'Cause what about, what about angels?
They will come, they will go, make us special...

Don't give me up
Don't give,
Me up

How unfair, it's just our love
Found something real that's out of touch
But if you'd searched the whole wide world
Ho oh oh would you dare to let it go?

Birdy

Kara cried out in anguish and twisted, but Mon-El had already let go and she was gasping for air. Suddenly, the cell lock light changed colour and the door swung slightly open. Rhea leapt forward but Mon-El was too fast, and he threw the control on the floor.

"Thank you Winn," Mon-El lurched forward and grabbed the door, yanking it open and scooping Kara into his arms and then the wall behind his mother exploded. He spun around and shielded Kara from the blast as debris rained down on them. When it lessened he turned and ran for the hallway, jumping through the now gaping hole. He found himself somewhere he hadn't been before, an armoury of some kind, and grabbed a gun, slinging the strap over his shoulder so he had both hands free to carry Kara, "Just hold on. We'll be home soon. Just hold on." He didn't even know if she heard; she lay, unresponsive, in his arms and he could feel her fluttering, fading heartbeat against his chest.

"Mon-El." Winn's voice echoed dramatically around the spacecraft, "Mon-El, I don't know if you've got Kara, but I really hope you do. We had to knock out the cameras in order to take control. So if you can hear me, head towards the bridge. Oh I really hope this works."

"It will. It has to." Alex's voice said, and Kara stirred slightly.

"I've got her!" He yelled out.

"Thank god! We're bringing you home sis."

"See, Kara, your sister believes in you, we're gonna get back, we're gonna get back for Alex."

"Love." Kara breathed.

"Yeah, Alex loves you and you love her so you have to just hold on until we get there, okay?"

He leapt through the door and sprinted down a side corridor full of guards. He dodged the swing of a guard's staff, nearly running into another, ducking to avoid it. The next strike was aimed at Kara and he spun her away, taking the brunt of the blow and stepping backwards into it, throwing the guard into the one behind him. He picked up speed and when the next sentry stepped forward he dropped to his knees and slid across the floor, arriving at the end of the hall before the guards even realised what had happened. He shifted Kara in his arms and shot behind them so they wouldn't be followed. The soldiers shot back and he jumped to avoid them, but one caught him in the thigh and he stumbled. He ignored the sharp pain and took a left, and found himself in the bridge.

"I'm here!" Mon-El shouted excitedly, "Ah, but Winn doesn't know that."

"Wanna bet?" Winn's voice said. He looked around and saw Winn and Alex standing in a portal, with J'onn fighting off a group of soldiers.

"Let's go!" Alex called out and Mon-El ran straight through the portal and back to the DEO. He didn't wait to see if his friends came through; he ran straight to the medical bay and put Kara under yellow sun lamps. Once he was sure she was safe from attack, he sped back to the portal to find that all of his friends were fine and that the portal was closed.

"Where's Kara?" Winn asked.

"Is she okay?" Alex was already halfway to the medical bay.

"I don't… I don't know." Now that the fight was over, the guilt and pain was starting to set in, "Winn, what are we going to do about my mother?"

"Well, I still have control of her ship, so she can't attack us and she can't beam down here. The only option I've left open on the ship computers is to fly away. Let's hope she takes it."

"Yeah. Because if she doesn't, I'll kill her myself." Mon-El said darkly. They arrived back at Kara's bedside to find Alex hooking her up to wires and tubes with the lamps turned off.

"We've got to flush the poison from her system, Mom's on her way to synthesise an antidote. The yellow sun lamps will do their bit to heal her, but first we have to ensure she can't be hurt any more than she already has."

Eliza rushed in and gasped, "Oh Kara!"

"I know, we've gotta work fast." Alex said and she and her mother turned on monitors and started checking Supergirl's vitals. After what felt like the longest stretch of time he'd ever experienced, they pronounced her to be stable and said that it would take the next ten hours for them to fully flush the serum out of her system. Winn rang James and Alex called Maggie and J'onn began to tend to things at the control centre.

Mon-El settled himself beside her, holding her hand. He thought he might fall asleep, but his worry and the pain from his own wounds kept him up. The laser burn on his leg was aching and he rolled his shoulders back in pain. He shouldn't be hurt – lasers had never done that to him before. He looked down at himself, but his head was foggy and he was exhausted. He thought he had only been there for a few minutes, but when Alex and Maggie arrived, it was clear that Alex had rested and changed clothes.

"It's been twelve hours, she should wake up soon." Alex said.

"Good. Good." Mon-El said distractedly.

"Are you okay? you don't look so hot." Maggie asked.

"I'm always hot." Mon-El attempted joking, but it didn't sit right and he grimaced.

Everyone else slowly filtered in as the twelfth hour ticked into the thirteenth and eventually the anxiety and the anticipation became too much. Mon-El stood and paced to the back of the room, staring at the woman he loved, and he couldn't breathe.

"Hey, buddy, you okay?" Winn asked.

Mon-El nodded, "I guess I'll uh… I… I just need a second."

"Hey, we should get those injuries tended to," J'onn offered but he just walked out in silence.

When he got to the training room, he started punching the concrete bricks, like he'd seen Kara do so many times before. He let his fury take over and he hit the bricks until they exploded under his fists, so he turned to the metal fighting posts, and when he was done with those they looked like modern art sculptures. He threw himself across the room, hitting the wall and rebounding. He picked up the remainder of one of the bricks and launched it into the air, screaming in rage and pain and worry. He kicked one of the doors so hard it flew off its hinges and smashed the glass wall on the other side of the hall. And when he had nothing else to throw, nothing else to punch, he sunk to his knees amongst the rubble and cried. He grabbed fistfuls of his hair and curled up into a ball and sobbed uncontrollably. He stayed in that position for a really long time, forehead pressed to the floor, chest on his knees, and he felt like he was spinning out of orbit. He didn't hear the footsteps crunching on the dust until someone wrapped their arms around him.

"It's okay sweetie. She knows you did your best." Eliza said quietly. He clung to her arm, trying to keep hold of his senses.

"This is all my fault." He moaned.

"No, it's not." Alex said, kneeling down beside him and taking his hand, "It's no-one's fault but your mother's."

"I… I tortured her, I…" His tears turned to self-hatred and he tried to breathe in but he couldn't, "I couldn't help her…"

"Mon-El, listen to me, you're having a panic attack, alright, you need to take a deep breath for me," Eliza said.

"I can't."

"Yes you can."

"I can't, I can't, I can't," He stuttered, and Alex grabbed his face, forcing him to look at her.

"You can, and you will. You will calm down and get up and you will take care of Kara." Alex ordered, "She needs you."

That was the only thing he heard, just the words she needs you whirling around his brain, and he used them as an anchor. He sucked in a rattling breath and Eliza stroked his back, "Good, that's it, deep breaths, come on."

He eventually calmed down enough that the tears returned, and he looked at Alex, "I'm so sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for – if you hadn't done what you did, Kara would be dead right now. I would have done the same. So would she."

Kara came to, fully healed, but still a little shaky. She opened her eyes and the room swam into focus. She took in her surroundings groggily and smiled with relief when she realised where she was. Alex, Maggie and her mother were on one side and Hank, James and Winn were on the other.

"How do you feel?"

"Um, surprisingly, I feel fine. Not wonderful, and definitely not super, but fine."

"Thank god for that!" Eliza gushed and everyone else wholeheartedly agreed. It took her a moment in her tired haze, but after she'd recovered her bearings, she noticed.

"Where's Mon-El?"

"Uh, he's in the training room." Winn said hesitantly. Everyone looked at her with weird expressions; they seemed torn between pity and nervousness.

Kara pushed herself up on her pillows, "Did he get his injuries looked at yesterday?"

"Uh, no, he... we asked, but he brushed us off. Said they weren't that bad and that we should focus all our energy on making you better." Alex said.

"Okay… But…" Kara's voice sounded calm enough, "but I'm better, so where is he?"

"He, uh… He stayed here all night, didn't move from your bed, but this morning I think it all just became too much and he sort of… destroyed the training room." Alex said.

"So he healed on his own?" Kara asked; something was niggling in the back of her mind – something she'd noticed earlier that just wasn't right.

"Uh, I'm not sure, he still looked a little bruised, why?"

Kara shook her head, "It's probably nothing, it's just… in order to get the poison into me she had kryptonite in the cell. How did she get the poison into Mon-El?"

Her eyes abruptly lit up with panic and she swung her legs over the bed, despite the protests of her friends, "Oh my god! Mon-El?!"

Deciding it was best not to argue, her friends and family followed her out of the room, intent on helping her find him, but she didn't appear to need any help, even if she was a little dizzy on her feet. She walked to the edge of the room and looked out on the open plan of the DEO, "Mon-El?!"

There he was: standing limply in the doorway of the armoury, and when he saw her his face broke into a beaming smile. Her heart rose and sunk in equal measure when he walked towards her. She supersped at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, while he scooped his loosely around her waist. She noticed him leaning just a little more heavily on her than normal and she pushed him back and held him at arms length.

"Where is it?"

"Where's what?" He looked at her with a smile, but his eyes were tired and his skin was an odd colour.

"Where's the lead?" She scanned his arms with her x-ray vision.

"I don't know." Mon-El said.

"But you know it's in your system somewhere?" Kara said, panicked.

"I guessed."

She found it: a buckshot spattering of lead in his abdomen, lots of tiny pieces that wouldn't have bothered him much until his body began to react negatively to the element. It must have happened some time when he was fighting – an injury he wouldn't pay any attention to in the heat of battle, something that barely stung.

"Mon-El, why didn't you say anything?"

"You needed saving first." Mon-El muttered, right before his eyes rolled back in his head and Kara caught him in her arms.

"Mom!" Kara and Alex said at the same time.

Eliza nodded and ran to her workstation beside the medical bay, trying to find the anti-lead serum they'd created after the last incident. Kara laid Mon-El down on the bed beside the one she'd occupied and stroked his hair.

"Mon-El, what did you do?" She whispered.

Kara was asleep, she knew that much; she was dreaming of her apartment two weeks prior to their abduction by Queen Rhea. It was a nice memory. They were snuggled up on the couch, and the credits had just rolled on The Princess Bride.

"Want to watch Breakfast at Tiffany's? Maybe you can sing to me after." Mon-El flashed her a grin and she giggled, leaning into him.

"Maybe," She said, instead of what she wanted to say: I love you. She twisted slightly and kissed his nose, "Or maybe we can do something else after."

He chuckled and pulled her closer to him, his arms finding themselves perfectly situated around her waist as he nuzzled into the crook of her neck, "I do love that, but I honestly just want to sit here and watch you watching movies."

"Inconceivable!" Kara pronounced, "Mon-El of Daxam, refusing a night of passion, to watch an old cheesy movie?"

"Hey, at any point did I refuse? I just meant to postpone it a little." He kissed her temple, "But if you really want…"

"No, no, it's nice that you want to just pretend to be normal with me. I like it." I love you.

"I like it too." I love you.

As the movie began, she relaxed in his arms, but soon became impatient. She shifted to the side a little so she could reach his face more comfortably and kissed him. They stayed that way for a long time, so long that Audrey started to sing Moon River, and Kara smiled against his lips. It struck her that he kissed her differently than she'd seen him kiss other people. She tried to think straight so she could compare – all those nights at the bar when she'd looked over and seen him making out with random women, alien and otherwise.

He was more careful with her. No less passionate; he didn't treat her like porcelain that could break if pressed too hard, thank god. No, his care was taken in a different way. When Mon-El kissed her, he did it unselfishly, consciously letting her decide exactly what would happen with each embrace. Even when it seemed he was leading their dance, he would always adapt to her steps. He was giving himself to her, putting himself in her hands. He kissed her like he savoured every second, like he was terrified it was all a dream. She marvelled at this small action, this one thing that told her more than any other that he'd changed. When he started as an intern at CatCo, he'd said something like, "on Daxam when a woman wants to please a man," and she'd never been more glad to interrupt someone in her life. But now, he was different. He didn't expect anything of her, didn't presume that she should please him, and he'd even backed off on the protectiveness, even though she knew where it came from. He knew that he didn't own her, she wasn't a possession: she was a partner. She also noticed more than once that his eyes would already be closed by the time she kissed him, and she found it incredibly endearing.

"What?" He asked softly, and she blinked.

"Sorry, I was just… thinking."

"Oh yeah? Thinking about what?"

"Nothing, just…" I love you. She sighed contentedly, "this is really nice."

"Yeah. Now if only people could stop committing crimes all the time, we could do this more often."

"Kara? Kara?" J'onn's voice snapped her out of it and she jerked awake.

"Yeah?"

"Sorry, but there's an issue downtown."

"Of course there is." Kara stood, "What am I up against?"

"Gunmen in the alien bar – we think it's Cadmus, or some other anti-alien terrorist organisation. James has already headed off with Winn, but they could definitely use your help. Like, for example, if there are more than three opponents."

Kara snorted at the joke but sighed at the idea of leaving her sick boyfriend, "Excellent. Because what's life without a crisis to solve?" She rolled her eyes and shot out into the sky.

Eliza watched her adoptive daughter go, "Do you think she's alright?"

"Not even a little bit." Alex said, "But it might do her good to punch some bad guys for a while."

The power in the DEO unexpectedly surged and drained, and everyone looked to the med-bay. Within seconds it was back and his vitals had jumped again – it was the third time it had happened in the last two hours.

"Is the Daxam ship still in orbit?" J'onn asked.

"Yep," Alex responded, "She's refusing to budge, but at least she can't take any action towards us."

"I don't trust her to just sit and wait. She's far too cunning. We need to be careful," J'onn pointed out.

"Really, 'cause I was just gonna kick back and drink a few beers, usher in our new Daxamite overlords?" Maggie remarked. Alex elbowed her.