Fighting for You

Chapter 15

Kara groans as she starts to wake up. Her thigh is throbbing, and she feels like she's been run over by a cement truck. She winces as she lifts her head. The sun bed is too bright and everything just hurts. She does her best to take in her surroundings with squinting eyes. She relaxes a bit when she sees Lena slumped in a chair with her head resting on the edge of the bed. Their fingers are still laced together. Kara can't help but squeeze gently; she winces when she sees Lena's brows furrows with a frown etching on her face as she slowly rouses.

"Hey."

Lena groggily looks up towards the voice. "Hey, darling. How're you feeling?"

Kara squeezes Lena's hand again with a gentle smile. She opens her mouth to answer when all the sudden, Lena's pulling her hand away like she was being burned.

"Sorry, sorry. I- I just don't want to hurt you accidently."

"Hurt me? I know I'm without consistent powers, Lee, but I'm pretty sure I can hand a bit of pressure."

There's a beat of thick silence. Lena plays with her hands and keeps her eyes down as she mutters out, "That's not how I could accidentally hurt you."

"Baby, what do you mean?" Kara moves to try to sit up, to reach out to the love of her life when she hisses out in pain.

Lena's reaction is to start to reach out to push Kara back down onto the bed, but she stops herself half way. Immediately moving her hands to point away from the fritzing Kryptonian. "Wh- what do you remember?"

Kara's crinkle becomes pronounced. "I- I remember us taunting Lex. He forced you back out of the room. I remember him stabbing me..." Her hand wanders to her bandaged thigh. "Then... it's a little fuzzy. I remember hearing you yelling. You- you were so scared."

Lena takes a deep breath. She takes a chance and rubs the back of her hand against Kara's shin. She doesn't want to risk pointing her palm anywhere near Kara. She steadies herself as she feels Kara's eyes boring into her profile. She talks slow and calm. She recounts everything that happened after Lex buried the pen in her flesh. Kara is wise and keeps her mouth shut while Lena is speaking. Lena's hands tremble as she talks about the flames. She clutches her hands to her chest, as if just speaking about it would produce the sparks that scare her so much.

Kara lets Lena gather herself before she asks her some questions. "You are sure the fire hurt this... doppelganger?"

Lena nods her head.

"And you were able to... summon these flames at your will?"

"Well... kinda? It seemed to be tied to my emotions. I used that to throw the fire balls at my brother and Red Daughter. God, this sounds ridiculous. This entire conversation is ridiculous!"

"Do- do you think you could try to do it right now?"

Lena's head snaps up at that. "What? You want to tempt fate right now?!"

"Well, no. But I think it would help me to... I don't know... see it, maybe?" Kara shrugs one of her shoulders. "I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around this. There's another 'me' that is controlled by your brother who infected me with something called 'Gold Kryptonite' and to get us out you threw fire balls at them. You don't have to try to do that in here, but in the other bay. Then there is glass between us?"

"Did you miss the part that I made all the glass shatter."

"With your scream, so maybe just... don't scream this time?"

Lena just stares at her with an arched brow while Kara gives her a tiny, awkward smile.

"Fine. If I damage anything, you have to explain it to your sister."