When Dr. Hamilton said Alex would hit a speed bump Maggie had no idea that it would be this bad. Alex's fever had spiked within the hour and the fever dreams had started not long after that. Kara had been called out for a Supergirl emergency before it had got too bad. Maggie insisted that Kara not be informed as it would cause her to be distracted and if she got hurt Alex would be furious. There was nothing that Kara would be able to do anyway. Maggie was doing the only thing that could be done, bathe Alex with a cool cloth.
"Ashley it doesn't seem to be helping." Maggie was on the verge of tears. She had never felt so helpless. Alex was moaning and tossing restlessly covered in a sheen of sweat.
"These will help." Ashley had just came back into the room with an arm full of icepacks. She expertly began placing the ice packs in Alex's armpits across her groin and then gently placed one under her neck.
"OK Alex that's going to help get that fever down." Ashley said calmly as she pulled out her stethoscope checking Alex's lungs.
"Aa…ssh." Alex moaned.
"Yeah it's me Alex, we got you, just relax."
"I'm sooorr…yyy."
"Alex's it's OK just relax. You don't have to be sorry."
"We should have….gotten there…sooner." Alex grasped Ashley's hand that was holding her stethoscope to her chest; Alex's eyes were unfocused and glassy." We shouldn't…have ….. left … you.."
Maggie was almost beside herself. "What is she talking about?"
Ashley realized that Alex was having a flashback to their first mission. She quickly pulled the ear pieces out and cupped Alex's face in her hands. "Hey no Alex it's OK. You found me I'm OK, You're OK, just sleep."
"M'sooorry." Alex murmured as her eyes fluttered shut again.
"Ashley?" Maggie looked at her confused as to what Alex was talking about.
Ashley took a deep breath and sighed at the sudden unexpected rush of memories that Alex triggered. "She was talking about our first mission."
"I don't mean to pry but J'onn mentioned something after Alex was rescued that you knew what she would be going through." The detective in Maggie needed to know what the hell happened during that mission. Maggie had meet Ashley several times once she became more involved in DEO operations and knew there was a bond between Ashley and Alex that only came from going through hell and back. She had a similar bond with one of her original partners back in Gotham.
Ashley smiled and pulled a chair over to the side of the bed she was standing on opposite of Maggie and took a seat. "Alex told you that we were recruited around the same time?" Maggie nodded.
"We hit it off quickly as we enjoyed showing up the guys and discovered that we were able to push the other too doing things we never thought possible. I was an orphan and grew up in the foster system and never had a sister growing up and Alex was desperately missing sharing this new part of her life with Kara. So as the weeks of training went on this sister like bond formed." Maggie smiled at thought of Alex kicking ass.
"We had been training for about 8 months when the director had decided that we had proven ourselves and that it was time for us to each lead a team in the field. We were tracking down some low level Fort Rozz escapees and had some intel they were in an abandon building by the docks. Alex led her team in from the front and I was to lead mine in from the back." Ashley stopped and took a deep breath.
"Ashley if you don't want to share it's OK." Maggie was aware of the tension that had seemed to come over Ashley's posture.
"It's OK Maggie." Ashley smiled and continued. "When we made our breach we realized that despite our intel that these were just low level escapes they had made some powerful new friends. The mission went completely sideways and we were forced to pull back. One of my team was shot in the leg and my team was pinned down; Alex's team was able to provide cover so myself and our team medic were able to get to our injured guy but while we were pulling back both myself and Jack our medic were hit. Jack was killed immediately with a head shot and I was shot in the shoulder. We were surround as soon as we went down and there was no way to get us out. Alex was forced to flee with the rest of the team or else no one would have made it out." Ashley stood up and began to recheck Alex's vitals.
"I'm so sorry Ashley. I had no idea. But how did you get out?"
"That would be your girlfriend." Ashley smiled as she changed the cool cloth that was on Alex's forehead. "She would not rest till we were rescued and she lead the team that did that."
"How long?" Maggie questioned.
"3 days." Ashley replied softly as she made a few notes in Alex's chart.
"What about your teammate that was shot?"
"Steve." Ashley sighed and then continued. "He did not make it past day 2. The damage to his leg was not treated and he bleed to death slowly. I was lucky my shoulder was through and through." Ashley sat back down in the chair and continued. "The director was right that I know what Alex had gone through in regards to the near drowning. My captures were particularly fond of water torture and had enjoyed submersing me till the point of almost drowning several times. Oh and they really did like their electrical shock torture as well."
"Ashley, I..." Maggie did not know what to say.
"Maggie really it's OK. It's taken a few years and a lot of therapy, meditation and Alex's support but I'm able to talk about it and not collapse in on myself like I did right after."
"I just can't even imagine what that must have been like." Maggie sighed.
Ashley smirked and replied, "Well there is video of everything they did." Maggie was stunned her mouth agape not knowing what to say or do at the comment. Ashley chuckled, "Seriously there is video and it's even used during training of new recruits to show them what could happen and what they could face." Maggie continued to sit stunned. "Maggie, don't worry seriously I've dealt with it and if others can learn from it then at least it has some meaning."
"Wow." Maggie finally managed to get out. The revelation of what Ashley had been through brought a whole new level of respect. Maggie had known that Ashley was well respected and admired by all in the DEO as she was always the lead medic on any mission that required the medical team. She was also the one Alex would always request if she was forced to see medical for a quick checkup. "Ashley.." Maggie was cut off by a moan from Alex and an alarm from one of the monitors.
"Damn it Danvers." Ashley whispered and she jumped up taking a closer look at the increasing heart rate that had set off the alarm.
"What' happening?" Maggie panicked jumping to Alex's side as Alex was becoming very agitated and started thrashing in the bed.
Ashley was quickly checking various pieces of equipment. "Heart rate and temperature are spiking." Alex's body suddenly went rigid and started to convulse, Ashley hit the call button on the wall and then reached pulling Alex onto her side facing her. "Maggie try and keep her on her side." Ashley ordered then grabbed a syringe and vial from the cart beside the bed as Dr. Hamilton and 2 nurses came rushing into the room.
"What's going on?" Dr. Hamilton called out.
"Temperature has spiked to 104 and heart rate is tachy at 170, seizure started about 30 seconds ago." Ashley replied.
"Maggie I need you to step back please." Hamilton ordered as one of the nurses took Maggie's place keeping Alex on her side and the other one went to the head of the bed and lowered it quickly ensuring that Alex was lying flat and pulled the suction machine over.
"I need 40mg Phenytoin." Hamilton ordered.
"Ready to go." Ashley replied immediately passing the syringe to Dr. Hamilton as she had anticipated exactly what Hamilton would order.
Dr. Hamilton injected the contents into the IV tubing that snaked to the top of Alex's hand. "What are we at for time?"
"1 min 10 secs." Ashley replied looking at the clock.
"She is frothing, suction please." Hamilton ordered to the nurse at the head of the head who quickly began turned on the suction and pulled back Alex's O2 mask and began to suction.
"What's going on?" Maggie demanded her voice cracking.
"Her fever spiked too quickly and it's brought a seizure on but these meds should stop it." Dr. Hamilton replied not taking her eyes off the heart monitor which was still in alarm.
After what seemed like hours but in reality was only a minute Alex's body started to relax and the shaking softened. "Time?" Hamilton asked again.
"2 minutes 20." Ashley replied as the alarm on the heart monitor finally stopped and the whole room took a deep breath.
"Is she OK?" Maggie asked approaching the bed tears openly rolling down her cheeks.
"The seizure has stopped." Dr. Hamilton replied smiling softly at Maggie.
"But is she OK?" Maggie demanded.
"I'm hoping that in the next couple hours the new antibiotics should kick in and we are then on the upswing." Hamilton replied optimistically as Ashley and the 2 nurses moved Alex onto her back and raised the head of the bed back up and reseating all the ice packs.
"I love you Alex, please don't do that again." Maggie said as she grabbed Alex's hand and kissed her forehead before tucking some stray hair behind her ear.
Dr. Hamilton scribbled some notes into Alex's chart and then turned to Ashley silently directing her to the door. "Vitals every 15 and keep a close eye on those O2 sats. I'm not liking how low they are and that seizure did not help. If it drop another 2% I want you to go ahead and put the CPAP on, give it 30 mins and if no improvement after that page me and we will have to intubate till those meds start to work."
"Understood." Ashley replied taking the chart from the doctor and headed back over to Alex's bed where the 2 nurses had finished getting her back to her original position surrounded by ice packs. Ashley noted the 95% O2 stat reading as she stood beside Maggie placing a hand on her shoulder. "You OK?"
"NO I'm not OK!" Maggie exclaimed her frustration of not being able to help Alex coming to a head.
Ashley pulled Maggie into a side hug knowing that the outburst was not directed at her. "Hey Danvers is a fighter she is going to get through this."
"I'm sorry I didn't.." Maggie was overcome with emotion and started sobbing, Ashley pulled Maggie into a full embrace.
"It's OK just let it out." she rubbed Maggie's back as Maggie sobbed openly.
After a few minutes Maggie's pulled back. "I'm sorry."
"For what? Being upset that you just saw your girlfriend having a seizure?"
"You barely know me and I'm crying on your shoulder." Maggie wiped the tears from her face. "I'm not normally this emotional."
"Ah you and Alex do make a fine pair then." Ashley smirked. "Both enjoy pushing your emotions down do ya?" Ashley moved back to chair on the other side of the bed.
"Well uh." Ashley was right she was doing blaming herself for not hiding her emotions, the exact opposite of what she had told Alex not to do.
"Hey I get it. I use to do it myself, to be honest probably still do it more than I should."
"We are both working on that." Maggie picked up Alex's hand kissing the back of her hand.
"Maggie!" Kara exclaimed as she burst into the room. "I just heard why didn't you call me?"
"Kara it's OK she is OK. You know Alex would kill me if you were distracted and you got hurt." Maggie stood up pulling Kara into a hug.
"No, Maggie you need to tell me. I have a right to know." Kara pulled back from the hug.
"You're right I'm sorry I should not have kept that from you." Maggie was not sure what was worst Alex's wrath or Kara's.
"I'm scared." Kara leaned back into Maggie's embrace.
"I know I am too."
Ashley had busied herself checking Alex's vitals as Kara and Maggie talked and hugged. She sighed deeply as she watched the O2 stats and then listened to Alex's lung sounds.
"Ashley what is it?" Kara was alerted by Ashely's sigh.
Ashley cursed herself silently for the sigh knowing that Kara's super hearing must have picked up on it. "You sister is not making this easy." Ashley replied turning back to the O2 monitor and continued. "Her stats are dropping off a bit since the seizure. She's down to 94% on the mask if she drops again I'm to start her on the CPAP."
"Why isn't the medicine working?!" Kara demanded.
"We just need to give it time." Ashley replied.
"Come on Alex, you need to fight, please." Kara pleaded kissing her sisters forehead.
"Can you stay awhile?" Maggie asked Kara.
"Yeah I'm not going anywhere." Kara pulled up another chair beside Maggie's and they both sat down while Ashely grabbed Alex's chart and sat down as well making a few notes.
The three women sat in silence with the exception of the rattle wheeze coming from Alex with every breath. Maggie had Alex's hand grasped in hers while Kara had a comforting hand on Maggie's shoulder.
"Ashley the curiosity is killing me about the rescue." Maggie finally broke the silence.
"What rescue?" Kara asked confused.
"Ashley was filling me in on what J'ozz and referred to when Alex was rescued."
"ahhh." Kara looked disappointed that she had missed it.
Ashley smiled "Basically long story short, Alex and I each lead our first team missions to capture low level prisoners but they have serious back up. Myself and 2 teammates are shot one killed instantly and then Alex is forced to leave me and another behind or risk losing everyone."
"I had no idea." Kara replied.
"The director knew I would understand what Alex had gone through since my captures enjoyed water and electrical torture. I was submerged to near drowning numerous times."
"Oh my Rao, it's you." Suddenly all the rumors of a training video that showed a DEO agent being brutally beat, drowned and electrocuted came true. "You are the one in the video!"
"Yes that is me."
"I have never seen it but there was one day when Alex and I had come out of the training room and a small group of new recruits had come out of the conference room one was in tears and the rest looked like they had or were on the verge of being sick. When I asked Alex what was going on she just said that it was a scenario preparation course, when I tried to get more out of her she just told me to drop it."
"To this day I don't think your sister has ever forgiving herself fully having to leave us behind. Logically she knows it was the only choice but at the same time there are choices that we have to make that we can never reconcile with."
"So Alex led the team to find you?" Kara asked.
"That she did. It took them 3 days to gain the Intel that lead them to where I was being held. When they finally pinned down the location Alex had insisted that she be the one that lead the team to pull us out."
"That sounds about right." Maggie chuckled softly squeezing Alex's hand.
"I don't remember much about the rescue as once my captures discovered that there location was compromised they decided destroy the evidence and me along with it. They set fire to the building left me for dead. By the time Alex's team found the room I was being held in chained to the wall it was already filled with smoke and I had stopped breathing. Alex shot the chain off the wall and dragged me outside where she started CPR. The first thing I remember is the screaming pain in my chest and then then her huge smile above me."
"I can't believe that she had gone through all this and I had no idea." Kara replied.
"Kara you need to know that Alex hated not being able to share with you what she was doing. It killed her to lie to you."
"I know she was trying to protect me." Kara replied solemnly.
"That's what Alex does, protect." Maggie spoke up.
Ashely stood up to check Alex's vitals and change out the ice packs for fresh ones. As she was changing the ice pack on Alex's neck the O2 monitor went off.
"Damnit Danvers." Ashley exclaimed.
"What? What is it?" Maggie jumped to her feet.
"Her O2 dropped again. I'm going to have to put the CPAP on." Ashely stated as she pulled the machine closer to the head of the bed. Alex began to thrash a bit as her breathing became more labored as she tried to pull more air in.
"Alex." Kara was on her feet as well rubbing her hand up and down Alex's leg trying to give her some comfort.
"Hey Alex just keep fighting, OK" Maggie pleaded tears streaming down her face as Alex continued to fight for each breath.
"Mag…gie." Alex labored.
"Shhh it's OK you're going to be OK." Maggie replied as Ashley was programming the machine.
"Come on Sis you can do this." Kara spoke up squeezing Alex's leg.
"Ka.." Alex gasped.
"I'm here"
"Alex listen to me I'm going to put a CPAP on you." Ashley explained as she pulled Alex's face in her direction and pulled off the existing O2 mask and replaced it with the CPAP mask which was similar to the O2 mask except that it was a much tighter fit. Alex began to fight against. "Danvers listen to me you need to keep this on let the machine do the work OK" Ashely tried to get Alex to focus on her while explaining what was going on. As Alex's eyes somewhat focused on Ashely she relaxed and Ashley was able to make the final adjustments to the mask and flicked on the machine. Almost immediately Alex's body took a deep breath, and then another and another. "There you go, Danvers just like that." Ashley encouraged Alex as she keep a close eye on the O2 stats which were already on the way up.
"She's OK?" Maggie asked voice cracking.
Ashley smiled and nodded. "Yes her sats are back up." Both Maggie and Kara let out deep sighs of relief and each took a turn kissing Alex's forehead. Alex had fallen back asleep almost as soon as her body got the oxygen that it needed.
"I'm just going to go let Dr. Hamilton know that she is on the CPAP but that everything looks good. Hopefully this will get her over the hump." Ashley explained as she made a couple more adjustments on the CPAP.
"Ashley, thank you." Maggie said.
"Just doing my job." Ashley smiled.
"Well that too but I meant for sharing with us."
"It's all good, Maggie. Just know that I'm here for all of you for whatever support you may need. Alex can't bottle this up or it will crush her."
"Thank you." Maggie replied.
"K, keep an eye on our girl and I will be back shortly."
With that Ashley headed out of the room leaving Maggie and Kara sitting at Alex's bedside.
Thank you all for hanging in there with this story. I have been struggling trying to get the Ashley\Alex backstory out of my head. I decided that I would provide the 30,000 feet view in this chapter and then once I finish this story I will add an extra bonus chapter that will cover the rescue. I don't want to take away from this story so I think this is best. I hope you agree! Now that I have filled in some of the back story I can get back to Alex's recovery.
Thank you again and I appreciate all the comments and your support. It goes along way in helping me get this story out.