They continued this routine for the next two weeks, and Lena was finally starting to get into a new rhythm. She was learning to live her life without her sight, and she was becoming okay with it. She may have lost a lot the night Lex tried to kill her, but she gained a lot too. Everything she had gone through in her life up until this point, she had survived alone. Now she was doing it surrounded by friends, family, and people who loved her. In another two weeks she was awoken early in the morning.
"Lena." Kara whispered in her ear. "Hey, it's time to get up, we have to get back to the hospital."
"Okay." She sat up, and let Kara scoop her up into her arms, and into the wheelchair. Usually Kara would just carry her around, but people would question Kara carrying Lena around in the hospital. So, Alex was going to come pick them up, and for the first time in forever, Kara actually took the elevator in her building. This was not however the first time Lena was outside. Kara made a point to bring Lena out to enjoy the sunshine. She loved feeling the warmth on her face, and the grass in her hands.
Alex pulled up to the front of her building, and Kara set Lena up in the back seat, before joining Alex in the front. Watching them hook Lena up to all those tubes again, Kara remembered the last time. Suddenly she started to lose her breath, and started panicking. The world started spinning, and she looked to the floor. Even though her feet were still in the same spot, she felt like she was floating away. Lena could hear Kara's panicking, but it was Alex who ran to Kara's rescue.
"It's ok, it's ok. Remember Lena is Okay, and this is going to make her better. She's not dying, she isn't in danger, it's ok." Alex rubbed small circles on her back.
Lena did her best to stay strong but she hated that there wasn't really anything she could do to help her girlfriend. Eventually Kara pulled herself together, and let what Alex was telling her sink in. She walked over to her girlfriend, and saw how much distress she was in. "It's ok, Lena I'm okay." She stroked Lena's hair. "How ready are you to get that thing off your leg?"
"Very." She smiled, wiping any tears that were
"Glad to see you're keeping your spirits up Ms. Luthor." Dr. Singh walked in the room.
"Yes, I've been trying my best."
"Well, I have good news. Everything seems to be healing very well. And the apparatus on your left leg is ready to come off. Now, Once the apparatus is off, your leg will need to be in a cast for another 6 weeks before your final surgery for your left leg. Hopefully at that point we can also remove the apparatus on your right leg, it just still needs more time since it was so badly damaged. The good news is that the apparatus lets your right leg take some pressure with a walker or maybe even crutches, so you will be able to start moving around using your right leg, which they will help you with in physical therapy."
Lena truly smiled thinking about what it would mean to be able to walk again. Even if it was only a little. For the last 8 weeks she had largely been confined to a chair, but now she was able to move at least a little.
"Lena, that is such great news!"
"Yeah, I'm sure you're sick of pushing me around all day."
"Never!" Kara said with a smile as she tossed her hair back.
"Alright Lena, do you mind if I call you that? We are going to get you prepped and ready for surgery, but this is where you will have to say goodbye to Kara. This is the beginning of your recovery, where you and I are going to be working together a lot for the coming months." And with that they whisked her away, but it was good, they were making progress. Kara couldn't decide where to wait, should she wait in the waiting room, should she go flying around, should she go save some people? In the end Kara decided to fly, to just be in the air. She had no desire to save anyone, not now, she hated the idea of having people rely on her. This was the way she could figure out to wait out the time while Lena was in surgery.
She flew around the world, time and time again, feeling the wind rush past her face, it only took a few hours. She saw all seven of the great wonders of the world, before she finally started heading back to the hospital. At this point she should be able to go back and Lena should be out of surgery. So she landed at the hospital, and put her glasses back on before walking in as inconspicuous as possible. She sat down next to Alex and whispered, "anything yet?"
"No, but it should be any minute now." Nia, J'onn and Brainy were all there too, sitting around talking to each other.
"Hey, has brainy made any progress on Bizarro?"
"No, not yet but he's been working on it. We'll get him Kara, we always do." Alex wrapped her arms around her sister.
Dr. Singh came out, dressed in Blue scrubs, a cap covering her hair. "The surgery was a success, and the bone is healing even better than I had hoped for, it's clear she's been working hard. She is all casted and should be ready to go home in a few days. I will see her again in a week, and we'll check on the progress of the right leg. I want to keep a close eye on everything, because if she keeps working this hard she may be able to get the other apparatus off early."
"Thank you Dr. Singh, will her physical therapy schedule be the same?"
"Yes, I still want to see her back here every evening. The more we can stimulate the bones, the faster they will regenerate, but if she works them too hard she can cause more damage than good, so don't let her put any pressure on that left leg."
"Will she be able to get around on her own anytime soon?"
"Well, if she uses a walker I am comfortable with it, since she would know if she was going to run into something, but she'll be waking soon so we should go ahead and go see her. It would be hard to use crutches with her vision impairment." Kara liked Dr. Singh. She was ready for a challenge, and she was good at understanding how to motivate Lena without pushing her too hard.
Kara went into the room where she saw the love of her life lying there, so peaceful. She almost didn't want Lena to wake up, she almost wanted her to stay in her dreams where everything was normal again. When Lena opened her eyes she was surprised to see Lena actually focus her eyes on her.
"Lena?" Kara asked frantically, "Can you see me?"
"I see something, I can see things." Lena started smiling and crying, "I, I can't see well, but I can see color, and light and shapes again."
"What can you see?" Tears started welling up in her eyes.
"I can't see anything I try to focus on, and it's all blurry, like there's a hole punched in my vision, but I can see some things at the outskirts of my vision."
"Lena, Oh my God that's amazing." This time when Kara leaned down to kiss her, Lena could actually see it coming. It wasn't enough to see Kara's face, or any details, but she could tell that she was coming towards her, and she reached her hands up to Kara's cheeks. Lena had no idea that kind of impact that this would have on her life, and the full breadth of the situation had yet to reach her, but for now she was going to enjoy this moment. This perfect moment where they could celebrate the little progress that they had made.
Dr. Singh, who had stayed back and watched then have this moment spoke up, "This is wonderful Lena, I am going to go find Dr. Frazier to check your sight. But before I leave, your leg is healing beautifully but you still have a long road ahead of you. I think in the next few weeks we can have you navigating your home with a walker, and once the cast comes off you will have even more mobility." And with that Dr. Singh left the room.
Weeks went by. At first there was a new excitement, with a little bit of her sight back and one of the external fixation apparatus removed, she felt like she was making progress. While putting pressure on her right leg, she could even shuffle with a walker across the room. Her vision wasn't very functional and she was still legally blind, she needed braille to read, and sometimes she needed Kara's help to get around. She knew stuff in Kara's loft well enough that she was able to find her way around with the little sight she had, but she saw how hard her life would be when she went walking in the park with Kara. As she tried to walk she continually strayed from the path, and misinterpreted the things that she was seeing.
Kara realized over time how different their lives would be, and she didn't even mean in the sense of Lena's injuries, it was also the fact that they were together. She always saw herself with a man, but maybe that was never how it was meant to work out. Alex thought the same thing once. Not only was Kara helping Lena adjust to the impact of her injuries, but she was starting to realize what living with someone else was like.
It was one random night when the gravity of everything hit Lena like a bus. She bolted up in bed screaming at the top of her lungs, she was dreaming that she was being bashed in the head again, except this time she was awake through all of it. She could feel every moment, every excruciating moment.
"Lena, Lena! wake up!" Lena opened her eyes, but she couldn't see anything in the dark. She started hyperventilating, feeling like she had lost her sight again. Feeling like she was back in that hospital bed, waking up from the first time.
"I can't see," She whispered in between breathes. Kara used her heat vision to light a candle, and Lena started calming down when she remembered where she was. She could see the light, she could see that Kara was next to her. "Kara, we need to find Lex. We need to find lex now. Help me up."
"What? No Lena, it's the middle of the night."
"I have to find Lex! It's been more than two months, and we haven't found anything! He's going to try again!" She was yelling at Kara, and Kara couldn't help but think about that day in the fortress. Lena was so mad because she had felt betrayed, she yelled and shouted at Kara before trapping her in the fortress. Lena is so afraid of being emotional, that she just gets angry.
"Okay, okay." Kara scooped Lena up into her arms and brought her to the desk. She set her up with braille science books, a pad and pencil, a calculator with braille buttons, and anything else she might need. She worked with the lamp on, she wanted to know that there was still light to be seen.
Lena sat up for hours, moving her fingers along the pages, and then using her pencil she would scribble something down. It was around five in the morning, about four hours later, when Kara woke up to Lena shouting, "Kara, I figured it out! I know how Lex created another Bizzaro! I know why he wanted me dead!"
Kara sat up in bed, "Okay, well what is it?"
"When Maxwell Lord created Bizzarro the main ingredient was your DNA, but there was more to it than that. In order for Lex to create and maintain bizzaro his location would have to have certain parameters, and he would have to have access to an Alien element, I'm calling it Element X, because it's not native to earth. Brainy should be able to use these parameters to scan for traces of this element that may have reached earth via astroids, and then use the parameters for locations to track down Lex's hideout, and then we can Capone him."
"What do you mean Capone him?"
"Al Capone was a big time mob boss, he committed countless murders, and ordered even more hits, but when he was finally caught he was convicted on tax evasion. Meaning that if we catch Lex we can convict him for using unauthorized medications, and impersonating a politician, and the little things."
"Lena Luthor you are a genius." Kara got up and kissed her on the head, before scooping her back to bed. "You go to sleep now, I'll take your notes to brainy." Kara left the light on, so that it would keep Lena more comfortable, knowing that she could see something. Kara left through the window, she knew she probably wasn't going to catch Lex today, but they were getting closer and closer As she flew through the sky before getting to the tower, she felt better, knowing that they were making progress. She loved knowing that soon she was going to be able to sleep again. Now she just laid awake at night, listening to Lena breathe, making sure that she never left her side. Soon she would be able to sleep.