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1.
Winn stepped outside to the sound of sirens.
As National City woke up from its shared nightmare, emergency vehicles zoomed through the streets to collect the panicked, the injured… and the dead. An ambulance pulled to a stop outside the CatCo building, and he turned away from the scene, but not quickly enough.
He wavered on the spot as he remembered Non’s amused You missed one in James’ mouth, as if Kara and her human friends were toys.
“We don’t need to stay for this, man.” James closed a warm hand over his shoulder. “But one of us should tell Kara that…”
“That we’re Borg-free and in one piece,” Winn said with a nod. His father had been a devoted Star Trek fan, and if there had been any sparks of murderous rage inside him as they marveled over its technology together, Winn hadn’t guessed and would never know for sure. Since then, he’d seen every episode of TNG at least once, but the last time he watched “The Best of Both Worlds,” he hadn’t been able to look away from Captain Picard after the Borg had assimilated him, or keep from wondering how it would feel to lose himself so completely.
Winn had never thought about how peaceful it could be.
He thought instead about Kara’s smile, the strength behind her hugs, the steel in her voice when she told her city to hope; and about James’ face as her words reached him.
Later, those thoughts were almost – but not quite – enough to help him fall asleep.
2.
By the time James stepped into his apartment, he had texts from Kara, Lucy, and Clark, as well as a voicemail from his mom. He returned her call first, and she thanked God that he was safe. He tried to imagine how her voice would sound, deadened under alien control, and heard his own voice break when he said, “You, too.”
He ended the call, and another message popped up on his phone: Will you be OK on your own?
Yeah, James texted back. Just need to sleep.
Was this your first mind whammy? Clark asked.
Far as I know.
You need anything, I’ll be there before you can say “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen.”
Nobody who read those words in the Daily Planet had ever let James forget them. Feeling almost guilty for smiling, he typed Thx, sank onto his bed, and buried his face in his hands.
He saw his feet step into empty air, felt himself start to plummet before Supergirl caught him, heard the third body hit the concrete as he and Winn landed safely.
From the moment that he’d turned away from Kara’s kiss, until the broadcast that pulled him and Winn back to themselves, James had seen and felt and heard everything, and he hadn’t cared.
Sometime before dawn, his phone buzzed one more time. Winn named an all-night diner two blocks away from CatCo, and added, Drown our sorrows in maple syrup?
Maybe James would be okay on his own, but he understands why Clark wanted to know. See you there.
3.
Supergirl spent most of the previous night flying over the city, thinking about everything from her families’ secrets to all the things that she would say to Kelly’s parents if she could: I’m sorry that my people used her to get to me. That I couldn’t save her. I’m sorry that she didn’t even get to die as herself.
But Supergirl would have attracted too much attention at a memorial service, so Kara Danvers could only say, “I loved working with Kelly, and I’m sorry for your loss.”
As they left together, James laced his fingers with hers, squeezing tightly, and Winn took her other hand. Kara squeezed back carefully, and finally let the tears fall from her eyes.
4.
“Agent Danvers, if you’ll walk with me?”
Alex had lost track of how many times she’d read the same words on the screen in front of her. “Right away, Director Henshaw,” she said, and followed him into the hallway.
“You were starting to drift during the meeting earlier. I did, and will continue to, expect better of you.” Before she could apologize, J’onn asked, “Are you all right?”
“Just a long night. It’s part of the job, isn’t it?”
J’onn held her gaze with his, and his voice was low and steady. “Especially after a threat like Myriad.”
“Did you pull aside the other agents for the same reason?” He’d told the rest of the DEO that counseling would be available, but Alex came up with a long list of very convincing reasons not to take advantage of it right now. Maybe tomorrow, after she’d taken a turn monitoring the police radio, checked on their unconscious Kryptonian guest, and maybe even spared a moment to look into her father’s fate…
“As far as I know, none of the other agents had to fight Supergirl like you did,” J’onn said.
“That seems unlikely, sir.” Unlikely that any of them had been forced to attack the person that they loved most in the world. Even her most dangerous missions hadn’t terrified her half as much as her realization, in captivity, of what was about to happen.
“But if I did approach them,” J’onn continued, “I’d tell them that they weren’t weak for being unable to resist, and that nothing they said or did under Myriad's control was their fault.”
She frowned. “Were you in my head?”
“Never without your consent,” J’onn said firmly. “Especially now. It doesn’t take a telepath to guess what’s on your mind.”
Alex clenched her hands to keep them from shaking. She wasn’t sure what she would have done if she had to pick up a weapon at that moment. “If you and Mom hadn’t gotten between us, Kara…”
“We can’t dwell too much on what might have been. You know that.” J’onn put a hand on her arm. For a moment, he looked, not just older and more tired than usual, but ancient beyond imagining. “You’re not helping anybody, including yourself, by staying here right now. Go home, rest, and report for duty at the usual time tomorrow, so that you can perform to your usual admirable standard.”
Alex straightened her spine. “Yes, sir.”
5.
J’onn offered to help clean the dishes, but Kara shooed him away, protesting, “Super speed, remember?”
He carried his plate to the sink. “In that case, I’ll say good night.”
“What, you don’t want to stay and cry at Lilo and Stitch with us?” Winn asked.
James grinned. “That, I’d like to see.”
“Another time, maybe. I have an earlier start tomorrow than the rest of you.” J'onn shook hands with Winn and James, and wrapped Kara in a one-armed hug.
Alex followed him to the door. She had seemingly recovered her equilibrium at work, and he had kept his promise to stay out of her mind. It was easy to say just this once or only when necessary, and J’onn had been able to justify crossing more than a few lines in the past, violating minds just as Astra and Non did in their quest for “peace.” How many other ways would he have to compromise in order to protect the Earth from whatever threatened it next?
Alex’s voice pulled J’onn back to the present: “I’m glad to see that you’re taking your own advice.”
“Martian sleep cycles don’t work in the same way that yours do,” he informed her, “but even I’ve felt the weight of the past few nights.”
“You know we’re here to share that weight however we can,” Alex promised, trying for a smile.
If he had joined them for the movie, J’onn would have seen Kara curled against James on the couch, her legs across his lap, and Winn’s head on her shoulder. Long before the ending credits, all three of them were asleep, perhaps finding their own peace together.