Where was she? Dammit, where was she?

The pounding of her boots on wet concrete seemed unnaturally loud to Alex but she could barely hear it past the roar in her own ears. She was unprepared for how quickly the opp had gone sideways; the stunning speed with which Cadmus had gained the upper hand. She cleared a hallway to her left, Vasquez on her six, clearing the one to her right. No words were exchanged between the women, they'd done this countless times before, dragged their selves home bloody but unbeaten.

Today would be one of those days.

"Supergirl?" She whispered loudly into her comm with no results. "Kara?!" She tried again, panic seeping through.

"I found her, Alex!"

"What? No! Kara fall back! Do not engage! Do you hear me?"

The static that she received in response put the agent into a full out run, Vasquez hot on her hells. They continued to clear dark corner after dark corner but there was sloppiness to their procedures because Kara was being reckless and Lillian Luthor had no issues with killing the girl on sight. Alex heard yelling up ahead and doubled her speed. It felt like an eternity before she had a visual on her sister, foolishly facing Luthor down with no one to cover her back.

Alex rushed toward Kara, eyes constantly tracking the shadows for movement. Damn Cadmus and their shadowy, warehouse bases. An attack could come from literally anywhere and the rest of her team were still two levels above them fighting off some abomination that the mad scientist had whipped up just for them.

Neither Kara, nor Lillian had noticed them yet. Vasquez tapped her twice on the shoulder and Alex followed the signal, sliding seamlessly behind a shipping container, back to back with the other agent.

"It's over, Lillian! This whole base is swarming with agents, there's no escape." Kara declared in her most authoritative voice but the older woman only laughed scornfully in return.

"Who says I want to escape?"

Alex heard the warning in the woman's voice and she moved toward Kara without hesitation, just as the shot rang out from somewhere above them. The projectile slammed into her and she into Kara, knocking the hero to the ground.

"ALEX!" She heard her sister scream, voice raw with terror.

Luthor disappeared in the confusion and Vasquez was on them in a heartbeat, rolling Alex over and hissing loudly when she observed the damage. The elder Danvers didn't need the woman to tell her how bad it was. The left side of her tactical suit was already slick with blood and she could see a piece of bone jutting from her ruined shoulder. Alex choked on a sob as the pain burned through her, dulling all other thoughts. Kara moved to apply pressure but yelped and pulled back, her skin burning from the contact.

Kryptonite. The bullet had been made of kryptonite.

"Kara... don't... get away..." she gasped weakly, the fight leaving her quickly. Too quickly.

Her sister shook her head hard, tears streaming down her face. Kara quickly removed her cape, tore it into one strip wide enough to cover her hand and shoved the rest against her sister's wound. She grimaced but refused to let go. Alex could feel Vasquez securing the makeshift bandage, preparing her for flight.

"No... Kara... you can't... its kryptonite," Alex protested weakly as her sister pulled her into arms and stood on shaky legs. "You can't... fly... not like this..."

"I'm not gonna lose you." Was all Kara replied and Alex immediately passed out as her sister took unsteadily to the air.

Shattered collarbone, partially collapsed lung, TEN hours of surgery including bone grafts... the list of damage was extensive as it was terrifying.

"Damn it, Danvers..." Maggie muttered to herself as she held Alex uninjured hand in hers.

This was becoming too common a scene for Maggie and she wasn't sure how many more times she could do this. How many more times she could sit at Alex side while the agent fought for her life. How many more times she could look at Kara, covered in her sister's blood and not resent the blonde for failing to protect her. She leaned closer to Alex, pressing her nose against the woman's shoulder, seeking the warmth and security that only the other woman could provide.

Maggie's heart had stopped when she saw Kara stumbling toward the med-bay, Alex limp and bleeding in her arms. The entire left side of Alex's tactical uniform was drenched in red; it stained her skin, seeped through Kara's suit. The blonde had barely been able to lay her sister down on a gurney before she collapsed to her knees, hands sliding down the wall, leaving a bloody trail in her wake. The sickly green glow emanating from her girlfriend's wound told the detective all she needed to know.

Of course, it had been kryptonite. Cadmus synthesized the deadly element by the truckload, always ready for the girl of steel, always foiled by her human shield.

A shield. That's what Alex had been reduced to and it filled Maggie with a boiling hatred.

The detective had seen her fair share of gunshot wounds but this one; this one had made her sick to her stomach. It had torn through the body she loved, the body she worshiped and cherished. Ripped Alex apart like tissue paper. The bullet had been designed to kill a kryptonian; no human could stand before that. But Alex had; knowing exactly what it could do, knowing she might not come out the other side.

Kara had been rushed to the sun-room immediately, the deadly poison making her weaker by the second. Her left palm was mangled with chemical burns from where she had placed pressure on her sister's wound, only a makeshift bandage to protect her. Maggie glanced across the hall and she could see Kara, still clad in her bloody super suit, left hand swathed in gauze, lying just as still as her sibling. She too was hooked up to monitors; her ventilator had been removed just an hour after the incident when she had begun to breathe on her own.

Alex on the other hand lay in a medically induced coma, unable to wake until her pain could be brought into manageable levels, until she could draw breath on her own. Her face was so pale, Maggie had to keep some sort of skin-to-skin contact to ensure she was alive, watch her chest intently, barely comforted by the rise and fall. She hadn't realized she had fallen asleep until a gentle hand touched her shoulder.

"Maggie?"

She rubbed her face roughly and turned to find J'onn standing over her, his face tight with concern.

"I'll sit with her. Go get some rest."

"J'onn, I can't..." she whispered on the verge of tears. " I can't leave her..."

"Hey," he quickly knelt beside her, a comforting hand on her knee. "We can't take care of her if we don't take care of ourselves, right?"

Maggie nodded sullenly, knowing he had a point but unwilling to leave all the same. She knew J'onn had read her thoughts because he replied, "You don't have to go home. There are a few beds next door that aren't in use. Take one; rest, if only for an hour, then you can come back. I won't leave until you do."

The detective nodded once more, then leaned over Alex, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead before exiting. She passed Kara's room but couldn't bring herself to go in, her anger forcing her to pass with barely a glance. This was her fault, she hadn't followed her sister's lead and they had both been the poorer for it. Maggie flopped down on the bed, hot tears burning her face and was asleep before she had a chance to pull back the blankets.

Maggie entered the command center of the DEO to pick her girlfriend up for the night, to find that Alex was still working; furiously typing away on her tablet, oblivious to the world.

It was especially impressive because the agent was doing so with one hand, her non-dominant one at that. Alex had beamed with pride when she informed her girlfriend that in anticipation of such an injury, she had trained herself to use both hands equally, her right functioning just as well as her dominant left. The detective, on the other hand (poor word choice), had been horrified that her girlfriend lived in a world where such training was a necessity.

It shouldn't have surprised Maggie that just two months after a devastating injury, Alex was back on duty, the sling immobilizing her left arm blending seamlessly into her uniform. She cleared her throat and shot Alex a pointed look when the agent finally glanced up.

"Maggie? Hey. Oh crap! It's seven already?"

The agent looked noticeably guilty because she had promised her girlfriend, after an intense argument about her returning to work so soon, that she would remain in her lab, work much shorter days and stay out of the command center.

"Yep." Maggie popped the 'p' at the end of the word. " You are so busted, Danvers."

Alex took in her girlfriend's stoic expression and sighed. She knew exactly why Maggie was upset but it wasn't her fault. There had been a crisis and J'onn had gotten called away, Kara was stuck at CatCo and Winn couldn't perform all the necessary calculations alone. She told Maggie all of it and noted that it didn't make a lick of difference.

"There's always a crisis, Alex. It's the goddamn DEO! All you do here is crisis. But you promised me."

"I know." Alex replied, glad the command center was fairly uninhabited while her girlfriend ripped her a new one. "And I know you worry, but I'm fine."

Maggie stared at her with such a look of raw vulnerability that it took Alex breath away.

"You're fine, huh?" She asked on the verge of tears. "Is 'fine' spending weeks on a ventilator with a collapsed lung? Is 'fine' having six titanium screws holding your shattered bones together? Is 'fine' throwing yourself in front of someone who should be able to take care of herself? Is all of that 'fine', Alex?"

"Maggie..."

"Whatever. I'll be in the car."

Alex watched her go with tears in her eyes. She knew this latest incident had been a close call, knew she had been in rough shape for some time, so much so that her mother had even come to National City in case things took a turn for the worse.

Had known Kara refused to go on patrol until Alex was stable, her every sense tuned to her sister.

But she hadn't stopped to realize how difficult it had been on Maggie. How hard it must be for her to know that Alex would do it all again if she had to, that Kara's safety would always be her first priority.

"I'm sorry..." Alex whispered to her retreating form, not sure how to mend the rift between them.

The rest of the night was spent in tense silence, the two women mechanically going through their nightly routine. Maggie helped Alex shower, changed her bandages and both slipped into pajamas before the pair sat down silently for dinner. Alex pushed her food around the plate, appetite lost as she watched the sadness pulling at Maggie's whole being.

"Maggie..." she tried to draw her attention, speaking quietly. The other woman glanced up surprised to be addressed. She studied Alex for a moment before she rushed over to the kitchen.

"Oh, right! I forgot your pills and you need to take them with food..." she trailed off as she filled a glass of water at the sink, hands trembling. Alex was out of her seat faster than Maggie.

"Hey! Maggie, stop." She gently took the glass from Maggie's hands and set it down before cupping her cheek softly. "What you said earlier..."

"Why?" Maggie demanded, pulling away from her.

"Mags, I don't..."

"Why don't you get it? Why don't you know how important you are? To me? When you jumped in front of that bullet did you even think of what it would do to me if I lost you?"

Alex hadn't thought about it; hadn't thought of anything except how that bullet had to be intercepted. How she couldn't let it reach Kara. Couldn't fail at her life's mission, even if it meant she'd die to do so. But now she had someone else to live for and she needed Maggie to know how important she was, to her.

"You're right. I didn't think, I just reacted. But you have to know... if it had been you... I would have done the same. You mean the world to me, I love you, and I'm sorry that this has hurt you so much; sorry that I didn't see it sooner."

Maggie deflated at the taller woman's words. She wasn't really mad at Alex. She was just... angry. There was so much violence and pain in their lives and it seemed as if there was no end in sight.

"Alex..." she began but was cut off by a gust of wind from the window. When she saw Kara standing in front of her, suddenly her anger had a focus. "YOU."

Kara stood in their living room, clad in her super suit with a slightly confused expression. "Uh, yeah, it's me. Do you have a lot of people coming through your windows these days?" she tried to joke lightly, noting the fury on the detective's face.

"Mags," Alex stepped forward to separate the two women, sensing the coming conflict but Maggie shook her off.

"It's always you." Maggie accused, glaring at Kara. "You act like you love her but you let her get hurt, time and time again. And then you fly in here, pretend like nothing has happened, like your sister didn't just almost die for you again! You don't look before you leap. And every time you rush in, she comes back with another bruise, another scar, another reminder of her love for you that she has to carry. You can't keep using her like a human shield! I won't let you."

The apartment was filled with a tense silence the moment Maggie stopped speaking. Neither sister knew what to say in the wake of the detective's allegations. Alex stared at her girlfriend aghast. How long had Maggie been keeping this in? The agent had noticed Maggie was less affectionate with her sister since her injury, a little less friendly, a little less happy to see her each time Kara popped in unannounced. But Alex had never stopped to think that maybe her girlfriend blamed her sister for all the hard knocks she took. Apparently, Kara hadn't guessed either.

"You think I don't care?" Kara's voice cut through the thick silence, the young hero on the verge of tears herself. "You think I don't replay it in my head over and over, each time she gets hurt? Think of all the ways I could have been better, could have protected her like you think I should? Like I think I should? I have every scar memorized. Every one. Because Alex carries those scars on her body but I carry them on my heart."

Alex had known all of this; had known the heavy guilt her little sister carried, blaming herself every time the elder sibling bled in her defense. She supposed it was now time for Maggie to know as well.

There were tears rolling freely down Kara's cheeks as she stood toe to toe with Maggie, daring the woman to doubt her devotion; daring her to doubt how deeply she loved her sibling. Maggie's lips trembled and her frame shook before she fell into the hero's arms, gripping Kara like a lifeline. The youngest Danvers reached a searching hand out to Alex and tugged her into the embrace, mindful of the agent's most current scar, her most current testimony to the love of her sister.

"I'm sorry..." Maggie whimpered, hugging the two women tighter.

"Don't you ever apologize for loving my sister!" Kara chastised her with a watery smile. "But, please, just talk to us next time?" Maggie nodded, burying her face in Alex chest, lightly kissing the bandage over her collarbone. Alex finally spoke, having heard the heartfelt expressions of both women.

"I know this is hard, Mags and scary. It's scary for me too because before you I only had Kara to worry about, thought she would be the only person who missed me. But now I know better. So please baby, don't shut me out?"

"Never, Danvers."

The trio ended the night with tears and hugs and more tears before they eventually settled on the couch, Alex dozing between her two favorite people, finally able to sleep now that everything was out in the open. Maggie glanced over her girlfriend's head to find Kara staring intently at Alex' newest bandage, x-raying the injury beneath. Her brows were knitted in concentration, sadness pulling at her lips. Maggie reached up and lightly poked the skin between Kara's eyes.

"Crinkle." She whispered with a small smile and Kara beamed in return, relieved that even though they were all still healing, they were finally on the right path.