Chapter Text
Another week passes, filled with unspoken lectures, worried glances, and a lot of melted and shattered objects.
“Kara!” Lena screeches as yet another piece of the Kryptonian’s walls get blasted with a short beam of heat vision.
Alex, Lena, Sam, and Maggie decided to always have at least one of them with Kara at all times, and it’s Lena’s turn to watch Kara, plus she’d rather not be on the receiving end of Alex’s empty threats of being thrown in DEO lock-up for forty-eight hours if she doesn’t stay with Kara for a few hours until someone else can get to her apartment. After Alex’s not-so-empty threat of throwing Kara in a kryptonite-laced cell, Kara conceded to let someone stay with her.
She’s insisted multiple times that she “doesn’t need a babysitter, Alex. ”
“Oh Rao, I’m- I’m sorry, I-”
“Kara, slow down, it’s alright,” Lena walks over to Kara, cautiously putting her hand on Kara’s shoulder to ease her back onto the couch, leaving plenty of time for Kara to object the action.
“Please don’t tell Alex…” Kara whispers as Lena sits down next to her.
“Kara… what’s going on? Seriously, you can tell me,” says Lena with unwavering sympathy and determination to help her friend.
Kara looks down, avoiding eye contact.
“Nothing’s going on. I- I’m just stressed. That’s all. I’m fine,” Kara refrains from looking at one thing for too long, she may be fireproof, but her apartment and Lena aren’t.
“I’ll believe you when you can look me in the eye and say it.”
Kara sighs, but it comes out cold and frosty, “I- ugh… I don’t know. I don’t know what’s happening, I just know that it’s happening and I can’t stop it.”
“Okay… okay, it’s alright. But I think you should talk to Alex, or maybe let me try to help.”
Kara’s eyes widen, finally looking at Lena frantically, “N-No! I can’t, there- I’m Supergirl, I can’t have anything going on- and I don’t need help, I’m fine.”
“Kara…”
“There’s- I hear sirens, I’ll be right back,” Kara says as she stands up and rips open her button-up, revealing her suit.
•••
“You again?” Kara, as Supergirl, asks as she lands. Her superhero bravado masks her fear of causing more damage. The still-unidentified alien (now with missing horns) grunts, glaring at Kara, preparing himself to charge at her.
Before he can start running, another alien - an Infernian, if his red hair and the fact that he flew over with a trail of fire seemingly coming from his hands are any indication - lands next to him, releasing a beam of fire from his eyes at Kara. She quickly fires back, creating a steady clash between the blue and red beams.
The other alien makes his escape as the Infernian continues to fire his heat vision at her, until she eventually drops.
The last thing she sees before the darkness takes over is Alex beginning to lift her onto a stretcher.
•••
Kara wakes up to the faint sound of beeping and a bright yellow light above her. She attempts to sit up, but four hands carefully push her back down, prompting a sharp burning feeling from her left shoulder and her right leg.
“Easy, you solar flared,” a voice, Lena, Kara thinks, tells her.
“You passed out, the Infernian burned you, then the DEO got you out of there,” another voice, Sam, continues. Kara jumps, startled.
“Easy! You’re gonna hurt yourself, again,” yet another voice, Alex, calls from the table on the other side of the medbay.
“Can Kara and I talk, alone?” Lena asks, looking at Alex, then Sam, then Alex again.
“Sure,” the CFO and the Director say at the same time.
Kara tries to protest, but Lena gives her a ‘we need to talk’ look.
“Still think you shouldn’t tell Alex?” Lena asks once the others are out of earshot. There’s no accusatory or patronizing tone in her voice, it’s soft and caring.
“I don’t want them to worry… Alex is always overprotective and she’ll never let me out of her sight. And Sam- Sam’s busy helping you run L-Corp and CatCo, she shouldn’t have to worry about me, too.”
This time when Kara tries sitting up, Lena helps her to not hurt her injuries more.
“So, let Alex be overprotective. And I’ll make sure Sam doesn’t start slacking off.” Lena smiles, trying to reassure Kara, “How about that?”
“Do I have an option at this point?” Kara counters as Lena gently sits next to her.
“No, but if you want, I can help you tell them,” Kara looks away from Lena, focusing on her bandaged leg, her eyes filling with unshed tears.
“I’m kinda glad I solar flared, because I’m pretty sure there’d be a hole in the ground, or you’d have frostbite from being too close to me,” is Kara’s watery reply, Lena pulls her into a hug, protectively wrapping her arms around the blonde, who puts her head on the brunette’s shoulder.
The two sit in silence for a few minutes.
“Kara, what’s going on? This is the first time you’ve let anyone really touch you in weeks. And before now, you wouldn’t look at Sam. Are you sure you’re not afraid of her?”
Kara releases a shaky breath before responding, “I’m not afraid of her... I promise… I just… I don’t know.”
“Okay, do you wanna tell them now? Together?”
Kara nods, her head still resting on Lena’s shoulder.
As if sensing they were ready, Alex and Sam walk back into the medbay. Both look slightly shocked at the current position of Kara and Lena, given Kara’s lack of physical contact recently.
Kara and Lena quickly pull away from each other.
Kara whispers, “We need to talk,” earning her skeptical looks from her sister and one of her best friends, though the former looks a little scared, too.
“Last time you said that, it was because you flew through a building at mach one and a half,” Alex responds, sitting down on the bed across from Kara and Lena.
Sam sits next to Alex, still eyeing Kara skeptically.
Kara opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes out, so she closes it. She looks at Lena for help, so the CEO takes control of the conversation.
“Obviously Kara has been having some… issues… regarding her control over her powers,” Lena speaks slow and deliberate, choosing her words carefully.
Kara, ever the impatient Kryptonian she is, interrupts by blurting out, “Something’s wrong with me and I don’t know what it is but it’s terrifying and I keep almost killing people because I can’t control my powers so please just fix me already.”
Sam looks at like a deer caught in headlights and Alex looks just about ready to hide Kara in a bunker away from all of the world’s cruelties for the rest of her life. So Kara, reasonably, cowers like an idiot under their gaze.
Lena clears her throat, and Alex immediately jumps into action as Sam sits, probably lost in thought. Kara watches nervously as Alex grabs some weird handheld device from a drawer.
“Lena, move,” is all Alex gives as she turns it on.
“You think it’s-” Kara asks, remembering the device from her first fight with Draaga at Roulette’s fight club, but Alex raises her hand, signalling for Kara to stop speaking. Lena and Sam look at the sisters, confusion written clearly on their faces.
“No, but I have to check.”
“Check what?” Sam asks.
“Check for brain damage,” Alex says, scanning Kara’s head. A few moments later, she turns the device off and throws it back on the counter while sighing, Kara hopes it’s in relief.
She starts fidgeting nervously after Alex hands Lena a tablet without saying anything.
“I learned from the Reign situation-” Kara flinches, almost imperceptibly “-Kryptonian brains are identical to human brains. Except I don’t understand what any of this means,” Lena states, looking at Kara quizzically.
“Okay… so nothing’s wrong with me and I’m just overreacting. I’m probably just tired, so I’m gonna go home and rest. Okay? Yeah. Yup, that’s all. I’m fine. See Lena? I’m all good,” Kara rambles with false enthusiasm. She knows Alex already knows that she’s going back into denial, so she makes the quick decision to get out of the DEO as soon as possible, opting to bolt, even at her now-temporarily-human speed, before anyone can object.
“What the hell was that?” Sam asks after a few minutes of tense silence.
“Kara hates being vulnerable. She forgets that just because she’s nearly indestructible that nothing can be wrong with her. Physically and psychologically…” Alex trails off, getting lost in thought. She shakes her head, going back to her explanation, “Her first week being Supergirl, she was attacked by Valeronian, Vartox. He had this axe that could damage Kryptonians. When I got there, god… she was terrified.
“Then when she solar flared for the first time, she felt so helpless, Max Lord was giving Supergirl such a hard time about not being there for the earthquake and there was this man who she couldn’t save because she didn’t have her powers. She beat herself up so much, then it took James falling down an elevator shaft for her to jumpstart her powers.”
A stiff, tense silence falls on them.