Hello darlings!
Thank you all for the great feedback on this story, I'm glad you loved it as much as I did! I'd go on forever if I could; but I just can't let poor Kara be sick forever. What would National City do without her? Anyway, this was my first ever Supergirl story, but you can bet your sweet behinds it won't be my last. I'm already toying with some ideas for the next one, but I'll probably wait until after next week's ep (which is the finale, yes?) before I start...because, well, no spoilers in case you didn't see this week's ep, but I expect there will be all the feels. So, with that said, enjoy! ;)
…...
Power Outage
Part 3 (final)
…...
Kara fell asleep before she could finish her ice cream, which worried Alex more than the fever and the coughing and the dizziness combined. Hank had told her when she'd first checked in with him that if Kara's temp went above 107, she was to contact him for a medical evac immediately, so they could provide the highest level of medical and research support and figure out how to keep Supergirl breathing until her powers returned.
Why hadn't her powers returned? Counting the two days of scans and testing in the DEO before they had foolishly released her to go back to work at CatCo, it had now been three full days since Kara's powers had blown, which was already 33% longer than her cousin in Metropolis had ever gone without his solar batteries getting a natural recharge. And he was a loner, he didn't even have the DEO to stick him under concentrated, bioengineered solar panels for hours on end like Kara had. All things being equal, she should have recharged faster than Clark, not slower. Alex spent the night sitting vigil in Kara's bed, working intently on her laptop to try to analyze and decode her sister's biology. The DEO techs had been studying the robot's remains since Kara had brought in its destroyed robot-corpse three days ago, but so far nothing they had found could give them a clue as to why Kara's powers weren't coming back, so Alex decided to focus on Kara's biology instead, regardless of the catalyst for her power loss.
Alex tried to give her research her complete focus, which was usually easy; she'd always been an excellent student—gifted, actually, she'd graduated from Stanford two years early with Latin honors—but even the fascination of alien biology research couldn't hold her attention when her sister would whimper or cough in her sleep, or cry out her name helplessly in fevered nightmares. Alex found herself shoving her laptop on the bedside table at least once every twenty minutes, pressing cold compresses to Kara's burning face or rubbing her back when she coughed in her sleep. The mammoth doses of human meds she'd forced down Kara's throat didn't seem to be helping much. But Alex was also keeping a close eye on her sister's temp, and thankfully it hadn't gone above 106...yet. She kept checking it every hour through the night, though, anxious to avoid dragging her poor sick little sister out of bed and into the DEO to lie on cold lab tables and be cared for by teams of strangers in white biohazard suits; but equally afraid of what could happen to Kara if she ignored Hank's instructions and kept her home past the point of common sense.
"Lexie?" Kara mumbled sleepily, yawning softly and blinking at the dim outline of her sister's body sitting up in bed next to her, lit by the soft glow of her laptop. It wasn't quite 5am; the sun would be rising soon.
"Hey," Alex grinned hugely, relief flooding her body as she once again shoved her laptop aside and snuggled down into the pillows beside Kara, stroking her hair back from her face and assessing what she saw; sleepy blue eyes, yes, but alert, not bathed in the glassy glow of fevered hallucinations. She had been so scared that Kara might take a turn for the worst in the middle of the night, when things seemed dark and scary and Alex felt so small and helpless to protect her. The older girl didn't even realize she had tears of relief running down her face until Kara reached out and wiped a few away.
"I scared you...I'm sorry," Kara murmured, her sleepy eyes growing slightly more alert as they filled with concern at the sight of her big sister in such distress.
"Don't you dare say you're sorry, dummy," Alex shook her head, taking a deep breath as she wiped away the rest of her tears and wrapped her arms around her little sister's warm body, hugging her tight under the soft nest of blankets. "You're the one who's sick, you shouldn't have to be worried about me."
"Oh, please," Kara scoffed weakly, pausing briefly with a glassy look in her eyes, then drawing one pajama-covered arm across her face to cover a stuffy sneeze. "I thindk...*snf!*...I think we both remember how hard I flipped out the first time I saw you get sick. You were comforting me while you were puking your guts out. I think I owe you," the blonde girl smiled weakly, reaching out and running her fingers lightly through her sister's dark hair, and cuddling up to her snugly in reassurance.
It was true...Kara had flipped her shit pretty hard the first time she saw her big sister get sick. Due to their advanced technology, illness on Krypton was rare; but the few illnesses that had yet to be eradicated were often fatal. Kara herself had never been sick, but her little cousin Shor-Van, Aunt Astra's only child, had contracted the Argo fever when he was seven and Kara was nine. He died in the hospital, after three weeks of terrible pain and hallucinations that made him scream until his voice was gone. Kara remembered how scared he'd been in the end...she was holding his hand when he died.
She'd been on earth for almost ten months now, so she knew in abstract that sickness on this planet was different; more varied, often far less serious; but she'd never actually seen anyone get sick up close. The Danvers were blessed with strong genes and healthy immune systems, and Alex hadn't had so much as a cold in the almost-year since they'd become sisters. Kara was therefore completely unprepared when, one morning in the early spring of her 8th grade year, she realized she had gotten up, showered, and finished dressing for school, and her sister hadn't even come out of her room yet.
"Alex?" Fourteen-year-old Kara knocked tentatively on her sister's door before sticking her head in curiously. "Hey, we're gonna be late..." The blonde alien girl frowned uncertainly when she saw that her sister was still asleep. "Alex?" She said again, more gently, crossing the room to sit on the edge of her sister's bed and shaking her shoulder lightly. Alex made a sound halfway between a whimper and a groan as she opened her eyes.
"Kara...shit," the dark-haired girl mumbled, curling up in a ball under her covers with her arms wrapped tightly around her stomach. Kara noticed the sheen of sweat on her sister's flushed face, and felt her heart begin to beat rapidly with anxiety.
"Lexie, are you okay?" Kara asked anxiously, putting one hand tentatively on her sister's back.
"No," Alex whined; and without warning, she rolled over and threw up into the small trash can between her bed and her desk. On instinct, Kara reached out and held her sister's long, dark hair back from her face, keeping one hand on Alex's back in an attempt to offer her some comfort while she retched up nothing but stomach acid. "Ughhh...fuck me hard," the fifteen-year-old groaned, panting, when she pulled her head back up onto her pillow and looked at Kara miserably. Unlike her sweet little sister, Alex had an extensive vocabulary of curse words already under her belt by the time she'd finished Junior High, and swearing a little seemed to help her feel slightly better at the moment. "Will you get Mom? ...Kara?" Alex blinked quizzically at her sister's strange expression; her face looked frozen. "Kara, what? Haven't you ever seen anyone puke before? I know, it's gross...sorry." Alex was curling up tight again under the covers, her stomach still writhing, and she knew she was going to be sick again. But she was more worried about the weird look still frozen on her little sister's face. "Kara, talk to me..." That was all Alex was able to get out before she leaned over her bed and puked into her trashcan again.
"Eliza!" Kara shrieked, her heart hammering with a full-on panic attack as she held her sister's hair back again, putting her free hand on Alex's sweaty forehead this time to steady her as she hung over the edge of her bed, throwing up into the trashcan. When Eliza Danvers arrived in the doorway, terrified by the sound of Kara's voice when she'd screamed for her, she couldn't decide for a split second who needed her more, Alex or Kara.
"Kara, sweetheart, it's all right. Don't be scared," Eliza said gently, kneeling down by the edge of the bed and putting a hand on her older daughter's back while the dark-haired girl panted weakly, winded and weak from her last round of vomiting. "Alex, I'm here honey. Are you going to be sick again? Should we take you to the bathroom?"
"No," Alex shook her head weakly, pushing herself back onto her pillow even though she knew she was definitely going to throw up again...but hopefully not for a few more minutes. She needed to catch her breath, and she needed to figure out why her little sister was freaking the fuck out. "Kara...I'm okay," she said, trying to sound reassuring though her voice was a little rough and croaky. She even tried to sit up to demonstrate how okay she was, but a wave of dizziness forced her right back down again. "Well, maybe not right this second...but I'll be okay, Kara. It's just the flu. I'll be fine, okay? Kara? Can you please say something?" Alex begged, reaching out and squeezing her sister's hand. The gentle touch seemed to crack whatever dam Kara had frozen up behind the moment she saw Alex get sick, and the fourteen-year-old burst into tears.
"Are you s-s-sure?" The blonde girl choked, gripping Alex's hand a little too tightly, then letting go with a gasp when Alex winced. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Kara wept, pulling her shaking hands back and wrapping them tightly around herself so she wouldn't accidentally injure her fragile human family. They were all so fragile...Alex was sick, she was sick...how could she be okay?
"Kara, honey, breathe," Eliza said gently, putting a hand on the younger girl's back. "You don't have to be scared, sweetheart, I promise. Do you understand? I promise you. Your sister will be fine. This is normal. She'll feel better in a few days, that's all. Just a few days." Alex wanted to sit up and comfort her terrified little sister too, but she couldn't, so she just reached out and rested one hand reassuringly on Kara's leg.
"R-really?" Kara sniffed, wiping her eyes as she looked back and forth between her sister and her foster mom, trying to see whether they were telling the truth or not. She'd already lost one family, one home, her whole world...she couldn't lose Alex too. Even if her body was impervious to harm under the glow of this planet's yellow sun, without Alex Kara wouldn't survive.
"Really, Kara," Alex assured her, squeezing her leg weakly. "You know I wouldn't lie to you, right?" Kara just sniffed and wiped her eyes, suddenly feeling ashamed of her outburst. Alex was the one who was sick, Alex was the one who needed care and attention. Not her. "Right?" Alex persisted.
"R-right," Kara hiccuped, wiping the last of her tears from her red eyes. "How do I...*snf*...how do I help you feel better?" Alex opened her mouth to answer, but at the last second she leaned over her bed and retched again. There was nothing in her stomach left to throw up, but her stomach didn't seem to know that. Kara immediately resumed her former position, holding Alex's hair back with one hand and pressing her feverish forehead with the other to steady her. Seeing Kara's natural caretaking instincts go into action, Eliza took the opportunity to get a cup of water from the bathroom, which she brought back to Alex's bedside. Seeing the water, Kara wordlessly slid one arm behind Alex's shoulders and helped her sit up a little; well, not so much helped her, as held her up. Alex took a tiny sip of water, afraid that any more would make her puke again. Then she slumped back against her little sister's impossibly strong arms with a weak sigh of relief.
"For someone who's never done this before, you're pretty fucking good at it," Alex smiled weakly up at her little sister's tear-streaked face, trying to get a smile out of her.
"Alex, language!" Dr. Danvers chastised her automatically; but when Kara giggled, the older woman couldn't keep the stern expression on her face.
"Do you want to watch a movie? Can I get you medicine? Do you want a backrub?" Kara asked in a rush, trying to think of anything and everything she could do to help Alex feel better faster.
"You're not doing any of those things, young lady. You're going to school," Dr. Danvers said, standing up with her hands on her hips in her most authoritative mom pose. "I'll take care of Alex, you go on before you miss the bus."
"I'm not going to school!" Kara exclaimed in a horrified voice. Eliza was on the verge of arguing back, used to this sort of defiance from her headstrong oldest daughter; but it was the first time ever that Kara had refused to do something she was told—by her foster parents, her teachers, or any adult really—and Eliza could see in the young girl's eyes how much she needed to stay by her sister's side. Whatever frightening memories of Krypton she was having right now, she was obviously traumatized, and if comforting Alex was what Kara needed to do to comfort herself, then that was what they would do. It wasn't as if Kara technically needed school anyway; her knowledge of math and science was already more advanced than any earthling's on the day she landed here, and as for history and literature, her super-speed was just as effective at reading as it was for running and jumping and flying, and she had already read so many books on the humanities that she could easily have graduated from college already. If she wanted to draw attention to herself, which she didn't. But Kara didn't mind, she liked going to school, usually; she considered it one giant field study in anthropology, and the longer she spent studying her classmates and teachers, the easier it became to fit in. But today she didn't need to fit in. Today she was just a scared, orphaned alien who needed to be with her sister.
"All right, then," Eliza half-smiled, warmed above all by the closeness between her two daughters as she watched Kara sit there rubbing Alex's back. "I suppose I'll just call and tell the school secretary you're both sick. Just this once," she added, not wanting to set too lenient of a precedent. Rules and structure were an important part of a normal childhood, too.
"Thank you," Kara sighed gratefully, a huge smile of relief breaking over her face.
"You're such a dork," Alex grinned up at her sister weakly. "And you are not allowed to get mad if I puke on you. You had your chance to escape." But Kara had no intention of escaping. For the next three days, she stayed by Alex's side every second. While Alex slept off her fever, Kara sat beside her in bed for hours, reading books on string theory and quantum mechanics from her foster parents' collection; when Alex was awake, Kara brought her glasses of water and ginger ale and cups of tea, and forced her to drink a little each time before she fell asleep again. When Alex woke up nauseous, Kara seemed to know right away, and put the bedside trash can in her sister's lap so she wouldn't have to lean over the side of the bed to throw up. Finally, late in the afternoon on Alex's third sick day, she woke up feeling better; not a hundred percent, but her stomach felt normal, she was even a little hungry. She blinked sleepily, rubbing her eyes, and looked over unsurprised to see her sister still sitting beside her.
"Hey," Alex croaked out softly, her voice hoarse with sleepiness.
"Hey," Kara beamed back at her, immediately dropping the textbook and notepad in her lap and rolling onto her stomach to snuggle up to her sister, reaching out to feel her head. She felt cool again, like she normally did, at least to Kara, whose normal body temperature was several degrees higher. "You're getting better," the young blonde girl said with a huge smile, notes of relief and surprise mixed together in her voice.
"Told you," Alex smirked, reaching out and running her fingers affectionately through her sister's baby-soft blonde hair. Then she looked over and noticed that the textbook Kara had open on the bed was one of her own—her 9th grade AP Bio book, to be exact. "What are you doing?" The older girl asked curiously.
"Your homework," Kara shrugged. With a rarely-seen devious smile, she leaned in close to her older sister and whispered, "Don't tell."
Back in Kara's apartment in National City, the two sisters both giggled softly at the long-ago memory. "Yeah...okay," Alex sniffed, nuzzling up to Kara and letting her little sister rub her back soothingly. "You did scare me this time. I guess we're even."
"Yes we are," Kara agreed sleepily. She felt a sneeze coming on, but she didn't want to let go of Alex, who was currently cuddled up tight against her in comfort and reassurance; so she just ducked her head down against her big sister's shoulder, pointing her germs down away from her sister's face as she shivered and sneezed weakly.
"Bless you baby," Alex murmured, sitting up just enough to grab a tissue from the bedside table, and passing it to Kara, who was still sniffling.
"Thadk you," Kara croaked softly, holding the tissue with both hands to blow her nose, which she had more or less mastered in the last 24 hours.
Then, without warning, a blood-curdling shriek from the building across the street made the blonde girl sit bold upright in bed, and without conscious thought, her x-ray eyes were shooting through the wall, across the street, to where a toddler had fallen out of the high-rise window through a faulty baby-gate. The shriek was from the child's mother, who stood at the window in horror, reaching out for her child while her husband stood behind her and held her back from falling out the window herself. In the split-second before she flew—literally, flew—out of her bed and out the window to catch the falling child, Alex looked at her sister's face and knew she was herself again, powers intact. She hadn't said or done anything to convey it; she even still had a little bit of snot running from one side of her nose, but it took only a fraction of a second's adrenalin rush for her body to reset itself, and Alex knew it. She just knew. So she wasn't as surprised as she might have been when Kara flew out of the bed, out of the window, and caught the baby about ten feet before he would've splattered on the sidewalk. It was just daybreak now, and the sun was rising behind her when she flew the child back up the twelve stories to his mother, sobbing in the window; and at least a dozen people whipped out their phones and captured a photo unlike National City had ever seen before: Supergirl saving the day in her pajamas.