AN: so i sort of forgot this site exsisted, sorry about that. cross-posting from ao3
Injury on set of Dusklight
Ambulances were seen leaving the set of NCB series Dusklight earlier today, sparking rumours of an incident while filming. The studio has since released a statement confirming that one of its actors had been taken to National City General Hospital, but refused to release details of either the injury or the identity of the actor, citing privacy concerns. Series regular Lucy Lane was seen leaving shortly after the medical team, but StarFeed was unable to locate any of the other actors thought to have been filming at the time.
But was this merely an unfortunate accident, or something else? Insiders tell of tension on set between on-screen sweethearts Lena Luthor and Kara Danvers, allegedly a result of the former Supergirl actress coming out as bisexual late last month. The pair have had a famously turbulent relationship, and while recently they've been seen out together at some of National City's trendiest hotspots (often accompanied by Lane and the rest of the cast), this revelation may just be the straw that broke the camel's back. While our insiders are quick to back away from accusations of sabotage, they can't help but agree that these rumours are alarmingly similar to those that once surrounded Luthor's brother, disgraced film mogul Lex Luthor, back in LuthorFilm's heyday.
While the studio is being tight-lipped for now, we here at StarFeed are doing our best to uncover more information about this developing situation, and we'll be sure to keep our readers updated as more facts come to light.
…
"Kara just…sit down, please? It's gonna be fine," Winn pleaded, trying to guide her down onto the couch. They were in Winn's apartment, and Kara was pacing back and forwards in front of his television, fighting the urge to wince every time her phone chimed from Winn's pocket. He'd confiscated it on the drive over to enforce his No Tweeting Until We Talk demand, because while hardly anyone in the studio had noticed her slip at the time, the internet had picked up on it almost immediately. Her mentions had become a warzone, and Winn didn't want her wading into the publicity bloodbath until they'd decided what she was going to say.
"I just…I can't believe I did that," Kara whispered, then rounded on her friend. "Why did you let me do that?"
"I didn't know you were going to!" he objected, catching her shoulders to stop her pacing. "Kara, stop. It's alright. It's not a bad thing, okay?"
She let him hold her in place and stared at him, eyes wide. Her stomach hadn't stopped churning since they'd left the studio, and Kara still wasn't entirely sure she wasn't going to throw up. "What do I do?"
"It's okay." He pushed her gently down onto the couch. "Sit. Relax. Breathe."
She did as he asked, taking a deep breath and then releasing it slowly, and felt her heartrate settle slightly. It picked up again a second later, when Winn's phone trilled from his pocket.
"It's okay, it's just James," Winn said, bringing the phone to his ear. "Hi. Whatever you're about to say—" He paused, and Kara could hear James' voice rattling through the speaker, though it wasn't loud enough for her to work out what he was saying. Her finger twisted nervously together in her lap as Winn paced in front of her. "I didn't know she was going to! I obviously…No, no, don't book her on anything until we come up with a plan…No just… Just give me an hour, I'll call you back." He hung up, then dropped down to sit next to Kara.
"Is James mad?" she asked, but Winn shook his head.
"No! No, he's just worried about you," he assured her, squeezing her hand. "But it's gonna be okay. I promise."
Kara let out another long, slow breath and nodded, and Winn smiled.
"Good. Okay," he muttered, squeezing her hand again. "So just, don't freak out, but we have maybe half an hour to get out in front of this before it goes properly viral, and—"
Kara head shot up and she looked at him with wide eyes. "Winn! You said—"
"No, no, it's okay! It's fine. It just means you have to decide what you wanna do. How you wanna handle this."
Kara frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Well, basically you have three options," Winn said, counting them off on his free hand. "I could probably walk it back, if that's what you wanted. We can say you misspoke, or you're being misinterpreted…"
"I'm not, though," Kara objected. "I mean, I didn't mean to say it, but they're not wrong, and…" she trailed off and took another breath. "I'm so tired of hiding, Winn. It feels like I'm lying to everyone and I hate it."
"Okay, so no denial. In that case, you can either avoid it, hedge around it if someone asks, not address it directly. Use the whole 'no labels' approach, or…"
"Or?"
"Or just outright confirm it," Winn said with a shrug. "Release a statement, come all the way out. Kara Danvers, Out and Proud…bisexual?" he asked, tilting his head, and Kara nodded slowly. "Cool. Kara Danvers, Out and Proud Bisexual. Take control of the story before the tabloids get their teeth into it."
Kara blinked at him. "Just like that?" she asked, unable to comprehend it being that easy.
"Just like that," Winn said, nodding. "It's not nearly as big a deal these days. Hell, Lucy came out via a reaction gif and the internet only melted down a bit."
"Yeah, but that's Lucy. She can just…do things." Kara said, then glanced down reflexively when her phone chimed from Winn's pocket again. "Has Lena…?"
Winn released her hand to retrieve her phone. He thumbed through it quickly and then shook his head. "Not yet," he said with an apologetic smile that turned into a more alarmed expression as he scrolled further into her notifications. "But you should message Alex before she calls in a SWAT team."
He handed it over, and Kara typed out a quick reply to her sister's string of increasingly concerned messages, the last of which read, "Answer me or I'm tracking your phone and coming over there."
sry,. with winn, he had my cell. working out plan. ttyl. 3
Having averted the possibility of Alex breaking down Winn's door, Kara skimmed through her other messages. She'd messaged Lena on the drive over before Winn had confiscated her phone, but Lena hadn't responded. It was possible that she was filming and hadn't checked her messages, or that she'd given her phone to Jess again. She'd been doing that more often since the leak, cutting herself off from the online storm that was only just starting to abate. The fandom was still split on whether or not the pictures were in-character, a fight not aided by the interviews Mike had given in the days following the leak. He'd been cagey and defensive, and had ended up implying that he and Lena had never actually broken up, a move that had annoyed Lena, enraged Eve, and that Kara still wasn't convinced had been accidental.
Kara stared down at her unanswered message to Lena, tapping her finger against her phone. After a brief internal debate, Kara hit the call button, fidgeting anxiously as it rang. And rang. And rang. Frustrated, Kara hung up and tried again, with the same result. She sat through Lena's voicemail message, surprised to find that even a canned recording of her voice was enough to calm some of the butterflies in her stomach, and left a short message.
"Hey, it's me. I guess you're on set or something. Call me when you get this? I love you. Bye."
The message felt rambling and insufficient, but Winn was shifting impatient next to her, and his warning that they were on a deadline was nudging at the anxiety in her stomach, so she pushed thoughts of Lena to one side and tucked her phone away. Then, taking a deep breath, Kara looked up at Winn. "Okay. How do we do this?"
It turned out to be surprisingly easy. All it took was a short but heartfelt message that Kara rewrote six times before Winn confiscated the tablet, posting it across her social media accounts before she lost her nerve. Comments flooded in, and Winn frowned intently down at his screen as Kara slumped back onto the couch, feeling drained. The nervous energy that had been sustaining her for the last hour had leaked away, leaving her rubbing her eyes with a vaguely sick feeling in her stomach.
She stayed where she was, eyes closed and limbs heavy, until Winn blinked up at her, apparently so focused on his task that he'd forgotten she was there. He shooed her out politely, promising to call if anything came up.
"But Kara, trust me, it's gonna be fine. I promise," he told her as he enfolded her in a hug, and she squeezed him tightly in a wordless show of gratitude. "Just maybe stay out of your mentions for a few hours," he suggested as they broke apart. "Give me a chance to go on troll patrol."
Kara didn't think she'd have the nerve to brave her social media for days anyway, but she agreed. Her phone was still vibrating in her pocket every couple of minutes, but none of the messages were from people Kara felt up to talking to. Lena still hadn't replied, and when Kara finally left Winn's apartment, it was with one destination in mind.
…
Kara let herself into Lena's apartment with her key, calling out softly as the door swung shut behind her.
"Lena?"
"In here," came the reply after a long pause, and Kara followed her voice into the living room. Lena was standing with one arm folded across her stomach and the other holding a glass of scotch to her temple. Her attention was focused on the television, and she didn't react when Kara came to stand beside her.
It took Kara a moment to recognise herself on the screen, but when she did she realised that Lena was watching a clip of her interview on a loop. It was obviously from a later broadcast, one that had edited in B-roll footage of the audience reactions, because as Kara answered the final question of the interview, the camera cut to the two girls in the front row, clutching each other and looking utterly overjoyed. The sight of such a visceral reaction to her words made something warm move in Kara's chest, and she caught herself smiling until Lena sighed heavily.
"I can't believe you did that," she said, muting the TV and tossing the remote onto the couch behind her.
"I didn't mean to," Kara said, wincing internally at Lena's tone. "It just sort of…slipped out. There were these two girls in the audience and…"
"Did it 'just slip out' onto Instagram as well?" Lena asked, turning to face her. Her eyes were red-rimmed and dark, and she was speaking with the same overly-precise care she took at cons when she'd been drinking and didn't want her fan to notice. Kara glanced over at the bar against the far wall and saw a half-empty bottle of scotch that she was sure had been full the last time she'd been there.
"I tried to call you," Kara said, feeling herself getting defensive and tamping it down. "Your phone kept going to voicemail, and Winn said I had to say something before it went viral."
"And you decided to do that? Just casually come out to the world?"
"I'd pretty much done that anyway…" Kara muttered, then took a step towards her girlfriend, resting a hand on her arm. "Lena, c'mon. Winn says it's gonna be okay, and—"
"Oh, well if Winn says I guess it's fine, then," Lena snapped, draining her glass and shrugging off Kara's hand, moving over to the bar to pour another drink.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Kara was startled by the ferocity of her partner's response. She'd expected Lena to be surprised, maybe annoyed that Kara hadn't talked to her about it first, but Lena hadn't been that icy with her since her early days on the show, and Kara was at a loss.
"What's wrong is that this isn't what we agreed, Kara," Lena hissed, turning to face her. "We said we'd lie low, not announce ourselves to the world on the most-watched breakfast show in the country."
"I didn't announce us," Kara objected, anger stirring in her stomach. "I accidentally outed myself. I barely mentioned you."
"It will draw attention to us!"
"Why is that so bad?"
"Because!" Lena snapped. "I cannot come out, Kara. I've told you that. I dated National City's favourite frat boy for almost three years specifically to avoid it."
"So what then?" Kara asked, trying to restrain her temper and only partially succeeding. "Was the plan to spend the rest of our lives lying to everyone? Just hide forever?"
Lena let out a harsh, mirthless laugh and swallowed half her glass in one go. "Not forever. My mother will die eventually." She sank down onto the lounge, the anger in her posture leaking away. "I guess it doesn't matter now," she murmured, staring at the screen with unfocused eyes.
"Lena…" Kara started, but Lena cut her off.
"I need some time, Kara. Can you just go?" Kara just stared at her, feeling like she'd been punched in the stomach, and after a long moment Lena finally looked at her. Her expression was carefully blank, but Kara could see the turmoil under the thin sheen of tears in her eyes. "Please, Kara. Just go," she said again, her voice wobbling, and Kara turned and stalked out of the apartment, resisting the urge to look back.
…
Upon opening the door, Alex took one look at Kara's tearstained face and folded her sister into a hug. "What happened?" she asked gently, tugging Kara into her apartment and guiding her down onto the couch and into Lucy's waiting arms.
Kara told them everything, heedless of the tears rolling down her cheeks, and by the time she'd talked herself out her head was pillowed in Alex's lap and Lucy was running a hand up and down her calf.
"Well shit," Lucy sighed after a long moment of silence. She sighed again and shook her head, then shifted until could slide out from under Kara's legs and stand up, swiping her motorcycle keys off the coffee table.
"Where are you going?" Alex asked, shooting her partner a look as she wriggled into her leathers and picked up her helmet.
"Lena's."
"Seriously?" Alex sounded incredulous, and Kara tilted her head up in time to catch the pointed glance her sister shot between her and Lucy.
"Kara'll be fine, she's gonna eat everything in the apartment and then sleep for twelve hours," Lucy said, ignoring Kara's half-hearted attempt at indignation. "Lena, on the other hand, is gonna drink herself into a coma if we leave her unsupervised."
"Fine," Alex said shortly. "Go, then."
Lucy paused and turned back with a frown at her tone. "Alex…" she started, but Alex took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"Sorry. I'm mad at her, not you." Lucy was still looking at her with a concerned frown, but Alex forced a small smile. "Go check on her," she said, sounding more genuine.
Lucy crossed the room to stand in front of them, and Kara heard the rustle of her bike jacket as she leaned down to kiss Alex gently. "I love you," she murmured, then crouched down so she was eye-level with Kara. "Hey."
"Hey," Kara echoed, her voice scratching in her throat.
"You did a really brave thing today. I'm proud of you," Lucy said softly, and Kara smiled weakly at her. "It's gonna be okay." Lucy leaned forward to plant a kiss on her forehead, then stood and moved towards the door. "Don't wait up. Kara, you have one-off permission to eat my chocolate. Don't get crumbs in the bed," she called over her shoulder as she disappeared.
"She's right, you know," Alex murmured after a long minute of silence, stroking a hand through Kara's hair. "It is gonna be okay."
"It doesn't feel okay," Kara said. She'd stopped crying, but inside she still felt hollow, like her stomach had twisted in on itself. "Lena broke up with me. That doesn't feel okay."
"She said she needed time, that's not the same as a breakup," Alex pointed out.
"Isn't that what Maggie said to you? That she needed time and space? Look how that turned out," Kara snapped, then felt a fresh wave of guilt as soon as the words had left her mouth.
Alex inhaled sharply, and her hand stilled for a moment before resuming its path through Kara's hair. "You're upset, so I'm ignoring that very cheap shot," she said, and Kara mumbled out an apology. "Lena will come around, Kar. She's been completely gone on you since you messed up your line and fell on her."
Kara smiled at the memory of her first day on set, but it slid off her face after a moment. "She's really serious about being private, though. Even after she and Mike stopped their thing," Kara said, rolling onto her back so she could see Alex's face. "I knew that. I knew she didn't want people to know. Why the hell did I…"
"Hey, stop. C'mon," Alex said, jostling her lightly. "Lucy's right, what you did today was brave."
"It was stupid."
Alex jostled her again. "It was brave, Kara. Whatever hang-up Lena has about it doesn't change the fact that it was really brave." Kara sighed, and Alex twisted to grab Kara's phone from the arm of the couch. "Look at this."
Kara shuffled until she could see the screen, then frowned when she realised she was looking at her own twitter mentions. "Winn said I shouldn't…" she started, but Alex shook her head.
"Winn worries too much. Read."
So Kara scrolled, and what she found brought fresh tears to her eyes. Her fanbase was in an uproar, and her mentions were a storm of ebullient tweets and incoherent screaming. Her name was trending, as was a line from her message that someone had turned into a hashtag. There were touching, heartfelt messages thanking her for her strength, and Kara only got through a few of them before her eyes were too blurred with tears to see the screen.
"See? You did good," Alex said softly, and Kara gave in to the sob building her chest, rolling over to bury her face in her sister's stomach. "It's gonna be okay, Kar." Her voice had a slight wobble, but her hand was steady as she stroked Kara's hair, and she made no complaint as Kara, overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted, cried herself to sleep in her lap.
…
Being on the set the next day was odd. Kara was nervous and antsy when she arrived, unsure what the reception would be, but her fears quickly proved to be unfounded. As soon as she walked into Wardrobe, Kara found herself engulfed in two sets of arms. It took her a second to identify her captors as Vasquez and Demos, both in various states of undressed and apparently completely unbothered by it.
"You are such a dork," Vasquez told her, but her smile was fond, and when Demos pulled out his phone to snap a selfie, she pressed a kiss against Kara's cheek and held that pose. When the pair finally released her, Kara's glasses were askew and her hair was mussed, but the warm feeling in her chest was almost strong enough to make her forget that Lena hadn't contacted her yet.
The hair-and-makeup crew were their usual chatty selves, and while none of them mentioned Kara's revelation from the day before, she did notice that someone had used several shades of lipstick to draw a tiny pride flag on the mirror in front of her usual chair. The assistant working on Kara's hair noticed her looking at it and winked at her in the mirror, but made no other comment, instead continuing his story of his dog's latest exploits.
There was no overt reaction when she finally got to the soundstage, but Kara did receive more than a few warm smiles from the crew that were milling around. There were also a couple of dark looks, but they were easy enough to ignore. Snapper was his usual surly self, but Kara thought she detected slightly less bite to his traditional greeting of "You're late, Danvers," which was enough to add genuine warmth to her apology as she walked over to where Vas and Demos were pretending to shoot each other with their prop guns while they waited.
It was a fairly easy day, shooting wise, mostly walk-and-talk scenes, and Kara let the positive energy of the set and her scene partners carry her through, striving to distract herself from the ache of worry in her chest that grew every time she checked her phone to find no messages from Lena. She'd had a couple from Lucy, one in the early hours of the morning that had auto-corrected itself into incoherence and another just after they broke for lunch that simply read "your girlfriend is hungover but okay" followed by a string of emojis that Kara couldn't decipher.
Feeling morose and unable to deal with the press of people gathered at craft services, Kara instead opted to head for the relative privacy of her trailer. She was walking with her head down, focused on her phone, which is why she didn't see the hand that darted out to grab her arm, dragging her into a prop room as she passed the door.
"Shhhh," her assailant hissed when Kara yelped and pulled away sharply, but she relaxed when her eyes adjusted to the low light.
"Lena! You scared me," Kara murmured, unsure why they were whispering but following Lena's lead.
"Sorry. I just can't…people, right now," Lena said, waving her hand vaguely towards the door, and Kara frowned, concerned. Lena was wearing the same clothes she'd been in yesterday, and her eyes were covered by dark glasses, despite the already-dim room.
"Are you okay?" Kara asked, taking in the slump of Lena's shoulders and resisting the desire to reach for her.
"I'm fine," Lena insisted, straightening her posture with visible effort. Her hands were twisting together over her stomach, and the parts of her face that Kara could see looked pale in the dim light spilling from the hallway.
There was a long, awkward silence as they both just looked at each other. Just seeing Lena had eased the ache in Kara's heart, but the fact that she wouldn't meet her eye was rapidly bringing it back.
Lena opened and closed her mouth several times before finally forcing herself to say, "Kara listen… I'm sorry for snapping at you last night. It was unfair of me."
"It's okay."
"It's not. I reacted badly and I shouldn't have. It won't happen again."
Kara frowned. Lena's apology, while sincere, also sounded formal and rehearsed. It sounded almost like she was reading from an autocue, and the ache in Kara's chest finally pushed her to speak.
"Lena," Kara broke in, interrupting the practised flow of Lena's words. "Will you please just talk to me?"
"I am," she said, but her face was carefully blank. Kara shook her head sadly.
"You're not. You sound like you're at a press conference, reading from a script." Kara stepped forward, into Lena's space, and brought a hand up to slide the sunglasses off her face. "I love you. Just talk to me."
Lena slumped back against the bench behind her, all rigidity gone from her posture. Without the glasses, Kara could see her eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot from crying, and the dark circles underneath them spoke of a night of little sleep.
"I can't…I don't…" Lena looked lost, and when Kara stepped towards her again she didn't withdraw, leaning into the hand that Kara rested on her arm.
"It's okay, Lena. Whatever it is, it's okay."
"It's not. I can't…I can't do this, Kara. I can't be what you need…what they need." She motioned toward the phone in Kara's hand. "They already expect so much of us, and with this…I just can't. I'll end up disappointing them."
"Lena, no," Kara breathed, her heart breaking, but Lena shook her head.
"I will. I'm not like you and Lucy, I've never been good with people." She smiled sadly, blinking tears out of her eyes. "Lex was always the people-person. I'm no good at it. I don't deserve the praise they give me."
"Hey," Kara interrupted, squeezing her arm. "I would fight anyone else who said that about you. You're not allowed either."
Lena's smile grew tender at that, but soon faded. "Kara, you don't…My mother…" She cut herself off with a bitter laugh. "My mother. That's a whole other thing…." Suddenly Lena straightened, pushing off the bench she'd been leaning on and pulling out of Kara's grip. "I just think we should take some space," she said, the formal tone back in her voice, and Kara felt her heart stop.
"Lena, please," she whispered, but Lena shook her head.
"Just until this blows over." Lena paused to wipe the tears off her face, but when she looked up, her eyes were full of enough naked longing to paralyse Kara completely. "I love you," she murmured, stepping forward.
The kiss, when it came, was desperate, tasting of tears and full of a thousand things Lena couldn't say, and when Kara's back hit the wall, the impact was nothing compared to the pounding of her heart. They stayed like that, locked together and falling into each other until a door slammed somewhere nearby. Lena pulled back abruptly, and by the time Kara had put enough of herself back together to react, she was gone.
…
Filming was miserable. Their scenes together were clunky, Lena too closed off and Kara too miserable about it to allow for their usual chemistry to work, and it was enough to have Snapper scowling at them from behind his screens and the crew muttering to each other between takes. They knew something had happened, but the few people who had details weren't sharing them, and in the absence of fact, rumours abounded. A small group of junior assistants from various departments had taken to hovering around Kara between takes, alternating between watching her with something approaching awe and shooting Lena dark looks. Kara heard the word 'homophobic' muttered more than once, and her attempts to get them to stop seemed to have to opposite effect.
"You don't have to protect her," one of them told Kara quietly, oblivious to Kara's consternation. "You shouldn't have to put up with bigotry from anyone, even the lead."
"She's not a bigot—" Kara started, but the assistant just patted her arm consolingly and scurried away.
Lena was quiet and withdrawn, slightly too subdued to fully sell her Ice Queen act, and while Kara wasn't avoiding her exactly, her heart was still too raw for her to seek her out specifically. When they did speak it was awkward, both of them swapping small talk and stilted platitudes, and Lena usually ended the conversation quickly. While Kara was striving to give Lena the space she'd asked for, their characters were – if the rumours from the writers' room were to be believed – working their way towards a proposal at the end of the season, and most of their scenes together were peppered with the kind of easy intimacy that left Kara with a hollow yearning in her chest.
The fandom was, as far as Kara could tell, experiencing a collective and ongoing meltdown. The crew's inability to keep gossip to themselves meant that the fans were aware of the new divide, and they had apparently split themselves into different camps. One group were firmly on Team Kara, loudly declaring Lena 'unstanned' (a word that Kara had to look up) and 'cancelled' (which she worked out on her own), barraging Kara with support and Lena with vitriol in equal measure. Their opposites had apparently picked Lena as the new mascot for the anti-queer movement, to her horror, and tweeted her daily messages thanking her for 'resisting the fall to the homosexual agenda', which Kara would've found absolutely hilarious if it hadn't made her want to sob. There were fans somewhere between the two camps who talked more about what it would mean for the show going forward, along with Kara's favourite group – whom she'd nicknamed Team Sanity in her head – who were busy reminding people that the rumour mill was a trash fire and even if it was true, it was none of their business.
The firestorm in the fandom was not helped by the fact that it was close enough to the airing of Ergo Propter Hoc that they'd begun promoting it, and a selection of publicity stills had been released, including a higher quality version of the pictures of Jax and Isabelle. Despite the fact that they'd filmed the episode months before, the timing of it was enough to spark a near riot in the shipping parts of the fandom, and Kara saw more than one theory suggesting that Lena had killed Sizzle because she was uncomfortable around Kara before she stopped checking her social media altogether out of sheer frustration.
When she wasn't working, Kara spent most of her time with Alex, who found herself with an almost equal amount of free time on her hands. Her captain was still reluctant to allow her to investigate anything even tangentially related to the entertainment industry, which in National City was just about everything, and Lucy was spending most evenings trying to drag Lena out of her self-imposed isolation. While Alex agreed that Lena needed at least one friend looking out for her, Kara could tell that she missed her girlfriend, and most of their nights together devolved into them eating ice-cream and sobbing over rom-coms.
The network was ostensibly oblivious to the unrest in the fandom, and were promoting Ergo Propter Hoc heavily. Kara thought it was probably Network Suit's last-ditch attempt to ensure its success, but in one of their depressingly rare conversations, Lena suggested that it was just him being petty and forcing them to talk about it. Because Lena and Mike had heavier filming schedules that the rest of the cast, the majority of promotion fell to Kara and Lucy, and Kara spent several of her days off in the studios of various lifestyle-slash-entertainment type shows, trying her best to build hype for an episode she absolutely hated.
…
"It's just such an honour to meet you, Ms Danvers," the PA said as she led Kara through the warren of corridors that made up the National City Tonight! studio. Kara thought her name was Kelly, but she wasn't sure enough to use it, so instead just smiled as genuinely as she could and nodded. Lucy had sent her a snapchat from set earlier of Lena scowling at Lars, the stunt co-ordinator, as he'd fitted her with a harness, and Kara was still trying to tamp down the miserable longing that it had elicited. "My daughters just loved you in Supergirl, and my eldest…Sizzle is so special to her, you know."
"I can sign something for them after the taping, if you like," Kara offered, trying to force thoughts of Lena from her head. The woman beamed and gushed her gratitude, and Kara focused on her joy, trying to let the words 'Sizzle is so important to her' and the unspoken message behind them drown out the persistent ache in her heart.
"Okay, we're just in here," the PA said, gesturing towards an open door just as Kara's phone vibrated in her pocket.
"Sorry, I have to take this," Kara said, seeing Lucy's face grinning at her from the screen. "I'm so sorry, I won't be a second." Then, into her phone, "I'm about to go on, Luce, I can't—"
"Don't care," Lucy interrupted, her tone serious. "Don't panic, okay? There was an accident."
"What?" Kara stopped dead in her tracks as her heart plummeted. "Who—Alex? What happened, is she okay?"
"No, no, not Alex. She's coming to get you. There was an accident on set. Alex is gonna take you to the hospital."
"Hospital?" Kara repeated as her heart tripped in her chest and dread curled in her stomach. "Who got hurt?"
"Don't freak out. Just… stay calm and don't freak out."
"Lucy!"
"It's Lena."
…
Looking back, Kara couldn't remember most of the drive over. Her memory of the time between the studio and the hospital was just moments of sharp clarity jumping out from a fog of blind panic. Herself, running past a confused PA, babbling apologies; Lucy's voice in her ear as she almost fell out onto the street; Alex's hands twisting on the steering wheel of her departmental car, twitching towards the switch for the lights and sirens every couple of seconds.
At the hospital, Alex led her up several flights of stairs, perhaps sensing that Kara wouldn't stand still long enough to take the elevator. They emerged into a hallway, and Kara followed the sound of familiar voices to a small waiting room where she found half the cast and a decent chunk of the crew. Lucy was folded into one of the uncomfortable hospital chairs with Mike on one side and Demos on the other, but when she caught sight of Kara she stood and approached her.
"Kara! She's okay, she—"
"Where is she?" Kara demanded, heading automatically towards the closest door. Her body was on autopilot, her mind far too overwhelmed with dread and the sharp antiseptic smell of the hospital to do much in the way of rational thinking, but Lucy caught her before she got more than two steps.
"Not that one. That one," she said, pointing to a door on the opposite wall. Kara started towards it, but Lucy stepped in front of her again and stopped her with a hand on each shoulder. "The doctors are in there, give it a minute. You can see her in a minute."
Kara considered pushing past her and going in anyway – her pounding heart was insisting she do something – but Alex caught up to her before she could move, gripping her hand tightly and tugging her towards the row of chairs along the wall.
"What happened?" Kara asked as Alex urged her to sit and Lucy sank into the seat next to her.
"The stunt went wrong. There was something wrong with the rig; she overshot the pad and hit the wall," Lucy said gently, reaching over to squeeze Kara's hand as she stiffened. "Production's halted while OSHA and SAG do their thing, but it shouldn't take long. We were filming when it happened, so they've got the footage."
"Where's Lars?" Kara asked, glancing around the room for the first time and realising that the stunt co-ordinator was notably absent.
"Talking to OSHA," Lucy answered, contempt all over her face. "He's insisting it wasn't his fault, but it doesn't look good for him. He's probably gonna lose his job."
"He'd better." Guilt was curling in Kara's stomach, churning with the fear already there. It must have shown on her face, because Lucy frowned at her and squeezed her hand again.
"It's not your fault, Kar," Alex said softly. "From the sounds of it, that idiot shouldn't have been anywhere near a set to begin with."
"I knew he was incompetent. I knew. I should've said something when I realised I knew more about wire work than he did, but I…"
"It's not on you, Kara. We all saw it. Any one of us could have said something," Lucy told her, and something in her tone caught Kara's attention even through her panicked haze. Forcing herself to focus, she took a moment to study her friend, noticing how pale Lucy was under the remains of her stage make-up and the faint streaks around her eyes where her mascara had run and been hurriedly wiped away.
"Are you okay, Luce?" Alex asked her softly, and Kara realised suddenly that Lucy had been filming with Lena when the accident happened and would have seen the whole thing.
"I'm fine. It's not me in there," Lucy said, nodding towards Lena's room, but when Alex shifted closer to her Lucy closed her eyes and leaned forward, resting her head against Alex's hip as Alex brought a hand up to stroke her hair. It was a surprisingly public display of vulnerability from Lucy, who liked to encourage the belief that she was functionally invincible. Kara brought their joined hands onto her lap, running her thumb over Lucy's knuckles as Lucy took a shuddering breath. "I'm getting make-up on your pants," she mumbled against Alex's thigh, eliciting a smile from both sisters.
"It's not the worst thing you've got on my pants," Alex murmured with a wry smile, huffing out a laugh at the expression on Kara's face before continuing, "I wouldn't worry about the stunt guy. I doubt Cat will let him near the set again."
"He'll be lucky if Cat doesn't eviscerate him," Lucy said, raising her head and swiping at her eyes with her free hand. "Lena's her favourite. She won't—"
She broke off as the door to Lena's room opened and a white-coated man stepped out, writing in a file and trailed by a nurse in scrubs. Kara was moving to stand in front of him before she'd even realised that she'd stood up, with Alex and Lucy half a step behind her.
"Is Lena okay?" Kara demanded, and the doctor looked up, startled to find his path blocked.
"Are you family of Ms Luthor?" he asked, looking around at the group of people crowded in the waiting room.
"I…sort of?"
"Without Ms Luthor's permission, I'm afraid I can only talk to her family," the doctor said firmly, flipping his file closed.
"We are her family," Lucy told him just as decisively, moving to stand on Kara's other side. The crew had withdrawn to the other side of the waiting room, giving the three of them some measure of privacy, but Kara could tell the closest of them were straining to listen.
"Her legal family, I mean," the doctor corrected, though he suddenly looked a lot less sure of himself. It took Kara a second to realised that it was because Alex had twitched her jacket to the side, revealing the badge that was still clipped to her belt, and some very distant part of her was glad that her sister hadn't swept it back far enough to uncover the gun on her hip. The hallway was hardly private, and the last thing they needed was a headline screaming "Cast of Dusklight Ejected From Hospital for Threatening Medical Staff".
"Excuse me," a voice interrupted from the corner before Alex had to make her implicit threat explicit, and Kara glanced over her shoulder to see Jess, Lena's assistant, unfolding herself from a chair, tucking both of the phones she'd been typing on into separate pockets and approaching them. "I think you'll find that Ms Danvers is listed as Ms Luthor's next-of-kin. If that won't suffice, I can have her attorney send over the paperwork confirming me as her medical proxy."
Kara's heart tripped in her chest. She didn't know Lena had done that, and the fact that she hadn't undone it after Kara had come out sent a little spike of warmth through her until she tamped it down.
The doctor let out a sigh. "Sure, that'll do. Ms Luthor has a minor concussion, some fractured ribs and assorted bruising. She's also dehydrated, but I think that's unrelated to the accident. All her injuries are relatively minor, considering. A couple of weeks of taking it easy and she should make a full recovery."
Kara let out a long breath, feeling a flood of relief as Alex squeezed her shoulder and Lucy visibly relaxed.
"We're keeping her in for observation, at least overnight, to make sure the head injury isn't worse than it looks and get some fluids into her, but you should be able to take her home tomorrow afternoon," the doctor continued, smiling at their reactions.
"Can I see her?" Kara asked hesitantly. Lena had been avoiding her for weeks, but surely there was a you-were-in-actual-danger exception to her desire for space. If Lena told her to leave, she would, but until then, the need to actually see her was too pressing to ignore.
"She's sedated at the moment, but you're welcome to sit with her. Only two or three at a time, though," he said, glancing pointedly at the group still huddled in the corner.
"Why is she sedated? Is that normal?" Alex asked with a frown as Lucy turned to corral the crew.
"Ms Luthor was quite distressed when she was brought in, and requested sedation. It's not uncommon."
Kara ducked away as Alex continued interrogating the doctor, heading for the door Lucy had pointed out earlier. She knocked on it softly, mostly out of habit, then pushed it open.
Lena was curled on her side, which couldn't have been comfortable with fractured ribs, but Kara knew she hated sleeping on her back with a passion. There was an IV line snaking out of her wrist, and from where she was standing Kara could see the beginnings of a mottled bruise on her shoulder peeking out from under the hospital gown.
Crossing the room slowly, Kara sank down into the chair by the bed, reaching hesitantly for Lena's hand once she was settled.
"Lena?" she murmured softly, squeezing her hand.
Lena stirred slightly but didn't wake, mumbling something softly as she shifted, and while Kara thought she heard her own name more than once, she was more comforted by the way Lena had curled her fingers tightly around her hand and refused to let go.