"Any big plans for the weekend?" Kara asked her daughter that evening.
"MJ wants to go paintballing tomorrow."
"Sounds painful." Kara said as the doorbell rang. Looking through the door Kara frowned in confusion before opening it.
"Hi Kara." Steve greeted.
"Hey Steve, Martin." Kara smiled.
"I'm so happy you are okay. When you went quiet I got worried." Steve said.
"Sorry, it got crazy with the whole invasion thing. Are two okay?"
"Yeah. We're fine." Steve said. "What about Alex? I mean I assume she was in the thick of it."
"She's okay. A little tired."
"I can imagine." Steve replied. "But now it is over, it is over right?"
"As far as I know." Kara replied.
"Not entirely convincing, but I'll take it." Steve said. "But I have some bad news."
"What?" Kara asked.
"Well the magic show tonight-"
"That's tonight?" Kara asked.
"Yeah. That's why we're here." Steve said.
"I am so sorry. I totally forgot." Kara said.
"It's fine. I mean there has been an alien invasion." Steve said before looking at Marin. "Looks like it is just us."
"We could cancel." Martin said, his voice hopeful.
"I mean we can still go." Kara said. "We don't have other plans."
"You sure?" Steve asked.
"Absolutely." Kara said.
"Well, before you agree, as I was saying I have bad news. They don't saw people in half, but you do have the chance to have nine swords stuck through you." He said the comment causing the teenage Alex to start having flashbacks and turn ghostly pale. "Alex are you okay?" Steve asked frowning stepping forward ready to catch her if she fell.
"Alex?" Kara asked turning to her daughter who stood motionless lost in her memories.
"Alex." Kara repeated snapping her daughter out of it.
"Sorry, I'm okay." The teen said.
"Yeah, you don't look it." Steve said. "I think you should sit down." He said guiding her to the couch before taking her pulse.
"That's really fast." He said. "Do you feel dizzy?"
"No."
"Tired?"
"No."
"What's going on?" Eliza asked entering the apartment.
"Alex got a little faint." Steve said. "Let's lie you down and get blood back to your head." He added looking at the teen
"I'll help you." Kara said guiding her daughter to her room. As Alex lay down she said in an alien language.
"I'm sorry, I'm okay. I just had a flashback. I'm okay now."
"We'll take it really easy tonight." Kara smiled, while speaking in the same alien language.
"No. You go." The teen said.
"I can't leave you."
"Yes you can. You need to have fun. I'll be okay." The teen said as Eliza joined them. Seeing her grandmother she said in English. "I can stay with Eliza."
"I don't know-" Kara said not happy with leaving her.
"I'm okay." The teen said. "Please go have fun."
"I'll stay with her." Eliza said.
"I'm going to talk to Steve." Kara said. "I'll be back in a minute."
"Can you make her go?" The teen pleaded to her grandmother.
"I'll see what I can do." Eliza said leaving the room and joining Kara as Steve offered.
"Do you want me to drive her to your doctor?"
"She'll be okay." Eliza said. "I'll stay with her, so you go." She said but when she saw Martin's face she added. "Or why don't you two go, I'll look after Alex, and Martin, you are more than welcome to go game with MJ." Eliza said.
"Thank you." Martin said disappearing from the apartment in a flash.
"Hey." Steve called after the teen but got no response. He then turned back to Kara and Eliza and said. "And there I was thinking he had no interest in athletics, but he clearly has speed." He then turned serious and said. "I'm sorry you have ended up with one extra teen. I'll will leave you to it, and just let me know when you want me to pick him up."
"Absolutely not, you two go to where ever it is you were going. I will look after Alex. If anything changes I will let you know." Eliza said. "Kara you need a break."
"Let me talk to Alex first." She said walking into her daughter's room.
"Why are you still here?" Her daughter asked.
"Because I'm worried about you." Kara said sitting on her bed.
"I'll be okay." The teen replied. "Go have fun. If I feel worse I'll use my necklace."
"But-"
"Please. Otherwise you will make me feel bad." The teen said pouting.
"You sure?" Kara asked.
"I'm sure."
"Okay, I'll see you later." Kara said kissing her daughter's head. "And I will be phoning."
"Are you okay with this?" Steve asked as they left the apartment. "I totally get if you want to stay here."
"I think Alex just threw me out." Kara said.
"At least she didn't run away from you like Martin did me." He pointed out as they walked down the stairs and led Kara to the car. As he started driving Kara noticed they were heading in the wrong direction and asked. "Aren't we going the wrong way?"
"No. Well technically yes, but no. We could go to some magic show, but if we did that you would be sitting there the entire time worrying about Alex and wanting to check your phone. So instead we are going to go for dinner at a restaurant that is a five minute drive away and has good signal, so if you do need to go back you will be there really quickly."
"But the show?" Kara asked.
"Do you really want to go?" Steve pressed.
"Well no, but it seems a waste of the tickets."
"Well we will give them away." He said.
-00-
"Sorry." The teenage Alex said to her grandmother as she walked to the couch.
"For what?" Eliza asked.
"Spoiling your evening."
"You didn't." Eliza said. "Besides I love spending time with you." She said hugging her before asking. "Want to tell me what happened?"
"Steve mentioned there was a chance mom could get swords put through her and then I saw what Lobo did to her and ..."
"It's okay." Eliza said hugging her. "After everything you have been through it will take a while to recover." After a while she pulled away and said. "The good news is you are looking better. Far less pale. Why don't we go and do something?"
"Like what?"
"Anything you want. But I do need to buy your mother a Christmas present, we could go do that?"
-00-
"I am going to be terrible company." Kara said as she sat at the table with Steve, glancing at her phone.
"Give the word and I will take you back." He said. "Or have something to eat, take a few minutes for yourself and then we'll head back."
"You sure you want to look at me looking at a phone?"
"There are worse things to look at. I mean I normally spend my evening watching Martin playing video games wondering if he is developing some sort of Tourettes. Plus I need to eat."
"Okay." Kara said.
"I take it Alex is still having nightmares?" Steve asked.
"One of the things Alex saw was me dying. Where I was stabbed. The sword comment triggered some memories."
"I'm so sorry." Steve said.
"There was no way you could have known." Kara said.
"I still should have thought before I talked. I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I'm the one who keeps letting her down." Kara said sadly.
"I'm pretty sure you don't." Steve said.
"I'm the cause of her nightmares. I've put her though so much and the worst part is she keeps trying to be so strong, I mean she always has, and it's not fair. And I'm sorry I didn't mean to unburden."
"Unburden away." Steve said. "But this sounds like the type of conversation that should be conducted over dessert, so let me grab those menus." He said jumping up.
When he returned a few minutes later with no menus Kara asked.
"They don't do dessert?"
"They do. I just ordered one of everything, they'll start bringing them out soon, along with some hot chocolate." He explained. He then paused and said. "I probably should have asked this before, but based on your normal choices I was assuming the answer was no, but seeing I have just ordered a year's worth of sugar, you aren't diabetic are you?"
"No." Kara smiled.
"Good." He said as Kara's phone buzzed.
"Everything okay?" Steve asked.
"It's Alex. She said she's fine and to stop worrying about her." Kara said before typing a message back.
"So you have a teen who voluntarily communicates with you?" Steve said. "I'm jealous."
"How are things with Martin?"
"I don't know. Sometimes he seems like a normal teen, whatever that is, but other times he locks himself away and refuses to engage. I just don't know how help."
"When I first got to Ea- err, the house in Midvale, everything reminded me of what I had lost. All I wanted to do was shut myself away and wallow. But Eliza wouldn't let me. She'd come into my room, ignore all my not so polite demands for her to leave and then hugged me."
"I think if I did that with Martin he would be so freaked out he'd run away." Steve smiled.
"Not a hugger?" Kara guessed.
"Is any teenage boy?" Steve countered.
"I guess not."
"I know you are worried about Alex, but she seems really balanced and super smart, despite the nightmares."
"I'm not worried about the academic stuff, I mean Alex is smart, too smart at times, but the social side ..."
"She gets on well with her cousins right?"
"Absolutely. But for so many years it was just us. I feel like I cost her so much. I don't want her to miss out on the good parts of having high school friends."
"I didn't think Martin would ever have friends, at least not in high school. But Alex and then MJ, really helped him come out of his shell." Steve pointed out.
"I just wish that I didn't keep letting her down."
"From where I am sitting if you are letting Alex down, words can't start to describe how I am failing Martin." Steve said. "I mean I have left him waiting on the cold and dark because I got stuck at work. I forget half his chess matches. He tells me nothing, apart from how terrible I am. I know most of what he says is out of anger against the world, but other times I do wonder if he would have been happier living somewhere else."
"All you can do it give him love and support. One day he'll understand how much you have done for him." Kara said as the waiter put some plates on the table.
"That's a lot of dessert." Kara commented.
"The next round will be out in ten minutes." The waiter said leaving.
"So if love and support are the key, why are you so hard on yourself, when it is obvious how much love and support you give Alex?" Steve asked.
"Are you using my words against me?" Kara asked.
"Never." Steve said switching plates with Kara. "I just think it is very easy to be critical of yourself, when there is in fact no justification." He said sliding a chocolate fudge cake towards Kara.
"Thank you for this. I needed it. I mean I know I have Alex but she has her own issues. And Lena doesn't have kids so I feel bad about unloading."
"After everything you have done for me and Martin you can unload anytime." Steve offered.
"Who do you unload to?" Kara asked.
"About raising a kid?" Steve asked.
"Yeah."
"You're kind of it." He said. "My friends from before Martin came to live with me can be lumped into three categories. The first have on the face of it a perfect family and will never admit to any issues, so going to them for advice is going to result in criticism. The second have kids who are a step away from prison and I'm not sure I want to burden them and the third have no kids and think I am insane for taking Martin. And then there are my colleagues who on the one hand are great. They are supportive and fun to be around. But at the same time seem to make it a daily ritual to offer advice which them somehow leads to my love life or lack of."
"Hence the fake girlfriend." Kara said.
"Yes. That's how pathetic my life is."
"Your life isn't pathetic." Kara said.
"It is."
"You are surgeon, you save people's lives."
"Yes. But if it weren't for Martin, that is all I'd be. My work is my life. Or it was my life. But now I am looking after Martin, I don't want to set that example for him, but it is all I know. "
"Well for a workaholic, you are doing pretty well tonight." Kara said a waiter pul the next round of desserts on the table.
-00-
"Can I ask you something?" The teenager asked Eliza as they sat eating in a restaurant.
"Of course." Eliza said.
"Whose choice was it that mom calls you Eliza?"
"Your mother's."
"Did it ever bother you?" The teen asked.
"Why would it?"
"Didn't it make you feel less important?"
"Alex, when you mother came to us she had lost everyone she cared about. And she didn't want to replace any of those people and neither did I. Regardless of what your mother calls me she is still my daughter and I love her. Why do you ask?"
"Would you mind if I didn't call you Eliza?"
"Of course not. What did you have in mind?"
"Uzheiu." The teen suggested. For a moment Eliza tried to place the word and eventually she said.
"My Kryptonian is a little rusty, but that's Kryptonian for grandmother isn't it?"
"Yes. Even though we travelled a lot and Kryptonian is a kinda a dead language as far as the Galaxy is concerned, it is what we always spoke. So it is still my language."
"All that matters is that you feel comfortable." Eliza said. "And that no matter what you call me I will always love you."
-00-
"Hi." Kara said entering her apartment where Eliza was sitting on the couch.
"Hey. How was it?"
"We didn't go. We just went for dinner close by incase Alex needed me. Where is she?"
"She's asleep."
"Really? Is she okay?" Kara asked.
"She's fine. She started looking much better so we went out and got a meal."
"Thank you." Kara said.
"You don't have to thank me for spending time with my granddaughter." Eliza said patting the couch next to her. Once Kara had sat down she asked. "How are you doing?"
"I just feel so guilty."
"None of what happened is your fault."
"Isn't it? If I hadn't come back as Supergirl none of this would have happened."
"True, because we would have all be enslaved by Mongul." Eliza pointed out. "Besides running into danger and helping people is who you are. And who Alex is. Look at the way she ran straight to Lobo to help you."
"That's not making me feel any less guilty." Kara said.
"Feeling guilty won't help anyone." Eliza went on. "Alex needs you to be you."
"I don't even know who that is anymore."
"I do." Eliza said. "You are the person who inspires people to be better. The person who lights up a room."
"Right now I just feel like the person who lets down their daughter."
"Alex doesn't feel let down." Eliza said.
"You don't know that."
"Yes I do." Eliza said. "We had a long talk tonight."
"You did? What did she say?"
"The details don't matter. What matters is she loves you and she is proud of you." Eliza stated before offering. "Do you want me to stay here tonight, in case Alex has a nightmare?"
"No, it's okay. I've got this."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
-00-
"Hey." Kara said as her daughter walked from her bedroom to the lounge later that night. "What are you doing up?" She asked.
In response the teen came and sat down next to her on the couch and hugged her.
"I'm right here." Kara said wrapping her arms round her. "Did you have a nightmare?"
"No. I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep."
"Why?"
"I just keep thinking about stuff."
"Well we could try my mother's weird Kryptonian meditation thing?" Kara suggested.
"Or I can just hug you and fall to sleep here." The teen said sounding tired.
"Okay." Kara agreed.
"How was the magic show?"
"We didn't go. We went for dinner instead so I could get back here quickly."
"I'm sorry."
"Why are you sorry? We had a nice dinner. And from the sound of it you a had a good time with Eliza."
"I did." The teen said starting to feel sleepy. "Why aren't you asleep?"
"I was just thinking." Kara said reaching over and taking the blanket off an arm and putting it over Alex moments before Chewie jumped up and settled by Alex's legs.
"About what?" The teen asked.
"Life, the universe, everything."
"Forty two." The teen yawned.
"I am so proud of you knowing that."
"I'm sorry I freaked you out tonight." The teen said.
"After everything you have been through your reaction was normal." Kara said. "And reacting is better than bottling."
"Does Steve think I am a freak?"
"No." Kara assured her. "I'm sure Martin doesn't either." She added but Alex had already fallen to sleep.