It's weird—you know?—the things you remember. I don't remember the ride to the hospital, I don't remember arriving, and I definitely don't remember the surgery. I don't remember them poking me with all manner of instruments, or needles. And I certainly don't remember the moment they decided to pump some of Superman's blood into me, hoping to both replace what I had lost, and encourage the growth of my own.
I remember green—bright, unavoidable green, and deep pain that reached to my bones and made me want to vomit. Lights danced outside; vibrant, pure red, and yellow like the sun, but each mutilated by that unending green light. And I was caught in it—unable to move, unable to grow, unable to scream. Then I was covered in bright, sky blue, and then deep black.
Then there was the beeping; slow and steady, but unavoidable. When I tried to move, wires and blankets held me in place, finally encouraging me to open my eyes.
I was in a bleached white room, and next to me, my mother and Lois slept soundly, although uncomfortably in the chairs provided by the hospital.
"Mom?" I croaked; how long was I out?
My mom stirred, as if she only half heard me.
"Mom," I tried again with a stronger voice. This time she stirred all the way, blinking around before her eyes finally landed on me.
"Oh Kara!" she cried, "Oh thank God!" She dove forward to hug me, but recoiled when she touched my shoulder.
"What?" I asked, "Is something wrong?" The beeps started to come faster, but my mom didn't blink an eye.
"Your shoulder, dear, I thought it might hurt when I brushed it."
"Why would it do that?"
My mom knit her eyes, and just that moment, Lois woke up.
"Hey Kara," she smiled, "Finally awake!"
"How long have I been asleep?"
"Oh, only about one day," Lois said, "You're doing remarkably well."
"Kara," my mom said, recapturing my attention, "How much do you remember—about the past few days?"
I felt my own eyebrows knit together as I thought about it. Suddenly, it all came rushing back.
"Oh my god," I reached up to feel my shoulder; touching the hospital gown wasn't enough. I pulled the gown away to see red stained gauze. I was in a state, I knew, because normally I would never have started tearing at the gauze, as if it was some sort of parasite. The doctors and nurses rushed in, trying to stop me, but they stopped when I pulled the white away to reveal flawless white skin.
"How is that possible?" One of the nurses whispered, completely in awe. The doctor carefully pulled away the rest of the gauze, and brushed his finger across the completely pure skin, as if I had simply covered the wound with make-up. He looked at the underside of the gauze to find the stitches that had apparently been in my shoulder in a perfect line down the center.
The only person who wasn't completely surprised was Lois.
"You gave her Kryptonian blood," she said, "It must have speeded up her body's natural healing."
The doctor tapped the skin, then pulled the gown back in place.
"I should have him give blood more often; if only we could get it out with regular needles." He sighed at the thought of being able to heal his worst trauma patients instantly, then turned to his team, "Well, it appears that even the muscle underneath is healed completely, but I want to make sure there aren't any other side effects of the Kryptonian blood, so let's keep you one more night, to be sure, and if everything's ok, we'll release you tomorrow."
"Wow," my mom said after the doctors left, "That's one week ahead of when you were supposed to be released."
"What day is it?"
"Currently?" Lois checked her watch, "Saturday."
"So only one day since I came to Metropolis?"
"Yep," My mom said.
"Wow, cool! Does that mean we can still go to the bowling alley tomorrow?"
My mom looked shocked, but Lois just started laughing.
Later on, after my parents and Lois had left for a refresher break, I was left with Clark to watch over me; he felt so guilty about the whole thing.
"Clark," I said, taking his hand after he had apologized for the fifteenth time, "Stop, would you? It's not your fault that Livewire chose that day to attack your office—you couldn't have known! I'm still not sure how you managed to save me though."
He looked completely shocked, and his eyes flicked over to the open door. "Kara, I wasn't the one who saved you—it was Superman. I was calling the police and evacuating the rest of the office."
I snorted; that was such a terrible lie. "Oh please, Clark, I know you better than that! Besides, don't you remember all the times I used to fall asleep at the reunions, and you would carry me back to the car after I got too big for my dad? I know your arms when I feel them."
Clark looked white as a ghost, but I wasn't really paying attention.
"That reminds me though," I said, just now thinking about it, "How did you do it? Cause I felt like I had fallen for quite a while."
Clark stood up suddenly, and shut the door. When he turned around, he looked like a weight had just dropped on his shoulders.
"What's wrong? Did I say something?"
"No, not exactly," he said, as if trying to choose his words carefully, "Look, Kara, I'm about to tell you something—something I need for you to keep secret. Nobody can know, not even Lois."
He was starting to make me feel uncomfortable. At the foot of my bed, he pulled his tie free and unbuttoned his shirt. "Clark, what are you…" I stopped because under his shirt was another, this one blue, with a red and yellow 'S' in a pentagon, like a shield. I knew the shield belonged to Superman, as there were many shops in Metropolis that sold merchandise featuring the symbol, but some how, the figure had taken on new meaning. I sat up and traced the shape with my fingers.
"But what is it?" I asked, turning to look at my Mom's gentle, smiling face.
"It's the Coat of Arms of the House of El," she said, guiding my little fingers as we traced it, "But it has taken on new meaning recently; now, it is a symbol of…"
"Hope," I whispered, picking up where the memory left off, "a symbol of Hope."
Clark looked completely stunned. "Kara," he suddenly sounded dead serious, "Who told you that?"
"My mother," I whispered, and then my brain processed what I had said, "No, not my mother, not Edna; someone else told me, a long time ago."
Clark seemed to take this in with serious thought; I sat back down, mulling over the memory. What on earth caused me to just now remember that? I didn't remember anything until the month before I was officially adopted by the Kent's, when they came to the orphanage for the first time. I had never asked about my past because it had never mattered.
But the woman in my memory was my mother.
"Clark, where is that a symbol of hope?"
Clark rebuttoned his shirt and re-knotted his tie, frowning in deep thought all the while. He sat down, put his fingers together and tapped them against his lips. "My shield was first shown to me by the recording my father sent with me, to explain my differences. The shield and its meaning are from Krypton."
A thought occurred to me. I carefully stood up, careful not to disturb the wires checking my heart rate. I checked to make sure that the bed wasn't attached to anything, before I put my hands underneath and lifted.
It was much lighter than I anticipated; it must have weighed around 700lbs, but it felt more like it was only 50lbs. I wasn't used to lifting 50lbs, mind you, but I still lifted it up about a foot off the ground.
Clark's eyes were huge. I set the bed gently back down, and climbed back in, before he finally found the words to speak.
"How is that possible? I know they gave you some of my blood, but can it really provide enough DNA to support kryptonian traits? It should wear off!"
But something told me that it wasn't nearly that simple. I pulled off the heart rate monitors that they had left on me and moved to the bathroom. Clark jumped up to calm down the team of nurses that rushed in at the angry sound the machine gave off, but I didn't care. I looked in the mirror, and before my eyes, the blue irises I had always known turned a shade of bright, violent green. I looked back at Clark, who was stunned to silence by the transformation.
"It looks like I am in desperate need of some answers."