Summary: Brainy and Nia go to the DEO desert facility sometime after the season 4 finale.
"We need to take a trip to the DEO desert facility," said Alex. "We need to know if there's anything amiss this time after the disaster with Lockwood and Lex."
"I shall accompany you on this mission," offered Brainy.
"I'll come too," added Nia. Brainy smiled at her and Alex tried her best to maintain her composure, but those two were just so adorable.
"J'onn will meet us at the van in fifteen minutes, so get ready," said Alex. Brainy and Nia nodded and went to prepare. Nia put on her supersuit and met the others at the van. J'onn was driving with Alex navigating, leaving Nia and Brainy in the backseat together, which suited them fine.
"We have a four hour-drive ahead of us, so you might want to get some sleep," commented J'onn.
"J'onn, you were supposed to turn right just now," said Alex.
"No, we still have another four miles," replied J'onn.
They continued to argue, and Nia leaned onto Brainy's shoulder. She was asleep in minutes. Brainy rested his head on hers and fell asleep too. They had both taken a one A.M. shift the night before and were clearly exhausted.
Alex and J'onn had finally figured out where to go, and Alex turned around to see how the two of them were doing, only to find them asleep together. She noted that they were holding hands. Even in sleep, they were inseparable. Since Brainy had left Nia at Shelly Isalnd when he was rebooted, he had been hesitant to leave her side, even for a moment.
She turned in her seat and pulled out her phone to get a picture of the two of them. She sent it to Kara, who replied with a bunch of heart-eyes emojis. She silently showed J'onn, who tried to keep a straight face. Then, remembering it was just Alex, he allowed himself to smile at the love between the two young teammates.
They woke up about twenty minutes before the van pulled up in front of the DEO desert facility.
"J'onn and I will check with the staff and review their documents. You two will stay out here. Someone may have been aware that we were coming here and try to attack us," said Alex.
Nia and Brainy nodded in assent.
As soon as Alex and J'onn went inside, Nia said, "Brainy, why don't you take a look from above? We can only see so much from here on the ground."
Brainy hesitated. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather have me stay here with you?"
"Brainy, I can take care of myself. I'll circle the perimeter from the ground while you circle from above. We can go in opposite directions and meet back here in ten minutes," said Nia.
Brainy ran some calculations. The odds of her being attacked by an alien and being put in a life-threatening situation was about seven point three percent. Not bad, considering they had faced worse.
"Alright," he conceded. "But if you feel anything is slightly wrong, call me immediately."
"Sounds good," said Nia. They went in opposite directions.
From his vantage point in the sky, Brainy could see nothing wrong. The desert stretched out for miles, with few landmarks or vegetation. He could see Niaon the other side of the compound. He was about to turn away, but movement in the corner of his vision caught his eye. He almost thought his mide was playing tricks on him, but then he saw it. And his blood ran cold.
Nia was heading in the direction of a pile of rocks, and within the rocks, there was a nest of snakes. Rattlesnakes, if he had to guess. His usually sharp mind went completely numb from fear. All he knew was that he had to get her out of there.
Nia hadn't paid much attention to the pile of rocks she was headed toward. She had been on alert for aliens approaching from another direction. She heard a faint rattling noise and turned to the direction it came from. She didn't see anything, and figured it was just her mind playing tricks on her.
She had been so focused on looking around that she didn't notice the snake until it was less than a foot in front of her. It was a small one, and retreated from her quickly.
She breathed a sigh of relief. The small rattlesnake was all she had heard and it was clearly not dangerous.
Or at least, that's what she thought until two larger snakes each about five feet long. They reared to strike her and she summoned her powers.
Brainy saw the two snakes on either side of her and sped toward Nia. She was able to fling one of them out of the way with a dream lasso. The other one though, was still about to strike, and by his calculations, there was a fifty percent chance she would not be able to block its attack.
So without a clear pan, he flew down to her and threw himself between her and the snake.
Brainy was absolutely terrified of snakes and it seemed to come toward him in slow motion but so fast at the same time.
Nia turned in time to see a blur that was Brainy and the snak striking hime once in the leg.
It reared and bit him again on the arm. Before it could do any more damage, she summoned another burst of dream energy and flung the snake far away from them.
Brainy's leg started to give out from under him and she grabbed him to keep him from falling.
She spoke into her earpiece, saying, "Alex, we need medical assistance on the south side of the perimeter. Brainy was bitten by a rattlesnake." She tried to keep her voice steady, but Alex could tell she was scared.
"I'm coming, just hold on," replied Alex.
"Lean on me, we'll try to get you closer to the building," said Nia.
Brainy put his uninjured arm around her shoulders and they staggered toward the building.
"Nia, you are worrying too much," said Brainy weakly.
"Brainy, you were bitten by a venomous snake, I think I have a right to worry about you."
"My healing process is faster since I'm a Coluan. I'll be fine," he argued.
Alex came out of the building with a few other agents. They took Brainy into the medical bay, but told Nia and Alex to wait outside the room.
Nia sat down in one of the chairs, still shaking.
"Are you okay?" asked Alex.
"I should have seen something like this coming," said Nia, "I should have at least seen the snake nest."
"Nia, no one could have seen this coming," said Alex. "We were so focused on alien threats that we forgot to consider the natural ones that come with the environment."
"Yeah. Why would he do that though? Rush in with no plan, when I was clearly capable of stopping both snakes?" asked Nia.
Alex rolled her eyes.
"Nia, I thought Kara was the most oblivious person in the world, but you are becoming a close second. He loves you and just wants to protect you."
"I'm going to have to talk to him about this though," said Nia, mostly to herself.
Just then, a nurse came out from the room.
"His condition is stable, and thanks to his accelerated healing, should be free to go in about five hours," she informed them.
"Thank you so much," said Nia. "Can I visit him now?"
"Of course," replied the nurst with a small smile. "But he will need rest."
Nia nodded and headed into the room. Brainy was in one of the hospital beds sitting upright.
"What were you thinking?" Nia said. "You could have been killed, and I was about to handle the situation. I know you mean well, but please stop acting like I can't take care of myself on missions!" The words rushed out before she could stop them.
Brainy looked shocked for a moment, then the realization set in.
"Nia, I never meant to make you feel like you were incapable of protecting yourself," said Brainy. "After I left you at the power plant, I swore to myself that I would never let you be in danger again."
Nia took a deep breath. She hadn't expected this.
"Brainy, we're heroes. Being in danger is part of the job. I love that you care so much, I really do, no one can control everything, not even a twelfth-level intellect."
"I'm so sorry I made you feel as though I thought you were weak. You are one of the strongest people I know. From now on, I promise to treat you as an equal instead of trying to shield you from everything."
"Thanks Brainy. And next time, please leave fighting snakes to the person who can manipulate energy instead of throwing yourself in their path."
Brainy smiled. "I would be glad to, seeing that I still have a deep phobia of snakes and it was not helped by this incident."
Nia was suddenly overwhelmed by her affection for him. He had faced one of his worst fears to try and keep her safe.
She leaned in and kissed him.
They were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat.
It was Alex.
"I know you both have been through a lot in the past few hours, but Brainy needs rest, so I suggest that you leave him alone for a few hours," she said, then turned and left.
Nia nodded and started walking toward the door, but before she left, she turned and looked at Brainy.
"I love you," she said.
"And I love you, Nia Nal," he replied.
A/N: Thank you to everyone reading and leaving comments! I love hearing from all of you. FYI, these one-shots are completely unrelated to each other and take place all over the Supergirl timeline.