Author's Notes: Do forgive me for taking an extra day or so more than I said to get this to you.

Chapter Three: Green

Alex hung up the phone and paced through the doors back into the med bay.

"I'm the one who's sick, so why do you look green?" came a croak from the bed.

Blinking, Alex looked up to see her sister peeking out from slitted eyes and staring at her. "Winn and James have been blowing up my phone," she told her. "Apparently Cat is on the warpath because you were meant to have prepped her for some sort of meeting or something?"

Kara's eyes widened and somehow her already pale complexion lost even more color. "Oh my God." She started to attempt to get up, flinging the blanket back and dizzily throwing her legs over the side of the bed. "The board meeting. I forgot."

Alex immediately crossed to her side and halted her movements by placing her hands on her sister's shoulders. "Whoa there, what do you think you're doing?"

"I have to go," Kara wheezed, bloodshot eyes darting around the room as if she were trying to strategize the fastest way to get dressed and get out. "Ms. Grant—"

"—Will survive without you," Alex cut in. "You're still sick. You've only been resting for like two hours." She was trying to reach the rational, logical part of Kara's brain, but could tell by the crazed look in her sister's eyes that logic had flown off at warp speed the moment moment she'd mentioned Cat's name. "Besides," she continued, determined, "I gave Winn and James the password to your computer so they can access your notes and told them to deal with it."

"But Alex, there's so much more than just the notes," Kara protested, trying and failing to get past Alex. "They don't understand. They can't gauge her mood and know precisely which of those notes she needs to know and when. They don't know which glasses she wants or when she needs her—" She stopped suddenly short, slumping back slightly onto the bed. "Wait, how do you know my work password?"

"Elite agent."

Kara seemed to consider this. "Oh. Right."

"And you also use the same password for everything, and if I'd been wrong, Winn could have just hacked it."

"True…" Kara's brow furrowed ever so slightly, "...to both."

"Anyway, Cat Grant is a grown woman and she can figure it out on her own."

"My entire job exists so she doesn't have to figure it out on her own," Kara countered.

Alex paused a beat and realized she couldn't quite argue that. "Well, yes, fine, but James and Winn are also adults and they can figure it out." She paused a second time, squinting an eye up at the ceiling in thought. "Or, well, James is an adult. Winn is… less so."

"Al-eeeex," Kara all but whined, trying to push up off of the bed again, "I really need to go."

Alex pushed her back down once more into a seated position. "Sit," she said firmly. "Stay."

Kara frowned. "I am not a puppy."

Alex snorted. "Uh huh."

"Alex."

She sobered and settled Kara with her best "big sister glare", narrowed eyes and all. "No, Kara. You're sick and you're staying here."

Kara pursed her lips grumpily, but then scooted fully onto the bed, lying back in the pillows. She was putting on a good show and while Alex understood her sister's concern (Cat was unpredictable and fairly vindictive), she could also tell just how terrible Kara felt. She was pretty sure her sister didn't actually want to go, or at least truly didn't feel up to it, but was putting up a fight because she didn't like letting anyone down.

Alex understood that; they were very similar in that respect. They'd both been raised to put others first, to help and protect, and after so many years of being told to care for others, it was almost an unconscious compulsion. Neither of them could help it and often felt guilty when personal needs got in the way of the needs of others.

That thought reminded her of something else… or well, perhaps it hadn't reminded her, as the cheering yet mildly unsettling knowledge had never left her mind, but it did prompt her to bite the bullet and tell Kara.

"In other news, Mom is coming."

Kara perked up a little at that. "Oh?" she said, then paused half a beat, a look of realization dawning across her pale face. "Oh."

Alex squinted her eyes at her. "'Oh' what?"

"That was the look."

"What look?"

"The queasy look you had when you walked in," Kara said, apparently not too sickly that she couldn't poke fun at Alex. "It wasn't because I might lose my job, but because Eliza is coming."

Alex thought to deny the fact, but knew it would do little good. She sighed and slumped down on the edge of Kara's bed. "She wasn't pleased to find out you were sick."

Kara raised an eyebrow, levity being replaced with concern. "Don't tell me she's blaming you for it?"

"Not in exact words..."

"But?"

Alex scrubbed a hand over her face, a headache building behind her eyes. "There was a tone?"

"I thought you two had that come to Jesus at Thanksgiving?" Kara questioned, unthinkingly swabbing a hand beneath her running nose.

Alex grabbed a tissue from the nearby side table and handed it to her. "We did, but…" She shrugged. "Old habits…"

"So in other words, you were hearing things?" Kara said, her teasing tone only partially muffled by the tissue she had pressed to her face.

"Hush, you."

Kara dropped her hand back down into her lap and offered Alex a tired smile.

Alex took a breath. "Anyway, she's coming to take care of you."

"She is? I thought she was speaking at that biochemistry conference in New York?"

"She is, but she decided you were more important," Alex replied mildly. "Honestly, I think it might actually be some bizarre maternal fulfillment thing — she never really got to take care of you when you were sick before, at least not physically sick." She shrugged then pursed her lips. "Then again, it could also be scientific curiosity. Who knows? Either way, she said she's coming and that she's going to make you wassail and soup and wait on you hand and foot."

"She really said that?" The question was teetering between hopeful and uneasy as if Kara wasn't quite sure how she should be taking the news.

"No." Alex shook her head and Kara deflated a tiny bit. "What she actually said was, 'I've just booked a flight. I'll be there in eight hours. You take care of her, Alex.'" She couldn't keep the heaviness out of her voice as she said the last sentence, old feelings of incompetence and guilt harder to banish than she would have liked. She could tell that Kara had noticed it, too, because a crease appeared between her brows.

Alex rushed to alleviate some of the weight she had unwittingly added to the air. She smiled and patted Kara's leg. "But I assume that's what she plans to do considering the huge list of supplies she texted me to pick up from the store before she arrives."

"Everyone seems to be going out of their way," Kara commented as she leaned back into the pillows a little more.

Alex pushed up off of the bed and wandered over to the monitors. "Did you expect anything less?" she replied, offering her sister a smile. "You are loved." As the words passed through her lips, she immediately recognized them as the beginning of a quote from a 'Doctor Who' episode she had watched when she and Kara had binged their way through the entire series a few months before it had been taken off of Netflix. She couldn't help, but finish it. "By so many, and so much—"

"—And by no one more than you?" Kara cut in, finishing it off.

Alex puffed out a laugh. "We are nerds."

"I think we've discussed this before," the blonde replied, a smile blooming across her face. It wasn't quite as bright as it normally would have been, but Alex couldn't fault her for that. She knew how draining even smiling was when you were sick.

"We have," she agreed.

"You do realize that the Doctor dies at the end of that scene, right?"

"Only kind of. They restarted reality."

"Sometimes I wish I could restart this reality." Kara shifted in clear discomfort, rolling onto her side and pulling her legs up into a fetal position. She draped her arms across her stomach and hugged herself.

"Really?" Alex asked, sincerely curious. After what had happened with the Black Mercy, she couldn't help but wonder if her sister still longed for her old life or for something more than what she had.

Kara paused for a moment, then shook her head. "No, not really." She smiled at Alex. "I love who I am and those in my life."

Alex felt a spark of relief and smiled back. "Though you wouldn't say no to a tiny restart that left you free of the flu?"

"I don't suppose we have any detainees with healing powers locked up that might cure me in return for special privileges for good behavior?" was Kara's hopeful reply.

"No 'get out of jail free' cards for you or any detainees."

"Darn."

Alex smirked, then returned her attention to her sister's vitals on the monitors. She noticed a slight spike in Kara's temperature and frowned.

"What?"

"Hmm?" Alex pulled her eyes from the monitor to meet Kara's.

"There's a frown." Kara made a circular motion around her forehead area. "Right there."

"Oh," Alex said, then shook her head. "Your temperature is a little high."

"I thought Kryptonians ran higher than humans."

"You do," she assented with a nod, "but even then, this is still higher than I would like."

"My face feels hot," Kara told her and her cheeks supported her claim as they had flooded with a deep pink while the rest of her face remained a sickly pallor, "but everything else feels cold and achey." She frowned. "I don't like it."

Alex gave her a sympathetic smile. "That's pretty on par for the flu, I'm afraid." Even just talking about it made a tickling, uncomfortable warmth begin to trail up her spine and heat the back of her skull. Psychosomatic response, she told herself. Yes, a residual cough still remained, but she was more or less over her own illness. There was no way it was flaring back up.

Kara made a pitiful, dispirited little mewl in the back of her throat and pulled the blankets back up to her chin, tucking them beneath it. "How long does this last again?" she asked.

"Well," Alex started, looking back at the monitors again, just to double check things, "depends on the person, and since you aren't human…"

"You really have no clue."

"Correct." After a moment, Alex moved back over to Kara's side and took her hand when her sister extended it out to her. More tactile comfort needed it seemed. She used her other hand to brush an errant lock back off of Kara's forehead. "You'll be alright," she promised and she hoped desperately she could keep it. As far as she knew, a Kryptonian had never caught a human flu before and all she could think of was how the aliens in The War of the Worlds had been defeated by a simple earthly microorganism their immune systems didn't know how to fight off.

"You keep saying that, but I still feel the same."

"You've only been sick for three hours. It takes longer than that."

Kara groaned. "I want this to be over," she complained.

"Your world usually runs at lightning speed, I get it," Alex said, "but for now, you have to be patient."

"I don't like being patient...or a patient." There was a clear pout on the Kryptonian's face and it amused Alex far more than it should have. It wasn't very often that she got to see a grumpy Kara. Morose, angsty, sugar high, over the moon, and gleefully excited, yes, but grumpy was rare and incredibly entertaining.

Alex laughed softly and patted the back of Kara's hand. "Go back to sleep. It'll pass quicker then."

Kara sighed, retracting her hand from Alex's and slipping it under the blankets again. She still looked utterly miserable, but she didn't argue. She just closed her eyes.

Alex moved off toward the chair on the side of her sister's bed to settle down with her laptop and get a few things done when her phone chimed. She pulled it from her pocket and glanced down at the screen. It was a text.

She opened it; she paled.

"What is it?"

Her head snapped up to see Kara's eyes back open, worn out and squinting. "Uh..."

"Uh?"

Alex looked down again to double check what she had read before returning her gaze to Kara. She chewed her lip.

"Alex?"

"There is news."

Kara pushed up onto her elbow, frown burying her brow deeply downward. "And? What?" Her eyes suddenly widened. "Is it James and Winn? Am I fired?"

"Well, no, ...not presently," Alex replied, wincing.

Kara sucked in a deep, relieved breath… only to wheeze it back out again in a gargling wet cough. She grimaced in distaste. "If I'm not fired then what?" she rasped. "Please don't say that it's nothing because I can see your face and it's doing that thing again."

Alex almost asked 'What thing?', but she already knew what thing. She could feel herself doing it, the shit, shit, shit thing. "Mom just texted to say she's boarded her plane."

"...Okay, and?"

"And she said she doesn't need me to pick her up from the airport when she arrives later…" she swallowed hard, "because she's going to get a taxi."

"Oooo-kay." The look Kara was giving her one of confusion-nearing-irritation. "And?"

This was bad. This was going to be bad.

"Alex! Just spit it out!"

"Okay!" Alex exclaimed back, anxiety making her fingers tingle. She shook one of her hands out. "I may have mentioned to her that Cat was particularly upset by your absence today..."

"...Oh." There was a long pause and Alex watched Kara, watched as the information slowly sank in. She watched as comprehension ignited and then panic flared bright. "Oh my God. Please don't tell me she's going to...to..."

Alex just shook her head. She just needed to say it. "She said she was going to stop by CatCo on the way to your apartment—"

Kara's complexion turned ghostly. "Oh my God."

Alex closed her eyes and, hoping speed would make it less terrible, like ripping off a proverbial Band-Aid, said in a rush,"—And talk to Cat on your behalf."

One second.

Two.

Three.

Fo—

"Oh my God!" There was a crash.

Alex snapped her eyes back open to see that Kara's blanket had been chucked across the room, knocking over one of the solar lamps...

And that Kara was floating over the bed, eyes huge and round in absolute alarm.

"Oh my God, Alex, this can't happen! We have to stop her! Text her back and tell her she can't do that. Where is my phone?" She looked frantically around. "I'll do it, I'll tell her! Oh my God, I can't just lie here and be sick! I-I-I need to—"

"Kara."

"Um, I need to stop her or-or-or you do!"

"Kara."

"Send a team! Can you do that? Can you send a team to meet her at the airport and escort her to my apartment? And keep her contained there?"

"Kara!"

The Kryptonian blinked, startled by Alex's bark. "What?"

"You have your powers back," Alex replied mildly, gesturing to the empty space between the bed and Kara's hovering feet.

"Huh-wha?" Kara looked down at herself. She frowned and blinked confusedly again up at Alex. "I, what? I don't—"

Alex was fighting valiantly to keep her amusement at her sister's sheer befuddlement reined in. "You panicked," she informed her, expression as straight as she could make it, "Extreme adrenaline rush, I would assume. I think it kickstarted your powers."

"Oh." A beat. "Oh." Relief colored Kara's cheeks and she floated down to the ground, landing soundlessly. She blew out a breath. There was another beat and it seemed that something else occurred to her because her face suddenly bloomed with delight. "I feel better!"

Alex smiled. "Good, I'm glad." Her own relief at the fact leaving her feeling strangely more drained than rejuvenated.

Kara patted herself down as if she was testing to be absolutely sure that she was healed before she stepped forward and hugged Alex, laughing. "I'm not sick anymore! Now I can—" She stiffened and whipped back, eyes wide again. "Ms. Grant! I have to go!"

Before Alex could even say anything, Kara had sped out of the room.

Alex had gotten ahold of Eliza when she'd been catching her connecting flight in Denver and told her of Kara's miraculous recovery. Alex had suggested that she just turn back around, but her mom had brushed the idea aside, saying she'd already missed most of the conference anyway and that she missed her girls. They all agreed to meet up at Kara's apartment later on for dinner.

By the time she and Kara pushed the door of the apartment open and stepped inside, Alex was exhausted. She felt shaky, like she'd just spent several hours lifting weights at the gym, and slightly more than mildly dizzy. If her mom hadn't been coming over, she would have just gone home to sleep.

"—Made it just in time," Kara was saying, though Alex was only half listening. "You should have seen Winn's face though —the panic. It was pretty priceless." She laughed as she flicked on the lights and moved over to the fridge, opening it and pulling out two bottles of water. She offered one to Alex when she crossed to the kitchen island. "I had to get him two boxes of tropical tie-dye Fruit Roll-Ups to make up for it."

Alex took the water and cracked the lid open, but before she could take a sip, her phone dinged. She raised it to eye level and saw she had another text. She opened it.

"Seriously, what now?" Kara asked, sounding suddenly exasperated.

"Huh?" Alex questioned, blinking up at her sister.

"You've got that green look again," Kara said, gesturing at Alex's face. "So what is it? Fort Rozz escapee causing havoc? Zombie apocalypse? Meteor headed for Earth?"

"Oh," Alex said, her brain feeling strangely sluggish. She looked down at the phone again for a second. "Mom just said she's landed and she's already in a taxi."

"Okay, so…? And? What else?"

"And we need to go back to the DEO."

"Why?"

Alex didn't answer in words. Instead she darted over to the sink and puked. She'd looked green because she felt green.

"Oh," Kara said.

A/N's: I LIED! TBC! Muahahaha. There shall be FOUR chapters, not three. (Or maybe three chapters and an epilogue, we'll see how it works out.) It seemed only fair to give the girls equal sick time.

And yes, I know I should be working on "Boom" and I AM. It just takes me more time because suspense/drama/angst and so on is much harder for me to write than quick little light, funny, random bits. I promise it will be updated ASAP!

Until then, hopefully "Superinfection" will be able to hold you over.