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Seven

Three hours later, she lay in a hospital bed with an IV drip in her arm, high as a kite and finally not in pain anymore. It had taken this long to be seen because, despite her headache and the trauma that made everything seem so much worse, she hadn't been physically injured aside from some scrapes and bruises, and there were dozens of other people filling up the hospital after the attack on the city. She'd filled up the wait time by trying to sleep, and had actually managed to doze off at some point, because when they called her name, she'd jerked awake, only to realize that she'd been leaning on J'onn's shoulder for who knew how long.

He'd brushed off her apology and gone with her, though they'd kicked him out of the doctor's office when they'd fully examined her to make sure she didn't have some injury that she didn't know about. She'd tried to tell them about what had happened with the Imperium and why her head hurt so much, but the words wouldn't come. The thought of telling anyone—even a doctor—about it seemed impossibly invasive, and she'd decided that she'd been invaded enough for one night. Or morning, or whatever time it was. She still couldn't believe the sun was out and the sky was blue after everything that had happened.

Now she lay staring blearily at J'onn from her bed in a quiet ward. They'd questioned him, asked him who he was in relation to Kate, but had let him stay. Probably because they'd seen the look of utter desperation on her face at the thought that he might be asked to leave.

"So," she said, "before I fall asleep. Tell me." She kept her voice quiet for the others trying to sleep in here, but also because she was so tired herself that she couldn't speak any louder. "Tell me why you seem so normal while I'm… a mess."

He sat in a chair at her bedside and took a breath. "You forgot about Batman."

She blinked fuzzily. "What?"

"You forgot that Batman and I had created a plan, that he was still alive and out there doing what he needed to do. And I couldn't remind you of it because the less people who knew that he was alive, and the less people who knew what he was doing, the better. And when we were captured and brought before the Imperium, there was no time to tell you of my plan, either, and even if there had been time, I would not have been able to. All of it hinged on the fact that the Imperium didn't know that we had a plan at all. And I knew it would dig into my mind, so I couldn't risk telling you anything, especially not with it already in the room with us."

Kate stared at him, fighting sleep. "You knew you were going to be tortured," she whispered, horrified.

"Yes. And I had made peace with that. You must understand: the Imperium, the invaders, they took everything from me. My home, my people, my family. My wife and children died—" He cut himself off, looking away. "There was nothing the Imperium could have done to me that would have been worse than what it had already done."

"That's why you were so relaxed when it pulled you up," Kate said, remembering J'onn's body language as he'd been lifted up to the cliffside where that thing was. He'd just stood there, doing nothing as the invaders had come forward to electrocute him. He'd let it happen, as a distraction.

She looked back at J'onn and blinked in surprise to see tears streaming down his face.

He made no noise as he cried, took no great, heaving breaths, but his voice sounded choked as spoke again. "I could have endured anything up there because I knew that we had it. We were going to win when Batman came through. What was a little torture compared to the death of my mortal enemy, the one who had taken my whole world from me? But you didn't know because I never told you what I was planning, because I couldn't. And you risked everything to keep me from pain. You threw yourself at me, and around me, and I could feel you there, trying so hard to save me. And I tried to tell you to go back, but there were only seconds left—the Imperium was already reaching for us—and I didn't… I couldn't…" He cut himself off and put his face in his hands, shoulders shaking silently.

"That's why you think it's your fault," Kate whispered, and tried to sit up, but the painkillers had made her dizzy. "J'onn, I told you. The only one to blame is the Imperium, and we killed that fucking thing."

J'onn dropped his hands from his face, looking at her in surprise.

"None of this was your fault," she went on, "and I will continue to tell you that until the end of time if I have to."

"But why did you try to save me?" he asked, staring at her with wide eyes. "Why?"

She smiled weakly at him. "It's what I do. I'm a nurse, a healer. It's my job to bring peace, to heal hurt, to stop pain. I couldn't have sat there and just watched, not if there was something I could do. I didn't even know if it would work when I did it. And, to be fair, it didn't work, because you felt the pain, too. I'm sorry for that."

"No," he said, shaking his head. "You have nothing to be sorry about."

"Well, neither do you."

His shoulders slumped.

"We'll be talking in circles if we don't stop," she whispered, and chuckled.

"Yes, you're right," he said, calmer now. He took a moment to wipe his eyes. "You should get some sleep. I know you're exhausted."

"I am. But…" Kate hesitated. "Where… will you go?"

"Nowhere," he replied. "I have nowhere to go."

She blinked, realizing he was right. Now he was stuck on Earth with no prospects and no one to turn to. His mission in life, to guard the invaders, to prevent them from escaping their underground citadel, had failed—but he'd ended up killing the Imperium because of it. He'd won in the end, but now… What was an alien stranded on a strange planet supposed to do with his life? "You can stay with me," she whispered. And before she could think any more on the matter, she fell asleep.

###

Kate awoke slowly, forgetting, at first, all that happened and where she was. She got a sense that something bad had happened, though she couldn't remember what—Tentacles in her arms, her stomach, twisting their way around to her back—

She sat up with a gasp, then put her head in her hands, groaning. Her painkillers had worn off and now there were several aches in her body. Her head still hurt, but not as badly as last night. She dropped her hands and gave a small start at the sight of J'onn J'onzz sitting in a chair beside her hospital bed.

He said nothing, but tilted his head at her.

She found herself staring into his eyes, those beautiful orange—

"I thought maybe I dreamed you," she said, shaking herself. "Not just you. I mean, I thought maybe everything had been… some kind of crazy nightmare."

"Would that that were the case," he said solemnly.

She scrubbed at her face with one hand, pushing her hair back and letting it fall again. "Were you sitting here all day? How long was I asleep?"

"Yes. And about twelve hours."

"Twelve," she repeated, amazed.

"One of the nurses said you were free to go once you woke up. She didn't want to wake you early. She said she knew you, and that you deserved to sleep."

"Who was it?"

"Her nametag said Grace."

Kate smiled. "Grace has been trying to get me to take extra time off for months." She glanced at J'onn again. "Did anyone give you any trouble?"

"No. They looked at me, but I had been expecting that."

She nodded, hoping no one had actually said anything about his appearance. Metropolis had its fair share of strange-looking people: unnatural skin-tones, masks and capes, but she didn't think most people ran into aliens in their daily lives. Come to think of it, she was strangely calm about the whole alien thing herself.

She looked down at herself, realizing they'd already removed her IV. She must have been totally out of it if they'd been checking her vitals every four hours without her waking up; she was sure the morphine drip they'd given her had helped with that. She swung her legs over the side of the bed, placing her hands flat on either side of her. Then she took a breath and stood up.

J'onn stood too, much faster than her, and reached out a hand as if to catch her if she fell.

She flinched automatically, then forced a smile and waved him off, just trying to get her feet underneath her to see if she was dizzy. She wasn't. The morphine must have worn off hours ago. Other than an overall sense that she was sore and still bone-weary despite passing out for twelve hours, she seemed fine—though her head still ached more than she would have liked. She sat back down and pressed the button on the side of the bed to call a nurse.

She was discharged twenty minutes later and went to the bathroom to change back into her clothes. She stared down at them as she took them out of the clear plastic bag, and grimaced. She did not want to change back into these filthy, bloody clothes, but also did not want to leave the hospital wearing only a gown. Where had the blood even come from? She didn't remember getting injured. Feeling ill, she put her clothes on and decided to throw them away the second she got home. They had been tainted by that horrible place…

"Oh my God," she said, coming out of the bathroom.

"What is it?" J'onn asked, coming near her.

"All of my stuff is back at my car, which is back at the military base where I found you. My purse, my phone, my apartment key… My wallet. Someone's about to come back in here to get me to pay the ER bill and my wallet is three hours away." She put her face in her hands. "How the hell am I supposed to—"

"Kate," J'onn said, and put a hand on her shoulder.

She jumped out of her skin and scuttled away from him at the sudden contact. Tentacles snaking up her arms—

J'onn looked like he'd just accidentally killed someone. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I forgot. How could I forget?"

Kate swallowed the bile rising in her throat and moved closer to him again, reaching out a tentative hand. "It–It's okay." When he did not move away from her hand, she lay it against his arm. "Is this… I mean, you don't mind being touched, do you? Does it bother you?"

"No," he said. "I don't mind it."

She kept her hand on his arm and they stood staring at one another for a long moment.

Someone cleared their throat.

Kate jumped again and looked around J'onn's body to see a hospital worker standing there, holding a clipboard. Expecting her to whip out a credit card to pay her hospital bill.

Shit, she thought, and awkwardly explained the situation as best she could without revealing too much information.

"No problem," he said. "We'll just bill you the amount."

Five minutes later, they were standing outside the hospital and Kate was blinking in the afternoon sunlight.

J'onn stood at her side, unmoving, quiet.

She breathed for a few long moments, then murmured, "I don't know what to do now. Everything feels so… different. Like last night wasn't real—or… like last night was real and everything else has been the dream. I just don't… feel like myself."

"That's normal," J'onn replied. "You experienced a great trauma last night. Your brain will take time to process it."

"That's just it," she said. "It's not just… that, the Imperium. It's… everything. Even you don't feel real, and I'm looking right at you." She turned to face him and he did the same for her and they stood in front of the hospital staring at one another. "I want," she began, and fell silent, feeling like a fool.

"What?" he asked.

"I just wish my powers would come back," she whispered, wanting desperately to reconnect to him telepathically, as if that would make him real again.

"I'm… sure they will," J'onn said, sounding very unsure.

She gave a small derisive snort. "Oh, you're sure."

He blinked at her, pulling his head back a little in surprise.

She sighed and rubbed her face. "Sorry. I'm… I'm so tired. I don't mean to be unkind."

"I know," he murmured. "Let me take you home. We can worry about getting your things back later. I'm sure your car isn't going anywhere."

"Oh my God," Kate said suddenly. "J'onn, there are people there!" She put her hands on his arms without realizing she was doing it, squeezing, as if that would better convey the seriousness of the situation.

J'onn did look properly alarmed. "What—"

"At the military base! There were people trapped there. I forgot about them when I met you, but there were a bunch of people trapped in some corner of the base. I assume the invaders—"

"I'll contact Superman," J'onn said, and he went somewhere far away in his mind, his eyes glowing.

She stared at him anxiously, waiting, squeezing his forearms.

He returned to her a moment later. "I've informed Superman. He's on his way to the base now. With any luck, those people are still alive. Most likely, they were wrapped in cocoons like so many others, which seems to keep its victim in a kind of coma, alive and sustained, but unaware."

Kate took a breath, then swayed on her feet. "Good," she said, her eyes closing of their own accord. She put her face in her hands.

"Where do you live?" J'onn asked her.

She told him her address.

"I don't… know where that is."

Kate smiled weakly and pointed. "It's that way."

"Let me take you home," he murmured.

"Okay."

Slowly, ever so slowly, he reached out a hand for her.

She saw it coming and let it touch her, focusing on the feel of its warmth against her shoulder. But she found herself drawing inwards, pulling her shoulders up by her ears.

He took his hand away.

She made a noise of frustration in the back of her throat and forced her body to relax. "Again," she said.

He put his hand back on her shoulder.

She took deep breaths, even as she felt the sensation of things crawling all over her skin, invisible insects ready to burrow into her body. "Pick me up," she said.

"You're not ready yet."

"Please," she said in a small voice. "I'm too tired for this. I just want to go home. Just pick me up."

He sighed and nodded, and picked her up.

All of her instincts wanted to scream and fight and pull away, but she fought against them and pressed herself to his body as he took off into the air. She wrapped her arms so tightly around his neck that it was a wonder he didn't complain. She buried her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes and tried to memorize the way his body felt pressed against her side. Tried to focus on her breathing all the way home, as he flew her over the city and the wind whistled in her ears.

By the time he set her down at her apartment building, she no longer felt the urge to peel her own skin off, which was surely a win. She had no memory of going inside, of walking the stairs up to the third floor. But when she got to her door and realized she didn't have her key, she burst into tears.

"Kate," J'onn said in alarm.

"I don't have my key," she sobbed. "It's with my car. I just want to take a shower and sleep for three days straight, but I can't—"

J'onn went translucent as a ghost and phased through her apartment door.

She heard the sound of the lock turning and then the door opened. She stumbled through it, still crying, feeling like an idiot. "What is wrong with me?"

"Nothing is wrong with you," he said. "You must be gentle with yourself. It will take time."

She stared at him.

"It took many, many years of thought and meditation for me find my center again after everything on Mars was… over," J'onn said. "You cannot expect to heal from what happened in a day, or a week. Give yourself grace."

She wanted to hug him, to hold him, for he had been her one rock throughout all of this, from the moment she had rescued him. She had saved his life, and now he seemed determined to save hers. It was strange to think that only a day had passed since they'd met, but Kate knew that trauma had a way of bringing people together like nothing else could. She'd seen so many people in the hospital after incidents like the one last night, clinging to one another for dear life as they waited to be seen by a doctor. She'd never expected to become one of those people.

"I'm going to take a shower," she whispered, and moved away from him before she had the chance to do something stupid. She needed a shower and some food and more sleep, and she'd feel better. Not normal, but better than this. "You can… just…" She gestured around at her apartment. "Make yourself at home." The moment the words were out of her mouth, she cringed, thinking of Mars and all that he had lost. Her apartment wasn't home. It would never feel anything close to home for him. It was probably entirely alien. She had no idea what the inside of a Martian house looked like. "Well," she said, and then went hurriedly to her bedroom to grab clothes for her shower—anything to get her out of this awkward situation.

She showered for a long time, so long that the hot water ran out, and spent the entire time scrubbing at her skin over and over, long after it was as clean as it was ever going to get. She washed her hair three times. By the time she stepped out, the bathroom was full of steam. She turned on her blowdryer to dry her hair, but immediately turned it off again; something about the loud noise made her jumpy and she couldn't stand it. She toweled her hair dry aggressively, then wrapped it up to try and absorb any extra moisture left, and got dressed. Her skin felt raw against her clothing.

Her old soiled clothes lay in a heap in the corner by the door. She looked at them, feeling her face scrunch in disgust, then picked up the offending pieces in as few fingers as she could, holding them away from her body, and opened the bathroom door. She went quickly to her kitchen trash and dumped the clothes inside.

She stood breathing for a moment, trying to tell herself it must be well and truly over now if she was home safe and all traces of her time in that factory—the Imperium and its tentacles—were gone. But it wasn't over because J'onn J'onzz was sitting on her couch, reading one of her books. His blue cape had disappeared, probably the better to sit down. She stared at the back of his bald green head for an uncomfortable amount of time. "What are you reading?"

He stood up at her question, and his cape flowed down from nowhere, reappearing again as he shifted the molecules of his own body to recreate it. He approached her and handed her the book, eyeing her towel-wrapped head as he did so.

She stared down at the cover of an 80s bodice ripper romance, Captured by the Pirate Lord, and laughed out loud. "Oh God. I forgot my mom gave me these." She glanced up at J'onn, unable to help the blush spreading over her face. "You do know what kind of book this is, don't you?"

He blinked calmly. "An erotic romance? Yes."

She blinked back at him, owlishly. "Do… D-Did Martians have these?"

He smiled and looked away from her, remembering something from long ago. "They did, although I must say that the human sexual process is… very different from ours."

Kate made an almost pained noise in the back of her throat, looking down at the book again. "How far in did you get?"

"About a hundred pages."

"I wasn't in the bathroom for that long."

J'onn said nothing.

"I guess one of your superpowers is super-fast reading." She glanced at his face.

He was smiling—no—smirking, really.

Feeling on unsteady ground, she cleared her throat and set the book down. "So, uh… Do you eat? Because I'm starving, so I'm gonna make some food."

"I eat," he confirmed. "Mainly sugar."

She glanced at him curiously as she went to the fridge. "Like… pure sugar?" She suddenly remembered the sugar water scene from Men in Black and hoped to God that he wasn't secretly a giant evil cockroach masquerading as a good guy. His natural form had reminded her of an insect.

"Fruit," he clarified. "But anything high in sugar will do. Actually, anything edible will do, but we prefer fruit. If it's unavailable, we simply stand in the sun for a while."

She put the egg carton down on the counter and stared at him. "You can photosynthesize?"

"Not exactly, but the process is similar."

She closed her eyes, shook her head a tiny bit, and opened them again. "Is that why your skin is… green? It has chlorophyll in it?" She almost laughed as she asked the question because it sounded so ridiculous.

"Again, not exactly, but something similar."

"So, you're like… a cross between an insect and a plant," she said slowly.

He said nothing, but gave her an odd look.

She hid her face in her hands so that her words came out muffled. "I'm so sorry—that sounded like some kind of insult. I just…" She released a short laugh. "I've never had an alien in my apartment before."

"I don't know if this will make you feel better or worse," he began, "but I can assure you I feel much the same way about you."

She dropped her hands, smiling at him. "You know, this was way easier when we were telepathically linked. I don't know how to explain it, but everything about you just… made sense before."

He smiled too, a soft look, but also sad. "Yes."

She turned back to the eggs, wondering what he was thinking about. As she cracked an egg into a pan with shaky hands, she gestured to the bowl of fruit on the counter. "You can take anything there. That's all fruit. Um, don't eat the orange peel. I mean, you can, but it would be gross. Same with the banana—that's the yellow one."

"And I assume the orange is orange?" he asked, amused, picking one up.

She smiled and cooked her eggs, but got a plate out of the cupboard above her head for him. When she was done and had plated her eggs, she turned to look over her shoulder to find him halfway through his orange. "How is it?"

"Delicious."

"Good," she said, and took a massive bite of her scrambled eggs as she plopped two pieces of bread into the hot pan to make toast. This way she saved counter space not buying a toaster, and the toast was better in the pan, anyways. She turned down the heat, dropped in a pat of butter, and moved the bread around to absorb it. She ate more eggs. She turned to look at J'onn. He had moved on to the banana and was peeling the skin. "You can eat the apple skin," she said, pointing to the last fruit on his plate.

"Mm," he said, taking a bite of banana.

She made her toast, put it on her plate, then grabbed another orange from the bowl and went to sit with him at the bar. Eating next to him seemed so normal that it was actually weirding her out. It was as if they'd been roommates for years and this was just an everyday occurrence. "Sooo…" she said, trying to think of something to say.

He looked at her expectantly.

Going with the first thing that popped into her head, she asked, "Are your tastebuds the same as mine? I mean, can you taste salty, sweet, bitter…?"

"Yes, I think so," J'onn said. "I don't particularly care for sour or bitter things."

"Salty?"

"I am indifferent. Being that Martians mostly live off of sugar, I don't think we ever developed much of a taste for anything else."

"Are you… deathly allergic to anything?" she asked nervously, glancing around her kitchen. "I'd really rather not poison you on accident."

He gave a small smile. "No."

They ate in silence for a time. "What about alcohol?" she asked. "I could see your kind making something like sangria or… margaritas." She realized he had no idea what either of those drinks were. "Maybe something with fermented fruit?" she suggested.

He smiled wider. "You have a good imagination."

"Does that mean I'm wrong?"

"No. In fact, we do…" His smile fell. "We did make alcohol from fermented fruits."

Kate slumped in her seat. "I'm sorry. I… I forgot. We don't have to talk about this."

"As I told you before, I was alone for five-hundred years." J'onn's voice was quiet. "I don't mind sharing the specifics of my species with you. If I don't, and something happens to me, then my entire culture will die out with me."

She tried to smile at him. "Then… Tell me everything."

He searched her face, as if supposing she was joking, but when he saw how serious she was, he smiled again, a bright and beautiful thing that crinkled the corners of his eyes. "What do you wish to know?"