A mixture of the pain medications that had been forced upon her and the general lack of sleep had left Alex dozing in the uncomfortable chair between Kara and Maggie. Every so often Maggie would shift slightly in her sleep but otherwise the pair were settled and Alex easily slipped back to sleep.

She woke up feeling dazed. Nearby she could hear whispered voices but she was reluctant to open her eyes. She was almost drifting back to sleep when she was startled by one of the monitors alarming. By the time she had struggled to her feet, the offending noise had silenced itself and a quick glance at both women's vitals suggested they were both still stable. As soon as she realised there was no danger, she began to really feel the pain that moving had caused and she sat back down, clutching her side to try to support her ribs, face screwed up in pain.

"Take it easy Alex." She was quickly surrounded by both Eliza and J'onn.

"Mom?"

"I'm here Sweetie."

"What time is it? When did you get here?"

"It's a little after 3am, I've been here about an hour."

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"J'onn's filled me in. I've been going through the charts and I've looked at their blood myself, I'm up to speed."

"I couldn't see anything in their blood tests, no trace of any sedatives."

"I couldn't either. I've got one of the techs testing Supergirl's uniform and Maggie's clothes for any trace evidence. I was just about to take some swabs and then attach some EEG monitoring."

Alex nodded and stood up again to get out of her mother's way. J'onn stepped closer to help but she waved him away.

"I'm fine," she reassured him as she winced slightly.

As Eliza gently swabbed selected areas of their skin, Alex untangled the EEG wires and then placed the electrodes on both Kara and Maggie's heads.

Alex sat back down and studied the brain waves produced. J'onn caught her frowning and came to stand next to her and squinted at the waveforms on the screen.

"What are you seeing?" J'onn asked, catching Eliza's attention.

"Delta waves," Alex shrugged as Eliza joined the pair watching the screen.

"So?"

"They are in deep sleep," Alex mumbled, not looking away from the data.

"Is it helpful?"

"Not really," Alex told him sullenly.

"Well it does narrow down the type of thing they could have been exposed to," Eliza told J'onn a bit more hopefully as she stroked her daughter's hair.

"I'm going to run these swabs in the lab," Eliza announced as Alex eventually jerked away from her mother's touch.

"I'll come and help you," Alex moved to stand up.

"Alex," Eliza sighed and placed her hand on Alex's shoulder to keep her in her seat. "Try to rest, I'll let you know when I have any useful results."

Over the next day Kara and Maggie woke up numerous times, only to be dragged back into their respective dreamworlds. Alex stayed with them, barely leaving her position in between their beds. Even when her sister wasn't screaming, Kara was restless, constantly at risk of falling completely out of the bed, but never quite managing it. In the next bed, Maggie was quietly somewhere between awake and asleep, immune to the chaos that Kara's intermittent returns to reality were creating.

Every time Maggie woke up she was silent. Her eyes never quite seemed to be able to focus on the real world and she looked sad and lost.

At one-point Alex prayed for it to stop, unable to tolerate the constant screaming and worry any longer. After that, Kara seemed to settle slightly and the screams turn to whimpers, maybe she was finally getting better, or maybe she'd worn her voice out.

Kara woke up terrified but not alone.

She was never alone.

There was always someone hovering at the edge of her purple tinted vision, scared to get close to her. If it wasn't Alex quietly watching over her then it was J'onn or Eliza.

There was movement in the next bed and Kara watched Maggie sit up suddenly despite Alex's attempts to lie her back down. Sometimes when Kara had woken up she hadn't been able to see Maggie in the next bed but she could always sense her. Her heartbeat had become as familiar as Alex's over the last few days. No one visited Maggie, owing to the fact that the DEO didn't really exist, but Alex was there, hand on the edge of the bed, not quite touching Maggie's own hand. In amongst the nightmares that she couldn't quite remember, Kara had strained to hear Alex's one-sided conversations until, finally, Alex coaxed Maggie into talking.

"Kara?"

It was only one whispered word but it seemed to reverberate around the room forever. When the non-existent echo finally stopped rattling around Kara's head, a sense of calm settled over her. Tiredness won out over fear and she slept properly for the first time since the purple had arrived.

When Kara woke up again, the purple hue was gone and so was Maggie's heartbeat.

"Maggie?" she whispered.

"Alex took her home, sweetie." Eliza's soft voice added to the calmness that Kara was already feeling.

"What happened?" Kara asked, finally daring to meet Eliza's eyes.

"What do you remember?" Eliza tried to coax her into a conversation, but Kara could only manage one more word.

"Purple."

Kara tried to listen as Eliza explained but she couldn't fully comprehend what she was saying.

"Is Maggie okay?" Kara managed after Eliza finished her explanation.

"She's alright, she didn't sleep as long as you did. The sedative left her system a lot faster than it did yours," Eliza squeezed her hand.

Kara nodded, "Can I see her?"

"Maybe tomorrow," Eliza tried to straighten the blanket over her daughter, but Kara sat up and pushed it off, causing Eliza to flinch away slightly.

Eliza recovered herself well, but it was too late, Kara had seen the fear that had flitted across her features. Her foster mother seemed scared of her.

"When can I go home?"

Eliza sighed, "Shall we see how you are in a few hours?"

Kara nodded, feeling tired again.

"You don't have to do this, I'd have been fine in a cab," Maggie smiled weakly as Alex opened the passenger door of her DEO SUV for her.

"I know," Alex smiled back as she indicated for Maggie to get in the car despite of this, "But I didn't want to pass up an opportunity to nosy around your new apartment."

Maggie struggled to pull herself up into the car and Alex placed a supportive hand on her back.

"Thanks," Maggie whispered as she made it safely into the car and smiled before gently shutting the door and making her way round the front of the vehicle to the driver's seat, anxiously brushing a strand of hair behind her ear and smiling again as she caught Maggie's eye through the window.

"So, where am I going?" Alex asked as she slipped the car into 1st gear and headed for the exit to the parking garage.

"Maggie?" she asked a little louder when she didn't get a response.

"Sorry, what?" Maggie shifted in her seat.

"Your new place, what's the address?"

"Sorry, it's 709 Halston Street, its around the back of that big Walmart near my precinct."

"Oh, yeah, I know it," Alex mused as she opened her window to swipe her key fob to exit the garage.

Maggie didn't seem up for small talk and so Alex let an unexpectedly comfortable silence fall over the car as she drove across the city. Whilst she waited at a red light she glanced over at her ex-fiancée. Maggie's elbow was resting against the window and her head was resting on her hand, her eyes were closed and she appeared to be asleep.

"Mags?"

The light turned green and Alex pulled off the main road onto Maggie's block.

"Maggie?"

"Huh?" Maggie mumbled but didn't open her eyes.

"We're here," Alex told her as she smoothly pulled over into a parking space.

Maggie cracked an eye open and sat up slightly as Alex hopped out of the car and around to the passenger door.

"Come on sleepyhead," Alex tried to sound calm as she released Maggie's seat belt for her.

Maggie stiffly swung her legs out of the door and Alex gently helped her down onto the sidewalk.

"What's the code for the front door?" Alex realised Maggie wasn't going to be able to input it for herself.

"2745."

Alex punched in the code and pulled the heavy door, holding it until Maggie had slowly made her way safely into the foyer and then she grabbed her arm and supported her to the elevator.

The apartment block looked okay, not too grim, but not exactly the most inspiring place to live. Neither woman spoke until the elevator arrived.

"Which floor?" Alex asked as Maggie didn't make an attempt to push any of the buttons.

"Six," Maggie mumbled

"And do you know where your front door keys are?"

"Jacket," Maggie replied monotonously.

Alex rummaged in the bag of Maggie's property that the medics had removed in the medical bay until she found her jacket and retrieved the keys just as the elevator dinged, announcing their arrival on the sixth floor.

"You're going to have to lead the way," Alex prompted when Maggie didn't move.

Maggie looked up reluctantly and then trudged out of the elevator and towards her apartment, which unfortunately was furthest from the elevator. Alex linked her arm after a few slow steps to help speed her up.

"I'm sorry," Maggie whispered as she used Alex to support herself.

"You don't need to apologise," Alex reassured as they finally reached the door.

Still supporting Maggie with one arm, Alex reached out to unlock Maggie's front door and then helped her inside.

"You don't need to stay," Maggie whispered as Alex helped her sit on her couch.

"I know, but I want to make sure you get something to eat and make it into bed safely tonight. And like I said, I want to have a nosy around this place," Alex smiled.

Eliza was still awake, sipping coffee and watching the news on silent, when Alex finally got to Kara's apartment.

"Is Kara okay?"

"She's settled for now."

"And are there any new results from the lab?"

"Nothing noteworthy," Eliza sighed.

Alex nodded and grabbed herself a bottle of water from the fridge, wincing slightly as pain shot through her rib cage.

"Have you taken your pain killers?"

"Yeah, I just keep forgetting about my ribs, it doesn't hurt until I reach out," Alex smiled falsely.

"There's some soup if you're hungry," Eliza offered.

"No thanks, not right now."

"Have you eaten today?"

Alex nodded, it wasn't a complete lie, she had picked at a cold piece of toast at Maggie's apartment after she had ensured that Maggie had eaten and had got to bed safely.

"How's Maggie?"

"I'm not sure," Alex sat next to her mother. "She seems withdrawn, but I don't know if that's because of what happened or because of, you know, us." Alex shrugged and took a sip of water.

"Did she tell you what she dreamt about?"

"No, she doesn't think she did dream," Alex began fiddling with one of Kara's cushions. "She remembers the standoff, Supergirl arriving, a bright purple light and then waking up at the DEO this morning."

"She can't remember any of the times she woke up over the last few days?"

"No," Alex grimaced as she moved the wrong way, putting strain on her sore ribs.

Eliza put her hand on Alex's knee just as there was a loud bang from Kara's bedroom. By the time they'd jumped to their feet, a flash of blue and red was flying out of the window.

"Kara!" Both women yelled, almost screamed, but Kara was long gone.