Thank you to all for the comments and reviews! I love writing this genre and am happy that others are enjoying the story. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my little piece of fan fiction. :)
The med team burst into Alex's lab only a couple minutes after Hank had called for them. As soon as they entered the room Hank scooped Alex up from Kara's lap and placed her on the stretcher. The medics questioned as to what happened as they strapped alex to the stretcher.
"She just collapsed when she stood up." Kara sobbed unable to hold back the tears.
"She's burning up." One of the medics said as they raced out of the lab and headed towards the Med Bay. Hank and Kara jogged behind them as they moved quickly to get Alex to the help of Dr. Hamilton.
As they reached the Med Bay the glass sliding doors open into the trauma area where Dr. Hamilton and her team were standing by the trauma bed. "What do we have?" she questioned as the medics rolled the stretcher up next to the trauma bed.
"Agent Danvers was in her lab and collapsed unconscious when she stood up. She is burning up to the touch." The medic explained as they got ready to transfer Alex from the stretcher to the bed.
"On my three." Hamilton barked and each of the team grabbed a corner of the sheet. "One, two, three." The team moved in unison transferring Alex over. "I need a full set of vitals including temperature." she instructed and then went over to speak with Kara and Hank who were left standing just inside the med bay making sure the team had room to asses Alex. "Were one of you with her when she collapsed?"
"I was." Kara said trying to get her emotions under control so that she could explain what happened. "She was in her lab and she was sitting at her workbench and her heads was in her hands. She had stood up and turned to me and then just collapsed." Kara's breath hitched. "She looked pale and had grabbed at her shoulder in pain when I had touched it."
"Same shoulder from last night?" Hamilton questioned.
"Yes."
Hamilton immediately returned to the trauma bed. Kara noticed that Alex's shirt had already been cut off leaving her lying in just her sports bra and numerous leads already connected to her chest. "Roll her on her left, please." Hamilton ordered.
One of the nurses Kara knew quite well, Beth who was on the left side of the bed reached over and rolled Alex onto her left side. An audible gasp was heard when Kara saw Alex's shoulder. From under the small bandaid that had covered the small scratch just last night numerous bright red streaks spread down her back and the back of her right arm.
"Doctor what is that?" Hank quickly questioned.
"It appears to be an infection but it doesn't make any sense. The wound was literally a scratch and I did put antibiotics on it last night. It's been less 24 hours I have never seen an infection spread like this this quickly." Hamilton's concern was evident in her voice.
"You said she was fine!" There was anger in Kara's voice.
"She was fine, it was just a scratch." Hamilton replied turning back to the medical team. "What do we have for vitals?"
Nurse Beth started to call out Alex's vitals. "Pulse 110, Resp 25 and wet, BP 100\60, O2 stats 94% and temperature is 103."
As soon as Kara heard a temperature of 103 her heart sank. While she had never had to deal with a fever herself she knew that it was bad. She remembered once when her and Alex were young and Alex came down with pneumonia she had to be hospitalized when her fever got out of control.
Kara's attention was snapped back to the present as Hamilton began to start ordering a course of action. Two bags of fluids, O2, ice packs and cooling blanket, colistin antibiotics, and a complete blood panel and chest x-ray.
"Doctor?" Hank questioned.
"Director I'm not sure what is going on. She is showing all the signs of an infection starting from the scratch that I treated last night. I have never seen anything progress like this especially from the insignificance of the scratch that she had."
"Insignificance!" Kara shouted her anger taking over.
"Kara!" Hank placed a hand on her shoulder trying to calm her down.
"Kara I'm sorry all that I meant by that was that the scratch was just that a scratch it barely broke the surface." Hamilton tried to explain.
"I'm sorry." Kara took a deep breath. "I'm just worried, how could this happen?"
"Do we know anything about the alien that you guys apprehended last night?" The Doctor questioned.
"According to the Fort Rozz database it was a Telaxen, it did have quills but nothing in the database indicated that they were poisonous or toxic." Hank explained.
"I'm running a full blood panel and we will see what that comes back with. At this point I have no idea if it's bacterial, a virus, or some sort of poison. Right now I'm going to treat her with a big gun antibiotic and try to get her fever under control. We will get her moved to the ICU." Hamilton explained and then went back to Alex to check on her.
"Hank." Kara breathed out. "I can't lose her?"
"You won't." Hank said wrapping Kara in a hug. Normally Hank was not one for showing affection in front of others particularly at work, he was the Director after all, but he knew Kara needed it. Hank then pulled her from the embrace and said "I'm going to go check the database to see if we missed anything on this alien. You stay with Alex."
"OK" Kara replied wiping the tears from her cheeks.
Kara was unsure how much time had past as she stood watching the medical team work getting Alex stabilized and ready to be moved to the ICU unit. Alex had been stripped out of her DEO fatigues in lieu of a hospital gown and Kara could see that cold packs had been placed under her neck, armpits, and groin in an attempt to get her fever under control. An oxygen mask had also been placed over her mouth and nose. Kara's breath hitched as she took in how small and fragile Alex looked, a complete opposite of who Alex is. Nurse Beth noticed Kara watching over Alex and approached her.
"Kara, are you OK?" Beth questioned.
"Me? I'm fine it's Alex." Kara replied.
"We got Alex." Beth tried to reassured her. "We need to make sure that Supergirl is OK, her sister is going to need her.
Kara smiled slightly, "I'm fine thanks, Beth just worried about Alex."
"Come on we are almost finished getting her ready just waiting for a couple more things and then we will take her to ICU you can come talk to her." Beth offered leading Kara over to the bed.
"She's awake?!" Kara questioned the excitement in her voice pulled at Beth's heart strings.
"No but she may be able to hear you and you can hold her hand. Knowing Agent Danvers I'm sure that even unconscious she is worried that you are OK having seen her collapse." Beth explained.
"You are probably right she is always looking out for me even when she needs to focus on herself." Kara replied as she approached Alex's bedside.
Kara looked at all the equipment that was surrounding her bed, numerous monitors and IV poles. Alex looked so pale and the sheen of sweat on her brow still there. Kara picked up Alex's hand and could feel the heat radiating into her own hand. "She's still hot?" Kara said looking over at Beth who was adjusting one of the monitors on the opposite side.
"We just got the cold packs on and they are bringing a cooling blanket down. It will take a bit for the temp to come back down. The good news is that it's not going up anymore." Beth smiled trying to reassure Kara.
"OK" Kara returned her attention back to Alex, Alex's hand sandwiched between hers. "Alex it's Kara, listen to me you have to fight this, OK?" Tears started to slide down Kara's cheeks again. "I need my big sister, I can't do this superhero thing without you guiding me." Kara reached up and tucked a clump of hair behind Alex's ear. "Alex, please." Kara felt a slight squeeze on her hand. "Alex?" Kara's heart leapt. "Alex come on you can do it, time to wake up." Kara encouraged Alex as she stoked her forehead. Alex started to stir slightly trying to open her eyes. "Beth she is waking up." Kara called over.
Beth came back over to Alex's bedside with the cooling blanket and placed it on Alex. "Agent Danvers?" Beth gently rubbed Alex's left arm.
Alex was struggling to open her eyes against the heaviness that seemed to be keeping them closed. She could hear voices that kept tugging her towards consciousness but all she wanted to do was sleep. Then one of the voices became clear, "Ka..ra." Barely more than a whisper, something was on her face making it difficult to speak, so she reached up trying to pull whatever it was off."
"Alex, no you need to leave that." Kara said trying to keep Alex's hand from pulling the oxygen mask off but Alex was stubborn and was able to push it to the side.
"Kara." Alex managed to get out her eyes opened but Kara could see they were unfocused and glassy. She reached over cupping Alex's cheek and guiding her focus onto her.
"Hey sleepyhead." Kara smiled
"What happen?" Alex questioned weakly.
"You collapsed in your lab, you were running a fever, Doc thinks it's an infection from the quill last night" Kara explained.
Alex looked around the trauma bay trying to recall how she had ended up there. Beth had pulled her stethoscope off her neck and placed it on Alex's chest causing Alex's attention to shift to the other side of the bed. "Hello Agent Danvers." Beth smiled. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired and hot?" Alex replied shifting slightly in the bed which caused a small gasp from a sharp pain on the back of her shoulder.
"Try not to move around to much your shoulder seems to be the site of the infection so it will be quite tender. If it get to be too much let me know and I can give you some more pain meds." Beth explained.
"It was a scratch, it barely broke the skin." Alex shook her head trying to make sense of what she was being told. She felt so weak and tired, her mind was in a fog, her chest felt heavy as well. She could not ever recall feeling this horrible.
"We sent off a bunch of blood work to get to the bottom of it." Beth replied. "We are all set to get you moved to a room and I will let Dr. Hamilton know that you are awake." Beth nodded to one of the orderlies that had appeared at the foot of the bed and gave Alex a gentle reassuring squeeze on her forearm and then moved the oxygen mask back in place. "Just keep this on for now."
"K" Alex was able to get out before she was no longer able to fight the tiredness.
Kara leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead and then the med team unlocked the brakes of the bed and started to move Alex. Beth paused for a moment and said to Kara, "Why don't you go get into something more comfortable while we get her settled. I'm assuming that no one is going to be able to get you to leave the complex anytime soon so you might as well be comfortable"
Kara had completely forgotten that she was in super suit. "Oh yeah that's a good idea." she replied. Kara kissed the back of Alex's hand that she was still holding, "I will be right back, I love you Alex." She put Alex's hand under the cooling blanket and headed for the locker room.
TBC