Kara soared through the sky, going as fast as she could. Tears streamed down her face as she held her daughter in her arms. The Super listened to her daughter's heartbeat. As she looked at her face, she could see it paling by the second, however, she could see that she was hanging on and fighting with the way she was spasming and hiccupping in her arms.
"Hold on." Kara said quietly to her as the L-Corp building came into sight. Ten seconds later, Kara walked in, cradling Lori in her arms. Both Alex and Lena looked horrified by what they were seeing.
Kara looked helpless with the way Lori's head lolled in her arms, "Help her." Was all Kara said.
Both Lena and Alex stared at her blankly. Lena was the first to snap out of her daze and she took Lori from her arms, "Bullet wounds should be an easy fix." Lena couldn't believe how simple that just sounded, she was clearly in denial.
Alex and Kara stared at each other. Alex could tell that Kara knew the truth and that she was shocked to see her alive and breathing.
Meanwhile, Lena ripped open Lori's shirt and saw three bullets dotted in three different places. One just above her heart, one in the centre of her chest and one in her right shoulder. As Lena examined what she was seeing, she was in a panic, but she knew what to do.
"Alex, I need sun lamps, Kara go to the lab and grab whatever medical equipment you can find, now." Lena ordered whilst holding Lori's wrist, checking her pulse, "I shouldn't have let you go." The Luthor sighed heavily as she looked down at Lori.
Kara sped back in, holding a whole bag of medical equipment and put it on a small table before carrying it over. Whilst she was carrying it over, Lena put on some medical gloves.
"Are you sure this will work?" Kara asked Lena, "This isn't the most sterile of places."
"It gets cleaned every day." Lena said to her as she picked up a scalpel, "I need to get these bullets out of her pretty soon or she will die."
"Woah, woah, woah!" Alex snapped as she came in, "Stop there. You are being a mother, very concerned and not thinking straight. You need her to be on a monitor, so you can hear her heart while you do this." She then stepped in front of Lena, "I also think you should let me do this. I don't really know this girl, but you raised her. Please, step away and let me do this."
Lena stared at Alex, contemplating her next move. She knew the woman was right, but she also knew what she was doing. Listening to her common sense though, she put the scalpel down. As she looked back at Alex, all hope seemed lost, but Alex wasn't going to let that happen.
"Kara is setting up the sunlamps, they should aid the surgery and help her recover. I don't want you doing this because you could make a mistake. Trust me. I can help her."
"You'd better." Lena replied, her voice breaking as tears formed in her eyes, "I have three other children on the way but I'm not going to lose her. Not ever. Do you hear me Danvers?"
Alex nodded slowly, "Loud and clear."
With that, Lena stepped out of the way while Alex took control. Lena knew the best thing for her to do would be to leave the room, and she did just that with Kara following her not a moment later.
The corridor
"You're pregnant?" Kara asked after a tense silence filled the room. The Kryptonian couldn't get her head around it. She knew she had bigger things to think about, but this was something that she couldn't just leave alone.
"I'm expecting triplets…Except I don't even know if they are yours, not properly." Lena chuckled darkly before turning to face Kara, "While you weren't here, there was a duplicate of you that manipulated me. But I enjoyed it." She smiled darkly, "I enjoyed all of the hot sex and the romance, but the one thing I didn't get from all of this was my daughter. She was cast out, and I never truly fought like I should have. I lost her, and all along my mother had you in a CADMUS base in a coma and your coma let that thing live."
Kara held back tears as Lena spoke, "The last thing I remember was touching this weird rock…I must have dreamt it because Lilian told me that in fact what I thought was the truth was Alex beating me into unconsciousness." Her jaw then trembled, "You abandoned Lori?"
"Not at first." Lena began, "She was dragged away from me and I couldn't do anything about it. I just lived with it and eventually almost forgot about her because that creature made me forget. Well." She shrugged, "I couldn't do anything to find her, so I guess I just gave up."
"You gave up?" Kara asked, "After years, I didn't think you would give up on her. Even when things got bad."
"I guess I was wrong." Lena sighed, "And now she is fighting for her life because I didn't stop her from coming to save you. She knew you were alive and she came back to rescue you, and this is the result. A selfish part of me wishes that she never did."
"Me too." Kara confessed, making Lena look up. Kara then shrugged, "Lilian was keeping me alive by a sun lamp, that's how I got out, I had enough energy to break free. Now I think about it, I think she expected Lori or someone to come back."
"We'd better hope she makes it through."
2 hours later
Lena was sat nervously waiting for Alex to finish what she was doing. Kara had her arms crossed, staring at the wall in front of her. She eventually spoke, "Hot romance and sex huh?"
Lena laughed out loud. She was nervous and at least this was a good distraction.
"What?" Kara asked with a straight face, not getting the joke.
"Nothing, I just…You being back here and we have been silent for the last two hours…It's just a funny thing to break the silence with." Lena laughed.
Kara then smiled, "I missed you…I always miss you."
"I cheated on you." Lena replied, her smile fading.
"With my clone, it can't be that bad." Kara replied, "I mean if she was better in bed than I was, I need to step up my game."
"I don't think we have a game anymore." Lena replied, locking eyes with her, "I mean, after all this…I can't…We just need to take time to heal."
Kara nodded slowly as Alex walked out of the room.
Both women darted to their feet quickly.
Alex took a deep breath, she had no idea how to get this out. But Kara knew and so did Lena.
Lena's legs shook beneath her as she struggled to stand, but she quickly sat back down on the sofa. Shock hit her first, her world slowed to a halt.
Kara shot into the room, where Lori's body was lying on the table. The Kryptonian stood there, almost frozen. She tried listening for a heartbeat, but there was nothing there. Kara collapsed to her knees and broke down in tears while Lena sat outside, Alex was sat beside her, offering her apologies and what seemed to Lena as empty words.
This was something she could have prevented, and she didn't do enough, they didn't do enough.
Eventually, Lena got to her feet, ignoring Alex.
"Lena, think about this. This could do more harm than good." Alex warned her.
Lena glared at her through the tears in her eyes, "I should have protected her. I'm her mother. I should have stopped all of this. Please get out of my way so I can see my daughter."
Alex stared at her for a moment, before stepping out of her way.
As Lena walked in, the first thing she saw was Kara on her knees, and then her eyes drifted to the table where her daughter lie. Slowly, she walked forward, dragging her feet. Eventually, she made it to the table and lifted her into her arms.
As both Kara and Alex watched, they saw Lena crumbling apart. She was holding her daughter to her chest, before breaking down in tears. Sobs wracked her body and grief consumed her as she held onto Lori tightly.
Kara left the room, feeling both guilty and like she didn't have a right to be there.
Alex followed her, "She was your daughter too Kara…"
Kara whipped her head around, "I watched you die! Years ago, I watched you die and now you're here! And then I learned that you were the one that got me captured in the first place! You are responsible for this! You should never have agreed to what Lilian told you to do!"
"Kara, I wanted to see you again." Alex gasped, "It wasn't as though I had a lot of choice. It was get you or die!"
"You should have died!" Kara hissed, "Then this wouldn't have happened!"
Kara then walked away, leaving Alex standing on her own.
No matter how much she denied it, this was Alex's fault and she knew it.