Author's Notes: I'm so glad you all enjoyed the first chapter! It got way more of a response than I thought it would. You guys are the best!
Chapter Two: Blown
Alex did her best to keep her coughing to a minimum as she passed through the doors of the DEO. She was still sick — not deathly so, granted, but she certainly didn't feel like her usual self either. She wouldn't have even been back at the base (mostly because of Kara's continued threats to report her health status to her mother) if it hadn't been for J'onn calling her in.
"Hank? What's the emergency?" she questioned as she didn't-quite-trot-because-the-chest-congestion-had-her-slightly-winded-but-still-quickly-walked up the steps to where he was standing on the platform in the control room, monitoring something on the screens before him.
He turned toward her, giving her a fatherly scrutinizing-squinted-eyes once-over before muttering, "This is like some strange, role reversal déjà vu." Then he pointed toward the lab. Before she even turned her head, Alex had a feeling she knew what she was going to see and her instinct was right.
Kara.
Her sister was sitting in the glass-walled room, head down, frown on her face. Alex sighed and looked back at J'onn. She opened her mouth to ask what had happened, but he seemed to anticipate it (or perhaps he was reading her mind...) because he shook his head and said, "You might just want to ask her."
Alex didn't question it further, just nodded her understanding and moved off.
The lab door was open when she got to it, so she walked in without pause. "Kara?" she called.
When Kara looked up, Alex's heart clenched at the sadness she saw in her sister's eyes. She immediately opened her arms as she crossed over to her and hugged her tight. "What's wrong? What happened?"
"Hank didn't tell you?" Kara asked, hugging Alex back.
"No," Alex replied with a shake of her head. She pulled back so she could see her sister's face, but kept her hands on Kara's shoulders. "What's going on?"
"Collapse in the south-bound bay tunnel," her tougher-than-steel sister sighed. "There was a family trapped. The water — it was just rushing in so fast…" Kara shook her head, dropping Alex's gaze to stare at a spot beyond her.
Alex frowned at the way Kara's voice grew more strained with each word. She squeezed her shoulders. "...They drowned?" she softly asked so that Kara wouldn't have to voice the painful words herself.
Kara's eyes shot back to Alex's and she immediately shook her head. "No! I blasted through and we got the family out, but…"
"But?"
Kara's face crumpled slightly, a sudden rush of tears highlighting the blue of her round, sad eyes in the most piteous way. "I wasn't fast enough and their puppy…" She sucked in a pathetic little hiccuped breath. "I couldn't get to him."
A beat of pure mental '...Huh?' passed where Alex just stared at Kara before she finally blinked herself free of it and said, "Awww, Kara…" She hugged her sister again and frowned, perplexed, behind her back. It wasn't that she couldn't understand Kara's distress —she loved dogs as much as the next person—, she was just wondering why J'onn would have called her about this. She found his decision to label Kara being sad over a puppy dying an "emergency" a strange mix of endearing and confusing.
Endearing because he clearly cared enough about Kara's emotional well-being to call Alex in. It was a huge difference to how he'd behaved toward the younger Danvers sister when she'd first started working with the DEO.
At the same time though, it was confusing because it wasn't actually an emergency and he wasn't usually one for over-exaggerating. Was it just that he hadn't wanted to deal with an emotional Kara himself? It was possible, she supposed, if he was extraordinarily busy, but he hadn't seemed to be when she'd walked in, nor was the working hum of the DEO particularly energized like tended to be when something big was going on. Even now, J'onn didn't seem to really be paying attention to the activity around him. He was instead eyeing the two of them through the glass.
"I'm sorry about the puppy…" Alex said slowly, gently patting Kara's back as her sister continued to cling on to her. "But sometimes… well, sometimes you just can't save everyone."
"I know that," Kara said softly, pushing back, a frown marring her sweet features. She unthinkingly wiped her nose with the back of her hand, reminding Alex very much of a small child. "It's just— ...the look on the little girl's face when I couldn't save him." She sniffed, staring dejectedly down at the floor. "If I hadn't panicked... If I hadn't pushed so hard and blown out my powers…"
Alex blinked. "What?"
Kara very slowly brought her eyes back up to meet Alex's once more and she replied with a wince, "...I blew out my powers again? Trying to get through to the family fast enough..."
Alex resisted the urge to facepalm. It was no wonder J'onn that had been concerned! "And you didn't lead with this?" she questioned, but even as she said it, she realized just how like her sister it actually was — to be more concerned about a puppy than blowing out her powers.
Kara sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm kind of out of it…"
Alex softened her exasperated expression and squeezed Kara's forearm, saying, "It's okay," before overprotective big sister mode fully set in. She started checking Kara over. "Are you alright? Are you hurt? Did Hernandez check you out? Or Hamilton?"
Kara pulled back from Alex's examining hands. "Yes, Hernandez checked me out. I'm fine, he says, save being powerless again. I'm just… tired. And worried, obviously."
"That your powers won't come back?"
Kara nodded. "Yeah."
"They did last time."
"Only because James fell down an elevator shaft."
Alex reflected on this for a beat and then nodded. "True, but it's alright, we'll figure it out. If it comes down to it, I'm sure we could replicate that experience. I even bet Winn would be willing to push James off a building or something for you."
"Alex!"
"What? I'm just saying," she said with a grin. She was worried, too, of course, but the need to bring comfort to her sister outweighed that for the moment.
Kara rolled her eyes at Alex, but then smirked.
"C'mon, let's get you home."
"Okay," Kara said.
The pair started out the lab, Kara looping her arm through Alex's. They were halfway across the control room when a harsh round of coughing bubbled up from Alex's chest and she was unable to keep it contained.
She paused there suddenly, not because the coughing was so terrible that she couldn't keep walking, but because an alarming thought had occurred to her in that moment. She looked at Kara, eyes wide. "Kara, I'm sick."
"I know. I was there, remember? With the bucket and the popsicles?" Kara replied mildly. "And Pud—"
Alex quickly waved her off, not wanting her to announce any further embarrassing details of her recovery while standing in the middle of the DEO. She had a badass reputation to maintain. "No, I know that," she hissed. "What I mean is that I'm still sick and you're now without powers."
It took Kara a beat, but very quickly after a look of comprehension bloomed bright across her face. "Ooooh," she said, then shook her head. "I'm sure I'll be fine. Just don't cough on me."
"Ugh. Not fine."
"What?" Alex asked, startled at Kara's green tone.
"Not fine," Kara repeated before she slapped one hand over her mouth and smacked the dashboard multiple times in quick succession with the other. "Not fine!"
Alex immediately swerved across three lanes of traffic and slammed the car to a halt the moment both sets of wheels had made it over the rumble strip on the side of the road.
Kara swung the door open and immediately puked, unable to even get her belt off before she did so.
They were barely twenty-five minutes into the forty-seven minute trip (Alex had timed it for a number of reasons, though mainly so she knew when to leave work in order to be on time for their movie nights) from the DEO to Kara's apartment in the city. The sniffling had started at about ten minutes in, the dry coughing at eighteen, and now this. It seemed that when a Kryptonian actually caught something, they caught it fast and hard.
Kara heaved several more times before she slumped back in the seat. Alex pulled out some tissues and extended them to her, watching as her sister took them and wiped her mouth. "That sucks," Kara croaked.
"Yep."
Kara darted her eyes sideways to look at Alex. "No, like really. Ugh. Just… ugh."
"Welcome to the human race."
"The sympathy," Kara murmured, closing the door and then her eyes, "it's overwhelming."
Alex snorted softly, smirking, and carefully pulled back onto the road. As soon as she could, she pulled a u-ey which had Kara, after taking a good two minutes for her to realize they'd changed directions, asking, "Where are we going?"
"Back to the DEO," Alex informed her.
Kara frowned. "Why?" she very nearly whined. "I just want to go home."
"You're sick, Kara."
"I know that," came the resultant groan.
"You don't get sick."
"I know that, too."
"So we're going back, to be sure you're not at any serious risk."
"It's your car upholstery that's at risk," Kara huffed.
Alex grimaced slightly. "I'm aware," she replied heavily, then took a breath. "But upholstery can be cleaned. You, however, could die."
She easily caught her sister's side-eye even with her attention on the road. "And you say I'm dramatic…" Kara murmured.
"There's dramatic and there's circumspect." She looked over at Kara's pale and queasy face and added, "I'm not willing to take the chance of something going wrong, not with you."
Kara blew out a slow sigh then gave her a small, wan smile. "Okay," she conceded before closing her eyes again.
Alex was relieved that Kara wasn't going to argue anymore with her and turned her full attention back on the road.
She decided to stay in the right lane after that, just in case she needed to pull over quickly again. She really was quite fond of her upholstery.
"I'm dying."
"You're not dying."
"But you said I could be dying."
"I was being dramatic."
"You said you were being cautious."
"Actually I said circumspect."
"Same thing."
Alex shrugged. "Well, I was being all those things, but anyway, I've checked you out — your immune system seems to be reacting to the virus close to the same way a human's would."
"But I'm not human," Kara pointed out.
"True and that's why you're going to stay here for a while, so I can monitor you until I'm absolutely sure you're going to be okay, but then I'll take you home to rest. Or your powers could return. Either way, your vitals are steady."
"Well, I don't feel steady," Kara grumbled. "I feel very, very—" She stopped short, eyes bulging almost comically, as all color fled her already-pale cheeks and she brought the sterile plastic blue bucket Alex had handed her the moment they'd made it into the med bay up to her face. She heaved for a good minute before she finally lowered it and raised her eyes to gaze miserably at Alex. "—Unsteady." She took a few breaths, something Alex easily recognized as an attempt to calm her nausea. "I got that head cold last time I blew out my powers and I thought that that was bad, but this… this..."
"Sucks?"
"This sucks."
Alex smirked, giving her little sister a sympathetic look. "I know and I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to tough it out, just like the normal person you always wanted to be." She bit back the mirth that swelled at the grumpy glare Kara shot her.
"Don't worry, you'll be okay soon." She turned to readjust the solar lights she'd set up. She'd originally thought about just having Kara lie atop the solar bed in hopes of kickstarting her Kryptonian genes, but her sister was so uncomfortable with all the body aches from the flu that she hadn't wanted to subjugate her to more discomfort. She'd settled for putting Kara in a normal bed and bringing in lights to shine on her instead.
"I don't understand."
Alex looked back at her sister. "Understand what?"
"How you can handle this," the sickly Kryptonian replied, "and so frequently."
"It's hardly frequent. Maybe once or twice a year."
Kara shuddered (or perhaps it had been a chill from the flu). "That's one or two times too many."
"I agree," Alex said with an amused upturn of her lips. "Unfortunately, we mere mortals don't have much of a choice in the matter. You just learn to live with it."
"I promise I will never tease you when you're sick again," Kara vowed and Alex laughed softly, doubtful that her sister would be able to keep her word. She knew how entertained Kara always was by Alex's grumpiness; she couldn't help but tease.
Alex squeezed Kara's forearm gently. "Just get some rest, okay?"
Kara looked up at Alex, sky eyes fever bright and slightly glazed. "Stay with me?" she requested in an almost pitifully hopeful tone, patting the bed next to her.
Alex knew that there were other things she could be doing, especially since they were back at the DEO. She'd already missed several days of work herself and knew there was plenty she could be catching up on, but at the same time, she wasn't even meant to be there (as both Hank and Kara had been strict about how many days of sick leave she had to take and those days weren't up yet) and she never could say no to Kara, especially not when she had that adorably pathetic look on her face.
"Alright," she conceded, taking Kara's puke bucket from her and putting it on the side table where it was still within reach, "scootch over."
Kara did so without question, making room on the bed for Alex and then tucking immediately into the older Danvers sister's side the moment Alex had climbed up next to her.
The heat from her fever made Kara feel like a furnace. It was actually somewhat uncomfortable having her sister pressed against her, but Alex wasn't about to pull away. She wasn't sure how Kara could stand it, being touched when she was sick — Alex had always disliked it. She much preferred to lie untouched in her suffering.
At the same time though, it didn't surprise Alex that her sister was seeking out physical contact in her time of misery. It's what she always did. Alex wasn't sure if being more tactile was a Kryptonian thing or simply a Kara thing, but either way, wanting to cuddle when she felt like crap seemed perfectly right in this moment.
"You're sure we can't just go home?" Kara murmured.
Alex glanced down at her sickly sibling's flushed face and shook her head. "Not for a while," she replied regretfully. "Besides, no powers, no flying, and I doubt you really want to make that almost-hour drive back to your apartment when you feel like this."
Kara frowned, expression somehow both thoughtful and completely miserable. "Well…" Her lips pursed together and she stared hard at a spot across the room, clearly debating with great intensity.
Alex snorted softly at the concentration on her poor sister's face. "I suppose we could bring a puke bucket in the car and make sure the seat warmers are on," Alex supplied helpfully, mindful to keep her tone sober despite how tickled she actually was. She had no plans to do such a thing, to cart her "dying" sister home, but it was more amusing to help Kara reach the decision herself instead of giving her a flat out "no".
"Actually," Alex continued in jest, looking contemplatively up at the ceiling, "it might be safer just to put you in a hazmat suit, in case we come across any other sick people. God knows you do not want to catch something else on top of what you already have." She nodded resolutely. "I'm sure Hank wouldn't mind if we borrowed one from one of the labs."
A cringe immediately slipped across Kara's features and she made a unhappy grunt in the back of her throat. "Um, yeah, never mind. " Then she squinted her eyes up at Alex. "Wait, are you messing with me?"
Alex laughed soundlessly and tucked Kara's head under her chin. "Just rest," she said as she began to comb her fingers though Kara's honey hair, something she knew her sister found soothing.
Kara grumbled something that Alex didn't quite catch, then snuggled closer still (somehow) and settled.
Silence, save the beeping of nearby machines, fell over the two of them and Alex was sure Kara had fallen asleep, but then suddenly a raspy murmur cut softly through the stillness. "Can we get those people another puppy?" The question was almost drunkenly whispered, Kara's voice thick with congestion and sleep. Alex couldn't help but grin. Of course that would be the thing Kara would dwell on.
"Yes, Kara, we can get them another puppy."
"A tiny white one?"
"A tiny white one."
Kara made a pleased sound and it wasn't long after that her wheezing breaths slowed with sleep.
A/N's: TBC! One more chapter to go! It should be up tomorrow hopefully (if not tomorrow, the day after)! My roommate and soul clone (Shannyfish!) declared that we are to go to Disneyland tomorrow so I won't have as much time to wrap it up and edit it so I can get it out to you all, but I shall try my best!