Alex looks stricken when she finishes.
Her jaw firmly shut.
Something akin to a mixture of anger, fury, and guilt light fires and radiate in waves throughout the room.
Even from this distance, Maggie sees the whites of the brunette's knuckles as they tighten their grip on her medical charts.
The brunette's suppressed anger is barely staying under wraps.
And Maggie sees the gears working furiously in her girlfriend's mind.
Who did this?
Why wasn't I there?
Who? Why? Who?
It's the mantra running rapidly though her head.
Even if she doesn't say it out loud.
The lividness is electrifying.
"Alex."
When she turns, at last to face her, there are no trace of tears.
Not in her eyes. Not in salty marks tearing down her face.
Alex hardly ever cried.
She was so used to being the strong one. So much so that tears were always an afterthought.
It had to be serious for Alex to shed a tear.
And right now fury trumped anything else.
His eyes were narrowed, rigid, cold, hard.
And in that moment Maggie knows she was already far away.
She doesn't even blink.
Maggie can tell she's already dreaming up a plan.
A plan to track down the bastards.
A plan to torture them.
A plan that, admittedly, Maggie can't wait to jump on board with.
As soon as the fractures in her bones fuse themselves back together.
"There were two of them?"
The steeliness in Alex's tone could cut the atmosphere with its sharpness.
Low and deadly and razor-edged.
Maggie nods. A silent affirmation of the story she'd just told.
Repeating the facts not because Alex hadn't heard her, but because Alex was still trying to believe what she'd just said.
Her girlfriend rests her elbows on her knees.
Her expression contorts even further. Twisting into a grimace.
And it's obvious Maggie's response hadn't done anything to quell her fury.
Only added fuel to that fire.
"Damn it!"
Alex springs from her chair. Begins pacing the short span of the room.
"I swear to God if it was Cadmus!"
The brunette's spitting fire now.
"Alex."
Her girlfriend whirls to face her.
Still holding onto the reins of her fury
"They didn't touch you did they?"
And Maggie can practically feel the guilt radiating off of her for missing the frenzy of what occurred in those early morning hours.
She shakes her head.
Something within her deflates.
And Alex collapses back down into her chair.
Massages her temples with her hands.
"God. Why didn't she say anything? Why didn't Kara…"
The guilt catches up with the anger.
The fury backing up minutely, as remorse slowly takes its place.
Smothering the fires the anger started.
"She was drugged out of her mind Alex… I don't think she even remembers."
Maggie regrets the words as soon as she says them.
Because Alex is clearly beating herself up over this.
And Maggie remembers she's only seen the front half of what happened that night.
Not anything after that.
"God. I'm supposed to protect her. If I had been there…"
Alex saw herself as Kara's guardian.
Protected her fiercely.
Defended her to the end.
She would always take anything that happened to her younger sister as a hit.
As a failure.
"Hey. None of that. It's no one's fault but theirs."
Maggie wheezes softly, but firmly.
Alex deflates a little.
Silence reigns for a moment as she thinks.
And when she looks at Maggie again the anger is muted.
"If it was.. If she was drugged…I have to go back to the bar."
Alex pales as she says it.
She clearly doesn't want to leave Maggie.
She clearly wants to go hunt down her sister.
But they both know the longer they wait, the less successful their chances are of them finding the bastards are.
And if you want a job done right, you often had to do it yourself.
The brunette sighs as she runs hand through her short cropped hair.
And her hand finds Maggie's again. Squeezes it firmly.
"I think Agent Vasquez is going to come in soon with more pain meds. Can you please not go all lone wolf and actually take them?"
Maggie smirks tiredly.
Alex squeezes her hand tighter.
And when her grip loosens, Maggie finds herself already missing her touch.
"I'll keep you posted."
The determination and lividness lights itself in the forefront of Alex's eyes.
God forbid the bastards cross her path now.
…. … … …
"Hey."
The detective looks away from Alex's most recent text message.
Looks towards the entrance of her room.
Kara.
The gangly alien lingers outside the door, clad in ashen-gray sweatpants and an even darker charcoal shirt.
The muted colors of the clothes highlight the pale, ashen pallor of her skin.
The same dark circles that had taken residence under Alex's eyes were just as pertinent on her sister.
It makes her look smaller, younger than she actually is.
Makes her look strikingly vulnerable.
Processing.
So this is what Kara Danvers processing looked like.
"Hey Danvers."
The detective palms her cellphone, conceals it from view, as she beckons the younger woman in.
The blonde doesn't waver from her spot.
"Alex… Alex said you needed some company."
The younger Danvers's tone is soft. Unsure. Hesitant. Fragile.
And Maggie knows Alex sent her sister here for more than one reason.
Because the detective herself had been a lone wolf for as long as she could remember.
And her girlfriend certainly knew that the brunette, no matter the circumstance, could handle herself for a few hours.
So no. This was two things.
A subtle move by Alex to make sure someone she trusted was keeping an eye on Kara.
And a reassuring guarantee that the two people she loved most, were safe. Together.
"Yeah well I have to say entertainment isn't one of the DEO's strong suits."
Maggie forces her voice to remain as even and nonchalant and sarcastic as it's ever been because Kara seems to be looking for the slightest excuse to make a hasty exit.
She considers it a success when a ghost of a smile passes across the younger women's lips.
Though it doesn't match the carefully placed distance in her eyes.
For another moment neither of them move.
Then as if the ice had thawed from around her feet, Kara moves into the room.
Folds herself up into the arm chair across from Maggie's hospital bed.
And as the younger woman settles herself, the detective notices the DEO insignia stitched into the grey in her clothes.
Alluding to the fact that either Kara had found a sudden love for the mandated government clothing or she hadn't been home since this entire thing occurred.
Maggie was leaning toward the latter.
"How are you feeling?"
The blonde's line of vision doesn't waver from the ground as she shrugs.
Then, as if reevaluating her response, the alien shakes her head.
Looks up at her and smiles a weak, watery version of her normal grin.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?"
Maggie had forgotten how bad she must have looked.
The pain medication having kicked in hours ago, makes everything feel a few notches above vaguely uncomfortable.
Nowhere near as bad as before.
"You and Alex seem to be convinced I haven't ever broken a bone in my body. It's a few cracked ribs. I'll be fine."
She sugarcoats it for her benefit.
Laughs it off as trivial, even though the discomfort in her ribs protests the triviality of it all.
Even though Kara could use her X-ray vision to prove her wrong if she really wanted too.
But even without it, Maggie can still tell the blonde doesn't entirely believe her.
Everyone always had a tell. A nervous tic of some kind.
Winn drummed his fingers. Alex bit her lip. And Kara… Kara usually had a horrible poker face.
Her entire expression would stitch together. Highlighting even the slightest semblance of emotion.
And her brows are furrowed now, her hands wringing together, her foot anxiously tapping against the ground.
Something else is bothering her.
Maggie shifts in the bed, ignoring the small twinge as she scrutinizes her friend closer.
She's shaking.
Small tremors. Not nearly as bad as they'd been that night.
But tremors nonetheless.
"Kara… Your hands, they're shaking…"
The younger Danvers's focus flits back to her hands.
And Maggie watches her look at them for those few seconds with such an off-putting peculiarity.
As if she can't quite believe that the trembling hands are in fact hers.
The obvious confusion makes the detective feel sick to her stomach.
"Kara…"
The blonde clenches her trembling hands into tightly wound fists.
Then unclenches them. Then clenches. Unclenches.
Finally just shoves them into the pockets of her baggy sweatpants, when they don't stop trembling.
"Uh.… Um… I'm I-I just wanted to s-say sorry. I-I didn't mean to.. to um- Um-"
Maggie's already shaking her head, stifling her surprise, as Kara tries to stammer out an apology.
So she knew.
And for a moment Maggie's angry at whoever told her.
Because Alex certainly hadn't known when she'd come in hours earlier.
And Kara certainly hadn't needed to know about it now.
"It wasn't your fault, Kara."
The younger Danvers refuses to look up or even meet her eyes.
Refuses to agree with anything Maggie just said.
"I'm sorry."
Kara says it in a whisper.
The phrase is thick and frail and heavy with tears.
Like she's trying not to cry.
"Kara. It was not your fault. I'm going to be fine."
The detective interrupts firmly.
She'd never been good at comforting people.
It had never been her strong suit.
But her gut is twisting as she watches the younger girl fray apart at the edges.
Suddenly the blonde flinches, and the detective watches Kara abruptly glance to her left.
Maggie follows her line of vision, but sees nothing but the white walls of the DEO.
And when she turns back, Kara's ferociously rubbing her temples, looking back at the ground.
The younger woman offers no explanation.
For a moment nothing can be heard except the anxious rhythm of Kara's foot against the floor.
"Maggie… What do you do… What do you when everything hurts?"
Kara sounds like she's about to fracture into a dozen pieces.
And how is Maggie supposed to respond to that?
Supergirl is invincible. Supposed to be. Should have been. Hadn't been at all recently.
How do you describe pain to someone who isn't supposed to feel it?
But Kara's looking at her anxiously.
The careful distance in her eyes having withered away with the deteriorating conversation.
Now her eyes are frozen over like winter, frozen with pain, with fear, with something.
Robbing them of their usual warmth.
Leaving the rest of the emotions to battle it out, and eventually helplessness wins out in the end.
"I… I don't know w-what to… to do Maggie. I went under the Sun Lamp.. I stayed under the sun… And it's supposed to make everything not hurt. It's supposed to make everything not… It-It's not supposed to h-hurt."
The blonde's gasping her way through her explanation, salty tears threatening to spill over.
It's obviously apparent that Kara's dealing with a lot more than she portrays on the surface.
But Maggie doesn't know how to help with that.
And the one person that does isn't here.
"Kara! Have you told Alex about any of this?"
Maggie asks this even though she already knows the answer.
Because if Alex had known, she'd be here now instead of enacting justice on the bastards from that night.
Because Kara would always be more important her than revenge would ever be.
She idly wonders how none of the others caught it.
Winn. J'oon. James. Fucking Mon-el.
Because according to J'onn she's been out for seventy-two hours.
"I… I'm such a m-mess… I shouldn't have… I'm really… R-really sorry…"
Kara's looking to the left again.
Scrutinizing that same wall as she tries to eject herself from the conversation without answering Maggie's question.
"Kara. Look at me. Have you gotten any sleep since… since this began?"
"Sleep. Yeah." the blonde murmurs unconvincingly to herself. "I just need some sleep."
That's not an answer.
But the blonde doesn't give her the opportunity to investigate further.
The foot tapping ceases.
And suddenly the blonde is unfolding herself from the chair. Making her way towards the door.
"Kara…"
But the blonde isn't listening.
Exiting quickly with her arms wrapped so tightly around herself she looks like she's wearing a straightjacket.
She watches Kara's retreating form.
And the second her friend disappears from view, Maggie reaches back for her phone.
Kara needs her sister.
Now more than ever.
…..
(What happened with Kara isn't an easy fix. It's much more complicated than that… What did you think? )