Supercorptober 2021

Day 4: Couch.

"Please, Kara. Come back to me."

Lena sat on Kara's couch crying into her hands, begging for her best friend to come back to her. Earlier that day, they'd been sitting on that very couch sipping coffee and talking about everything and nothing at all. Just before lunch, Kara heard a faint scream from a nearby building - a child's scream - and she'd kissed her wife on the cheek and flown off without a word. Moments later, the couch and everything around it shook as the sound of a massive explosion filled her ears. The moment she heard it, her heart sank. Something wasn't right, and her body froze in panic.

She sat on the couch waiting for a sign that kara was ok - a phone call, a text, anything. She tried to stay calm, knowing that Kara wouldn't be able to reach out until everyone was safe. She texted Alex to see if she knew anything, and waited for a text that never came.

Until it did.

Alex Danvers [12:45PM] We found her. She's trapped, and unconscious. It's bad Lena. We are trying everything but we can't get to her.

Lena stared at her phone, willing the words on the screen to change but reminding herself that her wife was strong and that she would be fine. She sat on the couch, refusing to move until Kara was back. She always knew that there were risks that went along with dating a superhero. There was always a chance that Kara would leave and not come back. Lena prayed that this day never came, but each time Kara left on supergirl duty, Lena held her breath just a little bit until she came home.

23 hours after Kara left Lena was still on the couch staring at the black screen of her now dead phone. She was shaken from her trance by a knock on the door, but ignored it. She wasn't in the mood to see anyone unless it was Kara, and Kara wouldn't knock. Even if she was without powers or somehow otherwise unable to fly, she had a key and wouldn't need to knock. Just when she was about to yell out for whoever it was to go away the knocking stopped, the sound of the banging being replaced by the sound of an old wooden door creaking open.

"Lena?"

"Alex? What are you doing here? Where's Kara?"

"Lena, I've been calling you for HOURS! Why aren't you answering your phone?"

"Where is Kara?"

"She's alive, Lena. She's breathing. There was a little girl - she couldn't have been older than 4, maybe 5 - who got separated from her parents and fell into a sinkhole just down the road. The shift caused a gas line to explode just as Kara got to her, and both of them got trapped under layers of rocks and dirt and Nth Metal pipes. Kara shielded the little girl and got knocked out in the process. J'onn couldn't phase down to get them because it could cause the earth to shift and kill all 3 of them so we had to wait for them to dig them out the old fashioned way. They're both fine, but Kara is very weak from being trapped away from the sun for so long."

Lena breathed a sigh of slight relief. Kara was safe, that much was true. But until Lena saw her with her own two eyes, touched her with her own two hands, the panic couldn't go away. Her mind went to the child, who was no doubt scared, being trapped underneath an unconscious superhero with no one to comfort her. How scared the parents of the little girl must have felt when they realized their daughter was gone, only to find that she was very nearly killed.

"The girl?"

"Not a scratch. It's a miracle really. The hole that swallowed her was at least 75 feet, maybe deeper. She was wearing a thick ski suit which is what likely saved her life in the fall. The poor little girl is traumatized though. She and her parents are at the DEO right now, when they tried to pry her away from Kara she lost it and started hyperventilating so the we put them on a stretcher together and used a portal watch to get to the DEO. The parents have signed NDAs but I doubt they are worried about anything but their daughter right now."

"I see."

"Here," said Alex, putting her phone in Lena's hand. "I know you need to see with your own eyes that she's ok to believe it."

Lena took the phone from her sister-in-law and glanced at the screen. Kara was laid in a DEO bed covered in the yellow sun blanket Lena had designed for her, the last time Kara had been gravely injured. Laying on Kara's chest on top of the Sun Blanket but under a soft blanket of her own was the little girl, clinging to Kara's neck like a Koala clings to a tree.

"Callie. That's her name. She refuses to leave Kara until she wakes up. Poor thing thinks she killed Supergirl."

"How long?"

"Not long. As soon as she wakes up you know she will be here. If I know my sister - and I do - there isn't an agent in the world who can convince her to stay put when she knows you are worried sick."

Under normal circumstances, Lena would stand to her feet and demand to be taken to Kara's side. But at this moment, even if she were to try she wouldn't make it far. Not only that, but her presence - and emotions - may cause the little girl more pain and that was a thought she couldn't bear to think.

"Do you want me to stay?"

"No. But thank you."

"Of course. Here," offered Alex, handing Lena a small power bank from her pocket as well as a charging cable. "Charge your phone. I sent you the picture, hopefully it will help at least a little. And if you change your mind, just text and J'onn will come get you."

Lena simply nodded, and plugged he phone in as instructed, as Alex made her way out the door. She stayed on the couch, still unwilling to move until Kara was back next to her where she belonged. She was calmer than before, but still worried that something would go wrong.

"Please, Kara. Please come home to me..." Whispered Lena into the dark loft, doing her best not to break down and cry.

"Always."

The voice startled Lena, but in the best way possible. Standing before her was her wife, and although still covered in debri from the explosion, she was perfect. For the first time in more than 24 hours, Lena got up from the couch and ran to her wife. Wrapping her arms around her, and finally allowing herself to cry from the emotional events of the last day. Lena's body betrayed her and she nearly fell to the ground, but she was lifted into Kara's strong arms and carried back to the couch where she stayed wrapped safely in her wife's arms until her body gave out completely, pulling her into a deep, deep sleep.