"You said the gun couldn't be used against you, but I'm guessing you didn't think to factor in this possibility. That a Luthor would choose to end their own life instead of taking another. So what's it gonna be Lex? Are you willing to let me die to spare them?" Lena kept her cold stare on her brother. She could see Supergirl in her peripheral vision, trying to crawl towards her, to stop her.

"You would give your own life to save them both? To save an alien?!" Lex was angry, that much she could tell. He hated that she had seemingly bested him, beaten him at his own game. He always was a sore loser.

"If you think that I wouldn't, maybe you don't know me as well as you thought you did." Her gaze was hard, her tone cold. She prayed this would work, that she could keep them both safe.

"I already told you Lena, there is no third option. I may not have thought you would stoop this low, but it's no matter. You take your life and I'll end both of theirs myself, and I can promise you that I will not make it quick." Lex snapped at her, pointing his own gun threateningly between Supergirl and Kara.

Lena let the weapon fall back to her side and hung her head as the tears finally escaped her closed eyes. She had no way out of this. If she didn't choose one of them, they were all dead. Her heart felt heavy in her chest, painful on every beat.

Supergirl had stopped inching closer to her as soon as she had lowered the gun. The blonde now rested on her knees, trying with all her strength to stand, even as the pain on her face grew.

Lex caught her eye, gesturing between the two women in front of her. "So, who's it gonna be Sis? The Girl of Steel, National City's Golden Saviour?…Or, the woman you love?" He smirked, watching as the colour drained from Lena's face.

"Wait…w-what…? Lena…what's he talking about?" Supergirl had climbed unsteadily to her feet, a look of shock on her face as she took in Lex's words.

Lena refused to meet her gaze, keeping her eyes locked on the cold floor beneath her feet. She tried to swallow past the heavy lump that had settled in her throat but her mouth had run dry. Her palms had started to sweat, still trembling at her sides as she let Lex's words wash over her.

She supposed she shouldn't be all that surprised that Lex knew of her feelings for Kara, her brother always seemed to know her deepest secrets. And, she knew she was often less than subtle about her affections when she was around Kara, but the blonde had a way of bringing it out in her that she was powerless to stop. In all honesty, she was surprised that more people hadn't noticed, especially Kara herself, but the reporter seemed completely oblivious to it all. Still, she had hoped to keep Lex as far away from Kara Danvers as physically possible and his knowledge surrounding her feelings for the other girl could only ever be a bad thing.

She hated to admit it but, her brother knew exactly how to manipulate her, knew how she would do absolutely anything to keep those she loved safe. It's why she had never allowed herself to grow too close to anyone in the past, why she had distanced herself from everyone, including Jack. To keep them safe, to protect herself. But, that had never been an option with Kara. She could never bring herself to push Kara away and now Lex knew why. He was using her love for Kara to force her into killing an alien, into killing a Kryptonian, a hero, knowing without a doubt how the public would condemn her for it.

But, Lex had miscalculated things.

She couldn't blame him, it wasn't something she ever would have foreseen either, these strange feelings she had developed for Supergirl. They were new and unpredicted and confusing, but there all the same. Perhaps this decision would have been simpler before they had made amends and grown so much closer, but Lena didn't wish for that, couldn't find it within herself to ever regret the bridges they had built. Still, it made this all the more difficult and Lex was completely oblivious to it.

Supergirl was still staring at her, searching her face for answers, trying desperately to meet her eyes. Lena still couldn't look at her, the hero had looked so shocked and confused at Lex's revelation that it had made her feel embarrassed, self-conscious, her face burning red in mortification. Even so, the blondes reaction puzzled her. After all, they were both friends with Kara. Surely the Kryptonian had experienced how kind and selfless the reporter could be, had recognised how beautiful Kara was, how easy it was to care for her. Lena could never picture anyone meeting Kara Danvers and not loving her, the woman exuded sunshine and positivity. Her feelings made complete sense to her, so it was perplexing to see Supergirl be so completely taken aback at the idea.

Supergirl tried to take a step towards her, to reach out, but Lex pointed the barrel of his gun threateningly at her chest, stopping her from getting any closer.

Finally, Lena met her eyes, the blue swirling with emotions she couldn't decipher.

"Lena…?" The hero spoke softly, allowing the unanswered question to linger in the air between them.

Lena took a shaky breath, closing her eyes as she felt a lone tear escape and trickle down the slope of her cheek.

"It's true…He…He's telling the truth…" Her voice was quiet but she had managed to keep it steady and for that she was grateful.

She opened her eyes to catch Supergirl's reaction, but the hero stood frozen, Lena wasn't even sure she had heard what she'd said or if she had understood. "…I…I love her. I'm…in love with Kara." She forced herself to say for clarification, cursing her voice for breaking with the emotion of the statement. She had never said that out loud before.

Lena heard the sharp intake of breath and watched as the Kryptonian's face fell deeper into shock, her mouth opening and closing in succession as she tried to piece things together in her head.

Lena took a step closer, forgetting for a moment the situation they were in as panic overtook her, terrified that, should they make it out of this, the Super might tell Kara. Her eyes widened in fear and she shook her head, halting the hero's rapid overthinking.

"She doesn't know. She…she can't…know. Not ever." Lena's voice trembled but she held Supergirl's gaze firmly.

Blonde eyebrows furrowed, the Kryptonite still keeping her bent at the waist in pain, hands gripping her sides, but her mind clearly racing with all of this new information.

"Lena…" she tried to begin, but the younger woman cut her off.

"No. I mean it. Kara cannot find out about this." Lena's voice was firm but she could still hear the fear in her own words.

Supergirl shook her head, tried to push down some of the pain coursing through her body so that she could speak properly.

"No Lena, you don't understand…there are things…that I need to tell you…things you need to know…" Her sentence was broken by her own anguished scream as Lex twisted the dial on his watch further, raising the kryptonite levels throughout the room. She fell to her knees once again, trying to breathe through the pain that overtook her.

"Enough!" Lex's voice boomed throughout the vast, empty space they were occupying. "We are not here for a heart to heart! You are testing my patience, Lena. Make your decision and be done with it, before I am forced to make it for you!"

Lena felt her hand shake and tightened her grip on the weapon in her palm. She looked between the two women in front of her, urging her mind to make a decision, to make the right decision. Her eyes met pain filled blue ones, Supergirl still huddled on the floor gripping her own body to try to dull the agony.

She knew, deep down, that her decision was already made, the decision she would always make, but how could she possibly go through with it.

Her tears were steadily streaming down her face now and the shake of her hand had spread throughout her whole body. She felt nauseous. Sick to her stomach with guilt for an act she hadn't yet committed. She would never be able to absolve herself of this and Kara would never forgive her. But, it had to be Kara that she spared. Lena couldn't imagine living in a world where Kara no longer existed, even if it meant losing her from her life, at least she would still be alive somewhere.

Yes, the decision was made. But, carrying out that decision seemed impossible. Especially as she looked into Supergirl's eyes, the recognition slowly beginning to seep through the pain. And, she looked scared, fearful of what Lena's gaze must be telling her. She looked like she wanted to speak, but the pain was too consuming.

Lena began to raise the firearm from her side, hesitating half way as her heart pounded heavily against her ribcage. She looked to her brother, one last attempt to reach the humanity that she knew had once been within him.

"Please Lex. Please don't make me do this." She pled desperately. The remaining walls to her emotions were beginning to crack, but she held on to the vestiges, willing herself to stay strong, to not break entirely.

Lex shook his head, looking at her with pity, like she was a child who wasn't smart enough to understand. "It's time Lena, make your choice."

She released the heavy breath she had been holding and resigned herself to finally accept her fate. This was happening and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She forced herself to look up and meet Supergirl's eyes once more, the fear from before still present in them. The blonde was silently pleading with Lena, still trying to push away the pain in her body so that she could speak out.

Lena raised the gun the rest of the way up, arm trembling with the weight of her decision. She aimed steadily for the bright red S that had come to symbolise so much for so many and willed herself to dig up the cold resolve it would take to extinguish the shining beacon of hope in front of her.

Supergirl's right arm stretched out before her, hand raised in a placating gesture as she wavered unsteadily on her knees. The kryptonite in the air would have rendered her completely powerless by now, green tracks still carving angrily across every piece of exposed skin.

Lena felt the weight of the single bullet increase tenfold and she found herself wishing, praying for a miracle. Hoping beyond hope that maybe, if they were quick and if luck was on their side, if they turned the Kryptonite emitters off and extracted the bullet, just maybe they would be able to save her. It was a long shot. A huge, one in a million kind of chance. But then, if she was going to stake those kinds of odds on anyone, who better than a super-powered alien with the ability to destroy worlds who instead held a proclivity for selfless acts of kindness. Supergirl was already one in a million and that gave Lena the small amount of hope that she needed to hang on to.

She met ocean blue eyes, swimming with pain and trepidation and silently begged the hero to understand. "I'm sorry." She whispered, hoping the blonde would be able to hear the sincerity in her voice.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath she tightened her grasp on the pistol grip, index finger resting firmly on the trigger. Supergirl's eyes widened and her body tensed in anticipation, chest rising and falling in quick succession.

"WAIT!" The kryptonian forced the sound from her throat, pushing past the agony still holding her body to the floor. Lena paused, frozen in her position.

"Lena don't do this! This isn't…It's not what you think…That isn't who you think it is." Her voice was broken, gasping out words around the blistering flames coursing through her veins.

Lena's brow furrowed, jaw flexing with indecision. "What are you talking about?" There was a waver to her voice that gave away the sudden foreboding twisting tightly around her chest.

Supergirl's throat bobbed as she swallowed thickly. Lena had never seen the hero look like this before, utter dread mixed with hesitant acceptance.

"That's not…that's not Kara Danvers…" she said it with such earnestness that Lena took a step back in incredulity.

Lena scoffed, forcing down the wave of doubt that was beginning to cloud her mind. Her grip on the trigger loosened unconsciously. "Are you insane?! Of course it's Kara." Her eyes flicked over towards the still unconscious body to her right, taking in the familiar lines of Kara's face. Supergirl was either losing her mind or trying to buy time, perhaps the Kryptonite was making her delusional.

"Please…I know it's hard to believe…but, you have to trust me." The blonde was all but begging and Lena didn't know what to do, what to think. If this was some ploy it was a low blow, appealing to the trust that they had only recently repaired and built upon.

"I do trust you, you know that, but what you're saying doesn't make sense. If that's not Kara, who is it?" There was a war waging within her, two sides pushing and pulling against each other. She couldn't make sense of it all, she trusted the Super implicitly but what she was being told didn't align with what she could see for herself.

"I…I don't know…" Supergirl shook her head, eyes still pleading with Lena to believe what she was saying despite the shadows of doubt clouding her features.

Lena released a humourless laugh, raising her eyebrow in disbelief. "So you have no clue who that is but you're so sure it isn't Kara? What is this? What are you trying to pull?" She was becoming frustrated, the migraine that had been developing now pounding away at her temples.

Lex stood still before them, silent as he watched the events play out. Lena had no doubt that he was enjoying every last second of this as it spiralled wildly out of control. He held an arrogant knowing look, like he was all too aware of some magnificent, universal truth and he was just waiting patiently for everyone else to catch up.

"Lena please…I swear I'm telling the truth…I…I don't know who that is…b-but, it can't be Kara…please trust me…I-I can explain…I promise, I will explain…but not here, n-not like this." Hot tears carved their path down the blondes face and Lena wasn't sure whether they were a result of the pain she was in or tears of desperation. Maybe they were a mix of both.

It was all too much for Lena to handle, this entire situation was beyond fucked up and all she had wanted to do since she first walked through the door was to run away and hide. But, standing over Supergirl, over the hero that had saved her life more times than she could count, with a gun still pointed squarely at her chest whilst the woman begged for her life, was more than she could take.

"Why are you doing this? Do you think this is easy for me?! I don't want to do this but I have no choice! You know what my options are here…so, if you know something, that I don't, you need to tell me. Right now." Her tone was final. She never was great at handling intense emotions and her mind was clawing desperately at the cool, indifferent composure that had been drilled into her ever since she joined the Luthor family. Clinging to logic and reason over the gnawing gut reaction Supergirl's words were eliciting.

"I-I…" The blonde stammered, her own internal battle raging behind her eyes. Whatever knowledge she held obviously meant a great deal to her and Lena watched as the woman fought against herself in her indecision. A look of acceptance crossed her features and she snapped her mouth shut, shaking her head steadily to indicate that she had nothing further to add. Her lips still trembled with fear and the tears from her eyes never stopped flowing freely down her face. The hand she had held out in front of herself slowly made its way back to her side and she peered up at Lena in resignation.

Lena wavered. She felt as though there was something huge she was missing, the final piece to a puzzle she couldn't complete. Something that could shake the very foundations of everything she knew or thought she knew. She hated being left in the dark, especially when everyone else seemed privy to whatever was going on but, Supergirl had made up her mind not to tell her and Lena knew there would be no changing it.

The hesitation settled heavily within her, doubt chipping away at the resolve she had only just managed to patch together. Her heart was screaming at her to save Kara, her mind yelling that Supergirl was wrong, that she had made her decision and she needed to get it over with. But, her gut was fighting them both, crying out over them that something was wrong. The gun in her hand shook in trepidation, eyes darting between the injured Super and Kara's unconscious form.

"Oh Lena, are you really going to allow yourself to be so easily manipulated? Do you have so little faith in your own judgement, that one word from that thing could make you doubt all logic and reason?" Lex's words were toying with her, scratching away at her own self loathing. She tried to block him out, to close off from his voice, knowing that she would be all too easily swayed in her current state.

"I thought you were stronger than this Lena, I thought I had taught you better. Or, perhaps I just misjudged the intensity of your feelings for Ms Danvers. Maybe you don't care for her as much as I thought you did, after all you are considering killing her in cold blood. Looks like you truly are a Luthor, incapable of loving anything but yourself." He was beating her down, the walls normally in place to protect herself had long since crumbled and Lex knew exactly where to hit her to make the biggest impact. He was wrong about one thing though, she didn't love herself, she hated herself, now more than ever.

Everything was crashing down upon her all at once and she felt an immense emotional overload, all senses being attacked at once.

Supergirl still crying in agony before her. Lex's barrage of judgement filling her ears. Kara's lifeless form limply hanging in her peripheral vision. The musty scent of rusted pipes invading each breath. The bitter taste of bile on her tongue. The painful pump of blood pulsing through her temples. The cool metal of the weapon still clenched tightly in her palm.

"How can you be so weak?!"

It was too much.

"You weren't raised to be such a disappointment."

Her eyes slammed shut.

"Father would be rolling in his grave if he could see this person you have become."

Her jaw clenched.

"I wonder, what would your mother think of you now."

She held her breath.

"Pathetic."

That's all it took.

Lena broke with a fractured scream filling the empty space all around them. Her eyes remained sealed tightly as she pulled back hard on the trigger pressed against her index finger.

The deafening crack of the gunshot reverberated off the empty walls, pulsing through her body to shake away the clouded emotions that had settled upon her.

It all happened so fast.

She heard the muffled cry of pain and the dull thud as something heavy hit the solid floor beneath them.

Her eyes flew open and her heart stopped, the vision of what she had done stilling every part of her and weighing heavily in her chest.

Her brother clapped his hands together loudly, laughing in joyous wonder as he looked between Lena and the figure sprawled haphazardly on the floor.

But, Lena didn't see him.

Couldn't see anything other than the deep red stain slowly leaching further out onto the royal blue suit. Hands, much paler than usual, shakily clutching at an unseen wound on her own stomach.

Lena couldn't move.

She dropped the gun heavily to the floor, hands raising to muffle the sobs released from her shaking lips.

Lex walked over towards Kara, moving to untie the binds around her hands and feet.

"Дело сделано. Наш план сработал." (It is done. Our plan worked.) Lex spoke softly, removing the last of the ropes from Kara's wrists.

Lena snapped her head in their direction, recognising the foreign language Lex had used. The pit of her stomach filled with dread as she watched Kara immediately stand to attention at Lex's words.

"Молодец, Алекс. На мгновение мне показалось, что это ее не сломает." (Well done, Alex. For a moment, i thought it wouldn't break her.) Kara spoke with perfect Russian intonation.

Lena's eyes widened and the feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach swirled unsteadily.

"K-Kara?" Her voice trembled with uncertainty. Her brother and the blonde looked towards her, both in perfect synchrony, only making her fear double.

A sharp laugh left Lex's mouth and he shook his head at her, smirking in satisfaction the way he used to when he would beat her at chess.

"Lena, Lena, Lena. You made this all too easy. You see, your Kryptonian friend was telling you the truth…about one thing at least. This is not Kara Danvers. Allow me to introduce you to my Red Daughter."

Lena's throat constricted as she tried to process what lex was telling her. It made no sense, the woman before her looked exactly like Kara. Her demeanour was more confident and cold but everything else was the same.

"I-I…I don't understand." It came out as barely a whisper, her voice cracking with the emotions she was attempting to push down.

"I know you don't understand, Sister and believe me when I say that it has been displeasing to watch you fail at every opportunity I've handed to you, to help you discover the truth. It seems that, once again, I will need to spell it out for you…" Lex turned towards Kara's doppleganger, nodding towards her and signalling a command that Lena hadn't seen before.

The blonde reached up and pulled her hair free from its tie, leaving it to fall in loose waves around her shoulders. Her hand moved towards the glasses that rested on her face and slowly she began to pull them away, folding them carefully and handing them over to Lex.

Lena caught her eye and her heart stopped.

The familiar blonde staring back at her was no longer Kara Danvers, it was Supergirl. The revelation struck her from out of nowhere and she struggled to keep her breathing even. How had she not put the pieces together before? Her mind raced with all the new information slotting itself together with the knowledge she already had, all her conversations with Kara merging with the fights she'd had with the Super.

'I will always be your friend and I will always protect you. I promise.'

'That's not a good question for a Luthor to ask someone in my family'

Flashes of all the times Kara had slipped up and nearly let her secret out, so many mistakes that she had never taken the time to analyse.

'I flew here…on…on a bus'

'I was getting coffee with Kara Danvers when you called.'

'Mercy must have hired terrible marksmen, they totally missed me.'

Her heart thudded as she remembered all the times Supergirl had saved her, as she realised that it had been Kara that had saved her.

'Kara Danvers believes in you.'

'Climb Lena, Climb.'

And then, it cracked as she recalled the many moments she had stood by and watched as the Kryptonian was beaten down, injured and nearly killed. The time Reign had beaten her bloody and thrown her from the roof of a building. Lena had been there, she had seen the hero lying broken in a crater of her own making and she had never known that it was actually Kara. All those times she could have lost Kara for good and she never would have known.

The blonde before her had removed all of the clothes that had made her look like Kara and she now stood in her very own Super suit, the crest in the middle strikingly different to the Girl of Steel's. Lena paused in her panic, noticing the newly designed Kryptonite shield that rested over the crest. Lex had obviously managed to get his hands on the prototype she had been developing at L-corp, at least now she knew it worked as it should.

The new information she had been given kept bouncing around in her head, replaying over and over again.

Mild mannered reporter Kara Danvers was the Girl of Steel, the Maiden of Might.

Kara was an alien.

Kara was Supergirl.

Supergirl… was Kara.

Everything stopped.

The whole world seemingly skidding to a halt as she looked towards the bleeding figure laying lifelessly on the cold floor.

She felt as though she had been swiftly punched in the gut, the breath stolen from her lungs in a cracked whimper. Her heart sank, leaving her chest feeling hollow and empty while her stomach rolled with sudden, incessant waves of nausea.

Oh god.

What had she done?

Her feet moved of their own accord, propelling her forwards towards the fallen hero. She sank to her knees by Kara's side, ignoring the warm wetness seeping through the fabric covering her lower legs. Her tears fell thick and never-ending as she looked over the blonde's body, searching for any signs of life, for any way to fix what she had broken.

All around her the green glow of the room receded and disappeared with a twist of Lex's wristwatch. Lena watched and waited for the Kryptonite track marks to fade from Kara's skin but, they never left. She looked towards Lex in confusion only to be met with a smug smile.

"Oh that's right! Did I mention that the bullet was laced with Kryptonite? I guess it must have slipped my mind." He shrugged his shoulders and began making his way towards the exit with Kara's double, pausing in his movements to look back at her; "It's been great to see you again Sis. Just remember, I warned you something like this would happen if you didn't listen to me. Now you only have yourself to blame." With that he turned on his heel and disappeared through the door.

Lena's eyes were frantic, roaming across every inch of Kara, stopping to stare intently at the shallow rise and fall of her chest.

She was still alive. Just barely, but alive all the same.

Lena removed Kara's pale hand from the wound on her abdomen, clutching it tightly in her own and using her free hand to press firmly on the small bullet hole.

She could feel the blood still trickling past her fingertips and she pushed down harder to stem the flow. If Kara had any chance at survival she couldn't loose any more blood, the deep red already pooled around her body in shallow puddles.

The hero let out a pained groan at Lena's ministrations, the Kryptonite from the bullet making her weaker by the second.

"Kara? Kara, can you open your eyes for me? I-I need you to open your eyes for me…please darling." Lena squeezed her hand tighter, raising both so that she could softly caress the swell of Kara's cheek with the back of her hand, urging the injured woman to respond.

Blue eyes fluttered open, blinking slowly, trying to resist the heavy pull of unconsciousness. She looked up, trying to focus on Lena's face, her lips parted to pull in ragged breath.

"Lena…I…I-I'm sorry." Tears spilled over onto her deathly pale cheeks and Lena released her own broken sob at the sight.

She shook her head at Kara, lips trembling from the flood of emotion she was trying to hold back.

"Don't. You should not be apologising right now. I should be the one saying sorry…I-I-I hurt you, Kara…y-you could die…because of me, I…I'm so sorry Kara, I-I didn't know…I'm so sorry." Her words were broken, voice cracking as the tears streamed steadily down her face.

She watched as Kara shakily raised her free hand, pressing a cold palm to her cheek as trembling fingers slowly wiped at the falling tears. Lena closed her eyes, pressing her face further into the comforting hand, trying to steady her breathing.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She looked deep into Kara's eyes, searching for answers. "Before, when you told me that wasn't Kara…why didn't you tell me then? You could have stopped this from happening…but you just…shook your head…a-and let me shoot you! Why would you do that, Kara? Y-you could have told me…you should have said something!" Her whole body was shaking, vision blurring from the thick tears she hadn't yet shed.

Kara's face twisted with emotion as she watched the dark haired woman breakdown in front of her.

"I…didn't want…to hurt you. I d-didn't…want you…to h-hate me." Lena raised their joined hands and pressed a kiss to the back of Kara's hand.

"I could never hate you, Kara. You heard what I said earlier…about my feelings for you…I meant what I said." She felt Kara squeeze her hand a little tighter and watched as she nodded her head slightly in acknowledgment.

"I-I know…Lena I…I L-Lo…" She tried to stammer out, her voice becoming weaker. Lena cut her off before she could finish her sentence.

"Don't. Okay? Don't say what I think you're about to say…because then it will feel like a goodbye…and this…this is not a goodbye…do you hear me? You're going to be okay…I-I can fix this…you just have to hold on…okay?" Lena's voice was firm, leaving no room for argument. Kara nodded, lips quivering as she struggled to breathe.

Lena's focus was suddenly drawn to the bright white lights shining through the windows at the top of the room. She could hear the rumbling of several cars approaching and the tell-tale whir of a helicopter overhead. Her heart began to pound in anticipation. There was only one possibility in her head of who it could be. It had to be.

"Kara, do you hear that? It's the D.E.O, you're gonna be okay. They'll be here soon, Alex will be here and they can help you." Lena gave her a teary smile, praying that they would get here in time. Kara's face dropped, her eyes widening in fear.

"A-Alex…doesn't know…a-about me." She was panicked, her breathing becoming more laboured as she struggled to maintain eye contact.

"Kara, I have to tell her…she needs to know…you're her sister!" Lena was incredulous. She couldn't keep this from Alex, the redhead deserved to know.

"You c-can't! Lena…please…it's too d-dangerous…Alex could get h-hurt by the D.E.O…p-promise you won't s-say anything." Lena could see the worry in her eyes. She didn't know what to make of what Kara had said about the D.E.O hurting Alex but, she didn't want to risk putting her in danger.

"Okay, I promise." She nodded at Kara and watched as the fear faded from her eyes.

The blonde's breathing became shallower, her eyes rolling back as she struggled with the weight of keeping them open. Lena was terrified, clinging to Kara's hand like a lifeline, willing the strike team to burst through the doors so they could save Kara's life.

Kara met her eyes, giving her a small, lazy smile, before her eyelids drifted closed. Lena watched, waiting for her to open them again. Seconds ticked by with no movement.

"Kara?" She whispered, her heart sinking as she received no response. The blondes grip on her hand had become slackened and she gripped tighter, urging her to squeeze back, to do something. But, she remained still, unmoving. Lena released a broken cry, hand leaving Kara's to grasp her cold cheek instead.

"Kara! No, no, no…please…please wake up…they're almost here, you have to wake up! Please Kara, don't leave me…I need you…I-I can't do this without you…I love you…please open your eyes." Lena was hovering over her body, eyes frantically searching the blonde's face for any signs of movement.

The door to her left burst open and a sea of black uniforms swarmed into the open room, guns raised in front of them as they searched the area. Lena saw a figure running towards her and as it got closer she recognised the collected face of Alex Danvers.

"Lena, are you alright? What happened?" Alex's voice was strong and calm as she settled onto her knees opposite Lena, signalling for a medical unit to come and help them. She rested her hand on top of Lena's that was still stemming the blood flow from Kara's wound and it jolted Lena out of her head enough to recognise she had been asked a question.

"She…I-I…" Lena struggled against the tightness that was constricting her throat, still paralysed with the thought that Kara could be gone, that they may have been too late. Alex squeezed her hand and removed it from Kara's body, using her own free hand in its place.

"Hey, it's okay. You don't need to explain anything right now. We're going to get Supergirl the help that she needs, alright?" Lena sobbed quietly and held on tightly to Alex's hand for a moment, trying to absorb some of the other woman's strength and composure. She nodded her agreement and Alex released her hand to press firmer on the still bleeding wound.

The medical team were surrounding them now, unpacking pieces of kit to get the fallen hero ready to move. Lena watched as Alex registered the green kryptonite marks all over Kara's skin before she reached into a bag at her side, pulling out steel tweezers and using them to begin extracting the bullet in her abdomen. A man to her left was lifting Kara's chin ready to intubate with the help of another woman to his right. The other team member waited by Alex's side, gauze in hand, prepared to clean and patch the open wound as soon as she had finished with the extraction.

Everything moved in slow motion for Lena. This all felt like a dream. Some strange nightmare that she would wake up from any moment. She looked down at her hands, still covered in Kara's blood and she felt like she was drowning. Her head was spinning and she closed her eyes tightly to stave off the sudden nausea that had settled low in her gut. She felt the unease rolling in her stomach and she stood shakily to her feet, moving away from the scene in front of her before it all consumed her. Her body bent at the waist as the clenching of her stomach became too much and she heaved, the taste of bile reminding her that it had been far too long since she had last eaten anything.

A warm hand was rubbing soothingly at her back and she shakily wiped at her mouth before looking back at Alex's concerned eyes. She saw the medical team wheeling Kara away on a gurney, an intubation bag working to fill her lungs with oxygen. Lena moved to run after her, not wanting to be separated when Kara's life still hung in the balance. Alex grasped her wrist, stopping her from getting any closer and she fixed her with a glare, warning her to let go.

"Lena, you can't go with her, the team need all the room they can get in the helicopter so that they can continue to work on her. She'll be okay, they're the best team we have." Alex released her arm and Lena looked back to see them loading Kara onto the chopper ready for transport. She didn't want to leave her alone but deep down she knew Alex was right. She watched as the helicopter lifted smoothly off the ground and flew away at breakneck speed towards the city.

"Where are they taking her? I want to be there…in case…" She swallowed dryly, the lump in her throat increasing now that she couldn't see Kara in front of her.

"They're taking her back to headquarters, the med bay has everything they'll need. Come on, you can ride back with me." Alex gestured with her head towards one of the Black D.E.O vans waiting in the parking lot, the rest of the team already loaded up and ready to move.

Lena nodded and allowed Alex to lead her towards the van, climbing into the back and sitting across from the older Danvers. When the vehicle began to move her mind was still racing with everything that had happened over the past few hours but, she couldn't focus on anything, images of Kara bleeding out and lifeless still at the forefront of her memory.

She knew Alex would find her current behaviour slightly odd, considering she had no idea that Supergirl was actually Kara and the fact that Lena hadn't had the greatest relationship with the hero up until recently. But, she couldn't worry about that now, her whole being was too wrapped up with concern for Kara.

"Hey, I just got an update to say that the team have arrived at the med bay and they managed to restart Supergirl's heart on the flight over, she's still not stable but her condition is improving. She's going to be okay, Lena. She's strong, she'll pull through this." Alex's voice was soothing and Lena let it wash over her.

She wouldn't stop worrying until Kara's condition was stable and she was fully recovered, and she knew once that happened they would have a million things that they need to discuss but, for now Kara was safe and that's all that mattered.