I'm just so so so excited to be finally posting this story, 'cos I've had this idea floating around my head for aaages without really doing much with it. But I've just finished exams and have about a month of holiday, so I'm gonna really knuckle down and hopefully get heaps out before I go back to uni!
This is the first time I'm writing in the Supergirl fandom, but I just absolutely love these characters, my favourite of course being the Danvers sisters. In real life, my sister is my best best friend in the entire world; we're close in a way that words simply can't describe (believe me, I've tried before), so I really want to just use those emotions to hopefully create something that's at least readable! haha.
Anyway, sorry, super long note. This story revolves around flashbacks, which are shown through italics, anything else is in the present time. Hopefully that's kinda clear! As usual, I own nothing from this show.
Hope you enjoy!
...
Chapter One:
There's a sound to silence. A ringing. Like a reminder that something should really be there.
Alex blinks, and even this movement takes enormous effort. There's a harsh weight pressed to her chest and a sharp prickling in her fingers, and with each new realization comes an equal sense of confusion.
She blinks again.
There's dust swirling in the air above her, figures in the shadowy edges of her vision, but for the life of her, Alex can't make any move to investigate who they are or where she is or just what the hell is going on. It looks like there's been an explosion or something. But that doesn't make sense. Surely she'd remember something like that, right?
The ringing in her ears gives way to something else, a horrifying nausea, and it's a long time before Alex's mind catches up with what she's hearing, and even then there's no context to it.
"Get medical here now!"
"I need some help here."
And then, an authoritative voice, familiar in the way it demands attention. J'onn. "Start clearing the area, get the injured out of here. We need to find Danvers."
Danvers. Danvers. But wasn't that her?
With a groan, Alex manages to lift her body up. A chunk of drywall falls off her chest, but apart from an odd purpling bruise colouring the back of her right hand- odd, she can't remember doing anything that would cause such an injury- and a sharp, thumping pain in her head accompanied by a rolling nausea, she's relatively unharmed. It's as she's busy getting to her feet that Alex sees someone reassuringly familiar.
Maggie's on her knees beside someone's still form, facing away so all Alex can see is the usual black jacket and waves of dark hair, discoloured as they are by dust and debris. There's no way Maggie could possibly hear Alex over the screams and desperate yells of the agents around them, but she must sense something, because Maggie stiffens slightly, turning to face her as Alex takes a stumbling step forward.
And Alex stares as Maggie's face changes.
Watches as her eyes widen.
Something akin to fear in her expression as she stares back.
And it's that- that horrible emotion- which has Alex taking another shaky step towards her girlfriend, instinctively looking to comfort or stop whatever is making Maggie scared.
She's so focused on helping, that Alex fails to notice just where her girlfriend's fear is aimed.
Instantly, Maggie's hand shoots to her holstered gun, drawing the weapon and aiming it at Alex's chest. Her grip's noticeably shaky, sure, but it'd still be a lethal enough shot and Alex instinctively takes a step back, raising her hands.
"Maggie- Mags, what-"
"Stop- Alex, just don't come any closer to her-" Maggie's voice is trembling in a way she's never heard before, horrified in a way that cuts through her.
"Mags, please, what's going on-?"
"Agent Danvers." It's Hank this time, no weapon visible, but his eyes glowing in the way that warns of the potential for his Martian powers. "On your knees. Now."
There's no room for disagreement in his words, and Alex's head is spinning far too much to disobey a direct order from her boss. Falling to her knees, she flinches against the harsh bite of cuffs around her bruised wrists, but otherwise makes no word of protest. Maggie still hasn't moved from where she's standing, nor has she fully put down her gun, and Alex can't even begin to understand what's going on.
She doesn't get the chance to either, because then there's a sharp pinch as a needle's injected into her neck, and a rush of cold through her veins.
There's an instant- a split second before the world turns black- where she manages to catch a glimpse of who Maggie had been crouched over before, who she'd refused to let Alex closer to.
A girl lying motionless, a red cape crumpled underneath her and blood smeared over the stylized "S" on her chest.
Supergirl. Kara.
(One Month Earlier:
For the first time in what feels like months, her alarm isn't what wakes Alex up.
She blinks blearily against the morning sun, before smiling into her pillow as she registers the feel of her girlfriend's lips pressing kisses up her back. "What time is it?" Alex moans softly.
"You really wanna know?"
Alex groans again, and she hears Maggie chuckle.
She rolls over. Maggie has propped herself up on her elbows, dark hair tousled and oversized grey shirt slipping off one shoulder, but her eyes are clear and bright, shining in the pale sunlight that's streaming through the window.
Alex brushes a hand softly along Maggie's forearm. "Did we just make it a whole night without one of our phones going off?" she asks.
"Pretty much," Maggie falls back to the bed, "you did just get a text though. But it's only Kara, so I don't think that counts."
Her phone's on the bedside where she set it up to charge last night, and sure enough there's a text from her sister.
Coming over now.
Please be wearing clothes.
What follows is a series of emojis, the ones that always end all of Kara's messages, but including for the first time what appears to be-
"Since when did they have a Supergirl emoji?!"
"No way," Maggie says, leaning forward to see for herself. She lets out a laugh a few moments later. "Look how cute it is! It's got a little cape and everything!"
"Kara's never going to let this one down," Alex groans, burrowing her face back in her pillow.
"Eh, that's what you said when she discovered that cereal that was using her as its design inspiration, and she got over that pretty quickly."
"Only after she bought one for herself and found that cereal made to look like your face isn't actually the best thing in the world."
Chuckling, Maggie rolls closer and Alex shifts so they can share the pillow. Their faces are mere inches apart like this, and there's nothing more Alex wants to do then to just lay here, memorizing the fine lines and shadowed angles that make up her girlfriend's face. But she knows that Maggie has to get to work soon, or that she'll get a call from the DEO asking her to come in. It's the unavoidable nature of their jobs, and for the most part Alex didn't resent it; their work was what had bought them together in the first place. It just forced her to appreciate small moments like this; waking up next to each other. And, if Maggie's contemplative eyes are anything to go by, she does too.
She brushes a hand over Maggie's cheek. "You'll be careful today?"
Her girlfriend gives a soft smile, but tilts her head slightly in confusion. "You know I always am."
"I know that- I do," Alex rolls over, facing the ceiling, and lets out a long breath, "I just… worry sometimes, you know? This is all just so new; I don't want to lose it before I've fully come to grips with what it means."
"Yeah… but that's… that's too big of a thought, Alex. That's worrying over thing's you can't control."
"I know," Alex buries her face in her hands, so her next words are muffled, "but that doesn't make it any easier."
"Hey," Maggie tugs down her hands, "I can't promise to be safe, but I'll promise to be careful, to try my hardest to get back to you. How's that?"
Alex stares for a long moment, before leaning forward to kiss her girlfriend quickly. "That sounds like something I could agree to."
Maggie smiles. "Okay, but you've got to too."
"What?"
"Come on, you think you're the only one that worries? Between us, who's the one that works with aliens?"
"Aliens are predictable. They're either trying to fly under the radar or take over the world. It's human's you have to watch out for."
"Mmm, you might have a point there," Maggie chuckles, but there's an edge to her words, and when she looks up at Alex her eyes are dark pools of an emotion that isn't fully identifiable.
Uncertainty, perhaps.
Apprehensiveness.
Is this her way, then, of expressing the same fear that grips Alex sometimes, that something will end this relationship before they've fully experienced it?
Alex reaches up and tugs Maggie's hand from under the pillow, gripping her pinky in her own. "I swear," she says, ignoring her girlfriend's playful eye roll, "to always try my hardest to stay safe, to not make any stupid decisions, and to come back to you."
It was a similar promise to one Alex had made to Kara a long time ago, back when the wounds from an exploded planet and a lost family were still raw enough to grip the girl in terrifying depression.
Alex hadn't yet had cause to break that promise.
So surely, she wouldn't have to now.
When Alex wakes, she's in a horrifyingly familiar place. Familiar, because she knows exactly where it is. Horrifying, because she never expected to find herself on this side of the glass.
The DEO cell swims into focus, lit brightly enough that Alex groans. There's a furious pounding in her head and a pressure against her chest that leaves her gasping, but something stops her when she tries to make a move to shove it away. Alex looks down. There's magnetized cuffs encircling her wrists, ankles and torso, especially effective considering her weakened state.
And it's then that she remembers.
J'onn telling her to stand down.
Maggie pointing a gun at her.
And God, Kara- Kara, unconscious and bleeding.
Alex jerks her wrists, but the cuffs are far too strong and the IV in her left hand stabs further into her vein. Maybe if she was able to dislodge the needle, though, she could work on getting herself out of the restraints and finding out just what the hell was going on. Maybe-
"Don't even think about it."
Alex jumps, then swears roughly as her head gives a responding throb. She hadn't even seen him just inside the glass-paned wall of the cell. "J'onn?"
The Martian takes a few steps forward, close enough for her to see the bruises marring his face, the swelling of his eye. "God, J'onn, what happened?"
He stills- she watches it happen. His muscles freeze, a rigidness straightening his spine and his dark eyes hardening. "You don't know," he says, and it's not a question.
"Know what? Fuck, J'onn, what happened?"
The colours in her vision are beginning to swirl, the edges darkening, but there's still so much Alex doesn't understand that she forces herself away from the shadowy edge of unconsciousness despite the protesting wooziness in her head.
And somewhere to her left, a machine beeps in warning. J'onn's eyes dart towards it. "Calm down," he says.
"Just tell me what the hell's going on." Red crackles at the edge of her vision, and she distantly hears another beep.
The Director growls. "Damnit, Danvers, you need to calm down."
"Why am I in a cell? How the hell am I supposed to calm down when you won't tell me what's going on?"
"I can't tell you what happened because you're the only one that knows, Alex!"
That strikes her short. Her mouth opens, but she finds no words in way of an answer.
J'onn seems to force calm, visibly reigning himself in, and when he next speaks his words are emotionless- which just mean they hit her all the more harder. "You've been lying to me, Alex, and I thought you were one of the few people I could trust not to do that."
She opens her mouth to deny it; instinctively looking to argue back.
But then something stops her.
Makes her pause.
Almost like some dormant part of her mind is recognizing an element of truth in J'onn's words. And that scares her. Because her whole life is built on maintaining lies and fronts and covers, but like J'onn said; he's one of the few people that aren't included within that. So what could have been so horrible that Alex felt she couldn't share with him?
But J'onn steps away from her bedside before she can ask. "Get some rest. I've got a mess to clean up," is all he says, stepping towards the door.
Alex fumbles to find something to stop him. "I- I feel fine, I swear, I can help-"
"You won't feel fine for much longer. Med's got you hooked up to flush whatever's in your system," he pauses then, and his words take on an edge, "and I don't think many people would be willing to accept your help at the moment."
She drops her gaze, completely unable to meet J'onn's stare. He's right though, too, because even in these small moments she's been conscious the thumping pain in her head has gotten worse with each labored breath.
Her eyes fall to the restraints around her wrists. Her right hand still has that odd, purpling bruise around her knuckles. Judging from the colour and spread, it's at least a day old, and suddenly she's caught up in a memory, hitting her with all the force of a speeding train.
(Kara's got her hands out in front of her, like she's trying to placate a wild animal. "Alex…" she whispers, her words impossibly soft.
It's instinct, the way Alex reacts. Because she has to get away and she has to fight and she has to make it stop, stop- just stop!
Kara is so focused on helping that she doesn't see it coming. Or maybe she does, but doesn't expect the effect it has.
Alex's fist slams into Kara's face, and while pain crackles across her hand- so strong it makes Alex gasp-it sends the Kryptonian flying back to slam into the wall.
And then there's only a deathly silence, in which Kara slowly reaches a hand up to wipe away the blood dripping from her nose.)
Alex blinks herself back to the present.
"J'onn, wait- please-"
Her fractured words stop the Martian in his tracks. He turns back to the bed.
"J'onn," Alex licks her cracked lips. "Where's Kara… please…"
His face shifts, features locking down even as his eyes take on another emotion.
"J'onn?"
But he merely shakes his head once- refusing her an answer? Or simply unable to give one? Both are horrible possibilities. He turns again, making his way to the door.
"No wait- where's Kara? What happened?! J'onn!" Her voice rises to a terrible cracked shout, "J'onn- where's Kara- where's my sister?!"
Thank you so much for reading! It means the world. If you could take the time to leave a review, it would be amazing, but thank you regardless :)
Next chapter up soon! (Hopefully with some actual answers...)
-F