Finding The Way Back to You

Chapter 8- Reading Between the Lines

                                                                                   Kara

"Calm down Kara," Brainiac says. "Tell me what's going on."

"I can't read anything and I have this killer headache that won't go away." Brainiac sits down and stares at the wall for a while. My leg bounces as I wait impatiently. After what seems like forever, Brainiac finally speaks. 

"Remember when we looked for any signs of damage while you were in your coma?" I nod.

"Are you sure that there wasn't anything different?" I think for a second and am about to say no when I remember the hole in my shoe.

"Actually, there was a tiny hole in my shoe. Barely noticeable. I just thought that it didn't mean anything." Brainiac looks annoyed.

"Of course it meant something. Didn't you listen to anything that I said?"

"Yes. I'm sorry that I was trying to process that I was in a freaking coma!"

Brainiac shakes his head. "Listen, instead of you yelling at me, we need to figure out what to do about this." Really! Me yelling at him. He totally deserves it. I don't say anything though because he may be my only hope in fixing this.

"It hasn't been that long since you woke up so these damages might not even be permanent. I think we should wait a few days before we do anything else." I nod. That sounds reasonable. 

"Thank you Brainiac." He just nods. Ugh! He has no manners whatsoever. I leave him and I head back to the apartment. I can't go back to work until this damage goes away. If it goes away. When I get to the apartment, I find Mon-El cooking. 

I put my hand over my heart in mock surprise. "Mon-El? Cooking? I never thought that I'd live to see the day." Mon-El turns around and grins.

"I picked up a few things while I was gone. I figured that I would make something. I didn't know that you would be home early. Are you hungry?"

"No, I'm good." Mon-El returns to cooking. With my headache, I can't even think of eating. I can barely focus. Mon-El finishes cooking and inhales his food faster than I could. And that's saying something. When he's finished, he puts his dish in the sink and comes to stand behind me. I lean back into him and close my eyes. My headache seems to get better. Mon-El finally breaks the silence.

"Why are you home early?" I tense. Mon-El notices how tense I got and comes to stand in front of me with a frown on his face. "What's the matter?" I'm about to make something up when someone knocks on the door. It's James and Lena.

"Hey, I was wondering if you guys are up for charades?" James asks. I let them in and walk with them into the living room.

"Remember when you and Lucy played with Winn and I?" I ask James. He grins.

"Yeah. You were so jealous of Lucy and kept getting frustrated."

"No I did not. I just- I- yeah, you're right." We laugh and we start playing. It finally comes to my turn and I pick a card. Mon-El is shaking with excitement. I glance at the card hoping that it won't be blurry anymore. I'm wrong. Crap. I make a face like it's a difficult one and I finally decide to make something up. I go with the first thing to come to mind.

"I don't know if it's allowed so I'm just going to do it. It's my cousin." 

"Oh, Superman," Mon-El yells. James and Lena start complaining on how that wasn't fair and I put the card on the table.

"Anyone want more wine?" They all say yes and I get up to grab more. When I get back from the kitchen, James is holding a card, looking at it in confusion.

"Kara, this isn't Superman. It's armadillo." I laugh and try to play it off, but nobody is falling for it. At that moment, somebody knocks. I open it to Sam and Alex.

"Hey guys. We're playing charades. Come join us." As soon as they get to where everybody else is, Alex frowns.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing. Just a bad round of charades. Nobody was doing great." I laugh but it obviously sounds fake. James stands up. 

"Do you have some paper and a pen, Kara?" I nod and grab him some. He writes something on it and then holds it out to me. I grab it from him.

"What?"

"Read it," James demands. 

"Why James? What if I don't want to?"

"Read the damn paper Kara." Alex gets between me and James.

"Hey, James. Chill. What are you doing?"

"I don't think that Kara can read it." Alex starts laughing.

"Of course she can read. Why would you think that?"

"Because this morning she handed me the wrong article and then lied about what the card said." Alex turns toward me.

"Is it true Kara?" 

"No of course not. I can read. Why wouldn't I be able to?" Mon-El finally speaks up.

"So read the paper." I swallow hard. My hands shake and I throw the paper down.

"I don't need to do anything. I'm perfectly fine." I'm yelling now and Alex wraps her arms around me.

"Kara, it's okay. Just tell us whats wrong. We're not going to judge you." At that, I start crying. I tell them everything that I know. By the time I'm done, Alex has tears in her eyes.

"Kara. You should've told us. We're here for you. This is a big deal." Lena says.

"I know and I'm sorry. I just wanted to wait a little while longer to see if it would get better, but I don't know if it will. If it doesn't get better, what do I do? I can't be a reporter. What if it gets worse?" Mon-El comes over to me and grabs my shoulders.

"Kara, it's going to be okay. It will get better and if it doesn't, we'll deal with it as we go. We're all here for you." I nod and everybody stays for a few hours and we just chat. When they leave, it's just Mon-El and I. He's staring at the ground. I think he's hurt more than he lets on.

"Mon-El, I'm so sorry. I should've told you."

"Kara, it's fine, really. I'm not mad at you. I'm just thinking about Imra's plan. If she has Reign on her side, how could we possibly beat her." I cup his cheeks with my hands and kiss him.

"It's going to be fine Mon-El. We'll get through this. We always do."