Chapter Text
Kara falls from the sky on a Tuesday afternoon.
The fight with the bad guy of the week, some bald asshole from Warworld who’s ranting about expanding his franchise to Earth, kicks off about five minutes after Alex finishes nursing Lena for lunch. Alex breaks the speed limit three times and takes several questionably legal turns on her way back to work—she trusts the other medical personnel, but she’s not leaving Kara’s health to just anybody.
It’s a brutal fight. There’s more than one Kara-shaped hole in a building by the time it’s over, and Henshaw has to duck out and use his secret Martian super-form to help out because once Kara goes down everybody knows that her sidekick doesn’t stand a chance, even with bald asshole from Warworld only able to use one arm and moving with a visible limp and broken ribs courtesy of a severe asskicking at Kara’s hands.
Henshaw isn’t quite fast enough, though, so Kara’s sidekick has one eye swollen shut and several missing teeth, not to mention a particularly nasty gash on his leg, as he and Henshaw help a semiconscious, bloody Kara into the exam room.
Said sidekick knows the drill, and lets the other medics swarm him. Alex will check their handiwork later.
Right now, Henshaw makes sure Alex has everything she needs, shuts the two of them in the more secure exam room, and leaves to give Kelly and Lena (who is doubtless on her way over already) the passcode for the door panel.
“Did he go down?” Kara whimpers through her own black eye, bloody nose, and fat lip. Alex pulls up her top and immediately identifies a cracked rib.
“You got him pretty banged up, but it took J’onn to take him down.” Alex is quick and methodical as she goes about her work, re-setting Kara’s broken rib as Kara lets out a gasp of pain. Alex’s hands aren’t shaking, but her every movement is stiff and almost jerky.
“He had a mean right hook. Did anyone notice the whole Martian transformation thing?” Henshaw likes to keep his being a Martian on the down low. Something about being a refugee from genocide. Alex respects that, and appreciates that the telepathic Martian has been respectful of her and her girls’ relationship, so she and her girls call the guy by his cover alias in public and J’onn in private.
“Nobody who isn’t cleared.” Alex pulls Kara’s top back down over the bandage that’s holding Kara’s rib in place. “Head check?”
“They gave me a scan on the way back, I’m clear for medication.”
“Hmm.” Alex looks over the report on her PDA anyway, then double-checks the tox screen just in case. “You’ve got to stop holding back for so long.”
“I didn’t want to hurt him too badly!”
Alex huffs. “You took at least three bad hits that I know you didn’t have to. We’re all worried sick.” She looks at Kara’s right hand with a grimace. “Four dislocated joints.”
“He had a hard forehead.”
“Dumbass.” Alex took her sister’s hand gently. “This is gonna hurt.”
“I’ve had worse.”
The sad thing is, she has. Once, Kara got punched through three universes by the Anti-Monitor. Lena had to reverse-engineer the Flash’s dimensional portal tech to get her back. Alex hadn’t let her sister leave her side for more than thirty-six hours after that incident. Not that Kara, who had spent most of the time either nursing or semiconscious on Alex’s breast, had objected.
“You’re benched for the week.”
“But what about Supergirl work?”
“I already called your cousin. He called in a favor with Wonder Woman. She’s got you covered for a week. If there’s something she can’t handle, by which I mean a disaster not a supervillain, we can make a decision then. But you know Lena’s going to be glued to your hip, and Kelly and I are going to want to nurse you a lot.”
“It could be worse,” Kara mutters, and hisses in pain as Alex pops one of her fingers back into place.
“I’ll finish these, clean you up, then stitch up your eyebrow under the red-sun lamps, then we’re swapping to yellow and I’m nursing you until I feel like I can leave the room without collapsing,” Alex says. “Then we’re going home and Lena’s cuddling you and Kelly’s going to nurse you to sleep.”
“What about Mon-El? And didn’t you just have lunchtime with Lena today?”
“Your sidekick is in good hands. I’ll check up on him in a few days. And I just need your presence, your physicality.”
“OK,” Kara sighs, then hisses in pain again as Alex pops another finger back into place. “I totally had him on the ropes, though.”
“You would’ve had him on the ropes a lot sooner if you’d just opened up on him earlier. You and Clark are both too restrained sometimes.”
“Yeah. But we just don’t want to—ow!—hurt anyone.”
Alex sighs, and kisses Kara’s hand, then gently squeezes and gets Kara’s squeeze back. Everything’s working. Good. “I know, and that’s wonderful. I just…I worry. We all worry.”
“I know.” Kara squints up at her. “He just knocked me for a loop. I was waking up as I hit pavement.”
“We couldn’t know that as we watched you fall.” Alex turns on the red-sun lamps and waits for Kara to depower enough for a needle to penetrate her skin.
“Yeah.” Kara looks away. Alex feels like a real shithead for guilting her like this. Even though she is worried.
“You gotta stop giving the evil space conquerors time to land free hits on you. That’s the fourth time you’ve done that.”
“Fifth.”
“What?”
“Uh, my vacation with Sara Lance.” Kara visibly cringes. “That time back when she was pregnant. She and Ava were trying to pre-enroll their twins in a good daycare because Ava was going crazy worrying about their future. I offered to help them out and we ended up in another dimension. There was this purple guy with a magic glove who deleted Ava and Sara from existence and I sorta lost my temper. He threw me through a few mountains and hit me with a moon. So I punched him through his own spaceship and kicked him in his scrotum-looking chin so hard he flew out of his boots.”
“Jesus christ, Kara!”
“It wasn’t a big deal! I helped reverse the galactic genocide and helped Carol save her wife! You’d like Carol, she’s a cat person.”
Alex gently wipes the blood from around Kara’s nose and lower face. “You need to tell me about these things!”
Kara winces as the washcloth brushes something sensitive, and Alex pulls back slightly. “I didn’t want you to worry.”
“You ass, I’m always going to worry about you.”
“No reason for me to make it worse!”
Alex rolls her eyes, and unwraps a syringe and a bottle of local anesthetic from the Kara Box. “Your eyebrow’s split pretty good. Gonna need some stitches.”
Kara grunts her acknowledgement, slumping in bed as the fight goes out of her. Alex sighs, and carefully injects her sister with a drug dose that could probably kill a human. Because it’s Kara, that’s just enough numb her, even under the red sun. “You’re going on carfentanil later.”
“Thanks.”
“Not a big dose. Just enough to make you a little sleepy.”
“Sounds good.”
Alex threads her needle. “You know I love you, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Kara averts her eyes as Alex sews her eyebrow shut. Tungsten carbide coated steel is barely enough to make it through her skin, even under the red light. Alex winces as she thinks about how much power the space asshole of the week must’ve been packing to withstand Kara’s punches, much less hurt her.
“What’s up?” Alex ties off the suture and flicks the lights to yellow.
“I know I’m too careful with the bad guys sometimes. But it’s important to me that I not be too aggressive. And I know you worry, and I feel guilty, and…”
“Hey.” Alex cups Kara’s cheek. “I’m here for you, no matter what.”
“Ok,” Kara whispers. Captivated. Eyes locked on Alex’s.
Things are going to be OK.
“Smile for me,” Alex says as she puts a bandage over Kara’s stitched eyebrow.
Kara obliges. Alex looks over her teeth. “No damage. I thought he got you on the jaw?”
“I blocked him, like you and Kelly taught me. Then I kneed him in the balls and punched him through the pavement.”
“Atta girl,” Alex grins. She unbuttons her blouse. “Any pain in the jaw?”
“No,” Kara murmurs.
“Good.” Alex shucks her blouse and unbuttons the flap of her nursing bra. Her breast is soft, empty. Kara’s eyes gravitate to it anyway. “Oh, my girl. Oh, you do a number on me, space girl.”
“I’m sorry,” Kara rasps.
“And still I love you, space girl.” Alex settles onto the bed, Kara scootching down as Alex props herself up on her side. Alex’s phone pings, and she pulls it from her pocket, setting it up on Kara’s other side as she leans in, soft nipple meeting Kara’s lips. “I love you no matter what, and that’s never gonna change.”
Kara’s lips part, and she latches on—it’s weak, tender, but that’s OK, she’s still recovering. Alex unlocks her phone as she feels herself sigh, Kara relaxing under her, and Alex’s hands finally begin to shake, the tension within her releasing as she feels her sister’s warm touch.
“Kelly and Lena are here,” Alex croaks. Detached professionalism is gone. There’s only fear, and worry, and oh so much love left inside of her now. “They’re coming down to check on you, then we’re leaving for home.”
“Mmh-hmm,” Kara hums, wrapping her less damaged arm around Alex and squeezing gently. Alex blinks away tears.
“Oh, space girl, you gotta stop scaring me like this,” Alex murmurs. “Oh, Kara. Oh, god, I love you, Kara, I wish I could protect you, I wish I could be here for you more. Oh, my space girl.”
Kara holds her, squeezes her, and murmurs her answer into Alex’s breast, her eyes fluttering shut, and Alex knows that Kara loves her right back, and that for all she gives for everyone else, all her overflowing and undying compassion and duty, Kara will always, always fight to come home to her Alex.
The door beeps, and cracks open, just enough for Kelly and Lena to slip in. Kelly steps around the bed as Lena drops her bag by the door, kicks off her heels, and slides into place on Kara’s other side.
“Hey, sweet girl,” Alex says through a sob, and brings Lena into the hug.
“Kara,” Lena sighs with relief. Her eyes are red from crying, her makeup ruined and hair mussed up, and she has eyes only for Kara, and she strokes Kara’s slowly-pulsing cheek and Alex’s soft breast, and Alex feels another sob shudder through her, allowing herself to feel every bit of anxiety and love she’s kept bottled up ever since she saw Kara flying past L-Corp on her way to this week’s fight.
Kelly’s hand meets her back. “How is she?” Kelly murmurs, and Alex squeezes her eyes shut, drawing in a shuddering breath.
“Grounded for a week. Safe to move. She got knocked a little silly and busted a rib, left side, so we’ve got to be gentle.”
“Bathtime?”
“Late. We’ll need to strip her and sun her.”
Kelly hums. “How does that sound, bug?” She’s rubbing Alex’s back in little circles, and Alex feels her heartbeat slow in response. God, she loves her girls so much.
Kara makes a positive-sounding grunt. Alex feels Kelly’s fingers in her hair as Lena brushes a strand of golden blonde from Kara’s face.
Her sobs are tapering off. Her hands are stilling, her body’s tension flowing out of her. The tingle of milk-flow isn’t there, but the intimacy, the feeling of being surrounded by her girls, is, and that’s enough.
Kara detaches from Alex’s nipple with a sigh, and turns towards Lena, eyes slowly blinking open. “Hey,” Kara whispers.
“You scared me,” Lena sobs.
“I’m sorry,” Kara says, and she means it.
Alex leans back, buttoning the flap of her bra over her breast, and Kelly helps her stand on shaky legs. “How do we transport her?”
“You or Lena and I can help her walk, I’ll take the side with the cracked rib,” Alex says. She’s hoarse. Eyes burning with the aftermath of crying. Kelly turns Alex around and brings her into a hug, one thumb coming up to wipe a remaining tear from Alex’s eye.
“OK,” Kelly murmurs. “A week of intensive sun lamps?”
“Natural’s better,” Alex manages, hypnotized by Kelly’s proximity. “First day, sun lamps, then I want to get her out somewhere to heal faster. Lena, can you—”
“Roof or park?” Lena rasps.
“Park. I want privacy.”
“Helicopter OK?”
“After a day in the lamps, yeah.”
“I’ll make the call.”
“Thank you,” Alex says, and then Kelly is kissing her, and she melts into her girlfriend’s grasp, and it’s soft and gentle and Kelly’s so warm and strong and soft and safe and Alex is so, so happy to have her here to fall back on…
All too soon, they’re splitting, slow and soft, and Kelly says,
“You did so good, babe. You took such good care of her. Like always.”
“I wish I could do more,” Alex croaks.
“You do enough, sis,” Kara rasps from the bed. “Trust me. There’s nobody I’d rather have taking care of me.”
“See?” Kelly hums. “You did great, Alex. As always. My kind, caring, loving Alex.” She kisses Alex again, and Alex lets herself weep.
Kelly checks in with Henshaw as Alex and Lena carry Kara (who is trying very hard to be Tough and not whimper, and is mostly succeeding) down to the garage and get her situated in Lena’s solar-cell-equipped electric custom Lambo (net zero, including manufacturing, because Lena bought an abandoned strip-mine and spent a million dollars and several weekends with her girls reforesting the whole place, which Kara adored and Alex tolerated for her girls).
“Should I drive?” Lena asks as she strokes Kara’s cheek, Kara making a halfassed kissy face up at her.
“Nooo,” Kara whines, and Alex shakes her head.
“No, she needs you and you need her. Kelly should drive, I’m too screwed up right now. I’ll call shotgun, give you two a little time.”
“Alex, you know you’re always welcome,” Lena says, but Alex shakes her head again.
“You know as well as I do that we need pair time as well as poly time. I already had that with her. You need that time now, and Kelly will get hers with Kara tomorrow while we go do picnic prep.” Lena likes picnic prep, wandering around Sprouts buying random things that she thinks Kara will like. Alex likes tagging along for the retail therapy and making sure that there’s something nice and healthy that one of the girls knows how to cook for the picnic lunch. “Go on, sweet girl. Take care of our space girl for me, OK?”
“Leeeeena,” Kara whines, clearly enjoying being a total brat. “I need kisses!”
Lena melts, and slips into the back seat, kissing an eager Kara on the lips as Kara hums happily.
“You, space girl, keep it light. Don’t stress that rib.” Kara gives Alex a thumbs-up, so Alex shuts the door and trusts that her sister isn’t a complete idiot.
She leans against the car with a sigh. Arms crossed. Her teeth worry her lower lip on instinct.
Space assholes. Always wrecking her and her girls’ weeks.
Kelly is down a few minutes later, and Alex manages a smile for her.
“Hey, babe.”
“Hey you.” Kelly wraps her in a hug, and they kiss, and Alex feels the last few minutes of built-up tension draining out of her.
“You talked to Henshaw?” Alex says when they split, because the garage isn’t 100% guaranteed to be private.
“He cleared the week off. Wanted it to be two.”
“Kara’s gonna go stir-crazy with two weeks off.”
“Yeah, I told him. He agreed. Bit grudgingly, but he agreed.”
“He worries about her as much as I do sometimes,” Alex chuckles.
“He worries about you, and what’ll happen to you if she gets seriously hurt. Anyway, we have the week. You’re going shopping with Lena tomorrow?”
“Yep. You want to be part of food prep?”
“Maybe. But I do like watching my beautiful girlfriend the domestic goddess,” Kelly says with a smirk, and she kisses Alex again, and Alex’s eyes flutter shut.
“Anything else I need to know?” Alex asks as they break again.
“Mon-El’s covered for his appointment next week.”
“Hamilton?”
“Yep.”
“Good, she’s competent.” Alex can just focus on Kara. And Hamilton likes Kara’s sidekick anyway. He’s been trying to flirt his way into her pants for six months and she’s been turning him down every time, but everybody knows she encourages it and he likes the game.
Or, well. Kara knows, and she spreads all the hot gossip to her girls every weekend.
“How do you want to handle things?”
“You’re gonna get her tomorrow while Lena and I shop.”
“No, I mean for the drive and tonight.”
“Do you want to drive? I’m a little fucked up, to be honest.”
“Alright.” Kelly kisses her forehead, and Alex sighs happily. “When we get home, we put her in the sun room?”
“Yeah. Just strip her down and let her bask. Lena’s gonna want to cuddle. I’m probably gonna be in and out.”
“Me, too. We need a little us time, I think.”
Alex nods. Just holding Kelly and rocking against her and crying a little sounds really good right now. “OK. So we snuggle with them for a while then we take a break and make dinner, then we come back in and feed them regular food, then bathtime, we get Kara into bed, and we feed them.”
“Do you want Lena or Kara tonight?”
“Can I take Kara? I know it’s really more your role these days…”
“It’s fine,” Kelly promises her. “I understand.” And she’s getting several hours with Kara tomorrow anyway. She’s going to be OK.
They’re all going to be OK.
Alex gets into the car with a huff of breath escaping her lips, her hands still shaking as she buckles her seatbelt. She checks the rearview mirror, and sees Lena snuggled up to a half-asleep Kara, Lena’s head tucked into the crook of Kara’s neck as dark hair and blonde intermingle.
“You good back there?” she asks.
Lena nods into Kara’s shoulder. Kara raises the arm that’s wrapped around Lena and gives a thumbs-up.
“OK,” Kelly says, sliding into the driver’s seat. “Fifteen minutes, and we’ll have you under the lamps, Kara.”
“You know the drill,” Alex adds. Kara grunts her acknowledgement, still entangled with Lena. Kelly reaches across to squeeze Alex’s leg, then puts the car in reverse and pulls out with a quiet hum of the electric engine. “Sun lamps, carfentanil for the pain. Lena’s gonna cuddle you so you stay in bed and don’t try to wander around all dopey. I’ll make sure you’re fed. Then tonight I nurse you to sleep. OK?”
“Yeah,” Kara mumbles from the back. She’s already crashing. Good. She should be able to nap once she’s on the tranquilizer.
The drive would be a lot more tense if Kelly didn’t keep reaching over and squeezing Alex’s thigh. But her presence keeps Alex from getting tense, and soon they’re pulling into the garage, and Lena helps them get Kara out.
“I’ll get the doors,” Lena says, and Alex and Kelly carry a grumbling, near-weightless Kara across the garage.
Alex watches her sister closely in the elevator. Thankfully, she doesn’t wince too much, mostly just cuddling up with Kelly, who holds Kara and supports her by the good side, gently scratching at the blonde’s scalp with one hand.
Lena takes Kara’s cape off as they get into their apartment, and Alex and Kelly maneuver Kara into the sun room. Alex reaches under the sunbed and pulls out the tranq pills, kept in a bottle heavily marked with warning labels just in case, while Kelly gets Kara seated.
“Open up,” Alex says, and Kara complies. Alex carefully tips out one pill, then dumps it into Kara’s mouth. Carfentanil is potent, and for a Human the dose Alex just gave her sister would be fatal. For Kara, it’s like taking some of the big-girl painkillers Alex had after she had her wisdom teeth out.
Lena and Kelly gently remove Kara’s boots, and Alex unzips the top of Kara’s super-suit, peeling it off carefully over the bandage, and takes it off one arm, then the other. Kelly then lifts Kara’s butt, Alex holding her shoulders, and Kara smiles down dopily at Lena as the CEO peels her pants and underwear off. “Haha. Maximum sunshine,” Kara giggles, and Alex laughs.
“Yeah, well, this is recovery time, not hanky-panky time,” Alex reminds her as she and Kelly help the Kryptonian up onto the bed. Lena turns the sun lamps on high, and grabs a bottle of sunscreen from the shelf by the door. “So behave. No teasing Lena.”
“I knoooowww,” Kara whines. “’m sleepy anyway.”
“Good, let’s hope the meds keep you that way.” Alex leaves Kara splayed out on the bed, Kelly climbing up to curl up next to Kara, and goes to put sunscreen on herself as Kelly begins stroking Kara’s hair.
Lena and Alex strip and cover themselves in sunscreen, and Kelly laughs from where she’s petting their photosynthetic girl’s hair. “I am one lucky woman.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to put sunscreen on when we put Kara under the lamps,” Alex shoots back.
“And I get to look at Alex freaking Danvers every day,” Kelly chuckles. “Alex freaking Danvers, the most beautiful woman on the planet, shares her life and her relationship with me.”
“Aww, I’m the lucky one in that respect,” Alex grins. “I get to look at Kelly Olsen every day.”
“You’re doooorks,” Kara giggles.
“Don’t stress that rib,” Alex says, and Lena has a ghost of a smile on her lips as she walks over to curl up on Kara’s other side.
Kelly stands as Alex takes her place, then strips herself down and wraps herself around Alex’s back, legs curling around Alex’s and lips meeting the back of Alex’s neck.
“There we go,” Kelly says, and Lena tucks her face into Kara’s shoulder, and Kara’s eyes flutter shut as her girls snuggle around her, and Alex melts.
Later, she and Kelly will take a break, and Kelly will hold Alex on the couch as Alex lets out her anxieties as they rear their heads again. Later, Alex will make solid food for the quartet as Kelly watches, occasionally stepping up to cuddle Alex from behind.
Later, they will get Kara and Lena from the sunroom and eat dinner.
Later, they will bathe their girls and each other, gently cleaning each other with soft washcloths in the exceptionally large bathtub Lena got for them. They will break out the fluffy towels and kiss their girls as they dry them off, and will dress Kara and Lena in soft wool and silks, then themselves.
Later, Alex will nurse Kara to sleep, and Kelly will do the same for Lena, as they play Nature on low volume on the bedroom TV.
But for now, there is nothing but the warm light, and each other, and that, for all four of them, alive, safe, and happy, is enough.