I'M KARA DANVERS

You know where to find me.

With what felt like monumental effort, Kara dragged her eyes open, her head pounding with the simple action. The room was foggy, things sliding in and out of focus before her vision. Slowly, slowly, she pieced together where she was. She recognised the glow of the sunlamps in the DEO (which usually meant she'd just come off the back of doing something reckless), and the familiar curve of her sister's back, hunched over by her bedside.

"Alex," she breathed. Her voice was barely recognisable to her own ears, hoarse and scratchy from disuse.

The older Danvers sister sat with her elbows on the edge of Kara's bed, where she watched her protectively with her wide, brown eyes. "Kara," Alex replied, heavy with both fatigue and relief. She straightened up and set about checking Kara's vitals.

"You know, when I told you to be careful, flying headfirst into a helicopter with a rocket in your hands wasn't exactly what I had in mind," she murmured sternly, and Kara's grimace was about as close as she could come to a smile.

"You know me, I go hard or I go home."

"Kinda wish you'd gone home this time." Alex frowned slightly as she thought back to that night. Pulling her sister out of the Kara-sized crater in the earth had been one of the more difficult things she'd had to bring Kara back from. It was right up there with the black mercy and Red Kryptonite fiascos, which she really preferred not to dwell upon if she could avoid it.

Kara exhaled, closing her eyes as the final moments before she lost consciousness replayed in her mind. Letting go of Lena's hand. Flying up towards the helicopter. Everything going black.

Her eyes snapped open again.

"Lena. Is she ok?"

Alex nodded, squeezing Kara's hand insistently before her sister could become any more worked up. "She's fine, not a scratch on her," she assured gently. "She had to go to the office. I'm sure she'll be back soon, she has been every day since the incident." Kara sighed, allowing herself to relax back in the bed now that she had Alex's assurance that Lena was safe.

"Wait—Lena was here? In the DEO?"

Alex laughed shortly and nodded. "She didn't really give us much of an option. Practically chewed J'onn's ear off when he dared suggest we take you away without her. I've never seen someone read through the NDA so quickly. You've got a feisty one on your hands there, Kara." An amused smile settled on her lips as she thought of the way the raven-haired woman had argued with J'onn that night. She could definitely see what had drawn Kara to her, and she also knew Kara was definitely going to have her hands full.

Kara made a sound that Alex assumed was intended to be a laugh, but it wasn't all that convincing. "You need to rest," Alex decided, and it was more of a command than a suggestion.

Kara really didn't have the energy to protest, but she managed to mumble an 'I love you' to her sister before slipping back into the welcoming dark.

//

Lena raked her eyes over Kara's person, like she had done countless times over the past three days. She started at the crown of her blonde head, a halo of golden hair spread out on the pillows behind it, featuring the stubborn strand of hair that fell over her cheek no matter how many times Lena tucked it behind her ear. Her next stop was Kara's closed eyes, which she desperately wished would open so she could see the oceans that resided behind the lids. Down a ski slope nose, Lena landed on plush lips that flooded her brain with memories from balconies and blazing orange skies.

Her hand rested on top of Kara's own, absently drawing patterns with her fingertips. The Kryptonian's skin was hot, warmed by the artificial sun replicated in the DEO's med bay. If Lena closed her eyes and allowed herself to become lost in her thoughts, she could almost pretend they were on a beach somewhere, lazy and peaceful in the sun's light. She had decided somewhere between the second and third hour she'd been sitting there the day before, that one day, she would make that fantasy into a reality.