Next of Kin Part 27-...You Just Have To Be Understanding

A hand on Kalia's shoulder as the woman pushed a shaken and confused Lena out of Maggie's room, Kara whispered, "I'll meet you both upstairs. I need to take care of something first."

Kalia only paused, nodding, but didn't turn.

Kara closed the door behind Lena and Kalia. She stood for several moments, collecting her own thoughts and doing her best to keep her anger in check. If the last few weeks had shown Kara nothing else, they'd shown her just how dangerous her rage could be. She could hurt a human badly and with ease. The people in this room were some of the last she'd ever want to hurt.

"Kara, let's talk," Alex said, her hand on her sister's upper arm.

Kara spun, pulling her arm away from the hand that more touched than held her. "This is done Alex! The only thing that kept me from kicking your ass back there was that we had a witness. We don't have one right now. I am barely keeping myself in check!"

"Hey, don't you think a calm, quiet discussion would be better than—," Winn's voice died in his throat when Kara turned to look at him, eyes glowing in warning. "Or yelling, yelling is good too. Yelling can be very therapeutic."

"You need to stop treating Lena like she's her mother!" Kara said as she turned back to her sister, pushing Alex and making the redhead stumble backward.

"No more fighting!" Maggie yelled from her hospital bed.

"Kara, she was never in any danger, and there's other stuff you don't know about her, stuff about her medical condition, stuff about her doctor, stuff about her nurse. Max Lord is involved. She's been playing you this whole time!" Alex said, her voice loud but pleading.

Kara grabbed her sister, pinning Alex against the wall with one arm in the span of a heartbeat as she hissed, "Stop it! I don't want to hear you say anything else about Lena. She is a victim here, just like the rest of us. If Winn's father was behind this, you wouldn't be attacking him. You'd understand that just because Winn's father is all...all...cray cray is no reason to blame Winn! No one blamed you when Jeremiah broke into the DEO database and stole the alien registry."

"That was Lillian's fault," Alex replied quickly as she strained futilely against her sister's arm.

"But not Lena's! Judge her on her actions, not on anything else. Stop blaming her for anything that her family has done." Kara let Alex go as she took a step back. "She nearly died for me, Alex. She's in that wheelchair, hoping to learn to walk again because she stepped in front of a gun for me. That's the person she is. That's the person I know. If you don't want to get to know her, I can't force you, but stop attacking her. She's my family. All of you are my family too. It makes me sad I can't have all of you together. She tried. She came down here and put herself out, but after the way you treated her, I don't know if she'll do so again. I can't blame her if she doesn't want to try again."

"Kara, how are you even spending time with her after what she said to you? She's a xenophobe just like the rest of her family," Alex said, rubbing at her throat and chest.

"It was a misunderstanding. We talked. We're good. She accepts all of me, both sides of me obviously. You just saw that. It was..." Kara shook her head, her eyes drifting around the room. "I can't really explain it right now Alex. Just trust that Lena wasn't rejecting me because I'm an alien. That was just a big misunderstanding. I shouldn't have flown away without talking to her. Then she got upset and locked me out of her room. It got all messy, but we finally talked, and we cleared it all up. We're fine. Lena and I are fine. Let it go."

"I don't understand," Alex replied.

"You don't have to understand, Alex, you just have to be understanding. That's what family does. Now can you be supportive of me here?"

"I...I want to be Kara. I look at her, and I see the things she's hiding from you. You're just so trusting. Maggie almost died, you almost left her for dead to go save Lena who was never in any danger. God, that makes me crazy!"

"Fine, be angry about that, but with Lillian, not Lena. You saw how shaken Lena was about that. She's being manipulated by her mother, same as we are. Why can't we all be on the same side? Lillian is tearing us all apart. She's manipulating me. She's manipulating all of us. Lillian is a master manipulator. Maybe this is what she wanted, us wondering if Lena could be in league with Lillian."

"Well, if Lillian wanted to cast doubt, she did that," James said pushing off from the wall, his hand still on his stomach. "Honestly, who knows what Lillian's motives are. Division within Kara's group of friends sounds likely. Maybe she needs Lena for something. Maybe she loves her daughter and didn't want to her hurt."

Alex snorted. "Unlikely."

"Maybe she does in her own way," James said.

"You know, when crazy's in your family, your love doesn't always look like other people's love looks. Sometimes the best you can hope for is not being murdered along with everybody else." Hands in his pockets, Winn studied his shoes. After several moments of silence, he lifted his head to find everyone watching him. His face twisted into a smile. "I'm talking about Lena."

"Yeah, yeah we got that man," James said walking over to Winn and clapping his friend on the shoulder. "We're all talking about Lena. I think it's unlikely that Lena is working with her mother, especially after she took a bullet for Kara."

"Two," Kara corrected.

"Two, my bad," James said. "I don't know all that's going on with her medical condition like Alex does, but I say we let Kara deal with her relationship like an adult. That's what I'd want if I were Kara."

"Thank you, James," Kara replied, walking over and hugging the man with a bit too much force and making him grunt.

"Easy. I'm still a bit sore. Maybe I'll take up boxing. Hanging out in hospitals around women seems to be detrimental to my health."

"Chicks are tough, right?" Winn said with a small laugh.

"Definitely the ones we know," James agreed as he looked around the room.

"I'm going to go. Lena was pretty shaken when she left, and I want to support her. I said what I needed to say."

As Kara headed for the door, Alex took a few steps after her but stopped when her sister did, half turning and tensing in warning. Alex raised a hand, holding it out in a peaceful gesture as she said, "Kara, just stay and talk this out with me. Maybe I overreacted. Okay, I overreacted, but there are things I don't know, and there are things you don't know. We don't go into an op half blind, and this is what this feels like. I feel like we need to have a sit-down and fully vet this situation. We have too many unknowns here. It's going to get someone killed."

"Not right now," Kara replied. "Right now I'm pissed, and I'm going to snap and hurt someone if you say something you shouldn't about Lena again. I need some time and space and then I'll...I'll text you later."

"Kara, I know you're upset. I know you're angry, but we have no idea what Lillian is up to. We don't know if we have time to waste. You want to be pissed at me for stepping over the line fine, be pissed at me, but we need to stick together. This is your family. Everyone in this room is your family. Don't leave," Alex urged.

"Lena is my family too, Alex. If you push me on that, if you try and make me choose right now, I don't think you'll be happy with the outcome." Without another word, Kara turned and left the room.