"Kara? It's half-past two. I thought you might like to have something to eat before we go. There's leftover pizza, if you'd like me to heat it up."

Kara exhaled loudly and rolled onto her back. She'd been enjoying the sleep, and it took her a moment to orientate herself. Alex was sitting on the side of the bed, her hand on Kara's shoulder. "Yes," Kara mumbled.

"Ok, I'll go put it in the microwave. I'll brief you once you've eaten, and I want to check your injuries too. If you're not healing - "

"You'll take me to the DEO. I know. I got it."

"Good," Alex said and stood up.

Kara allowed herself to lie in Alex's bed for a couple of minutes, listening to her sister in the kitchen. Alex's phone pinged, and Alex typed a quick reply. Kara rolled back onto her side and cuddled the pillow. Everything had gone wrong, and now Lena was hurt, Lena was...

"Alex?" Kara asked, her stomach in a knot as she sat up, still holding the pillow. "Have you heard from the hospital?"

"What?" Alex asked as the microwave beeped and her phone pinged again.

Kara climbed out of bed and hurried across to the kitchen. "Have you heard from the hospital about Lena?" Kara asked in a panic.

Alex took the plate of leftover pizza out of the microwave and placed it on the table. "She's not dead, if that's what you're worried about."

"What?"

"She's ok, all things considered. I want to assess her myself," Alex said, "Sit down and eat."

"You don't trust the doctors?"

"I want to give my own opinion. Lena's strong, we know that."

"Wait - Alex, what - what's...?" Kara's eyes again filled with tears.

"She's ok, Kara. I promise," Alex said, walking over to Kara and giving her a hug. "She lost a fair bit of blood and she's a bit worse for wear, but she'll be ok. Nothing that can't be fixed."

Kara leant into Alex. "You have terrible bedside manner sometimes, you know?" she sniffed.

"Probably because I haven't actually been to bed," Alex replied.

"I'm sorry," Kara said.

"I know," Alex said, rubbing her on the back. "Your eyes are still green-tinged," she said, gazing into Kara's eyes.

"I feel better than before."

"Well, your lies match my bedside manner," Alex said. "Now eat the pizza before I do."

Kara sat down and stuffed half a piece of pizza in her mouth.

"There is a problem though," Alex said.

"Mmm?" Kara asked.

"At the crime scene - you said there were four guys?"

"Mmhmm," Kara nodded.

"Four bodies."

"Mmm."

"And they were definitely dead?"

Kara gulped down half a glass of water. "Yep," she said, taking another large bite of pizza. She hadn't realised how starving she was.

"You're certain, Kara, that they were dead?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Alex sighed and swore under her breath. "Because when the crews got there, there was no one. It was empty."

"Maybe they had the wrong location?" Kara asked, having another drink and moving onto the second slice of pizza.

Alex shook her head. "Definitely the right place. It looks like a scene out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Which is a problem in itself, actually. Shoot-outs shouldn't look like B-grade blood and gore horror scenes, and that did. There was a lot of blood. An unnatural amount of blood for that sort of scenario. I've got pictures. We're not even sure it was all real."

"But I saw..." Kara looked at the plate. She hadn't watched the shootout. She'd been too busy trying to free herself, and after that had eyes only for Lena. "I..."

"We're running tests on the samples now. And my word, were there a lot of samples."

"Alex, I - what are you trying to say?" Kara asked, pizza in hand.

Alex sighed. "I think it was faked. The shootout. Maybe they knew Lena wouldn't shoot you. Maybe she was in on it, maybe - "

"WHAT? No, no way, Alex. I could hear her heartbeat. She was terrified. What she said - no. No way, she... no."

"Ok, ok," Alex said, "It's not a theory I like either. But think about the whole scenario. Why weren't you hit? Lena was directly hit twice, and twice more by ricochets. If they were aiming at you, even after the lights went out, why weren't you shot to shreds? I think whoever is behind all this wanted you both to suffer."

"But the gunfire..."

"They aimed into the walls and floor at angles that meant the bullets wouldn't ricochet back into them. It's really easy to fire a gun and yell and scream."

Kara shook her head. "But the blood. And they - I'm sure they were dead."

"Pouches of fake blood. And are you sure?" Alex asked. "Really, Kara? Were you really paying them that much attention? No one blames you if you weren't, me least of all. You had to get Lena out. She was your top priority."

"But I - I was sure..."

"It doesn't matter, Kara. Well, it does, but..."

"How did they get away?" Kara asked.

"They got up and walked."

"What?"

"They weren't worried about anyone seeing their footprints. They happily walked through the blood spatter, down the corridor, then got a ride out of there."

"But the carpark was empty..."

"Well, someone picked them up."

Kara sighed and nibbled at the last piece of pizza. "Do you have any leads?"

"Not yet," Alex said. "But whoever this is, with fake blood, fake gunfight, synthesised Kryptonite... This was planned."

"But why didn't they just finish us off? Why not just kill me and Lena?"

Alex looked at Kara. "Because Lena injured and bleeding out in your arms hurts you both a lot more than mutual destruction."

...

It took Kara a moment to get her bearings. It had been dawn when she'd sat down on the couch in the corner of Lena's private room, just to rest for a minute, but now the sun was streaming in. Kara sat up and stretched.

"Oh, look who's awake," Alex smiled, looking up from her phone. They'd arrived at the hospital around half-past three, and were escorted to Lena's room. Lena had looked so delicate and sickly that it had taken Kara almost an hour to find the courage to hold Lena's hand, while Alex took a nap on the couch. As the sun was beginning to rise, Alex woke up, and the sisters swapped places, Alex taking the chair beside Lena's bed to answer the dozens of messages she'd received while asleep, and Kara curling up on the couch.

"What time is it?" Kara asked.

"Coming up eleven," Alex said.

"Have you had any more sleep?"

"Nope. Had about six coffees, though."

"About?"

"I stopped counting after three," Alex said, forcing a smile.

"And Lena?" Kara asked, almost choking on Lena's name. Lena had been shot through the stomach and had a bullet lodge in her right shoulder. Bullets had grazed her hip and ribs, and she'd fractured her right arm when falling, as well as seriously bruising her right shin. But as Alex had repeated more than once, it could have been so much worse.

"She woke up about an hour ago."

"What!?"

"Shhh," Alex said. "Don't worry, you didn't miss anything. She was only awake for about ten minutes, and she was groggy, confused and mostly incoherent. So you know, the standard effects of anaesthetic, trauma, and blood loss."

Kara sighed. "But I - did she..."

"She didn't ask after you as such," Alex said, "But I pointed you out to her, and she looked relieved to see you."

"I wish you'd woken me," Kara said, looking past Alex to where Lena lay asleep. She was so pale, with no colour in her cheeks or lips, and the tubes and wires connected to her made Kara feel sick to the stomach.

"You're healing," Alex said, leaning over to have a closer look at Kara. "You need the rest. And it's working, because guess who's eyes are blue again."

"Is this room north-facing by accident or design?" Kara asked, giving Alex a small smile and enjoying the sunshine on her back.

Alex smiled. "It should be nice and sunny all afternoon. Get some more rest. I'd say Lena will still be out for a little while yet."

"I feel better," Kara said.

"And you look better, but considering how you looked when you showed up at my place last night, that isn't hard. For the record, you show up at my place in the middle of the night again, covered in blood with green eyes, injured, and powerless, I am taking you straight to the DEO, and I don't care what excuses you have."

"Sorry," Kara said, realising how much she must have frightened Alex. "Really."

"Apology accepted," Alex said and smiled softly. "But you still don't look well. Show me your wrists," Alex said, moving her chair over to Kara.

Kara held out her right hand and Alex gently unrolled the bandage.

"I just remembered I'm supposed to be at work," Kara said.

"I've got it covered. You're on sick leave for the rest of the week."

"But I - I don't get sick."

"Well, you're sick now. Hmm, that's looking better, but not great," Alex said, grabbing a fresh bandage out of her bag and wrapping Kara's wrist up again.

"And Lena?" Kara asked.

"Got her covered too."

"People will ask questions."

"They always do."

"What about our friends. They need to - "

"Already covered."

"But - " Kara protested.

"Also, I don't know where your phone is," Alex said, cutting her off.

"And I need to tell Clark. Clark needs to know that there's more synthesised Kryptonite out there."

"I'll send him a message," Alex said, tucking in the ends of the bandage. "Other hand?"

Kara leant away from Alex. "What's wrong. What aren't you telling me?"

"It's fine, I've got everything under control."

"Alex..."

"Give me your hand, Kara."

"What's wrong? Is something wrong with Lena?"

"No, Lena's fine, all things considered. Lucky, even. I've told you that. It could have been so much worse. For both of you."

"Why can't I have my phone, Alex?"

"Honestly, Kara, I don't know where it is. Do you? Because if you do, maybe I can get it back for you."

Kara looked over Alex's shoulder at Lena.

"Kara, you just need to stay here and get some more rest and - "

"What have you found, Alex?" Kara cried, panic rising inside her. "What aren't you telling me?"

Alex sighed and glanced back at Lena before looking at the ground. "I've had to call in a number of favours, but - we got a plate for the car that took Lena, and the one that took the kidnappers from the building. Tracked down the owners of the vehicles, got their bank details. We've been following the money. The guys who took Lena went nowhere, but the others... Now that I've seen you awake, I'm going to go to the DEO for a few hours. I need to be there in person. Trying to do all this on my phone is doing my head in."

"You've been here all this time?"

"I couldn't just leave you," Alex said. "Or Lena. I - I didn't want either of you to wake up alone. I can't lose you, and you can't lose Lena, especially not like this, so..."

Kara sighed and bit her lip to try and stop herself from tearing up, and held her left hand out to Alex. Alex took it and slowly removed the bandage. "You don't have to protect me," Kara said. "But... you've been following the money?"

Alex nodded. "I'll always protect you," she said, and forced a smile though she felt more like crying. "I don't think we've reached the bottom of it yet, considering the amount of shell companies and off-shore banks and encrypted codes, but - my people seem to have found a source."

"Who?" Kara asked.

Alex sighed, and looked down at Kara's wrist. "Yesterday, $10,000 was paid into the account of the guy who owns the getaway car by L-Corp."