"Why aren't you dressed?" The teenage Kara greeted when her cousin opened the apartment door a few days later.
"I'm not feeling well." Alex said.
"Isn't that like impossible?" MJ asked. Before he had finished his cousin sprinted to the bathroom and threw up. "I'll get mom." He said to his sister before disappearing.
"Here." Kara said handing a glass of water to her cousin who had finished throwing up.
"Thanks." Alex said, her hands a little shaky as she took the glass.
"Can I get you anything else?"
In response the younger teenager just shook her head miserably.
"Mom will be here soon. She'll know what to do." The teenage Kara assured her cousin. "Go sit on the couch, I'll get some blankets and a bowl."
As the ill teenager collapse on the couch she grabbed hold of a cushion and hugged it tightly.
"Here." The teenage Kara said putting a bowl on the table before handing her cousin the blanket.
"Thanks." Alex said wrapping the blanket round herself.
"Do you want me to call aunt Kara?"
"No, she has a meeting this morning." Alex said squeezing the cushion.
"What's going on?" The adult Alex said entering the apartment.
"She was really sick." Her daughter explained.
"You two get to school." The older Alex said to her children as she moved over to her niece.
"Feel better." MJ called as he left with his sister.
"Let's have a look at you." Alex said to her niece as she put her hand on her forehead. "Good news is no temperature. Do you have any pain anywhere?"
"No."
"What about dizziness?"
"No. I just feel sick."
"Did you eat anything this morning?"
"No. I didn't feel like it."
"Are your powers okay?"
"I think so." The teenager said causing her aunt to look round the room.
"Stay right there." The adult Alex said leaving the room for a moment before coming back with a frying pan. "See if you can bend this in half." She instructed.
Nodding the teenager took the pan and effortlessly bent the metal.
"Good news is you still have powers." The adult Alex said.
"What's wrong with me?" The teenager asked.
"Your powers should stop you getting sick. If for some reason they hadn't you'd have a temperature, which you don't. You haven't eaten anything so it isn't like to be an allergy. So I don't think it is physical."
"So you are saying I'm a psycho?"
"No. But I do think you need to spend less time picking up vocab from MJ and Kara." Alex said. "I think something is stressing you out and it has been for a few days. Is it because your mom became Supergirl?"
"No." The younger Alex said shaking her head. "I wanted her to do that."
"But then you saw her get hurt."
"That wasn't the first time and unlike on Chibnell she healed really quickly." The younger Alex said. The comment causing many questions to swirl round her aunt's mind. Fighting back the urge to ask them the older Alex went on.
"But something is wrong and it involves your mom?" This time the teenager nodded in response.
"Have you talked to her about it?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't want her to worry about me."
"She is going to do that anyway. Is that the only reason?" She asked. Seeing another shake she went on. "What else?"
"I'm afraid of the answer."
"Why don't you tell me what's bothering you and we'll see if we can figure it out together?" Alex suggested sitting next to her niece.
"When we were on the ship mom used to get here I looked at the controls and the engine and it was twice as fast as J'onn's ship. So she should have arrived over two months before I did, but mom only arrived a few days before I did. Something bad must have happened and I've been thinking about what-"
"Slow down." Alex said. "You and I can sit here and think the worst or we can focus on the fact that whatever happened, your mom is fine, and then ask her when she gets back?"
"Okay." The teenager said as her aunt hugged her.
"Remember, I am always going to look out for your mom." The older Alex said as she held her tightly.
-00-
"What's wrong?" Kara asked rushing into the apartment.
"Kara." The older Alex said firmly. "Without running a battery of tests I can't be one hundred percent sure, but I don't think it is physical. We can take her to the DEO, or to one of Lena's labs, but I think you are going to get answers quicker, by listening."
"Okay." Kara said sitting on the coffee table facing the two Alexes.
"Why didn't you come to Earth straight away?" Her daughter asked.
"What do you mean?" Kara asked confused.
"Your ship was much faster than J'onn's. You should have been here months before me but you only beat me by a few days. Something bad happened didn't it?"
"After you left with J'onn I wanted to make sure you got as far away as possible from the bounty hunter so I avoided him for a couple of weeks." Kara said.
"That still leaves at least six weeks." The younger Alex said.
"When he found me, there was a fight and I was hurt." Kara said. "I didn't know what planets I would be going past so I decided to heal before I left."
"So you were really badly hurt?"
"No more than your aunt has just been." Kara said trying to make her daughter worry less.
"But she had help, you didn't. I should have stayed and-"
"It was my choice to send you with J'onn." Kara reminded her. "But all of that is in the past. What matters is we are both here and both safe." She added pulling her daughter in for a hug.
"I'll give you some space." The older Alex said stiffly standing and limping out of the apartment.