Chapter Text
Alex lay in the bed, eyes closed, drifting in the void between awake and asleep to the beeping of a heart monitor. Her heart monitor. She’d barely left this hospital bed since she’d been admitted a couple of weeks ago. Alex could feel her body growing weaker each day. Fucking deteriorating heart.
A nearby rustling awoke Alex fully. She opened her eyes to see her mother shifting in the hospital recliner stationed by the bed and looking at the tablet in her lap. Eliza glanced up to see Alex watching her.
“Hey, Sweetie. Is there anything I can get for you?”
Alex shook her head slightly and answered quietly. “I’m okay.”
“Well, while you’ve been dozing, I’ve been looking through the dozens of floral arrangement ideas Kara has been sending. I think the battle of keeping your welcome home party simple is well and truly lost,” Eliza commented, holding up her tablet for Alex to see the multiple pictures of brightly colored flowers filling the screen.
Alex smiled weakly as her eyes slipped closed again. Kara was determined that Alex would be returning home soon. Alex wasn’t as sure. Holding out hope was getting harder with each passing day. She had experienced innumerable highs and lows battling her heart condition. But this time was different. This time, the doctors weren’t able to offer alternative solutions. This time, the low kept getting lower. This time, Alex feared she was at the end. An end she wasn’t ready to meet.
Eliza’s voice broke through Alex’s thoughts. “And now Kara is sending pictures of cakes. Oh, wow. A lot of cakes. I think this one is made of donuts.”
Alex let out a laugh that caught in her throat and turned into a coughing fit, wracking her weak body. Tablet quickly abandoned, Eliza was out of her seat and by Alex’s side helping her to sit up and reaching for the cup of water on the bedside tray. Alex took small sips as the coughing was replaced by ragged breaths. Eliza repositioned Alex’s nasal cannula, and after a few more minutes, Alex’s breathing eased and Eliza helped her lay back in bed.
Alex looked at her mother as she fussed over Alex’s pillows and covers, noticing how tired Eliza looked even as she put on a facade that tried to say otherwise. Though she had been dozing on and off for the last few hours, Alex knew her mother had been by her bedside all afternoon. Alex dragged in a breath to speak. “Mom, you can leave for a while. I’ll be okay.”
Eliza shook her head, determination filling her features as she reached out to smooth Alex’s hair off of her forehead. “I’m fine right here.”
Alex turned her head away, her eyes closing. She loved her mother, but she hated being the reason Eliza was once again sitting in a hospital room with its terrible fluorescent lights, death lurking around the corner. At least one of them should get to enjoy life. “Go. Have dinner with Kara, or visit with J’onn.”
Picking up a damp washcloth lying next to a nearby basin, Eliza layed it across Alex’s forehead. “Kara is working on a deadline for a story. And J’onn and I had lunch together the other day. I’m not going anywhere.”
A silence fell between the women as Eliza dipped the washcloth in the basin and squeezed out the excess water before gently wiping the sides of Alex’s face.
Alex studied Eliza. Through everything, her mother had found a superhuman strength. Strength to bury her husband after the car crash but be present for the daughter fighting to survive. Strength to continue to raise the young girl that had been her adopted daughter for less than a year. Strength to take care of her family and make sure they had everything they needed despite the hardships thrown in their path.
Alex opened her mouth to speak but closed it again. There were things she needed to say to her mother before it was too late. Finally, the words tumbled out. “Promise me you and Kara will take care of one another.”
Eliza froze and looked at Alex, brows furrowing. “What are you talking about?”
Alex shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut as a tear ran down her cheek. Twelve years. She had been battling for her life for twelve years. She may have survived the car crash that killed her father, but the trauma had left her with an irregular heartbeat. Despite all of the attempted treatments, her heart had grown weaker and weaker, and now her survival was dependent on a transplant. Alex didn’t know how much longer she could fight while waiting for a heart that seemed just outside her grasp. “What if I don’t get a heart in time?”
Eliza set the washcloth aside as she put her hands on either side of Alex’s face, wiping tears away with her thumbs. Alex’s eyes remained closed as she attempted to turn her head away.
“Alexandra, look at me.” Eliza patiently waited until Alex turned back and opened her eyes, sadness and resignation settling in them as she gazed at her mother. “You are going to get a heart. Do you know why?”
Alex’s eyes stayed on Eliza as she shook her head as much as she could in her mother’s grip. Eliza smiled back at her. “Because I refuse to let my daughter go without a fight. It’s been you, me, and Kara against the world for years now, and we’ve been through too much to lose hope and let a bad heart take you away from us.” Eliza’s thumbs stroked across Alex’s cheeks. “I know you’re tired, but don’t give up yet.”
Alex reached her hand up to squeeze Eliza’s arm. Eliza pressed a kiss to Alex’s forehead before releasing her face to reach into the basin and retrieve the washcloth again. She gently wiped away the tear tracks on Alex’s cheeks. “You know, once you get that heart, you’re going to be able to do all of the things you’ve always wanted to do. That’s what I want you to focus on.” Eliza continued to wipe along Alex’s neck and arms with the washcloth as she spoke. “You can finally travel. Finish school.” Eliza paused before adding with a smile. “Go on all the dates you want.”
Alex huffed as she fought her own smile. “It’s a new heart, Mom. Not a new ass.”
Eliza laughed as she placed the washcloth back in the basin and squeezed Alex’s hand. “Either way, you deserve to do anything you want when all of this is finally over. Just maybe don’t let Kara set you up on any blind dates. We both know how that turned out for me.”
Alex couldn’t help but chuckle, allowing a feeling of hope to creep back into her chest.
An hour later, Eliza had settled back into the hospital recliner with her tablet as Alex dozed to an episode of Mythbusters when her cardiologist, Dr. Hamilton, rushed into the room.
“We have a heart.”
Alex’s eyes flew open as Eliza abandoned her tablet and quickly stood and moved to her daughter’s bedside. “What?”
Taking a calming breath, Dr. Hamilton repeated, “We have a heart. It’s the best match we could have hoped for. We have to get Alex prepped for surgery immediately.”
Staring at the doctor as the meaning of the words washed over her, Alex felt her hope renew and spread throughout her chest, filling the area that would soon contain her new heart.
Eliza grabbed Alex’s hand. “How much time until you take Alex to surgery?”
“We have to draw a new blood sample and do a quick chest x-ray, so about an hour,” Dr. Hamilton answered, looking at the two women. “We’re lucky the heart is already here, but we’re still on a time crunch if we want it to remain viable.”
Alex felt Eliza squeeze her hand and looked up at her mother. “I’m going to call Kara and J’onn, but I’ll be right back. Okay?”
Nodding at her mother, Alex replied with a quiet, “Okay.”
As Eliza stepped out of the room, cell phone already to her ear, another woman in scrubs walked in to draw Alex’s blood.
Time seemed to blur as Alex was transported for her chest x-ray and afterward as the cardiothoracic surgeon and other members of her surgery team came to the room to speak with her about the procedure. Alex answered all of their questions and asked a few of her own, even as she continued to grapple with the idea that she was about to get a new heart.
Dr. Hamilton finished explaining the procedure as Alex was wheeled out of her room. Eliza walked by her side clinging to her hand. “We’ll send someone out at the halfway point to give you an update.”
Alex’s eyes brightened at the sight of Kara walking down the hall, J’onn close behind. “You’re here.”
Kara put a hand on her sister’s arm, the other stroking her forehead. “Of course I’m here.”
“J’onn,” Alex smiled, her eyes falling on the older man. “Thank you. For everything.”
Laying a hand on Alex’s leg, J’onn shook his head, “There is nothing to thank me for. You are my family.”
Alex’s smile widened at these words from the man that had become a second father to her. He had suffered his own tragedy with the loss of his wife and daughters a few years before coming into the Danvers’ lives. After Jeremiah’s death, J’onn hadn’t hesitated to step up and help in any way he could. His presence had helped the Danvers women put the shattered pieces of their lives back together as much as they helped heal his broken heart.
Looking at her family standing around her, Alex took a breath and spoke the words that were weighing on her at this moment. “If I don’t make it through this, know that I love you all so much. Take care of each other.”
Eliza, Kara, and J’onn all moved in closer to Alex. Kara rested her forehead against Alex’s. “You will make it through this. You have so much life left to live.”
“That’s what I told her,” Eliza smiled, eyes filled with tears.
Dr. Hamilton stepped up to the bed. “Alright, we need to take her back now.”
Eliza gave Alex’s hand one last squeeze as Kara kissed her on the forehead. “I love you.”
The bed began to roll away as the nurses and doctor moved Alex down the hall.
“We’ll see you soon, Alex,” J’onn called after her.
Alex watched her family as she was wheeled away. Kara leaned into Eliza who’s arms immediately wrapped around her. J’onn stood behind them with a hand on each of their shoulders. Alex gave them a smile and a small wave, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time she would see them.