conference, we're in National City right now. There was an accident, you were injured," she leans closer, lowers her voice to a whisper, "I didn't know that could happen with your powers, but you haven't used them for years and I know that's my fault, I am sorry, Kara."

"I don't," she hiccups and wipes at her cheeks. "I don't understand."

"Do not worry, it will come with time." Astra walks them back to the bed, moves to ease Kara onto the mattress but the blonde clings to her aunt.

Kara swallows over a lump in her throat, stays quiet hugging Astra, trying to preserve her warmth and touch and features to memory.

"Aunt Astra?" she says after minutes pass.

"Yes, Little One?" Astra brushes a hand over Kara's hair.

"I love you."

"I love you, too. So much."

Kara smiles, sniffling. "Will you stay?" She closes her eyes. "Just for a little if you can?"

"Of course." Astra kisses Kara's temple. "The nurse informed me that she's going to bring in some personal items that you had with you, see if anything sparks some recognition. They're going to let me stay the night with you."

Kara nods and has to remind herself that none of these memories will be real, nothing within her reach is real in this moment.

/

"Damn it!" Alex growls in the empty lab, slamming her hand against the counter before crumpling up the next page of results. She shoves away from the table to throw out the sheet, and a rack of test tubes shakes, clinking against one another.

Alex freezes, sure that one is going to break against the file cabinet.

"Hey, easy over there."

Alex's head whips toward the door, where her wife is leaning against the frame. Maggie looks back at her, brows raised and arms crossed.

"Hi," Alex offers as Maggie walks over.

"Hey." The detective curls her arms around Alex from behind, hugging her close as Alex's shoulders ease out of their tensed hold and she releases a heavy breath.

"How'd you get them to let you in here?"

Maggie shrugs and Alex feels it on her back. "You were supposed to be home over an hour ago."

Alex pulls out of Maggie's embrace and turns around, grabbing both her hands instead. "It's—'

"Past nine already? Yeah."

"Damn it." Alex heart drops in her chest. "What about Jamie?"

"The sitter's still with her, promised I'd pay extra for staying late."

"Maggie, I'm so sorry, I—"

"Save it, okay? What's going on? You've been acting weird all day."

Alex tugs her hand away from Maggie and rubs her forehead, looking down at the ground. "Jamie's really going to hate me after this… shit, Maggie, I was getting so close. She's going to be distant again isn't she? I really messed up, I…"

"Hey Danvers, cut it out. It'll take time, you just need practice and consistency, okay? You haven't had any experience with this kind of thing. And while I'm pissed that you forgot to come home for her, I want to know why, before I say anything else. So, what the hell is going on? I haven't been able to get in touch with you since this morning."

Alex glances around the lab and takes Maggie's hand, guiding her out of the room, down the hall, into the elevator. The silence threatens to take over, but Alex squeezes Maggie's hand as the floors pass, tugging her forward when they reach the highest floor and switch elevators to get onto the rooftop.

A sweep of her eyes confirms that the area is empty so Alex steps out, walks them toward two old chairs, outlined with battery powered Christmas lights that flicker when jostled.

"Damn, you come here often?" Maggie asks as they sit, looking out at the skyline, made visible by glowing yellow windows and moonlight.

"Shut up, Sawyer," Alex says, glancing over to see a smirk on her wife's face and feeling one spread across her own. "If I remember things correctly, I did propose to you up here, didn't I?"

Maggie shrugs, squeezes Alex's hands where they're still clasped together. "You might have, that sounds a little familiar."

Alex smiles and Maggie shoots her a wink. "So what's going on, babe? I'm serious, you can talk to me."

"I…" Alex drops her head, peeks out at the city ahead through dark lashes. Maggie runs her thumb over the back of Alex's hand, gives it another squeeze. "I shouldn't say this… I shouldn't even talk about it, but that girl? The one who came in earlier, with you?" Alex raises her gaze to look at Maggie and the detective nods.

"I just have this weird feeling about the situation."

"Like?"

"Like I really do know her." Alex pulls her hand away from Maggie, tucks her arms across her chest instead. "I know it sounds crazy, I just—"

Maggie shakes her head. "Not crazy."

"I keep seeing things when I'm with her, even when I so much as pass her room or close my eyes… they're like… like snapshots from another life and then she was saying my last name as her own like we're related or something but I called my parents and there's no Kara Danvers in my family tree but I feel something and I can't shake it. I, this must sound stupid…"

"Alex?" Maggie runs a hand up and down her back.

"Yeah?"

"When I was on the crime scene and I was with her, a few minutes had passed and she was fading. I couldn't be sure if she was conscious or not, but she kept mumbling something and I thought I was just hearing it because it couldn't be right… because this… this woman I've never met in my life muttered my first name after saying yours, and she shouldn't have known that. And her voice…"

"It's like you've heard it before?!" Alex turns to face Maggie, her whole body shifting.

"Exactly." Maggie nodded.

"Her tests are all coming back wrong," Alex says. "I know I'm not supposed to talk about that, but they're a mess. They don't seem right, there's something foreign almost… in her cells, in her makeup… I have to figure this out. She could be… how does she know these things? It's…" Alex hangs her head again, curls her fingers around her wife's hands. "I'm scared, Maggie."

"You don't have to be." Maggie lifts Alex's hands and presses a kiss to her knuckles. "But you've been at the hospital for over fourteen hours today, you need to rest at some point."

"I will," Alex promises. "Just give me another hour or two and tell Jamie I'm so sorry, I know I really screwed up again."

Maggie nods, standing up. "Come home soon, okay? I miss you."

"I miss you, too."

Maggie turns around, a few steps away from entering the elevator, knowing Alex needs a few moments to think before going back to work. "And remember, Danvers, it's about the people, not the numbers. Those pages don't always tell the whole story."

Alex nods and takes a deep breath. When she finally stands, Maggie is gone and the rooftop is silent save the howling rustle of wind that carries through the night.

/

"Anything?"

Kara shakes her head, sifts through the box and pulls out an ID card. She trails her finger across the name: Kara Zor-El.

There isn't a sound in the room, just bated breathes between her and Astra with the box settled between them.

Kara swallows a lump in her throat. "They weren't afraid my name would give me away?"

"They?"

"The people who raised me," Kara clarifies and her features twist in confusion, head tilting to the side. "Who… who did raise me, Aunt Astra?"

"It was just me," Astra answers and guilt washes over her face. "It was just the two of us together, I didn't think about that at the time… Our whole worlds had just slipped from our hands, we had nothing and then we were here on Earth."

"The Phantom Zone?"

"You remember?" Astra sits up straighter as she says it.

"I know I was there, but for how long?" She asks, it has to be different, Alex is even older than normal here, she's—

"It must have been about twenty eight, twenty nine years for you, I can't be certain, I…"

"Fort Rozz."

Astra nods and suddenly she's silent again, twisting her hands together.

Kara reaches out, spreads her palm against Astra's knuckles. "It's okay. I don't care about that, I mean… you raised me. You… you've always been more than that, more than what happened on Krypton."

"We got pushed out of the Phantom Zone together, at the same time, crashed here together. It was always us together."

Kara nods. "I bet you were good," she looks up with a smile, tears glimmering in her eyes. "At raising me. It would have been nice to have each other, pieces of home, not being so alone…"

"I should have been better."

"You were grieving. For many years, I'm sure."

"You needed someone else, you needed more. I should have been better."

"You were always the best aunt." Kara says. Her face crumples.

"Oh, Little One, what's wrong?"

Kara shakes her head, tenses as Astra attempts to pull her into a hug.

"This isn't right," the blonde murmurs, through thick, murky tears that choke her throat and tighten around her chest. "This isn't real." She misses Alex. She misses her home. She misses putting these feelings behind her and pretending that they don't still hurt.

"What do you mean, Kara?"

"I don't belong here. I'm not—I love you Aunt Astra, more than I can ever say—but I don't belong here, this isn't me. It isn't real. It's… it's not and I can't keep pretending."

Astra pulls back from Kara, looks into her blue eyes, reflecting light in the tears that spill from the edges. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I do not understand. I-"

The door bursts open and both pairs of eyes snap in its direction. Alex shoves the door closed with a hand gripping crunched papers.

She locks eyes with Kara and there is nothing soft in her gaze. She's raises a finger, pointing as her voice shakes.

"You're not human."

A/N: One more part and then I promise we should be done. :) Keep voting on the poll if you haven't already. As always, thanks for sticking with me-I really appreciate it.