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J’onn brings her back in his arms, her meager weight nothing to his Martian strength. Alex hasn’t made it to the DEO yet, the one small mercy. It’s Vasquez who has to plead with him, pull at his rigid green arms and remind him that only the medbay can save Kara now, not his tears.
He sets her down on the bed with the care that only a father faced with the loss of another daughter could muster. Alex comes then, shaking and too terrified to scream. The other medical staff do their best, so used to deferring to Agent Danvers. They’re all quietly horrified when Kara’s skin, for the first time, can be punctured by an experimental needle.
“So her powers are gone,” Eliza announces, slipping on the government-issue labcoat and stopping only to reassure Alex with a brief hug. When Alex is released she goes not to her boss, who’s still stroking Kara’s hair gently from her forehead, but to her mother’s side.
“Put me to work,” Alex begs. “We have to save her.”
“Whatever was in that pod-”
“We have to save her,” Alex repeats. No one thinks to mention that they have no idea how.
The DEO doesn’t look right. Kara’s head hurts every time she looks at the big window wall. It’s like the desert base has been squashed into a couple of floors at CatCo. It’s even the right number of floors up.
There’s a pinch on the back of her hand. She shouldn’t be able to feel that, but it reminds her of something.
“I was bitten by a bat!” She tells J’onn.
“Whiner.” Well, that’s not very nice.
“The IV is holding,” Eliza explains, looking drawn. She’s always respected Kara’s distinction between Alura and Eliza, of mother and foster mother, but it hasn’t made Kara any less of a daughter where Eliza is concerned. There’s a reason practicing doctors don’t treat their own family members, but she also knows there’s no one else for the job. “If she starts to reject it, we’ll know she’s starting to heal.”
“And if she doesn’t?” J’onn has himself together again, that military bearing firmly in place.
“Then at least she’s not getting any worse.” It’s the best Eliza can do. J’onn places a large hand on her shoulder and squeezes. “They’ll call you if anything changes. There are bunks downstairs…”
Eliza shakes her head.
“Then the couch in my office. Five doors down, and I won’t take no for an answer Dr. Danvers. You’re no good to her if you don’t rest.”
“I might not be much good anyway.”
Cat’s wearing leather to the office and that’s unusual. Kara remembers well the drunken conversation six months ago, about how Cat couldn’t wear her brand new Givenchy leather jacket to work because it gives them ideas, Keira. Something about how the sight of Cat in leather gave the staff inappropriate dominatrix … Kara wants to cover her ears again like she did the first time, but Cat is talking about Kara’s career prospects so she listens.
Marketing? Kara doesn’t want to work in Marketing. No wonder Cat is so unimpressed.
Kara has to go. There’s her date, later. She doesn’t remember actually making the plans but she knows she has plans with James.
It’s just… Cat wasn’t wrong about how distracting she is in leather.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alex lies, backed against the counter in Noonan’s. It’s sentimental and against most of the science she knows, but the thought of getting Kara’s regular cinnamon bun and coffee to entice her back to waking has been plaguing Alex all night. Come sunrise, this is the only place she could think to walk to, and it’s led her directly into a trap.
“Danvers,” Cat Grant bears down on her like a truth-seeking missile. “I know the text explaining Kara’s absence came from you. Where is she?”
“Contagious,” Alex blurts. “I know it’s bad timing, that you just promoted her, but she’ll be back just as soon as the doctors-”
“We both know she’s not with any doctors,” Cat argues right back. “Well, PhDs perhaps. Not MDs. It’s been three days, and I want Kara back.”
“You were going to hire a new assistant anyway-”
“You have until 5pm. Kara in my office, or I put out a missing person alert on every last one of my media outlets. Lots and lots of pictures of Kara, everywhere. I’m sure my digital design team can Photoshop those glasses right off her face too.”
“Is that a threat?” Alex is too tired to panic, but her body is trying its best anyway. Is she going to have to take out the CEO of CatCo?
“No doubles this time,” Cat warns. “Get me Kara, or let me help you. Don’t make me do what I just promised, Agent Danvers.”
Kal is here.
Kara is pushing and pushing on the shuttle but it doesn’t seem to slow. Her arms feel weak in a way she isn’t used to, and for a moment she panics that those flames are burning green. She shakes her head, and between them they guide the craft safely to the ground.
It’s so good to finally be out in the open together like this. Their crests gleam in the National City sunshine, and the kids on their bikes are a willing audience. It’s almost routine, but something about it feels different. Special, Kara decides. What she’s wanted all along.
“Thanks for coming,” Alex greets Clark, who’s uncomfortable within the walls of the DEO. He and J’onn can barely look at each other, despite their mutual friendships with Jeremiah. “She was just calling out for you, so hopefully this is the right call.”
“In Kryptonian?” He asks.
Kara murmurs something about diapers, which makes Superman blush and the others smile with their first flicker of hope in hours.
“English then,” Clark surmises. “I’ll scan her for everything the Fortress has taught me how to. Did you analyze what was in the pod?”
“Another form of kryptonite,” J’onn answers. “I assume you’ll have the same issues as you do with the green stuff?”
“Easy for you to call it stuff,” Clark counters. “It can’t kill a Martian. Way to keep that quiet, by the way.”
“Boys.” Eliza’s warning is soft but stern. There are bigger priorities facing them all. “Kal-El, help Alex with the rest of the tests. J’onn, if you have any other resources at your disposal…”
“I’ll make some calls.”
Kal doesn’t know who the man is, the one from the pod. Kara scans and scans, and Alex can’t get a needle to pierce the skin. Another Kryptonian at last. One who remembers the planet, the people, the food and the sound of the music. One who might miss people, even people Kara knows, rather than just the stories he’s been told. It’s a horrible thing to make her heart surge when Kal is standing right beside her, but Kara thinks she hides it well.
Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but he almost reminds her of a boy she met a long time ago, in the last months before Krypton died. There had been trade talks with a delegation from Daxam, and their boorish ambassador had brought his sons. Kara didn’t get to bring scrapbooks and photo albums, she’s relied on her memories and the few artefacts from the pod all these years.
It’s why the hologram of her mother still takes Kara’s breath away every time it flickers to life. She’s so unused to physical similarities to anything from Krypton that even the possibility makes her giddy.
She watches him sleep, the monitors beeping, and wonders why she’s the one who feels so tired.
“No…” Alex chokes on the words, fingering the business card Cat Grant pressed in her palm. “No response to stimulus. Attempt fifteen.”
Something’s wrong. Kara can’t smell the smoke or feel the strain in her muscles. It’s just a moment until her senses come roaring back, but she has the eerie feeling as though waking from a dream.
There’s no time to dwell. They’re back at the DEO and Kal is telling her what they need to do next, arguing with J’onn, fending off Winn’s fanboy advances.
What? Kara has to ask him to repeat when he suggests they do some investigation. Lex Luthor doesn’t even have a sister.
“Anything else you’d like me to sign?” Cat snarks when Alex finally opens the door of the interview room. “I can dig up copies of my books if you want a complete set.”
“I wanted to remind you,” Alex leads Cat to the elevator and out onto the restricted floor. Stoic agents bristle as the face of the media strides past them. “That you promised any help we asked in return for seeing… Supergirl like this.”
“I don’t go back on deals,” Cat replies, and she’s so confident that Alex doesn’t see it coming. Despite the heartbreak, Alex has become inured to the sight beyond the glass doors. Cat clearly isn’t prepared at all, stumbling so badly in her heels that Alex has to grab her by the elbow.
“Fuck,” Cat whispers when her voice returns. Alex has nothing much to add.
“You can go in,” Alex offers. “We’ve finally isolated the chemical that’s doing this to her. That’s why you’re here, Miss Grant. It’s property of Maxwell Lord, and he’s not inclined to do this agency any favors.”
“Anything.” Cat’s word is her bond, Alex sees that now. She guides Cat through the doors into the lab, and pulls up a stool at Kara’s beside.
“I’ll give you a moment,” Alex says, retreating to the hallway in brisk strides. She doesn’t want to overhear something she suspects even her little sister hasn’t heard yet.
Kara has never seen Cat in this shade of blue. It’s almost the exact hue of the stars in the Phantom Zone, as though they were bound together and sculpted around Cat’s slender figure. It’s tough to see her boss this restless, so out of sorts. There’s a hint of tears in her voice, even though she’s snappish and dramatic as ever.
But then Cat is sitting beside her on the sofa, as she has a hundred times before.
Trust me, she says, with shimmering creamy eyeshadow catching the light. Kara does. In order to live, we must keep daring; keep diving.
It’s a moment that seems to call out for a hug, the kind Supergirl gets on a balcony when the world is ending, but as Kara Danvers she doesn’t dare move a muscle. The moment’s over too soon, dismissal and a pang of longing, but Kara feels her spirit revive.
There can’t be too much wrong if Cat Grant is still giving her pep talks. The computer on Kara’s old desk is beeping at her, but she ignores it for a chat with James that suddenly feels pressing. Something tells her they’d really do better as friends.
Alex can’t wait any longer, and so she’s forced to intrude with a knock on the door that Cat doesn’t hear. She’s hunched over Kara’s prone form, clutching her hand around the IV that still shows no signs of being rejected, despite the simulated sunshine that’s been blasting round the clock except for brief windows like these.
“...to live,” she hears Cat murmur as she approaches. “You must stop dying, Keira. Keep trying.”
“You know she’s dying.” Alex doesn’t insult either of them by framing it as a question. “The material in the explosion is called Daxamite. It’s highly toxic and ruins all the good things that being on Earth gives her.”
“And Lord made it?”
“He patented it,” Alex corrects. “He has a habit of finding dangerous things and meddling until someone ends up hurt. Or dead. I need you to convince him to hand it over, along with everything he knows about it.”
“He won’t help Supergirl,” Cat tells her with a shake of her head. “And I can’t tell him about Kara, you’ve made that much clear.”
“He knows,” Alex corrects. “But like you say, he won’t help Supergirl and that’s all she is to him.”
“There’s only one thing I can think of to give him in return.” Cat gets up from the stool, as though she doesn’t want Kara to overhear. “It won’t be easy, but National City needs its hero far more than it ever needed me.”
“Miss Grant?”
“Call me Cat.” She’s in motion again, marching out of the medbay and into the halls of the DEO. Alex scrambles to follow. “I’ll call you when I have it.”
It hurts.
It hurts so badly she could swear she feels the heat of Krypton exploding at her back, her heart rending in her chest.
The man with the awful accent and robotic chest is shooting Kryptonite straight at her, and this time, Kara doesn’t think she’s going to survive.
She’ll be with her family in Rao’s light at last. Perhaps this was always for the best.
Eliza slumps to the floor, J’onn guiding her to the tiles with quick reflexes, saving her from the impact.
“Sinus rhythm,” Eliza gasps, cradling her knees. “She’s back.”
CPR would be exhausting on anyone, but Kara’s weakening body had demanded so much from all of them.
“It’s working through her system,” Alex surmises, bent double to catch her breath, paddles set back on the cart. “It must have come close to her heart.”
“We don’t have long.” J’onn leads, as he so often does, “I’m going to see Cat Grant myself.”
Kal is carrying her home. No female member of her house remains, this will do. Kara feels strong arms lift again as she fails to lift her head.
It would be so easy to let go. She’s going to be a reporter, though. Cat knew all along. She sees the hero in Kara. Which means she still knows Kara’s secret.
So much easier to let go.
“Here,” Cat shoves the cooler branded Lord Tech into Alex’s arms. “Your boss flew me here. That was… an experience.”
“You want to make small talk about the journey?” But Alex is already in motion. She and her mom have to find the cure for this poison from Daxam, and they have to do it now. “Hey, you can’t be in here.”
“I’m all about no glove, no love,” Cat answers, following Alex right into the medbay. “So dress me up or strap me in or do whatever you need to do, but I am not leaving until I find out that stepping down from my company has actually saved Kara.”
“You did what?” Eliza is the one to ask. “Cat, we appreciate your efforts to help Kara, but I know only too well what that company means to you. I’ve certainly heard enough complaints about your… devotion.”
“It’s only for a year,” Cat dismisses them with a flaky little wave, but her hand is trembling. “To let Max finally make his move on the media world. We’ve danced around it for a long time. I’ll crush him when I’m back.”
“Mom,” Alex can’t process the grandness of the gesture. “We’ll need the bigger vials.”
“Here,” Eliza guides her. “Be efficient, but don’t rush. Kara needs our best work.”
Cat watches them carefully, before taking the empty stool by Kara’s bedside.
“I will miss CatCo every day,” Cat whispers, brushing a strand of hair from Kara’s forehead with a frown. How does it get so messy when she’s just lying there? “But I would miss you more. I’ll be back, Kara. Promise me you will too.”
It’s becoming a habit, seeing young women she cares for laid out in hospital beds. One Cat is in a hurry to break.
“We need you to step aside,” Alex commands, syringe at the ready. “There’s a good chance this crap is going to resist our attempts to get it out of her.”
Cat dutifully rolls out of their way. Eliza checks the monitors one more time, and gives her oldest daughter a swift nod. Piercing Kara’s skin for what they hope is the last time, Alex depresses the plunger, and they collectively hold their breath.
I know what it’s like to be a stranger on this planet. Kara doesn’t recognize this medical bay, it’s too light to be the DEO she’s familiar with. Maybe this is where Kal brought her, but she’s fully dressed and sitting on a chair. This doesn’t feel like she just arrived, and she seems to have been beside the sleeping man from Daxam for a long time already. So when you wake up I’ll be here for you. So you never know what it’s like to be alone.
And Kara is alone. No lab techs, no black-clad agents, no sign of Alex or Winn. When did Winn start working here again. Kara rubs her forehead and notices her arm is cold. Like ice is running through her veins, something she shouldn’t be able to feel.
He wakes with a gasp, but Kara can’t jump back quickly enough.
Hand around her throat, fingers squeezing. Strong. Too strong. Almost as strong as her. Kara fights for breath but it won’t come. She tries to throw him off but he’s too strong, lifting her bodily in the air as she’s done with countless bodies before, and hurling her up, up and away.
She doesn’t feel it when she hits the wall. Kara only hears the glass shatter. The noise carries on too long, crash after crash after crash, and suddenly the lights are dazzling. Voices. After all the silence, voices again at last. Alex, yelling. Eliza, calm and measured.
And Cat? Cat is talking and Kara knows that sound will guide her. Cat always knows what she’s feeling, always guides her to the right road. Kara’s love for Alex and Eliza is deep and almost boundless, but there’s always that moment of panic when she reaches for them. That this time they won’t take her in. That this time the alien threat will be too great. The doubt is soothed as she sees both of their faces, smiling and crying and welcoming her back.
It’s only when Kara forces herself up on her elbows, arms still faintly aching like they did during the earthquake; thats when she sees Cat. That’s when Kara feels the whole world come roaring back to life.
“What happened?” She rasps, throat dry and her voice sounding strange to her own ears. They all talk at once, and she tries very hard not to laugh.
“So,” Kara begins, sipping water from the bottle Alex provided. “Here you are in the DEO, Miss Grant. Scoop of the century, along with the secret life of Supergirl. I think I understand what happened to me now, but what are you doing here?”
“I stalked your sister when you disappeared,” Cat confesses. “Well, I had my reporters do it and I finished the job. I knew it was bad when I saw her, so I threatened my way into seeing you.”
“Why?” Kara demands. “You really needed your latte that badly?”
“I promoted you.” Cat folds her hands in her lap, looking down at them. “And your wellbeing is important to me, Kara.”
“Important enough that you helped with Lord?” Kara didn’t follow that part.
“A sabbatical,” Cat confirms. “A year to myself, a standard non-compete, and I sold him a start up company that will launch his media empire. He wants his own platform.”
“That’s a bad idea.” Kara is ready to argue.
“I’d have given him the keys to the kingdom if it would have saved you.” Cat didn’t mean to confirm that, Kara sees the shock in her eyes. “Anyway, I should let you rest. You’ve had quite a time of it. I’ll expect some kind of exclusive when Supergirl hits the skies.” She gathers her jacket, fusses with her purse. “You can deal with the news division direct.”
“Cat?” Kara eases herself out of bed. Her powers keep her upright while her body resists the very idea. “I think you saved my life. I’m so sorry you had to give up anything at CatCo to do it. I can go to Lord-”
“Done deal,” Cat dismisses. “And worth it. I’ll find my path. Although it’s exciting to not know what I’m going to do tomorrow. It’s been a while.”
“Would you… Could I see you tomorrow?” Kara pleads. “In my dream - coma, whatever - you were there. You were real even when nothing else was, and I think you helped me find my way.”
“What are you saying?” Cat steps closer, almost touching Kara’s face, but hesitating only to brush her neck for a moment instead.
“I’m saying if that was my Sleeping Beauty moment? You’re the Prince Charming.” Kara has the decency to look ashamed of the analogy. “Oh, and I want to be a reporter. You asked me… there. That’s the promotion I want.”
“Look in my desk drawer when you’re back in my office,” Cat suggests. “I think you’ll find I called it.”
“But Sleeping Beauty wasn’t woken up with space dust and chemicals,” Kara continues. “I think you know how the story goes.”
“You’re already awake.”
“I want my kiss,” Kara murmurs, their lips only inches apart. “I did cheat death, after all.”
It’s that final reminder that spurs Cat into action. Her lips are impossibly soft as she kisses Kara for the first time, the contact a little cautious as though not quite trusting that Kara won’t collapse at the very touch. Reassurance in the form of arms that are strong once again wrapping around her lets Cat deepen the kiss just a little, aware of the display that glass walls make of them.
“Later,” she promises, resting her forehead against Kara’s. “We need to talk, of course. But we need to do more of that, too.”
“Much more.” Kara agrees readily, eyes still closed in something like bliss. “Carter will be done with school soon. You should go so I can hurry through my tests and get out of here.”
“That soon?”
“Super-healing,” Kara explains. “I already feel fine.”
“Dinner, then,” Cat decides. “Not tonight, let your family have their relief too. Tomorrow, though. I won’t be kept waiting. Not even for Supergirl.”
“You got it,” Kara promises, nodding to Vasquez who goes past on her errand with a brief thumbs up. For the recovery or getting the girl, Kara isn’t quite sure. “And thank you.”
“About time I got to play the hero,” Cat says with a smile, heading for the door. “You can’t have all the headlines to yourself.”
Kara sinks back down on her uncomfortable hospital bed, touches her lips, and grins.