"Please pick up the phone...please...please Kara answer your phone!"
Alex held tight to Kelly's hand as they watched the horrific sight unfold before their eyes on National Television. Her sister and new sister in law had taken the CatCo Jet on their honeymoon - compliments of Andrea as a wedding gift - and had taken off that morning. Now, Alex and her wife were watching the CatCo Jet engulfed in flames and spiraling out of control somewhere between National City and Ireland. With no word from her sister, or Lena for that matter, Alex was panicking. The type of panic that no amount of support from Kelly could help ease. They'd called everyone they could think of, trying to track down how and where the footage was captured, but with no one willing to divulge that information, they were stuck. It wouldn't have helped matters that Kara and Lena had opted to change their plans mid-flight - and fly south to Costa Rica for a few days before heading to Ireland. So anyone looking for them was looking in the wrong place.
From the outside looking in, the scene was chaotic. Supergirl was seemingly nowhere to be seen, J'onn was on Mars helping the resistance and even Clark was on Argo so he could do nothing. Inside the jet, however, things were calmer. Kara had smelled the gas leak just before the explosion, and had just enough time to activate her suit and wrap Lena in her arms and shield her from the flames with her cape. There was no way of escaping the plane without Lena being exposed to the flames. No way for Kara to put out the flames because she needed to focus on keeping Lena safe.
The flames grew hotter, and the smell of smoke and gasoline grew stronger causing both of them to struggle to breathe. "I love you." Whispered Kara to her wife, knowing very well that this could be it for them both, especially Lena. Kara was Supergirl, but she still needed oxygen to breathe. "I love you too."
Kara could hear her phone ringing in her pocket, she knew it was Alex. But she couldn't - she WOULDN'T - answer the phone. She needed to keep her wife safe, no matter the costs.
"I'm scared, Kara."
"I know, Lena. Me too. But whatever happens, we're together."
Kara kissed her wife tenderly on the lips and pulled her even tighter, being sure to keep her cape wrapped fully around her wife's body covering the places that weren't covered by her own. She focused on the most beautiful heartbeat she'd ever known, until she heard the sound of water getting closer and closer to the plane. They were headed for a body of water, a thought which gave Kara at least a little bit of hope. If she could protect Lena from the impact, at least she stood a chance of surviving. All of the life preservers were being destroyed by the flames as she thought, but there would be SOMETHING to hold on to.
"Lena, I want you to listen to me. In just a few minutes we are going to crash into the water. The impact should break open the plane enough for us to get out, but It's going to take a while for the flames to die down because of the gas, so we're going to have to swim under the flames. It's going to be cold, and it will probably be painful, but I have you, ok? I have you. When I say go, I want you to take a deep breath and hold it, ok! Can you do that for me, Lena?"
Lena nodded, unable to speak out of sheer fear. Water was what killed her mother, and now here she was facing the real possibility of drowning. She could feel the panic setting in, but tried to focus on the feel of her wife's body pressed against her own. If she had to die today, at least she was going to die being held by the woman she loved more than anything in this world or any other.
"NOW! Breathe Lena!"
The pair filled their lungs with oxygen - and smoke and gas fumes - just as the plane hit the water. Being shielded by Kara's body, Lena didn't feel the impact but she saw the effects of it, Including her wife being knocked unconscious causing her to let out all the air she'd breathed in. Out of sheer will power, Lena was able to keep herself calm enough to navigate her way out of the plane and underneath the flames that burned along the surface of the water, dragging her lifeless wife behind her. Her lungs burned, desperate to exhale and breathe in clean fresh air to replace the poison she was holding in. But she knew she had to hold it just a little bit longer, keep swimming just a little bit longer, otherwise both she and her wife would be dead.
Once she reached a spot far enough away that she could no longer see or feel the flames, she pushed towards the surface pulling Kara up with her. She gasped for air just as she broke the surface, coughing like she used to during an asthma attack in her younger years. But to her credit, she never once let go of Kara, who was still floating beside her unconscious. Lena refused to let her go until help arrived. Which could be any time now or it could be hours away, but it didn't matter. She pulled Kara close and wrapped them both in her cape. Kara may be immune to the effects of the cold but Lena certainly wasn't. By wrapping them together, Lena knew that if nothing else, she would be able to stay warm in the frigid water.
Without her wife's calming voice, Lena struggled to keep her panic under control. The only thing keeping her from losing it completely was to lean her head in as close to Kara's chest as she could without going under water, and focusing on the sound of her heart beat. If Kara's heart was beating, she would fight. But the hours went by and Lena found herself falling into despair. Her body was tired and growing weaker by the second. She always tried to stay healthy and in good shape, but she had been keeping herself and a very solid Kryptonian afloat for what felt like hours now and it was taking its toll on her.
"Kara, I really need you to wake up, baby. I...I don't know how much longer I can make it out here...Kara I'm...I'm so scared. I don't know how to be strong without you."
Lena closed her eyes trying to fight back the tears, but her emotions overcame her as her head filled with visions of watching her mother drown right before her eyes. Of the nightmare she had frequently of watching Kara's lifeless body fall into the bay the day edge attacked the waterfront. That was the first day that she'd admitted to herself how she truly felt about Kara, even if it took several years for her to admit it to anyone else. It was all she could do to keep from panicking, which she knew would cause them both to drown.
In an effort to keep herself calm, Lena began to sing the first song that came to mind as she watched the sun set around them.
" We'll do it all, everything, on our own. We don't need anything or anyone. If I lay here, If I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world? I don't quite know how to say how I feel. Those three words are said too much, they're not enough."
Lena choked back a cry. The world around them was growing dark, but the stars in the sky shone bright. Under different circumstances this would have been a romantic moment to share with her wife, but instead she was terrified.
"Kara...I'm tired, Kara. I don't...I don't think I can stay awake...I'm... I think I'm just going to close my eyes for a minute."
She knew it was a bad idea, letting herself fall asleep. But her body was giving out, and she'd fought for so long that she couldn't fight any more. And as her eyes began to drift closed, Lena caught a glimpse of a figure clothed in red and blue coming towards them and felt as she and Kara were lifted from the water as she gave in to sweet sweet sleep.
-------
"LENA! Wake up, Lena!"
Lena felt a warm presence around her, much different than the cold she'd felt in the water, and the voice that filled her ears made her heart leap for joy, even if she couldn't physically move.
"Kara? Kara, is that you?"
"I'm here baby, I'm right here." Wept Kara, sliding into the bed beside her wife and pulling her close. "I was so scared that I'd lost you! That you'd....That I couldn't save you! But Lena YOU saved us both!"
"No, it was you! You kept me safe in the fire and protected me from the crash!"
"But it was YOU who held me in the water, Lena! YOU who kept us both afloat for 12 hours!"
Lena didn't know what to say, so instead she just cried into her wife, weeping for joy that they were both alive, no matter who was to thank.
"Thank God." Breathed Alex as she came into the room! "Lena, I was worried that you would never wake up!"
"What do you mean? How long have we been here?"
Alex and Kara shared a look, before looking back at Lena.
"Two days."
"WHAT!?"
"Yeah. It's a miracle you lasted in the water as long as you did. If Clark hadn't come when he did...well we would be in a very different place right now."
"Clark? I remember seeing...at least I think I remember... there was someone coming towards us just as i felt my body give out."
"That was Kal," informed Kara. "Alex sent out an SOS to EVERYONE when they saw the footage of our plane on fire. Kal was already heading back from Argo when he got the message and listened for our heart beats."
" Superman knows MY heart beat?"
"You're special to him too, Lena. But it wasn't just your heart he heard. He heard...he heard you saying you needed to...that you were going to..."
Kara couldn't finish, too overcome with emotion at the idea that Lena would rather drown than let go of Kara to preserve her strength. Rather than continue to speak, Kara brought their lips together, their kiss being filled with all of the emotions that neither of them could put into words. Neither of them noticed that Alex had left the room to give them privacy. Their kiss continued to grow, becoming more passionate and sensual but not sexual. This wasn't a moment of lust, but a moment of Love. It was Lena who broke the kiss in favor of breathing, letting her head fall onto her wife's chest as they both allowed themselves to fall into a much needed deep sleep, safely in each other's arms.