Some notes:

This could be considered a sequel for "The hidden face of the moon", specifically Winn's chapter and, althought you don't need to read that to follow this story, it gives an insight at how the relationships are going to work and why Winn does what he does.
This is unbeta'd because I'm too lazy. If I hurt your eyes too much, please, feel free to say it on the comments (and if you like the story you can say it, too. It will take two seconds and will brighten my day.)

Almost gone.

The first thing Alex remembers when she opens her eyes, is the excruciating pain of a bullet piercing her stomach. A bullet that went through her highly advanced bulletproof vest as if it was only a thin layer of silk. Then, all went black. Honestly? She's surprised to still be alive.

She tries to move, but her whole body is sore and Alex groans in pain.

"Oh thank God!" She hears a male voice beside her and someone approaching the bed, "Careful, careful. Don't move! I have to call a doctor, a-and Kara, and your mom, and Maggie! I'll go get..."

With great effort, Alex grabs his hand to make him stop babbling.

"Winn?" Alex can barely open her eyes. The light is too bright and the annoying sounds of the machines are drilling into her head, but even like that she can see his tired and puffy eyes watering rapidly, "Are you crying?"

Winn wants to say no, but he's choking and tears are rolling down his cheeks.

"I'm still here," She says. Alex smiles tiredly.

"But you weren't!" He raises his arm to wipe the tears with the sleeve of his shirt, "You... You weren't. We lost you, t-twice, and Kara almost kills one of the doctors, and John wasn't talking, and-and Maggie... she wouldn't leave your side when..."

A sudden gust of wind interrupts him and they both look towards the door, where Kara is standing still.

"I heard..." It's all she says, and Alex can hear her sister voice quivering. Kara sounds tired, broken, and relieved, all at once.

Alex, who is still holding Winn, squeezes his hand, and makes him look at her again.

"Could you go and find Maggie and my mom?"

"Of course! I'll tell J'onn and the doctors that you're awake, too. Do you need anything else?"

"Water would be nice."

Winn nods with a smile and runs out of the room, leaving the sisters alone.

Kara walks towards the bed in silence. She looks at the machines, staring at the steady rhythm that Alex's heartbeat draws on the monitor, almost as if she's fearing that something is going to go wrong any minute.

"How long?" Is the first thing that Alex asks.

"Three days."

"Uh, it feels like weeks." She groans.

"You lost a lot of blood," Kara is still not looking at her, maybe afraid that, when she does, Alex won't be awake, "Flatlined twice."

"Kara…" Alex needs to touch her sister, to hold her, to reassure her that she's okay, still alive. She reaches for Kara hand, "Kara, look at me."

And she does, and suddenly Alex feels lost in a blue as clear as the sea in a summer day back at her mom's home.

"You are always so brave, so strong, that sometimes I forget that you're only human, that I could lose you to something so stupid as a bullet."

"But you didn't."

Alex knows that it's been a close call, too close. She watches as the tears start rolling down Kara's cheeks, and a knot forms in her stomach, knowing that she really scared them this time. She's been hurt before, but it's always been broken bones, scrapes, she even has a scar on her left thigh, where the claws of one of the first hostiles she fought had wounded her. Alex was proud of those scars, they are proof of how hard she always works, but this bullet wouldn't leave a mark only on her skin.

"You were dying, Alex. I have all these powers and I still couldn't do anything but watch you fade away!"

"Hey," She tugs at her sister's hand and smiles, "I'm not going to let something so mundane as a bullet finish me off, okay? I've got more style than that."

"You better, Danvers."

Maggie stares at her from the door, with a smile on her lips that doesn't quiet reach her eyes. She walks into the room followed by Eliza, and they end up standing at both sides of her bed. Her mother takes her hand and squeezes it hard, like she never wants to let it go again, while Maggie can't help but lean to kiss Alex's chapped lips.

After them, J'onn arrives with the doctor, who proceeds to explain everything that happened since Kara flew her sister into the med bay with a bullet hole in her stomach and losing blood at an alarming rate. Kara had been pacing outside the operating room, until she heard Alex heart stopping the first time and J'onn had to take her out of there before she killed someone. After that, she almost destroyed the Green Room, which now has an array of fist size holes on its walls. Maggie had been praying in silence, asking to anyone who might been listening, to not take Alex away from her. When Alex flatlined the first time, she had been completely frozen. The second time, it was her who bolted into the room and started threatening the doctors. She'd seen too many friends being taken away from her because of a bullet. Maggie wasn't ready to accept that it could take away her happiness, too.

While the doctor keeps talking about how it is almost a miracle that she's alive, and explains how important it is that she rests for some time to have a quick recover, Winn comes back with the water he promised. Alex stares at him while he walks around everyone in the room in complete silence, gives the water glass to Eliza, and backs out of the room again.

The doctor leaves shortly after that and only Kara, Eliza, Maggie and J'onn stay with her.

"What's wrong with Winn?" Alex asks.

"He took it really bad," Kara's voice sounds concerned for her friend too, "He insisted staying with you when neither of us could. Everyone here barely slept since you got injured, but I'm pretty sure that he hasn't touch a bed in the three days you've been on this one."

"Yesterday I caught him sitting next to your bed, bent over his laptop and completely out," Maggie says, "I guess he heard me, because he woke up suddenly, babbling about bots and shields, and antigravity? It was really cute," She smiles at the memory.

"You've been staying here, too?"

"Everyone has been staying here, babe. Even some of the agents have been doing double shifts to stay near in case you woke up."

Alex looks at J'onn to confirm what Maggie just said. He nods and walks closer to the bed, reaching to squeeze her shoulder gently.

"Everybody here is very fond of you, Alex, and you gave us quite a scare."

It's been two long days of being bedridden and Alex was going completely mad. She needed to get out of that room, breath fresh air, sleep in her own bed, preferably spooning her girlfriend, and not with Maggie drooling on a chair, however cute that was.

"The doctors said at least five more days here, babe."

"I'm sorry, but if I have to stay in bed and do nothing for two weeks, I'd prefer doing it in my own home. I'm starting to hate this place." Alex argues, "If I stay on this bed one more minute, I'll start biting people's heads off, and yours will be the first one, girlfriend or not."

"Okay, okay. At least let me bring you some clothes. You are not going around the DEO with your pretty ass on display."

When Maggie, with a smirk on her lips and murmuring how cute Alex looks when she's frustrated, leaves the room, she takes a minute to finally breath.

It's been a couple of crazy days, with people going in and out of the med bay, taking turns to stay with Alex because no one wanted to let her alone more than five minutes. It's not like she doesn't appreciate all the concern, she really understands how scared her family and friends were, but Alex had spent so long without being the center of attention, that now that everybody was focused on her it was a bit overwhelming. The only one that seems to understand how she feels is Maggie, but even her girlfriend can't help but be a little bit clingy sometimes.

After Maggie comes back with a bag full of clothes, Alex tries to get dressed on her own, but she soon realizes that it's going to be an impossible task, because every time she moves her arms, a sharp pain reminds her of the wound in her stomach. She's stubborn, but not crazy, so she asks Maggie to help her and, slowly, she's finally able to put on a shirt and a pair of loose pants. Then she takes de bag again and starts looking for one last thing.

"Hey, have you seen my watch?" She asks frowning a little. Alex guesses that someone must have taken the watch off her wrist after she was brought into the DEO, but they should have put it with all her other stuff.

"The tactical one you always wear?"

"Yeah."

"Did you like that watch a lot?"

Alex doesn't like how that question sounds.

"Yes. J'onn gave it to me the first time I went into a field mission." She raises and eyebrow seeing that her girlfriend is hesitant to answer, "Maggie?"

"I'm sorry. It looked like you smashed it against something during the fight."

"Oh..."

"But!" She exclaims quickly, because Alex is starting to look very sad. "I saw Winn taking it. I think he's trying to fix it for you."

For a moment, she wonders if her girlfriend thinks that it's silly how attached she is to that stupid thing, but Alex really, really hopes that Winn is as good with a watch as he is with a computer.

"Agents Danvers! What do you think you're doing?"

Alex stops frozen in front of the door of one of the labs. She was hoping to sneak into the DEO without J'onn noticing, asking everyone she crossed on her way to work to keep their mouths shut, but the martian proved again that he was smarter than that.

"You are forbidden to be here for at least four more days, Alex."

"I knooow. But I need to work, J'onn. I'm going crazy, my girlfriend is going crazy, and even Kara runs away from me now," She says desperate, "I just want to put on my lab coat, take a look at some samples, work on some reports... Nothing too strenuous, I promise."

"And you need your gun for that?" He asks pointing at the weapon on her thigh.

"Force of the habit?"

J'onn sighs.

"Lab duties. Nothing else. It's an order, agent Danvers."

"Yes, sir."

Twenty minutes later, she hears a knock on the glass outside the lab.

"Hey."

Alex raises her eyes from the microscope and finds Winn at the door.

"Hey," She smiles.

"Did you know that there are actually computers that can do that work and show on a screen whatever you're looking at through those little lenses?

"Yes, but I'm not in a hurry and I still like the old ways."

Winn nods and, with hesitant steps, walks into the room.

After she woke up, Alex noticed how Winn started avoiding staying around her for more than a couple of minutes. She doesn't need to ask him why, Alex knows guilt when she sees it.

"So, how's everything around here? Kara refuses to speak about anything work related."

"Pretty slow. It's almost as if the aliens know that you're on medical leave, because they've been lazy lately," He shrugs, "I even had time to fix your watch."

"Really?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm here, actually," He puts a hand inside his right pocket and gets out Alex's tactical watch looking as good as new, "Here, I know you're pretty attached to it."

"Thank you, Winn. Really," She beams at him, and immediately puts the watch around her wrist, frowning a little when she notices something different, "Did you do something to it? It feels a little bit heavier."

"Well, I...," He hesitates, "I may have added a couple of things, you know, stuff, like a-a GPS and maybe a la-laser?

"You put a laser on my favorite watch?"

"I..uh... I thought it could be... useful, you know?"

"How does it works?"

"You just push that little red button added at the side of the sphere."

"This one?" Alex asks at the same time that her finger goes over the button.

"No!" Winn yells, "Well, yes, it is that button, but don't use it here. J'onn will kill me if he knows that I gave that to you. He established a strict No weapons for Agent Danvers policy. At least until the doctors clear you for field missions."

"You are no fun, agent Schott."

"I'm plenty of fun! I build you a portable laser!" He objects totally offended, pointing at the device already on Alex's wrist, "I just don't want the rage of the Last Son of Mars falling on me," Winn crosses his arms and pouts, and she thinks it's adorable how much he resembles a little kid, " But if you want to get away from this boring lab stuff and do something else, I could show you the prototype for the new gear."

"New gear?"

"I've applied Guardian's suit technology to improve the vests, mostly. This time they really are bulletproof. They're lighter, thinner, stronger..."

She sees his rambling as an opportunity to address the elephant in the room. Alex knows by the way he avoids her eyes, that Winn blames himself for what happened. It's not about the vest not being strong enough to stop that bullet, or that he's mad at Alex for jumping in front of him just in time. He was mad at himself because, if he had been fast enough, strong enough, brave enough, Alex wouldn't have had to put herself at risk in the first place.

"Winn..," She says, placing a hand on his arm, "I would step in front of that bullet again if I had to. This job has its risks, and being shot is one of them, but better me than you. Always."

"No." He refuses to accept what Alex just said. But even if he looks serious and determined, Alex can hear his voice quivering, "You are not getting hurt ever again. I can promise you that."

"What?"

"Just... Keep that watch always with you, okay? Just... just do that." Then, nervously, he retreats and leaves the lab without saying another word.

Alex stares dumbfounded at the door and then at the watch. Why was Winn so adamant that she'd wear it all the time? She unclasps again the strap around her wrist and takes a closer look at the sphere in her hand. At first sight the watch looks exactly the same, the only significant difference being the laser's little red button, but Alex has the feeling that there's something else, besides that and the extra weight, that she can't see. Then, she turns it around and finds something that definitely wasn't there before.

The crest of the House of El is now engraved on the back case of her watch.