Alex cried in joy. She was soaking up the feeling of Kara squeezing her hand, basking in the sheer happiness it gave her.
Kara slowly opened her eyes, to reveal a pale blue.
Alex wasn't expecting it to be so dull and lifeless, but still saw a little spark of hope inside. Those same eyes that had seen way too much. Somehow, they still showed a tiny bit of hope.
She went to open her mouth to speak, but her throat was too dry. She ending up rasping unintelligibly. Alex quickly handed her a glass of water from the bedside table, and Kara downed it quickly.
When she finished, her voice had returned slightly, but was still a little raspy and hard to understand.
Nevertheless, she still tried to speak.
"Al...ex? Alex. Hey, how are you doing, bis sis?"
Alex grunted in frustration but chuckled with joy, not knowing quite what to feel.
"I don't know why you're asking me that, after you just woke up from a coma. Which you fell into because of injuries you sustained. Which you sustained because you were relentlessly tortured everyday. For the last ten years. So the real question here would be, are you okay?"
Kara gave a small smile. Barely noticeable, but still there.
"Better, now that I know you haven't lost any of your sassy charm."
Alex smirked a little.
"Dear lord, I am so glad you're okay. I don't know what I would've done... Just... Thank you for fighting. Thank you for coming back to me. I love you, Kar."
Her little sister whispered as she attempted to stay awake. Her eyelids felt uncharacteristically heavy.
"I couldn't give up yet. Not before I saw you were okay. And Lex, I heard you. When I was in a coma, I heard what you were saying. Thank you, Lex... I love you. You helped me come out of it. You saved my life. Two times, and counting."
Kara's eyes had just closed when they flew back open again, but looking a lot more flustered.
The heart monitor started to beep altogether too fast, and Kara's eyes widened even farther.
She squeezed Alex's hand hard as she started to scream in pain. Everything was hitting her all at once.
Alex panicked momentarily before hitting the call button for a doctor, or a nurse.
Or anyone.
Kara's free hand flew to her ribs and clutched her stomach as her other hand squeezed Alex's, trying to alleviate the pain.
Alex quickly asked,"Where does it hurt, Kar? Point."
Kara first pointed to her head, then to her abdomen, then to her right thigh, then to her entire left leg.
Her screaming stopped as her throat dried out and instead tears of pain came spilling out.
She shut her eyes tight, in an attempt to block out the pain, but it didn't seem to be working.
Dr. Hamilton came running in, and pulled out a kryptonite-laced needle. No doubt to inject something that would have absolutely no effect anyways.
Kara's eyes opened again when she heard rapid footsteps, and found herself staring at the green-tipped syringe.
Fear flashed across her eyes as they acquired a new and haunted look. She held out her free hand and tried to block her neck, where she remembered being constantly injected.
As an ingrained defense mechanism, she tried to sit up. She gasped sharply as her ribs were aggravated and her left leg popped out of the elevated sling. She slammed back down into the bed.
Alex yelled frantically,"Put the damn needle away! She thinks you're going to use it to hurt her. Shit, I think she might have rebroken one of her ribs, and her left leg needs to be reset in the sling."
Dr. Hamilton quickly obliged as she put the syringe on a table in the opposite corner of the room. She then reset Kara's leg and put a new layer of holding tape around Kara's ribs.
Kara seemed to calm down a little, until she began to hyperventilate, once again irritating her ribs.
Panic attack.
Dr. Hamilton went to get an oxygen mask to help manage her breathing, but unknowingly made the situation worse.
As soon as Kara saw the oxygen mask, she flashed back to when Lillian forced her to inhale aerosolized kryptonite through the very same breathing apparatus.
Her hold on Alex's hand tightened, which Alex didn't know was possible, and tears slipped out at an alarmingly fast rate.
Alex started rubbing soothing circles on Kara's back as she moved the hand Kara was holding towards herself. She motioned for Dr. Hamilton to put the oxygen mask away.
"Kar, you need to control your breathing. And slow down. The oxygen mask and needle are gone, they're not going to hurt you. Focus on my voice and my voice only. Tune out everything else."
Alex touched Kara's hand to her heart, and let her feel the steady beating.
"Feel my heart, Kara. It's okay. We're not in Cadmus or else you wouldn't be able to feel it. Just focus on my voice and my heartbeat."
Kara calmed considerably but was still breathing a little too fast for comfort.
Alex was seasoned from experience of Kara's childhood panic attacks and automatically told her sister.
"Close your eyes and just match your breathing with mine. Deep and slow breaths. Here we go, in. Out. Good, that's it, Kar. Keep going. In... out..."
After a minute more of doing this, Kara seemed to have calmed down and with her eyes already closed, she fell asleep from the pain.
Alex flashed Dr. Hamilton an apologetic smile, and said,"I know you were trying to help, but let's stay away from the needles for a little while."
The doctor chuckled in relief and agreed quickly. She watched the sisters together and remarked quietly.
"You did well handling that panic attack. Where did you learn how to help her like that?"
Alex responded tearily,"She had them every night when she woke up from nightmares of Krypton exploding. I had to learn on my own how to help her, so she could go back to sleep. They stopped for a while, until she started going to school. As soon as we got on campus on the first day, she had another one. I guess... it just... it just comes from experience, really."
Dr. Hamilton shook her head in disbelief and gave Alex a reassuring smile. "I think it's truly amazing how close you two are. I wish I had a bond like that with my older sister."
She paused to examine Kara's vitals before she got back to the matter at hand.
"Alex, I'm sure you'll be relieved to know that Kara is recovering nicely. Thought it may not seem like it after today. She'll still be in a lot of pain before she starts to feel even remotely better, but her injuries are healing correctly and we should be able to get her under the sun lamps soon."
Alex nodded gratefully, happy to know that Kara would be okay, at least, medically speaking. She stared back down at Kara, and that was Hamilton's cue to leave slowly and quietly so Alex could be with her sister in private.
Tears were brought to Alex's eyes as she remembered how her little sister had reacted to the syringe and the oxygen mask.
She didn't think she'd ever forget that.
"God, Kar. What did they do to you?"
As expected, there was no response.
Kara was sound asleep.