Chapter Text
As morning ended and lunchtime came, it appeared that it was going to be a normal and calm Wednesday. Up until now nothing important had happened and Supergirl wasn’t called a single time so it felt safe to assume the rest of the day would stay the same, as it usually was how it went.
It was early in the evening when it all changed, seemingly in a blink of an eye like these things always were.
Kara was almost done with work when her phone vibrated on her desk and soon after she was flying away.
It had been almost 3 weeks since, what they're calling amongst themselves, a series of unfortunate events. Everyone was still recovering at this point but they all knew the CEO was the one who had taken on the worst blow and wasn’t dealing with it well and wouldn’t let anyone help or even see her, and that was what they all but mostly Kara were worried about the most. The woman wasn’t going to work, which wasn’t like her at all, would not return anyone’s calls or messages and would simply shout “Go away” to anyone who knocked on her door. No one knew what to do anymore, they kept trying every single day for a week by calling and passing by her place, some of them kept trying throughout the second week until only Kara was left to keep trying all by herself for days up until now.
Today had been different though. Today Kara had decided to only focus on her jobs for the entire day and maybe try to get Lena to talk again at night, give the both of them a little break to avoid building too much frustration that would probably turn into a fight once they were talking to each other again, neither of them needed that at the moment. Instead though, at some point of the evening Kara received a message and upon seeing Lena’s name she quickly turned her chair around and opened it.
“Kara, I really love you, you’re the best person I’ve ever met and the best hero in the universe, never forget that or let anyone change your essence
Thank you for everything you’ve ever done for me and my company throughout these years and I'm sorry for every worry and trouble I’ve ever caused you and your friends
Goodbye.”
It read.
The hero wasn’t sure what she should think of it, too shaky to really process those words at the moment as she read it over and over again before sending a quick reply to see if Lena would speak to her. “Hey I miss you, how are you doing? Can we talk?” She sent.
Kara didn’t know what was happening, she only knew this was the first time hearing from the brunette in almost 3 weeks and something was screaming that she should check on the woman right now, so she did.
The second she finished reading the text a third time, about 5 minutes before it was time for her to actually leave, Kara picked up her stuff and checked her phone once again to see if Lena had replied to her reply but it was still only marking sent so quickly running to the balcony, the blonde looked around one last time to make sure no one was there and flew off.
In less than a minute the hero reached Lena’s building and went to her balcony. “Lee? It's me.” Kara knocked on the glass door and looked around for the keys. “It's Kara, can I come in?” She tried to look into the apartment but saw nothing more than a mess of bottles and plates over the kitchen island and the coffee table in the living room. “Lena?” She tried knocking again but upon getting no reply she decided to search for the girl’s heartbeat, just to check if she was home or not.
It was really hard even for Kara to find the familiar sound of her girlfriend’s heartbeat, but eventually she caught a really weak and faint sound coming from the bedroom. “LENA?” She called while knocking more desperately against the glass door. “BABY PLEASE TALK TO ME!” She started pulling and pushing against the doorknob until it broke and the door fell open. “Lena please talk to me…” The hero superspeed to the bedroom and was shocked to find the other girl seemingly asleep at the edge of the bed in her clothes, clothes she had “forgotten” there over a month ago because she knew how much Lena loved to wear her stuff, probably because they’re away more comfortable than anything she owned, but was too shy to actually ask for it. “Lena?” She tried tapping on the girl’s shoulder, face, shaking her and screaming her name but nothing seemed to work, the brunette was still just laying there unmoved, and that was when she looked around and her eyes fell on empty bottles laying around the floor and a little orange bottle she was almost sure she had seen before in her human friends houses right under the bed. “What did you do…” She turned to grab it and started reading the label on the empty container until her brain finally processed what it was. “Sleeping pills?” She got back up, now starting to understand the situation and as realization washed over her, a sign of pure panic took over her face. “Oh Rao!” She picked up her phone and dialed her sisters number. “Fuck fuck…” She repeated anxiously until she heard Alex’s voice.
Alex picked up on the third ring. “Supergirl?”
“ALEX!” Kara shouted, her voice already wavering before even starting to explain what was happening. “ALEX help-she’s-I’m not…” She was pacing around the room, looking through the mess on the floor.
“Hey, what’s-”Alex tried to get Kara’s attention but the anxious woman wouldn’t stop talking.
“-Won’t wake up and I don’t-” Kara spoke and walked around the room, her eyes focused on the woman laying on the bed.
“-HEY!” Alex shouted finally getting Kara to stop rambling. “Slow down, I can’t understand anything you’re saying.”
“Lena-she’s,” Kara closed her eyes for a moment and forced herself to calm down. “She drank and took some pills and now she’s not waking up.”
“Oh God...” Alex was shocked but immediately got up, starting to prepare herself for whatever was about to come. “What kind of pills? Is the label still on it?”
“Sleeping pills.” Kara gripped the orange bottle so tightly it cracked. “She’s not waking up Alex, the bottle is empty and she’s cold and just laying there barely breathing!”
“Fuck…” Alex allowed herself to stop and think for 2 seconds before jumping into action. “Alright listen to me,” She said while running out of her office. “I'm getting things ready here, you can call an ambulance instead so they can do the all the checking there but flying her here will probably be faster, just-”
“I’ll take her to the DEO, it's safer.” Kara said quickly.
“Ok, but either way you need to get it off her system immediately, before anything else, ok? Do it as fast as you can while she’s still breathing.” Alex spoke quickly and then waited for Kara to reply.
“How do I do that?” The blonde asked shakily, her eyes completely focused on her unconscious girlfriend on the bed, her hands hovering over her but not daring to touch in fear of hurting the woman.
“Make her throw up, all that needs to leave her system while she's still breathing.” Alex explained as well as she could in the shortest amount of time possible. “There’s no time to explain in details, just get her under the cold shower and make her throw up then bring her here ASAP, I'll be waiting for you but until then you’ll have to be calm and focused to help her.”
Kara nodded even though Alex couldn’t really see her. “Ok, I-I can do that.” She finally spoke after a second.
“Good girl, now hurry up and go help her.” Alex said and ended up the call.
Kara was shaking but she still tried to be as gentle and careful as she could while picking Lena up and walking towards the master bathroom a few steps from the bed. It was like carrying a doll, a cold and ghostly pale rag-doll that felt like was about to break every time she took a step.
She sat Lena down on the cold bathroom floor, holding her up to keep the girl from falling on her face and turned the shower on before getting both of them in. “Come on Lena, you need to stay with me.” The smaller woman’s heartbeat was getting weaker and weaker by the second and Kara was only a complete silence away from a breakdown. “Stay with me…”
Kara had no idea how she was supposed to do this so she just started acting on instinct, instinct she didn’t know where had come from but wouldn’t dare to question, using a hand to hold Lena’s body and face up and her mouth open before carefully getting her fingers down the girl’s throat and praying for it to work. “Come on, please baby, please…” She took a shaky breath and tried again, this time feeling the girl move under her hold and was so relieved when she saw the brunette finally throwing up and opening her eyes slowly. “Oh Rao Lena!” Kara sat up with a sob, keeping her hold onto Lena as tight as she could as the girl fell weakly back on top of her. The CEO looked up with her eyes only half open for a moment before getting sick again. “You’re ok, it's over now.” She moved Lena back against her chest and lifted a hand to dry her face and took a deep breath to calm herself down again. “You’re still really cold…” She said, mostly to herself while wiping Lena’s chin clean. “Alright, let’s get you changed to go get help.” Kara tried to let go of Lena to stand up but the second she had no support, Lena fell to her side so the blonde moved her up against the wall and the shower glass, getting up slowly this time. “I'll be right back.” She superspeeded out and around bedroom, getting herself dry and changed before getting the first change of clothes she could find for Lena and went back to the half conscious woman. “I’ve got you now baby, you'll be ok.” Kara touched Lena’s face, the brunet was still not really looking up at her, in fact she barely seemed conscious, but the fact her heartbeat sounded a slightly stronger calmed Kara down a little. “What do I do…” She asked herself while turning the shower off and kneeling down in front of the brunette to get her wet clothes off carefully.
Lena started shaking from both the cold but also from the overwhelming nausea she was feeling, it felt like she was sitting in a frozen hell. It was barely a minutes later when she opened her eyes again, feeling her stomach turning in a way so uncomfortable she wanted to cry out but still couldn’t for some reason, no sound came out, she tried to move but her body was also not really responding and she soon gave up. Only a few seconds later she got sick again, startling Kara who stopped in her tracks and moved her hands away from the brunette. “So-ry…” Was all she managed to say, her throat was hurting so bad she felt like ripping it out would be the only way to fix it.
“It's ok, I’ll just turn the shower back on and it'll clean itself.” Kara said reassuringly. “I’ll help you get changed very quickly now so we can go .” Kara started removing Lena’s clothes.
“No…” Lena weakly tried to push Kara's hands away from her but it didn’t work, her weak moves weren’t even noticed by the hero.
“It's alright, let’s take it off and change as fast as possible baby.” Kara did everything by herself as Lena still looked like a doll, only half sitting up against the wall without moving and crying weakly.
As she pulled Lena’s shirt up, she saw some old and some slightly fresh cuts all over her skin but tried her hardest to not look shocked. “I'll take your pants off too, so you won’t get hypothermia or whatever, we’ll get dressed again in a second.”
Lena’s thighs were also covered in cuts and this time she couldn’t hold back a gasp, masking it as a light cough and kept going. “Okay…” She looked around, trying to get her brain to think of what to do next.
“Mnn…” Lena managed to move herself forward slightly as she threw up this time, it was like a small victory, as if she was learning to do basic things all over again, slowly regaining some autonomy over her body after being half dead for God knows how long. “Sorr-y…”
“It's ok.” Kara decided to turn the shower back on for a moment. “I'll just clean you up again and get you into dry clothes very quickly now, you’ll be ok.”
“I'm supposed to be dead…” Lena groaned and closed her eyes.
“Don’t say that!” Kara quickly got Lena cleaned up once again and got up. “Let me get a towel.”
Lena watched a red and blue blur rushing past her through half opened eyes and allowed her body to fall to the side until she was laying on the floor with the cold water still falling over her that felt like needles piercing through her skin.
“Sit up…” Kara was back a few seconds later and helped Lena up, wrapping her in a towel and turned the shower off again before taking her to the bedroom, quickly getting her dressed and picking her back up. “I’ll fly us to the DEO now, try to hold onto me.” She said and waited a couple of seconds before taking off.
Only 2 minutes later Kara flew in through the front entrance and started looking and calling for her sister. “Alex?”
“In here!” A voice came and quick steps could be heard and a few seconds later Kara saw the director running towards them. “Let’s get her to the medbay.” She lead the way.
“She’s going to be ok, right?” Kara looked over at Alex with wide eyes after laying the half conscious woman down. “Right?” She repeated when Alex didn’t immediately replied.
“We need to act fast.” Alex didn’t actually answered the hero’s questions, there was no way to actually know what was going to happen next.
“Alex-”
Kara tried but Alex only shook her head and spoke over her.
“Let’s get to work and I'll answer your questions later.”
Kara nodded and took a step back to allow her sister to work. “I was so scared, I-I don’t know if I did everything right.” She said shakily, her eyes filling up with tears again now that the adrenaline was starting to wear off.
“You did great, you got her back and then you brought her here, I’ve got it now.” Alex replied reassuringly. Deep down she was freaking out but she was trained for this, extreme situations, she could look and act calm until all work was done. At least most of the times she could.
She checked Lena’s vitals, surprised at how she was still alive and considerably conscious despite how bad everything looked. “I need to take some blood and then hook you up to the IV for a bit.” She spoke half to Lena and half to Kara, the one actually processing what was being said. She showed the needle to Lena before actually starting but the brunette didn’t seemed to notice it or to be feeling anything at all.
“What can I do?” Kara was desperate to help, to see some change in the situation.
“Fly back to her place and get that orange meds bottle you found so I can see when she got it and have an notion of how much she took.” Alex said without looking back, keeping all her focus on what she was doing.
“Okay.” Kara nodded and ran to the other side of the bed to talk to Lena. “I’ll be right back, I'll get you more comfortable clothes there too, just let Alex help you for now.” She kissed her girlfriend’s forehead and left.
“You have a fever, I'll do the blood tests first and wait for the results but if your temperature is still this high by then we’ll have to figure out what to do.” Alex explained.
“I’m sorry.” Lena’s voice sounded weak, her face so pale that alone was a huge reason to worry.
The director shook her head. “It's ok, but can you just tell me what happened?” She asked.
The CEO looked away and pursed her lips. “’m really tired.” She spoke weakly and half asleep.
“Alright, try to get some rest then while we wait for Kara, I'll be sitting right there if you need anything.” Alex got her phone out and sat down on a chair by the corner.
Lena didn’t actually replied but nodded at her before turning to her side and closing her eyes.
Kara was back about 10 minutes later and Alex stepped outside so the both of them could talk without disturbing Lena.
“Ok, this prescription is from last Monday, so I’ll assume she took most of it throughout that week up until yesterday.” Alex stopped for a moment and only stared at the little container in her hand. “Let’s say she only took 1 every night for that week, that’s 7, plus 2 on Monday and Tuesday so by today we’d have what?” She counted in her head for a few seconds as they got into a room. “4 or maybe 5 left.” She placed the bottle on the table and sat behind a computer.
“How can we be sure?” Kara closed the door behind her and threw the bag of clothes she had brought on a chair and picked the bottle up again, staring at it as if it could give her the answers to all her questions. “Don't we need to be sure?”
“Until she's conscious enough to speak full sentences we won’t be sure of anything, but she was unresponsive when you got there and I doubt she drank enough for the alcohol by itself to be responsible for that so, pills is a safer assumption.” Alex got up again, grabbing a paper and writing something down. “And if she had taken more than 5 I can guarantee you she wouldn’t be responsive at all, she probably wouldn’t even had survived long enough for you to find and be able to get her here.”
“Right, yeah that makes sense.” Kara nodded to herself, not really sure if it actually made sense in her head but too tired to ask questions, she trusted her sister anyway. “I'm so worried.” She sighed, dropping the bottle back on the table and covered her face with both hands.
“She was conscious enough to send you a message earlier and when you found her she was still breathing so I think it's safe to assume she either send you the message and then took the pills or took them and immediately after sent you a message before passing out so it’s probably been less than an hour, which means the probability of her making a full recovery is pretty high.” Alex pride herself on the fact that she was handling the situation really well, hiding her anxiety perfectly and keeping Kara and everything around them under control.
Kara nodded with a sigh. “Ok, so what do we do now?” She sat down on the couch.
“For now I left her on the IV while running these tests.” Alex pointed to the machine “reading” Lena’s blood. “She had a fever when I left and if she still has it in an hour maybe getting her under the cold water for a bit again will help.”
“Alright.” Kara nodded and laid her head back against the couch.
“Did you know most of her arms are covered in wounds?” Alex asked quietly, almost nervously as she remembered the image of the girls arms angry red.
“Yeah, I saw it when I was changing her into dry clothes before bringing her here.” Kara said with a sad face. “Her tights are full of cuts too.”
“It's bad, Kara, really really bad.” Alex shook her head and went back to her seat behind the computer. “I’ve done it myself in the past but never that badly, not even sure how to properly take care of it but apparently she knows how.” She turned to look at her sister who was only staring at her for a few seconds. “They’re almost completely healed so she’s not only done it before but she also knows how to take care of it perfectly so it wont get infected or anything cause the old scars are barely noticeable.”
“Yeah, I know she’s a scientist and all that but it’s hard to imagine her learning how take care of herself in that sense.” Kara rubbed her eyes tiredly, all adrenaline completely gone now and her body was begging for some rest. “I already knew she had problems with self harm but didn’t know it had gotten so bad so quickly.” She said and got up to wake herself a bit. “I didn’t know what to say and we didn’t really had time to deal with that so I just kept moving, but I'm aware we’ll have to talk about it with her later.”
“This whole shit is so much worse than I thought.” Alex groaned and pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes, feeling a migraine coming. “So much worse.”
“Yeah…” Kara nodded to herself again, looking around for a distraction to prevent herself from breaking down right there. “Ok,” She turned around to Alex. “I need to do something so I'll go check on her until you’re done here.” Walking towards the door and picking up the bag once again, she waited for her sister to acknowledge her words before opening it to leave.
“Alright, I'll be there soon.” Alex replied without looking back.