Not long after Maggie left, the apartment calm and quiet, had Kara's phone begun buzzing across the living room table. She grabbed it quickly; worried the annoying noise would disturb her sleeping sibling. As the name flashed across the screen, Kara cringed inwardly. It was Eliza. How had her foster mother known there was a crisis? It seemed to be an inherent talent of mothers the galaxy around to call exactly when their children didn't want to talk. She knew if she didn't pick up, Alex's phone would surely be buzzing next and then Maggie's and James' and Winn's, until Eliza found someone who would take her call.

Last time they ignored her calls she ended up raging to the switchboard operator at CatCo about how trying it was for a mother to have two daughters who refused to answer their phones, failing to recognize how deeply she worried for their safety. Cat had been understandably irritated that a distraught mother was holding her switchboard hostage and Kara had spent the next week hearing from both women how inconsiderate she had been to ignore her mother's calls. As vexing as the whole experience had been for Kara, it had been exponentially worse for her sister.

It had always been that way. Every inconvenience, every failure, and even every accident that somehow involved Kara was without fail made to be Alex's fault. It was a ridiculous amount of pressure to put on a fourteen year old, one who was already subject to unrealistic expectations. Alex took it in stride; murmuring apologies to her mother, school officials, and neighbors, whomever Kara had perturbed. Then she would spend long hours helping Kara with her homework after dinner, Eliza too busy with her own research, before she would finally go to her room and work through the night on her own assignments.

She never complained, not to Kara, because her sister had lost so much and Alex would be damned if she added to her sister's distress. She stopped complaining to Eliza early on because it was getting her nowhere, each conversation peppered with "I expect more from you Alexandra" and "You need to show her how to do it Alexandra" and "I was counting on you Alexandra, how could you let me down?" So Alex quickly learned not to complain, to keep her head down and her mouth shut. Kara had been too young to understand at the time but she felt a burning shame that as an adult she had done so little to protect her sibling from the one person who should have been protecting them.

That was going to end now, she decided as she jabbed the button and stepped out onto the balcony.

"Eliza, this is a surprise. " She tried to smile as she said it, hoping it would inject some perkiness into her tone.

"Indeed it is. Far be it for you girls to answer the first time I call." Eliza's tone was light but Kara still felt the sting of the admonition.

"You know how it is, we stay pretty busy with invasions, jailbreaks and other, uh...alien stuff."

"Of course. All classified I assume?"

"Yeah, sorry, can't share too many details."

"It's just as well, I suppose. Knowing all the dangerous situations Alexandra puts you in would only keep me up at night." Kara frowned when Eliza's words finally registered. This was her chance.

"Alex doesn't get me into anything, Eliza. More like she's always there to get me out."

"You're still so protective of her, always defending her..."

"Because she deserves it!"

"Of course, dear." Her foster mother's tone was dismissive and Kara could feel her anger rising. "Where is your sister? Off fighting some alien menace?"

"She's home today. We both are."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Doctor Hamilton, our DEO doctor, wanted Alex to take a couple days off, she had some pretty bad inflammation and she was in a lot of pain."

"I see. You would think that Alexandra would recognize when she was pushing herself too hard. Perhaps she should have finished her medical degree after all?" Kara huffed in frustration.

Of course Alex had known what was wrong, she had diagnosed herself long before Hamilton had even arrived. "I'm a doctor, too," she had reminded the other woman as they argued over the best course to take. Eventually, Hamilton had acquiesced to Alex diagnosis and left with a huff because the agents medical expertise far surpassed her own. But apparently Eliza would only acknowledge her daughters medical degree if "m.d." followed the young woman's name. The "agent" in front of her sister's name simply wasn't impressive enough.

"I can't do this with you right now..." Kara mumbled, struggling to keep her temper in check.

"Do what, Kara? Is everything all right?"

"Seriously?!" The young blonde exploded before lowering her voice knowing Alex wasn't so medicated that a shouting match wouldn't wake her.

"Kara Zor-El Danvers! To whom are you speaking young lady?"

"Who? You, Eliza, I'm talking to you. I just told you that your daughter, technically your only child, who took a kryptonite bullet for me, is in ridiculous amounts of pain and you ask me 'is everything okay'?"

Eliza scoffed on the other end of the line sounding both offended and annoyed all at once. When she spoke again, it was in the clipped, detached tone that she usually reserved for her eldest daughter.

"Perhaps you should call me back when you're less...emotional?"

"No. I think this is the perfect time, Eliza and I am just the right amount of emotional. Alex means the world to me but you act like she's just another one of your experiments, something to be observed from afar but never engaged and certainly not loved! Kal abandoned me with you and once Jeremiah was gone you dumped me on Alex and never looked back. And Alex, my amazing, selfless big sister has spent her whole life looking out for me, taking bullets for me!"

"Kara, we are not discussing this." Eliza snarled.

"You're right, Eliza, we're not. I'm going to talk and you're going to listen. I don't know why you're so hard on Alex and it really doesn't matter anymore. But because of all the pressure you put on her, she always feels like she's not enough and that's not fair. Alex is strong and brilliant and brave and nerdy and better than anything I could have hoped for when my parents put me in that pod. She made me feel safe and loved, like I belonged somewhere."

"I did not dump you on Alexandra!"

"Are you kidding me? After all that I just said, that is the part you fixate on? You know what, enough is enough. The bottom line here is that you need to start treating my sister better or you can stay out of both of our lives. I love you, Eliza, I really do but I will never love anyone more than Alex. And if you can't learn to love her like I do, like Maggie does or J'onn, then there is no place for you in our lives."

"Kara!"

"Take a few days to decide what you're going to do and then call me, not Alex. I don't want you contacting her at all until you can figure out how to be the mother she needs and deserves."

"Young lady you have no right to speak to me like this! What has your sister been filling your head with?"

"ENOUGH!" Kara roared and it took all the strength she had to keep her heat vision from burning a path from the balcony all the way to Midvale. "I'm hanging up now, Eliza. It's up to you whether this is the last time we speak."

Kara jabbed the end button with enough ferocity to crack her third phone screen that month. She closed her eyes, counting to well over a hundred before she felt her blood pressure start to even out. Adjusting her glasses with another heavy sigh, she spun on her heel and headed back inside.

"Kara, what?" her head snapped up to find her sister leaning heavily against the kitchen counter face frozen in shock. "What did you just do?"

"Something I should have done years ago." The young hero responded, stepping forward to take Alex hand in hers. "I'm so sorry it took me so long, to see it, to stand up to her, for you."

"You didn't have to... It's not your job to protect me...especially not from mom..." Alex sounded scared and small, no doubt dreading how Eliza would undoubtedly make this her fault.

"Alex! Maybe when we were kids I needed you to fight all my battles but now you deserve someone to fight for you sometimes. You know that the way she treats you isn't okay, right? No one should make you so nervous that you have to drink just to be in the same room with them."

"I know, I know... Maggie said the same thing...it's just..."

"She's our mom." Kara added softly in understanding. "But, Alex, just because you love her doesn't mean she can treat you like she does. Eliza has a lot to atone for and until she does, I don't want her anywhere near here. Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah." Alex breathed out, voice coated with relief. "That probably would be best, at least until I have two arms to defend myself."

Kara laughed softly at her sister's attempt at a joke before drawing her into a tender hug.

"I just want you to be happy, Lexie." She whispered, pressing a small kiss to her sister's temple.

"I am. Thanks to you and Maggie and everyone else in our crazy, mixed up life! I love you, Kara. To the moon and back."

"I love you too, Alex. To the moon and beyond."

When Maggie returned an hour later she found the sister's huddled together in Alex's bed, binge-watching Game of Thrones on Kara's laptop, a giant pizza box across their legs. They both looked happy and content, neither woman noticing her entrance.

"Lexie, I'm home!" She announced in her best Desi Arnez voice, dropping her gym bag by the door. "Did I miss anything while I was gone?"

"Eliza called." Kara piped up like it wasn't a big deal. Maggie raised an eyebrow and glanced at Alex.

"And?" she prompted gently, because usually a conversation with Eliza resulted in her girlfriend drinking her way through half a bottle of Jack Daniels, yet Alex seemed unusually relaxed.

"And Kara...took care of it..." Alex murmured, eyes landing anywhere but on Maggie.

"Care to elaborate, Little Danvers?"

"I just explained to Eliza how awesome my big sister is and if she couldn't start treating her like it than she should... stop calling until she learns to."

Maggie couldn't seem to pick her jaw up off the floor as she made her way over to the two women. She flopped down heavily on the edge of the bed mouth agape.

"Little Danvers... that is so... totally badass! I guess if Alex is the shield, you're the sword!" Maggie exclaimed flopping onto her back to grin up at the sisters. "You okay with that?" she asked voice laced with concern as she regarded her girlfriend.

"Yeah." Alex replied quietly. "Yeah, I am. I think taking a little time out from my mom is a good decision. One that's been a long time coming."

"As long as you're happy." Maggie grinned and leaned in to kiss Alex gently; secretly grateful someone had finally put Eliza Danvers in her place. "I'm gonna go grab a shower and when I get back there better be a fuzzy blanket and several slices of pizza waiting for me!"

"I make no promises!" Kara teased as Maggie slipped into the bathroom. She turned toward Alex and gently cupped her face. "You're really okay with this?"

Alex nodded tearfully, leaning into her sister's embrace. "Thank you." She managed, voice thick with unshed tears.

"No, Alex, thank you for taking in a weird little alien girl and making her your sister. I could never have asked for a better friend, a better protector. I'm just glad I finally got the chance to really protect you."

"Just remember that next time mom comes to town!" Alex poked Kara's nose as she managed a small smile. Kara pulled back, swatting her sister's hand playfully.

"Are you kidding? I can fly! We are so not sticking around for that!"

And so the knight, the sword and the shield found their perfect place amongst one another.