Work Text:
Kara didn’t even know what had happened. She didn’t know what had went wrong. She didn’t know what—or how she’d messed up.
All she knew was that something happened—something must have happened.
But whatever the case, Kara heard the sound of something falling, hitting the floor. She looked down. Oh. Her hands were shaking, ever so slightly, in the annoyingly familiar way that they did.
Her eyes drifted back to the object on the floor, the thing she’d dropped. She couldn’t—she couldn’t really make it out as her vision swam, tinting the world in an uneasy haze. She reached down to grab the thing, the—
The…
…what had she been holding?
Kara shook her head, lifting an arm up to tangle trembling fingers in her hair. She reached out with her other hand, trying to feel for a wall or a chair or a table or—or something, anything physical that could support her weight long enough for her to breathe.
Her vision flashed and shifted as she searched for somewhere to sit down, as if she was looking through a kaleidoscope.
There was a sharp ding! from somewhere that echoed through her mind.
Oh, she thought, vaguely. I’m—I’m at work. I’m in Ms. Grant’s elevator.
Elevator?
No, that—
That can’t be right.
The elevator wasn’t this small.
She registered a voice, but it was muffled, faraway.
She looked up, and it was like looking through a pane of glass. But instead of an endless void, it was a…a person?
“Kira? What the hell are you doing on the floor?”
Kara opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was a strangled gasp.
“…Kira? Are you—is this a panic attack? Did something happen?”
The only response she gave was her desperate attempts at breathing.
“Shit,” Ms. Grant swore under her breath. “I am not paid enough for this. Your friend usually calls your sister for this, right? Do you want me to go get him? I can also call her, but I’d have to go to my office to get your emergency contact information,”
“I don’t—” she gasped, choking, a sob building in her throat. “I don’t want to be alone again,”
“…okay, well, that’s a lot of trauma that I don’t want to get into right now. Can someone get me the IT guy?” The last part was said louder, and Kara could distantly hear shuffling papers, chairs scraping across the floor, and footsteps rushing towards them. “Oh, thank god. Listen, you stay here and I’ll go call her sister,”
“Kara? Hey, Kara, look at me,” that—that was Winn’s voice. “I need you to look at me, okay? Can you do that for me, please?”
Shakily, she lifted her head to look at him. Everything still looked wrong.
“That’s—yeah, that’s good. Can you tell me where you are?”
“I’m—I’m back there, after the explosion. I’m trapped, I—I can’t—it’s so d-dark, I—”
“Fuck, it’s one of those. Okay, um, is it okay if I touch you, to—to help you stand up?”
She nodded, but the movement felt…janky? Was that the right word? She wasn’t sure.
She tensed when she felt his hands gently guiding her to her feet, helping her stumble over to…somewhere. He helped her sit down, and started rambling.
Alex had told him and James that talking to her while she was having an attack like this, where she thought she was back in her pod, helped to ground her back to reality, because the Phantom Zone had just been…quiet.
“Ma’am, can you please calm—”
“Where the hell is she?!”
“Ah, Ms. Danvers, that took…a lot less time than I thought would for you to get here, hm. Kira is over ther—”
“Kara!”
Her sister knelt down in front of her, eyes frantically searching every inch of her face. Kara lunged forward, burying her head into Alex’s shoulder, who wasted no time wrapping her arms around the alien.
“It’s okay, I’m here, I’m here, I’ve got you,”
“It—I was so scared, Alex,” she sobbed. “It’s been so long, I—I thought I was better, I—”
“Hey, Kara, no, you—panic attacks are normal, after everything you’ve been through. You don’t need to get better, okay? I promise, you’re okay, I’ve got you,”
“It felt so real,”
“I know, Sunshine, I know. But I’m here now, okay? Everything’s gonna be okay,”