"Hi MJ." Kara smiled when her nephew entered the apartment the next morning. "What brings you here so early?"
"Can you stop her?" He asked not acknowledging the other teens.
"Stop who?" Kara asked confused.
"Mom. She said she's going to work."
"She can't even get out of her room." Kara reminded him.
"Yet she is planning on going to work." MJ said.
"I'll go talk to her." Kara said. "You can have breakfast here if you want."
"It's fine, I have to go anyway." MJ said. "Just please stop her." He said leaving.
"You two okay sorting yourselves out?" Kara asked looking from Alex to Martin.
"Sure." Her daughter said.
"Okay, well I'll see you tonight." She said kissing her daughter on her head. "Call if anything strange happens."
00
"MJ is freaking out about you going to work." Kara said walking into her sister's bedroom.
"I can't stay here here and do nothing." Alex said sitting on the side of her bed, trying and failing to get a boot on her good leg.
"Fine, but you can stay here and do something." Kara said.
"Or I can go to work."
"And do what? Anything you can do there you can do here. But if you do it here you won't be in danger and you won't risk setting your recovery back."
"I can't do it here, I need to be in work, I need to stop this. They got me, they got Steve, what's stopping them get MJ?"
"MJ needs you to be safe. You going to work isn't going to help. Neither is you collapsing. Besides if you go to work you will be sitting at a desk looking at a computer, you can do that here."
"It's my fault." Alex said.
"What is?" Kara asked lost.
"Steve."
"What?"
"Those photos you sent last night, I recognised one of them. He was one of the men who were guarding me."
"He was?"
"If I had done something-"
"Alex, when you were being held you had one job and one job only, to stay alive. You did that. After that everything is on us, not you. And we need you, clearly, but we need you recovered. So please stay here, and let me and Vasquez do the lifting."
"Fine." Alex conceded as Eliza entered the room.
"Are you seeing sense yet?" Eliza asked.
"Yes." Kara jumped in before Alex could say anything. She then went on. "Alex is going to stay here and not move. She is going to let everyone else take the strain."
"Alex can speak for herself." Alex said annoyed.
"Not if we want sense." Eliza countered.
"So I'm guessing you guys have already debated this, this morning?" Kara said. Seeing Alex glare at her she said. "Well that's my cue to go to work. I'll see you later."
00
"Hey." Vasquez greeted when Supergirl walked through the control room.
"Hi."
"Everything okay? You look a little stressed."
"Alex tried to make a break for it and come to work." Kara explained.
"Is she here?" Rose asked looking worried.
"No. I persuaded her to stay at home. Let's just hope nothing else happens." Kara answered before looking at Vasquez and asking. "How's Steve?"
"The doc is happy with his progress. He can leave later." Vasquez said. "But he is still quite shaken. You might want to talk to him, as Kara that is."
"I'll go through in a minute. Anything else I should know about?"
"Not unless no progress counts." Vasquez said.
"Alex recognised one of the guys I grabbed."
"She did?" Vasquez asked.
"Yes." Rose confirmed. "She sent and email late last night."
"Cork!" Vasquez called, causing the meta to hurry over.
"Yes ma'am."
"You still tracking those cell phones."
"Yes ma'am."
"Any go near the house where Dr Keller was being held?"
"No ma'am."
"You sure?"
"Yes m'am."
"Keep monitoring and if they do anything odd let me know."
"Yes ma'am." He said.
"Well I'm going to talk to our new guests." Vasquez said. "Which one did Alex recognise?"
"The blonde one."
"Well I will start with him."
00
"Hi." Kara said entering Steve's room.
"Hey, is Martin okay?"
"He's fine. He's at school. We thought you'd be asleep, otherwise he would have stopped by this morning."
"But he's okay?"
"He's fine."
"Thank you for looking after him."
"Of course. So how are you doing?"
"Me?"
"Well you were kidnapped." Kara reminded him. "And despite the bravado that must freak you out."
"Any bravado is accidental." Steve said. "But right now I'm more worried about Martin than I am about me."
"I get that, but you need to look after you as well, if you don't Martin will end up paying the price."
"That sounds like the voice of experience." Steve said.
"I guess it is. But I mean it, festering won't help and neither will ignoring what you went through."
"Did that speech work on your sister?"
"No." Kara said. "But I was hoping you were less stubborn."
"Let's not go that far." Steve said. "Umm, has anyone said anything about me leaving?"
"Yes, you get out today, assuming you pass all the tests."
"And the fake me?"
"Locked away."
"Any idea what they wanted?"
"No. They aren't talking." Kara said.
-00-
"You sure you are okay to leave?" Kara asked as she sat in the back of a DEO SUV with Steve as an agent drove them to the house.
"I got the okay to leave. And in fact I got the impression that they made me stay longer than needed because I didn't actively argue about it."
"Sounds about right." Kara smiled.
"Thank you for looking after Martin."
"Of course."
"I was thinking about what you said yesterday about it being your fault. And I'm confused. Why would they go after me to get to you? What did they want? Did fake me do something to you?"
"No."
"But you knew that was fake me?"
"That was Chewie. And the fact that he thought we had gone on a date in a vegan restaurant. But Chewie was key."
"You sure I, well fake me, didn't hurt Martin or you?"
"I think Fake Steve said some pretty mean things to Martin."
"And by think you …."
"Know. He told Alex and Alex told me. Eventually."
"Any suggestions on how to make it up to him?"
"It wasn't your fault."
"Yet I feel guilty. So any and all advice appreciated. Although number one on your list is going to be hug isn't it? But Martin won't go for that."
"Just spend time with him then."
"Yeah, I'll take time off work."
"You are already on leave." Kara said.
"I am?"
"Yeah. You booked two weeks. You have been off for five days now."
"I didn't book leave. Wait was that fake me? That's actually good. I mean it means fake me didn't kill anyone."
"There is that. But the point is you have the weekend off and I don't think there are any chess matches."
-00-
"We're back." Kara called as she and Steve entered the house.
"Steve!" Martin said before hugging his uncle, causing Kara to mouth. "Told you so." She then gave them some privacy and moved to the lounge where Alex was still doing homework.
"Do you have a test or something?" Kara asked.
"Yes."
"Which you will be fine for." Eliza said to her granddaughter.
"Where's MJ?" Kara asked.
"Out with Jess." Eliza said.
"Does Alex know?"
"Yes, and that has contributed to her less than sunny disposition." Eliza said.
"I'll talk to her." Kara said as Steve and Martin came into the room.
"Hi Steve." Eliza smiled.
"Hi. Thank you so much for looking after Martin, but do you mind if we stay for dinner?" Steve asked.
"Of course not." Eliza said as Martin returned to the kitchen table and continued his homework.
"Everything okay?" Kara quietly asked Steve.
"He looked a bit scared about being alone with me. I was hoping a bit of time surrounded by you guys as well as me might help." Steve explained.
"Of course. And if you guys want to stay tonight that's fine as well."
"I appreciate that, but I'm hoping it won't come to that."
00
"Everything okay?" Kara asked as she sat next to her daughter on the couch that evening.
"Yes, I was just checking Martin was okay."
"Is he?" Kara asked.
"Yes, he said Steve was acting like Steve."
"That's good. And they seemed okay when they left."
"I know." The teen said. "But I still wanted to check."
"I'm sure Martin appreciates having a friend like you."
"He shouldn't." The teen said.
"Why?" Kara asked.
"I'm not a friend really am I? I mean I don't tell him who I am. Plus Steve probably only got swapped because of his connection to us, which he only has because I became friends with Martin. Martin doesn't deserve everything what is happening to him."
"What happened to Steve was unfair." Kara agreed. "But it wasn't your fault."
"Doesn't feel that way." The teenager said.
"What's going on?" Kara asked.
"It's nothing." The teen shrugged.
"I'm not getting the nothing vibe." Kara said as her phone rang.
"What is it?" She answered. "Okay, I'll be right there." She added after a moment. As she ended the call she looked at her daughter and said. "Sorry I have to go."
"It's okay. I'll see you tomorrow." The teenager said as her mother hugged her before changing and flying out of the window.