Kara had fallen asleep soon after her conversation with Jeremiah and was able to eat a little bit of soup before passing out from exhaustion. Alex and Maggie were still sleeping in the spare room at the DEO and Lena was catching up on her work at L-Corp and was going to come by in the morning to spend the day with Kara. That left Jeremiah and Eliza in the room with Kara. Both parents had been drifting in and out of sleep for a few hours, suddenly both shot up awake in their chairs when they heard gasping coming from the young girl in the bed. Eliza thought Kara was sleeping but saw the girl's eyes open and knew she was awake.
"Kara, honey what is wrong?" Eliza asked as she and Jeremiah were quickly by Kara's bedside.
"Nothing, I just had a dream," Kara answered as she struggled to catch her breath. She couldn't remember what her dream had been about, but she woke up with an overwhelming feeling of dread and that coupled with her broken ribs made it hard for her to catch her breath.
"Honey, do you want to talk about it?" Jeremiah asked, wanting to help his daughter. Kara shook her head no and laid back down.
Both parents recognized this tactic from when Kara had first arrived on Earth. The girl would get horrible nightmares and then never wanted to talk about what had happened. Over time she began to open up once in a while and both parents shared a worried look as to why their daughter was closing herself off again. Kara turned onto her side and tried to get her breathing under control while closing her eyes. Both parents knew that Kara wouldn't be sleeping for some time, so Eliza started softly singing a lullaby. It was the same lullaby she used to sing to Kara when she had first arrived on Earth and it was one of the only things that could calm the girl down and get her to go back to sleep. Jeremiah joined in softly and they both held their daughter's hand as she closed her eyes and slowly drifted back to sleep.
0000
Lena arrived at the DEO early the next morning to find Jeremiah and Eliza sleeping with their heads on Kara's bed still holding her hands. She tried to quietly move around the room but both parents woke up. They both observed their daughter who was still sleeping to make sure she wasn't in any distress and then turned their attention towards Lena.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you both, I just wanted to see how Kara was doing." Lena said quietly, not wanting to wake Kara.
"Don't worry about it. We actually should get up and grab some food and coffee for when Kara, Alex, and Maggie get up." Eliza said as her and Jeremiah got up both placing kisses on Kara's head before they left. Eliza sensed that Lena might want some alone time with Kara and knew that all the girls would be hungry when they woke up.
Lena said bye to the two parents as they walked out and slowly made her way over to Kara's bed. She placed a kiss on her forehead before she sat down next to the girl's bed taking her hand as she did. Kara woke up about 10 minutes later and smiled as she saw the sight of Lena sitting next to her bed. Lena looked exhausted and Kara was sure the girl hadn't slept since Kara was hurt. She knew Lena would have stayed up most of the night catching up on work for L-Corp. Kara admired Lena's strong work ethic and how much she cared about her company and employees.
"Hey Kara, how are you feeling?" Lena asked as she noticed Kara winced while trying to shift in her bed to sit up more.
"I'm feeling pretty good," Kara said, and Lena smirked knowing Kara would lie about how she was actually feeling.
Kara looked up at Lena and noticed the tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Lena, what's wrong?" Kara asked, suddenly concerned about her friend.
"Kara, I was so worried you were going to die. I saw you bleeding out on the floor of my office and all I could think about was that I was going to lose my best friend," Lena said as the tears began to silently fall down her face. "I was afraid I was going to lose the person that means the most to me and that terrified me." Lena continued as Kara squeezed her hand tighter.
"Lena, you are never going to lose me. I will always be there for you and I will always protect you," Kara said as she felt the tears beginning to form in her own eyes.
"Kara we both know you can't promise that. I mean look at you, you almost died and all I could think about was that you would never know how I truly felt about you." Lena took a deep breath and knew she had to tell Kara now before she chickened out. "Kara, I am in love with you and I have been for quite some time. I value our friendship so much and don't want to ruin it, but I also can't keep this in any longer. I have had feelings for you since the first time you walked into my office. I understand if you don't feel the same way, but you deserved to know the truth," Lena finished as she waited for Kara's reaction.
"Lena, you have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that. You're my best friend and I wouldn't want to spend my life with anyone else. I still remember the feeling I got the first time I laid eyes on you. I had never seen someone so beautiful and I fell more in love with you each time I saw you. I was so afraid that I wasn't going to get a chance to spend the rest of my life with you. When I was laying on your office floor bleeding out, I saw Alex and my parents, but I also saw you and what our life could have been like and I was afraid that dream would never come true. I never want to spend another day without you by my side," Kara got out through the tears.
Lena leaned over to Kara and wiped away the tears coming down her face. She gently grabbed Kara's face in her hands and softly kissed her one the lips. She had wanted to do this since the day she met Kara and couldn't believe she had waited as long as she had to finally do it. Kara kissed her back and then place her head against Lena's as both girls sat in each other's embrace. Lena eventually helped Kara move over slightly on the bed and she climbed up as Kara cuddled into her side. In the comfort of Lena's arms Kara was able to drift off to sleep, feeling safe for the first time in a while.