#csigurlie07

I made it a two-shot. I didn’t want to spend much time on it, with so many other projects going on, so it’s a little rough, but I hope you like it anyway.

“Let me go!”

Kara clenches her eyes shut against the echo of Lena’s call in her ears. In her arms, Lena is shaking, and though her skin is chilled to the touch, Kara knows it has nothing to do with the tremors. Not when Lena sobbed against Supergirl less than an hour ago. Not when Kara’s own heart pounds in her chest like she’s still trying to fly an entire C-130 with one hand-- with far more precious cargo dangling from the other.

“Are you okay?” Kara doesn’t loosen her grip to ask. Lena’s chin digs into her shoulder as she nods. “Don't just tell me what you think I want to hear, I mean it--”

“No, really,” Lena assures her, pulling back with a hasty sniffle. Her hands run lightly down Kara’s arms, until their hands meet. “I’m fine, I swear. Supergirl was there; she saved me. Again,” she adds with a thin laugh.

Kara can’t join in. She can't even bring herself to smile. Her palms tingle where Lena’s hands rest in hers. Searching Lena’s features, she sees relief, and weary gratitude overlaying a shadow of something darker-- the same something that flashed across her features just before being sick next to the reservoir. She can't put a name to it, and one look is enough to tell her Lena doesn't have the energy to discuss it.

Throwing her arms around Lena again, Kara squeezes her tight. “The next time you decide to take on a homicidal maniac on your own--  just let me know, okay?”

Lena laughs again, and melts against her. Kara holds the embrace as long as she can, until Lena pulls away muttering something about a shower. Twenty minutes later, the water still hasn't turned on, and Kara fearfully checks on her to discover Lena dozing in the middle of her bed, only half undressed. On silent feet Kara carefully covers Lena with the blanket that usually lives at the foot of Lena's bed. She freezes when Lena’s fingers reach up and curl around her hand.

Lena doesn’t speak. She only looks up at Kara with sleepy eyes that don’t quite focus in the dark but drift shut when Kara murmurs softly, “I’m right here.”

She should pull away. Kara should reclaim her hand when she hears Lena’s heart rate even out into peaceful sleep. They’re friends, but not friends like this. Not watch-you-sleep friends. But Kara can’t bring herself to break the connection. She carefully sits on the floor by the side of the bed and closes her eyes against the sudden tears that gather. As her own exhaustion catches up with her, Kara lets Lena’s soft grip blot out the sound of the wind and Lena’s voice in her ear.

Let me go!

“No,” Kara breathes. She won’t let go.

Not this time.

The Continuum movie didn’t really live up to my expectations and I was disappointed by how little we actually saw of the team during the year in the alternate timeline.

After that, Kara kept her distance. Alex still urged Kara to give it time, promising that Lena would reach out before long. So Kara waited, her insides in knots. She stayed away from L-Corp, stayed away from Lena. She went to work at CatCo in the morning, became Supergirl in the evenings and served the city until the small hours of the night, then crashed for a few hours before getting up to do it all over again. She refused to look at L-Corp’s sign when the sun went down, refused to acknowledge the desklamp she knew would still be on when she went home.

Alex’s predictions never came true. Lena didn't text. She didn't call. When L-Corp hosted a press conference to announce the installation of a Supergirl memorial at the waterfront, CatCo’s invitation was accompanied by the ultimatum that a new representative be sent to cover the event. Kara watched from her living room, wilting at the sight of Lena’s smile on the other side of the screen. No one else seemed to notice the dull glaze in her eyes, or the way her jaw tightened when her friendship with Supergirl was mentioned by a reporter during the Q&A.

Kara turned it off as soon as the feed cut to the CatCo anchor desk, unable to watch anymore. She sent James and Alex a short text before launching herself out the window and angling south, where the Fortress of Solitude waited to receive her with frigid arms. She returned three days later, feeling no more at ease than when she’d left.

On the cusp of the fourth week of radio silence, Kara risked another visit. Dropping by unannounced could make everything worse. Again. But this time felt different. In the Fortress of Solitude, Kara remembered what it had felt like to awaken from the Black Mercy. She remembered, and the memory scared her; she feared what it meant for Lena.

Waiting until sundown meant she avoided the hordes of employees heading home. This time, she entered through the lobby as Kara Danvers, not Supergirl. She knew Lena would still be in her office, and wasn’t surprised to see Jess still at her desk as well. What surprised her was that Jess seemed relieved to see her, instead of preparing to kick her out. Jess rose to her feet as the elevator doors closed behind Kara, crossing quickly to meet her.

“Jess, is everything okay?” Kara asked. Her eyes darted to the closed office doors behind her, which revealed nothing as to what lay inside.

Jess hesitated, lips thinning to a concerned line. “Miss Luthor has cleared her schedule the past two days,” she told Kara in a low voice. “She’s citing reconstruction, but final repairs finished last week. I’m worried. This isn’t like her.”

Alarm thundered in Kara’s chest, her pulse picking up into a slow gallop. It may not mean anything, she tried to tell herself, but the unflappable, impassive Jess looked to her in concern, uncertain and worried. Her worry leached into Kara, sinking its teeth into the fears that had brought her here in the first place.

Continue reading on ao3 here.

Lena didn’t relent on her refusal to see Kara. She only stayed at the DEO overnight, leaving against medical advice before noon the next day, and in that time Alex enforced Lena’s request for privacy. Kara reluctantly kept her distance. Over the week that followed, her texts remained unanswered, not even being marked as read. When she switched to calling three days in, they went straight to voicemail.

Alex advised her to give Lena time. To give her enough space to process whatever she saw while under the influence of the Black Mercy, and adjust to the realization that Kara was Supergirl. According to Alex, Lena would reach out when she was ready, and until then Kara should just wait. And for anyone else, Kara would have listened. But for Lena...

Kara knew her best friend. She knew that if she let their silence persist too long, it would become impenetrable.

Throwing herself into rebuilding efforts around the city split Kara's time between clearing debris and helping search for missing pets and loved ones. She kept an eye out for looters, and crimes of opportunity as storefronts and homeowners rushed to repair doors and windows damaged in the invasion, but National City surprised her. Instead of turning in on itself, the residents came together to help each other. Crime slowed to a crawl, giving Kara all her time to focus on reconstruction-- and Lena.