So yeah, this was harder than I thought and took way longer than expected so I hope you haven't all lost interest.

Sometimes you get the words just right, sometimes they all sound wrong. Hopefully this wound up somewhere closer to the first, but after a while it gets hard to tell and I can never be sure until someone else reads it. So please let me know what you think.

Thanks as always for reading!

Lena knows how fragile life can be, how quickly it can change, and how suddenly it can end.

Her body bears the scars of it and her nightmares the truth of it.

On the nights she doesn't sleep, sometimes it's all she thinks about.

The echo of bullets.

The weightlessness of falling.

The cost of choices made and chances never taken.

Of death and reason.

Of all the broken places where hope and loss collide.

It happens in an instant — in a second — but it all feels endless somehow.

She watches the cup slip from her hand but never feels herself fall.

And at first it feels like she's watching someone else.

But then her eyes open to the sky and its vacant distant blue is all she sees — the sound of her own desperate gasps all she hears.

She can feel her chest as it rises and falls but the air feels heavy, and thick, and lacking.

Her lungs burn with the need for oxygen.

Her body heaves in revolt.

Each breath she can manage has to force its way in past the words that try to fight their way out.

The world is muted and dark at its edges as blue fades to black.

Somewhere in her mind she thinks that this must be what drowning feels like.

Everything around her feels just out of reach.

Each sensation like a ghost of something else.

She feels the weight of arms around her, feels herself wrapped in warmth amidst a violent wind.

And It all seems so surreal, like a dream within a nightmare.

Because she has felt these things before.

Felt them when they were her only hope.

But in the fleeting seconds that black gives way to blue again she sees not the hero she expects, but Kara.

So her mind struggles to hold on even as her body starts to let go. Her thoughts willing themselves to the steadiness of Kara's heartbeat and to the comfort of her arms.

And there is a different kind of hope that fills her then.

Because this has to be a dream.

Because even if it isn't, then this pain, this fear, won't have to be the last thing she feels.

From the faded memory of broken images and dissonant sounds there is a feeling of coming back to herself, of returning to something and somewhere.

Her eyes open to a place she doesn't recognize, but there is a soft light and gentle warmth that speaks of something known and somewhere safe.

"Uh…what happened?"

In a haze of confusion, she tries to sit up only to collapse again, the pain and stiffness making themselves known with the sudden movement.

"Hey, take it easy, you're okay."

Lena relaxes at the sound of Kara's voice, at the feeling of familiar hands that ease her back against the bed as her mind struggles to make sense of its clouded, scattered thoughts.

Everything around her is white.

White walls, white sheets, white floors.

Everything expect for Kara's eyes.

And in an instant the blue brings her back to the blue of the sky, and a single memory stands apart from the others.

"I had the strangest dream. We were flying, and you were carrying me."

A fleeting smile makes its way across Kara's tired and weary face.

"I think they gave you the fun drugs."

The vague beep of monitors reaches their way passed her muffled hearing.

She tries to move again.

Tries to remember.

"Why do I feel like I've been hit by a Truck."

Lena sees Kara pause, watches her hand as it stills on her own, and both the feeling and the hesitation steadies her attention.

"You, you were poisoned."

She feels her chest tightens at the words — a reflex of a memory — and a deep breath fills her lungs as if her body needs to make sure it still can.

"You're okay; you're going to be fine. I brought you here, and they were able to stop it."

The pressure against her hand grounds her again to the present — to Kara's words.

'I brought you here.'

And suddenly Lena realizes it wasn't ever a dream at all.

She waits for Kara to take back what she's said, to hide it away.

But she never does.

And maybe it's because she doesn't notice the words she's used or the admission that they speak of.

Maybe she's too tired to care.

But a part of Lena hopes it's something else.

That maybe Kara had meant everything she said.

That maybe her words were not mistaken.

And so, with that hope she tempts the truth of them.

"It wasn't a dream, was it?

Kara looks up fleetingly from where their hands meet and even in that brief moment, Lena knows for certain then that Kara understands what she's said even if she hasn't accepted everything it means.

"You were carrying me."

She watches as Kara looks away, finally gives into the truth she has never shared but that Lena had known nonetheless.

"No. No, it wasn't a dream."

Lena close her eyes and feels herself again in Kara's arms.

Kara's arms.

Kara, not Supergirl.

She says the words again to make sure.

Something between relief and disbelief in her voice.

"You were carrying me."

And for a second they only look at each other.

Unsure.

Unhidden.

Until Kara's whispered apology makes use of the silence

"I'm sorry. I know it's a lot, and I know it might not be enough, but I'm sorry I lied for so long."

Lena shakes he head and rolls the cuff of Kara's sweater in between her fingers.

"No. I mean you were carrying me. Not as, not as Supergirl, as Kara."

Kara's fear is replaced by confusion and blue eyes search green in a moment that begs for answers.

"How did, how did you know?"

Lena tries to smile, to ease the weight of both of their confessions.

"I told you, you're terrible at hiding things from me."

Kara draws a shaking breath that gets caught somewhere between a sob and a laugh but sounds only of relief.

And Lena knows they will talk about everything this means, that they will spend time with each other's reasons and questions, but there is a something in that moment that she has to ask.

Because Kara had risked everything.

The people she has sworn to protect.

The city she has fought to save.

Herself.

Her family.

And she doesn't know why.

"what if someone had seen you?"

Kara's answer comes without hesitation but ends with a waiver of fear and uncertainty

"There wasn't any time. I couldn't waste any time, you were..."

And in everything that's left unsaid she finds the reason.

Because I promised to be there.

Because I promised to protect you.

Because I could've lost you.

Lena's lets her hand rests on Kara's cheek, her thumb wiping at the tears now staining her cheeks.

"Well Supergirl may have saved me, but Kara Danvers, you are my hero."

So there it is. Good? Bad? Let me know. Comments are always appreciated and help me know which direction to go.