A/N: Only an epilogue to go! Thanks for reading!
Chapter 33
Kara and Marie walked into the hospital the next morning. The latter was feeling much better and Kara wanted to relieve J'onn from his overnight duties. After getting directions to the room from the main desk, the two got to the floor and scooted into the room.
J'onn was passed out in the chair next to the bed. Todd was still in his coma it seemed but that wasn't exactly surprising given his condition. Kara gently shook the Martain awake and he almost fell out of the chair.
"Go home and get some sleep Papa Bear," Kara gave him a smile.
"My back is killing me. It always surprises me for some reason, even after all these years," he admitted.
"Good thing M'gann is handling city duty today. Nia is going to swing by after our visit to keep an eye on Todd for us," the blonde told him.
"How is Cat Grant taking all this time away from work for you two?" The Martain wanted to know as he straightened up and out of the chair.
"Working on a joint article and our sources are twitchy," Kara chuckled.
"Does that work?" Marie asked.
"She's not going to fire her Pulitzer prize winner nor piss her off. If I say I need Nia…" the blonde smirked.
"Got her wrapped around your little finger huh?" J'onn shook his head.
"I can honestly never tell," Kara admitted.
"I think she's more worried you'll jump to a competitor," Marie said.
"Says the lady dating an L Corp employee?" The blonde gave her a look. Marie threw her hands up and J'onn chuckled before giving them each a hug and saying goodbye. The two ladies settled in. Kara had asked if Marie had wanted some private time with Todd but her friend said no.
"How'd you and Todd meet? We assumed it was some backdoor connection to the DEO but I'm guessing one meeting wouldn't have been enough to develop this kind of a relationship," the blonde said.
"Well, my coworkers and I play trivia at McGinty's. So does Todd and his security coworkers. One night our team beat them by a half-point. He came over to buy us a round and I said to him that I don't drink. We chatted on our way to the bar to pick up the drinks and he commented on how I called it pop. He figured out that I was from back East," Marie told her.
"Ah, old habits die hard, huh?" Kara wondered.
"Still don't understand why you call it soda, but anyway, Todd is from back East as well. We got to chit-chatting and one of his friends took the drinks. Before I know we're closing out the place and my friends had gone home a long time before. His friends too. I told him that I had to be to work less than five hours and he said he did too," Marie said.
"So, what kind of trouble did you two get into?" Kara waggled her eyebrows.
"You're incorrigible, you know that?" Marie gave her a look.
"Can't… blame… her…" both ladies looked to see Todd give them a smile and a wink.
"I'll get the nurse!" Kara was out the room door in a hurry.
"Todd, you might still have the Snakebite in you. Just stay still. They have the antidote," Marie explained.
"Staying still was not what you said the other night," he waggled his eyebrows, cracking a joke.
"You've been hanging out with Kara, haven't you? Dirty minds," Marie chuckled. Kara and the nurse were back into the room and the nurse warned him that the antidote might make him out of it again. He nodded and Marie took his hand in hers as the antidote went into his IV.
Kara pulled out her phone and called Nia. She quickly explained what was going on and Nia promised to be down to the hospital as quickly as she could. While the human-Naltorian hybrid couldn't free Todd completely from Enigma's spell, she could prevent him from doing anything stupid until J'onn had a few hours of actual sleep in him. The work took a lot out of him between communicating with the patient's mind and helping Nia into that patient's mind. Then they had to wander around and work their special abilities to find what they were looking for.
"Nia will be here soon. Meantime, we just need to keep him calm," Kara told her friend, who was holding on tight to her partner's hand.
"Thank you," Marie turned to the blonde.
"No need. We do what we need to for family," Kara gave her shoulders a squeeze.
To Be Continued…