790. Chapter 790
Alex had taken a stupid risk.
Again.
And Kara had taken an even stupider risk.
Again.
But that wasn’t why they were fighting.
They were years past fighting over whose bodies were more vulnerable, because - they’d learned the ridiculously hard way - it really just depended who their enemy was at any given moment.
No.
They were fighting, and it was bad, and neither of them knew if they were going to recover from it.
“It doesn’t matter what she could do with her alien powers, Alex, it matters what she’s done! Because they could say the same thing about me, couldn’t they? That I’m destructive because I could be, and you know what? If people like you say things like that enough, wouldn’t it be understandable if people like me started to believe it about ourselves?”
Kara was seething, and Alex wasn’t backing down.
“People like me and people like you? We work together here, Kara. And what happened to family, anyway?”
“I don’t know, I could ask you the same thing!” Her hands flew up and her face was red and she was pacing and Alex was clutching that glass of whiskey so hard her knuckles were white, and it only made Kara more infuriated.
“What’s that supposed to -”
“You grew up with me, Alex. You grew up watching me control myself, every moment of every day, and even at night, so I wouldn’t float off in my sleep. You watched that, every day, and Superman was like your cousin for crying out loud, even before I showed up. And you still joined a secret organization to fight aliens -”
“To protect you, Kara -”
“Okay, sure, to fight all aliens who weren’t your adoptive sister or father -”
“You work for the DEO too -”
“And even then, even after J’onn told you who he really was, even then, you know what it took for you to really take up the alien rights flag? Maggie. It took a crush, when your sister’s been standing here, alien refugee as can be, for over a decade -”
“Maggie didn’t do anything wr-”
“No, but it took you about forty-five seconds to agree with her about refugee rights when you’ve been keeping a secret alien prison for years before you met her, because, what? They don’t happen to have been raised with you? They’re asking you to use that massive brain of yours to think of a solution other than locking them in an underground pit and throwing away the very tech-y key, and because you’re not falling in love with them like you were falling in love with Maggie, their begging doesn’t count?”
“So, what, you think I shouldn’t have listened to Maggie about alien rights?”
Kara finally turned back to face her sister fully, and all the fury leaked out of her voice. Only the shattered remains of an objection were left.
“Of course you should have listened to her. But you shouldn’t have had to learn it from her. I was right here, the whole time.”
Realization dawned on Alex and she stepped back like Kara had slapped her. Even though really, it seemed like she’d been the one hitting Kara in the gut, all these years.
Another thing she’d destroyed without even trying.
It came naturally to her, apparently.
Her sister was the one with superstrength, but she was the one who always broke everything.
“Kara, I -”
But Kara was gone, flown out the window and into the skies of National City.
Only for a moment.
Because - even as Alex watched, staring out her window at her sister who was right, yet again, because when was Alex ever, ever right? - she heard the urgent buzzing of her phone.
Alerting her to an imminent attack.
She didn’t even have time to pick up her phone before she watched that imminent attack strike her sister straight out of the sky.
She beat the DEO’s medical van back to the base, and she was gloved up and ready to take care of whatever havoc that beam had caused in her sister’s body.
Her hands shook as she tugged open the back of the van, and she was only vaguely surprised to see Maggie at Kara’s side, holding her limp, burnt hand and calling out commands for moving her carefully.
She hugged Alex, hard and brief, as she hopped out of the van. “She’s alive. And you’re going to keep her that way. What do you need, sweetie?”
“How did you -”
“It’s Supergirl,” Maggie shrugged, like the superhero wasn’t going to be her sister-in-law one day. “I made sure I was first on scene.”
“Thank you,” Alex blinked away tears, kissing Maggie quick and tender and rough before running after Kara’s gurney, listening to Vasquez’s update on her condition, already sifting through treatment options in her head.
Lena got there only moments after Alex got her sister onto the medbay table. Alex couldn’t take in how pale Lena’s face was as her eyes looked down at her girlfriend’s singed body. She couldn’t take in anything.
Kara wouldn’t have been out there, just then, if they hadn’t been fighting.
If Alex couldn’t save her, it would be her fault her sister was dead.
And she’d have to figure out a way to explain that to Lena, who was looking down at her the same way she’d found herself looking down at Maggie’s limp body whenever she got banged up in the field.
So she processed nothing. She’d have to do that later.
Instead, she nodded toward the box of gloves, wordlessly inviting Lena to join her. Another genius in the room couldn’t hurt the treatment process.
They worked together, Kara’s sister and Kara’s girlfriend, side-by-side for hours.
Lena didn’t ask, but Alex knew she could read the guilt in her eyes.
And Maggie didn’t ask, when she came in to force both of them, her girlfriend and her other future sister-in-law, to eat something, to drink some water.
And J’onn didn’t ask, when he came in to watch over his children.
And James didn’t ask, when he came in to keep vigil with J’onn.
But they all knew. That the fervor in Alex’s eyes while she and Lena worked to save her sister was born of something even deeper than concern; it was guilt, this time, more than usual.
So when Kara came around, finally, Maggie kissed the back of Alex’s neck and murmured that she loved her.
Lena brushed the hair away from Kara’s forehead, and kissed her chapped lips, and murmured that she loved her.
J’onn and James hugged, and J’onn covered Alex’s shoulder with his hand.
And then they all left Alex alone to deal with her demons and try to exorcise them with her sister.
“I’m sorry,” was all she could say, and her voice was hoarse from only using it, for hours, to exchange quick, urgent ideas with Lena about Kara’s treatment.
Kara shook her head, groggily grasping for Alex’s hand.
“You saved me. Again,” she eventually whispered.
“Your girlfriend was a big help.”
Kara smiled, sleepy but still too big for her face.
“You’re a big bisexual nerd, you know that?”
Kara nodded, but the smile was fading as her eyes unsteadily focused on Alex’s face.
“It wasn’t your fault, Alex.”
“Kara, you wouldn’t have flown out there -”
“Yes, I would have. I got the message in my comms before you got the message on your phone. I was in my gear, I heard about an impending attack first. It wasn’t you. I wasn’t flying away from you.”
She closed her eyes like saying that much was too much.
“But if we weren’t fighting, you would have told me. You would have waited, and we would have faced the attack together. You almost died, Kara, it -”
“I’m here.”
“And I was wrong.”
Kara blinked, sharpness slowly coming back to her face.
“I’m sorry, what? It sounds like you said something, but I think my brain might still be foggy. Because it sounded like you said -”
“I was wrong, Kara. Revel in it.”
Sure enough, Kara smiled and sank even deeper into her pillows like she’d just won some kind of award. But when she opened her eyes again, Alex was crying.
“Hey. No, hey. You just saved my life, Alex. I’m here. We have all the time in the world to fight, okay? And for you to tell me more about how you were wrong. But for now? Just be with me, okay? Just be with me.”
She squeezed Alex’s hand and Alex bent to kiss her knuckles, nodding.
“I love you, Kara.”
“I love you too, Alex. Fighting doesn’t change that.”
“I know.”
“Good. Because since you love me so much, you know what I need right now?”
“Maggie and Lena are already on their way with a years’ supply of potstickers.”
“Perfect.”