I Would Give It All Back Just To Have You (pt4)
(Pt1) / (Pt2) / (Pt3) / Ao3
The buzzing has stopped. It went from a powerful rumbling that would resonate in their chests, to something more high pitched. Brainy is furiously typing on his tablet and talking to her, but she can’t hear anything.
When sparkles start erupting from the engine all she can do is staying there, mesmerized by the lights coming from the engine, and also horrified by their meaning
It cannot… we’ve checked everything twice even thrice, for God sake! Lena thinks.
Alex drags her away from it when she notices that Lena is motionless while all the others have carefully backed away, remembering all too well some results of their previous attempts. But Brainy manages to stabilize their portal, crouched down next to Nia and still taping commands on his tablet frenetically. The high pitched ringing slowly goes back to the low rumbling sound from the start, the energy flux swirling more slowly as sparkles stop coming out from the panels.
They made it. They actually made a portal to reach the Phantom Zone.
After all the tries, the sleepless nights, the hurt and despair slowly choking them all, they are about to succeed. Kara is almost home.
__________________________________________________________________
Everything is muffled. It’s as if she is underwater, but this time she feels incredibly heavy instead of floating up.
She remembers everyone turned toward the machine and the hopeful looks. How they all gathered closer, needing to feel the others to know that this was really happening. Alex’s firm grip on her shoulder. Nia who’s imperceptibly bouncing on her feet with anticipation on her left. Winn biting on what’s left of his nails, standing next to Brainy who has finally stopped to look at his tablet and is now fixing the portal as if he could pull Kara through it with sheer will.
Lena had been replaying all her last interactions with Kara in her mind, promising herself to do better this time. She had been granted a second chance, a chance to do what’s right and be the friend Kara deserves. She wasn’t going to let it pass her by.
And…
And she hears angry voices?
“She is fine Kelly. Brainy said it was probably…”
“You call this fine? Alex, this is the exact opposite of fine! Do you even realize how much worse it could be? Just in the blink of an eye.”
Why is Kelly angry? Who are they talking about?
Lena tries to open her eyes but the white neons of the room blind her, piercing a painful path through her eyes right to her brain. She groans and tries to shield her face with her right arm but it causes an electric jolt from her hand to her elbow, making her groan in pain.
“Lena,” Alex's voice says, suddenly close to her. “Easy there tiger, before you hurt yourself any further.”
Alex helps her to slowly sit up, strong hands steadying her and ensuring she doesn’t move her arm in any way.
“What…” Lena croacks out before coughing. She feels like she has crossed a desert without a water break to get the sand out of her throat.
“Here.” Kelly says while placing a glass with a straw in her hand. Lena is not entirely accustomed to the luminosity yet, but she is pretty sure that Kelly is wearing an angry scowl on her face. She presses the glass in Lena’s left hand, and that’s when the CEO realizes that her dominant hand is trapped in a cast that goes up to her mid upper arm.
“Before arguing about anything, drink that glass and let Brainy check you up.” she says, her voice brokering no place for argument.
It takes Brainy twenty minutes to check her over. He looks at her eyes closely with his pocket flashlight, takes blood samples, and even makes her count backward from 25.
“You appear to be physically fine, minus the broken cubitus and cracked radius. But in 6 weeks your bones will be…”
“Brainy, what happened?” Lena interrupts him.
She needs to know what happened. She remembers them checking their equations one last time before setting their portal up, and when they had turned it on. How they had all huddled closer once they had gotten the portal under control once again. But it stops there, she cannot remember a single thing that happened after.
“It’s a delicate matter.” Brainy answers, looking away from her.
“This isn’t an answer and you know it.”
Alex and Kelly walk back in before he gets a chance to answer her question. Lena can see their uneasiness, the furtive looks between one another, the light shuffling.
“Will anyone tell me what happened, or do I need to get up and see for myself?” Lena asks, clearly losing patience with all the secrecy.
“Don’t force me to tie you down to this bed. Because I can Luthor,” Alex warns her. “And you know I will.”
“Well then talk to me!” Lena demands, looking alternatively to all of them.
I need to know.
It’s Kelly that breaks the spell cast on them. She slowly walks up to the uncomfortable cot on which Lena is installed, sitting down at her side. She faces the brunette and carefully studies her face, as if she needed to assess her mental state and carefully chose her words accordingly.
“The portal opened. You remember that Brainy managed to stabilize it, right?” She stops, waiting for Lena to nod and confirm before adding anything.
“Kara got out of the portal. It took something like… like five minutes? But she stumbled out of the portal.”
“Where is she?” Lena asks, looking around in the med bay.
Kara should be here. They need to make sure she is alright after all this ordeal. Who knows what this timeless dimension can have done to her? And that’s not even talking about the isolation and the toll it must have taken on the blonde.
“I need to see her. Is she still in the solar room?”
“Lena, you can't,” Alex interjects.
“What? But why? If this is because of…”
“She is the one that put you in that state.”
Her blood turns to ice.
