A/N: There's only one more chapter left for this one and then I promise I'll be done with it.
"You… you jumped in front, to...to save me," Kara's breath wheezes through the long spaces between her words.
"Yeah well, not successfully."
Alex pushes off the ground, on her knees over Kara and spreading her hands across the crimson saturated suit. She spares a glance up at Supergirl's face and Alex's brows crinkle, she nearly pulls back. "What're you—why are you smiling? You just got shot."
"Trust me, I know." Kara hisses as Alex presses down on her abdomen. "I can feel the kryptonite, too, I just-" she squeezes her eyes shut and gives a shake of her head. The gravel nips at the back of her skull and a wave of nausea rips through her as the kryptonite radiates through her system. "Never mind."
"We need to get you out of here. If I take you to the DEO, Haley'll be all over you. Is there somewhere you can go? Some place safe where I can patch you up? It won't be the best, but if I work fast you should—you'll be fine." Alex shoves her hair from her face as she thinks, sticky with sweat, stomach turning as slick blood smudges across her temple.
Kara nods, perspiration dampening her own hairline and turning the blonde wisps dark. A curl of wind sends shivers through her body. "Lena."
"As in… Luthor?" Alex's brows raise.
"Yes," Kara says through clenched teeth, her eyes screwed shut and hands balled into fists.
"Okay, that I can do," Alex replies and her voice softens as she starts to move Supergirl, a groan ripping from her lips as she stumbles to her feet, half dead-weight in Alex's arms as she maneuvers them toward the closest DEO vehicle, letting the chaos unfolding behind her steal the attention of the agents on-scene.
She rests Kara against the dark, metal exterior, peering into the window to see if it's unoccupied.
An agent cracks open the door and Alex flinches back, an agent she's only worked with in groups, never personally or intimately. His alliances are unknown and an unexpected swirl of anxiety mounts in her chest. "I—"
He takes in her blood-caked hands and Supergirl. Wavering, doubled-over against the side of the van.
With a shake of his head, he cuts off her explanation and steps out. "I won't say a word." He moves aside and opens the backdoor beside Kara. "Just do your best to keep Supergirl safe. Let her know we're still rooting for her, yeah?"
Alex gapes and she can only nod and wonder why there's a lump in her throat.
/
"Lena, can you meet me at your apartment in fifteen minutes?" Alex asks through the phone, one hand cradling the device to her ear and the other gripping the steering wheel. She weaves between two cars in the thick city traffic, dodging a taxi and making a sharp right turn. Every few seconds her eyes flicker up to the rearview mirror and fight the glare of the evening sun. Each moment she settles her gaze on Supergirl, shallow breathing and eyes drooping closed, an arm holding her cape to her abdomen in a futile attempt to follow Alex's instructions and stanch her own bleeding.
"May I inquire why?"
Lena's voice, cool and smooth, snaps Alex's gaze from the mirror to the road in front of her. A red light forces her into a screeching halt. Her breath expands heavy in her chest. "Because Supergirl is bleeding out in the backseat of a car I basically just stole from the DEO, Lena! Is that a good enough reason for you?!"
Lena blinks. Once, twice. She turns around to the TV playing the news behind her. Grainy video of a green glow and a figure from an anti-alien extremist group. Supergirl falling. The robbery playing out. It hits her at once.
"Shit."
"Yeah shit! So, will you be there or not? Supergirl said your place was safe and I'm really running out of time." Alex's voice pitches upward.
Lena leaves her office, door swinging behind her. "I—yes, yes of course. I'll meet you in the back, by the private elevator."
The traffic light blinks green and Alex slams her foot into the gas. The van roars and buckles forward. In the backseat, a moan escapes Kara. Something in Alex's chest keeps coiling tighter with every whimper and writhing movement. "We'll be there in ten."
/
Keeping the door open with one foot, Lena ushers the pair inside. A gust of wind slips into the frame as it thumps closed behind them, silencing the distant whirl of car horns and sirens; instead, the ten strides it takes to cross the hall and enter the elevator are saturated in wheezing breaths and Kara's feet clomping against the tile as her knees tremble and the kryptonite spreads.
In the elevator, Alex guides Kara's frame against the side, dispersing some of her weight from the agent's arms. Under the rail, Lena's hand brushes the back of Kara's and, with a sigh of relief that penetrates the air, Kara slips her fingers between Lena's, clinging as much as her plummeting strength will allow, because she can't reach for Alex like that. Not when Alex doesn't know the girl beneath the cape is her sister.
"I've got you." Lena whispers.
Her voice is soft and low, and Kara tries to lift her head to it, but the pull of gravity is too heavy and she finds herself looking at the ground, confronting the blood oozing from her fingers and dripping down her leg. The same trail of blood that sends her trembling back as they enter Lena's loft and it splatters crimson on the pristine white tile of her foyer.
Kara halts, wavering as her knees lock. "Lena, your— I'm—"
She follows Kara's gaze down to the blood smearing on the floor, bites her lip at the way Kara's boot slips across it.
"Don't worry about it," she dismisses and steadies Kara's frame with a hand on her shoulder. Lena glances across the room, where Alex is bent over the coffee table, rifling through the standard DEO first aid kit she grabbed from the car.
They cover the couch with plush towels and Kara collapses on top of it with thinning breath and paling skin.
Watching as Alex pulls tweezers from the bag, Lena keeps one hand threaded in Kara's damp hair, thumb caressing her temple beneath a sheen of sweat. Under Lena's fingertips, she can feel the muscles of Kara's face pulled taut—eyes squeezed shut and lips pressed into a grimace. "You'll be okay," Lena whispers, kneeling so their faces are close. "We're both right here with you and we aren't going to let anything bad happen."
Even though Kara's face remains frozen in place, she nods, blonde hair musing beneath her head.
"Do you have everything you need?" Lena asks, looking up at Alex.
She nods. "I think as long as I get the kryptonite out, she should be able to heal if we can get the proper amount of light."
Lena casts a glance out the window, where twilight sinks into the crevices of the city. "There's no time. The sun will be completely gone in half an hour. We need…"
"Sunlamps," Alex answers, unsure of why all these specific details about Supergirl bubble inside her. Why she knows Supergirl would complain about the sunlamps if she could speak without a sob filling its place; why she knows Supergirl prefers sunlight and closing her eyes and sprawling across cushioned lawn chairs on balconies with an open book balanced on her chest and her palms facing the sky. Why the knowledge feels as warm and sacred and tangible as a memory.
"I have some. At L-Corp," Lena says, stepping toward the door. "I'll have Jess rush them here. I'll meet her halfway. Will you two be all right?"
The Danvers sisters nod in sync and Lena's heart clenches. Standing over Kara, she brushes wisps of blonde hair off Kara's heated skin. "I'll be back as soon as possible."
Kara nods, eyes still screwed shut as Lena bids Alex goodbye and leaves.
Alex swallows hard. For some reason, her always-steady hand trembles around the tweezers "Supergirl," she whispers. "This is going to hurt, but I'm going to go as fast as I can, okay? I'm going to take care of you."
A smile spreads across Kara's blotchy cheeks, interrupts the tear tracks, and reaches up toward her eyes.
"I know." Her hoarse voice barely breaks through her heavy breathing. "I trust you."
Her hand fumbles for Alex's, fingers colliding. They squeeze each other tight; back and forth, a conversation through touch, dips and ridges that are so familiar Alex feels it inside her like a heartbeat.
As she extracts the glowing bullet from mangled skin, Alex begins to place why she might be crying, too.