"Kara? Kara, love, are you alright? What's wrong?"

Kara was being shaken awake by Lena for the second night in a row. She sat bolt upright, covered in cold sweat and breathing heavily. Nightmares had begun to plague her sleep like they had when she was a kid. However, Kara was sure they'd go away. After all, she had just experienced something very traumatic only almost five days ago. It was in the early hours of Saturday morning.

"I'm fine," Kara assured a worried looking Lena. "Just a bad dream."

"Last night, it was also 'just a bad dream,' and you mentioned something about night terrors when you were a kid. Are you sure you're alright."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me," Kara insisted. "Just go back to sleep. We're going to see Lex today, and you'll need your energy."

Lena sighed and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend. Kara knew that Lena would try to stay awake until she believed Kara to be asleep, so she tried to calm her nerves enough to fake it. It seemed to work because Lena had soon drifted back off into a blissful dreaming state. Kara snuggled closer to Lena's chest and tried in vain to fall back asleep, but before she knew it, it was eight o'clock, Alex was waking them up, and she hadn't gotten another wink.

Kara dressed slowly, still annoyed that, although most of her powers had come back, she was still missing her superspeed and her heat vision. Being as slow as a human sucked, even if she did still have exceptionally sharp reflexes from working for the DEO.

Kara rode in a jeep for the first time in months on the way to the Supermax prison. Even though she could fly, she wanted to stay with Lena, who wasn't particularly fond of being carried through the sky. Kara was fairly certain that her hands around Lena's were the only things that kept them from shaking. Lena was scared, and no one could blame her. She was about to confront someone who had tried to kill her numerous times, who was extremely dangerous and capable of more than anyone could imagine, who knew how to take down a Kryptonian. Not only that, but she was about to confront someone who she used to love, and probably still did, someone who hurt her deeply, someone who it would pain her to see. So Kara squeezed her hands.

The first thing Lena said when she saw Lex was, "Your hair really does look awful."

Kara snorted but managed to stifle the rest of her laughter. Lena's green eyes pierced Lex's, but instead of seeming guilty or afraid, Lex let out a low chuckle. Lena's grip on Kara's arm tightened as Lex spoke.

"Hey there, sis. I was wondering when you'd pay me a visit. How've you been?"

"Cut the chit chat, Lex, you know full well how I've been. Now, I've got a few questions, and I know you've got answers."

"Shoot," Lex stated simply.

"You'll tell me what I want to know?"

"What the hell? I'm bored."

"Ok, well, how did Mother escape?"

"Tunnel. I kept the guards distracted while she dug it."

"How'd you do that?"

"A friendly wager," Lex smirked.

"What kind of wager?"

"I bet one of the guards that, with the right kind of tools, I could make my hair grow back. You know how boring it is here, he went along with it. And look, it worked."

"What kind of tools were you provided?"

"Just access to a chem lab under close supervision. I pretty much worked with a gun pressed to my temple. You get over the anxiety after the first few days."

"You're insane."

"We're all a little insane."

Lena shook her head, glaring at her brother, and asked the question Kara could tell that she'd wanted to ask from the beginning: "Why did she leave you, her favorite child, her son who could do no wrong, even if he killed thousands of people, behind?"

"Unlike you, Mother understood necessary sacrifices," Lex replied cooly. "There was no way that we could both get out. Once she's killed you-" he directed his attention to Kara, who was in her super suit. "-she's going to take over National City and free me from these confines."

"I don't think she is," Lena said with a cold, cruel smile that Kara had never seen on Lena's face. "Because she's dead."

Lex couldn't hide his shock. He looked like he had just been slapped. Lena tried to look satisfied, but Kara could tell that his pain still hurt her girlfriend just a little. Apparently, Lex could tell, too, because he grinned ruefully.

"I see someone still cares a little bit about me. Not much, but enough that this isn't pleasant for you."

"And you hate me? You don't feel anything for me?"

"Oh, Lena," Lex said, taking a step forward. "Lena, Lena Lena..." Kara hated the way he said her name, hated how bitter it sounded, hated how he repeated it over and over again, digging the knife in deeper every time he said it. "I don't care about you enough to hate you. You are nothing to me."

Kara couldn't tell who was shaking more, Lena from grief, or herself from rage. Lex was lucky that her heat vision wasn't working yet. Just like the last time she had visited him, Kara reacted. Her fingers closed around his throat, and she felt a sense of deja vu.

"I should have finished you off the last time I was here," she growled.

Lena looked confused. Kara gulped, realizing that Lena didn't know about the last time she had visited Lex. Lex sneered, also realizing this. Just like Lena, he always seemed to know what was going on.

"Your girlfriend didn't tell you, did she?" he taunted. "Didn't tell you how she'd barged in here, all high and might, and demanded to speak with me? Didn't tell you about the bruises she left or my broken nose?"

This time, Lena was the one to step forward.

"Whatever she did, you deserved it," she spat. "But I won't let her break your nose this time. Oh, no, I'll be the one to do that."

She wound back and hit Lex twice, the first hit landing square on his jaw, the second cracking his nose for the second time. Kara dropped Lex into a pile on the floor and left him just as battered as she had done before. She allowed Lena to storm out in front of her and slammed the door as they left. Lena cried in Kara's arms on the ride back to the DEO.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kara woke up screaming in terror. It had been a week and a half, and her nightmares were only getting worse. Lena shot up, throwing her arms around Kara's trembling shoulders as she had grown accustomed to doing. Neither of them were getting much sleep, but even though Kara continually told Lena that she would just try to sleep on the couch, Lena insistently dragged her to bed every night because she didn't want Kara to wake up alone and afraid.

"Will you talk to me about this one?" Lena murmured into Kara's ear.

Kara shook her head, clutching Lena's arm with trembling fingers. Her pulse was pounding in her ears as she thought about tonight's dream.

"So bad," she shuddered. "So bad, Lena. So, so bad."

Her voice broke, and she collapsed into sobs. None of the other dreams had been this bad. None of the other dreams had played out that long before she woke up. Her breathing was labored as she relieved the worst part over and over again. Lillian had stood with her back to Kara, so that Kara could see the missing chunk of her head. She had turned around with a cruel smile playing on her lips and a bloody knife in her hand. She had stepped to the side to reveal Lena sprawled across their kitchen table, eyes wide with fear, her bare skin covered in cuts. She had screamed as Lillian plowed her knife into her side, raking through flesh and created a new gash that oozed sticky red blood.

"Kill me!" Lena had begged. "Have pity! Kill me!"

All the while, Kara couldn't move. Her legs were stuck, glued to the ground. She had struggled forward, trying to help her girlfriend, trying to reach her as more and more tortured screams pierced the air, but she couldn't. And then, she had woken up.

Thinking about the dream had made Kara shake even more. Lena looked at her with worried eyes that had heavy purple bags underneath them.

"Kara, you have to talk to me."

But Kara couldn't speak. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't force the words to come out. Lena moved to grab her cell phone, and Kara lunged at her, refusing to let her girlfriend leave her sight.

"Kara, love, it's going to be ok. I'm just going to grab my phone. You sit still, ok?"

Kara crossed her legs in front of her and took deep breaths, trying to calm down. Her anxiety had also grown increasingly worse. She jumped at shadows that were around the same height as Lillian, she trembled, even as Supergirl, whenever there were pistols around, and she always seemed to be on edge.

"Alex? Hey, it's Lena. Something's up with Kara. Yeah, nightmares. She's really upset. You're at work? Can I bring her by? Ok, great."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alex frowned at her anxious sister, who sat in Lena's lap on an examination table at the DEO.

"She's only had a breakdown like this one other time, when we were kids. She'd just started to live with us a few months before, and she'd already been having the bad dreams, but then, one night, she had a panic attack and went mute for almost forty-eight hours. Mom and Dad kept her out of school for two weeks after that, I think."

Kara remembered the dream that had caused her to crack last time. It was of her parents on Krypton as it began to implode. Their frightened faces as the ground shook beneath their feet and the ceiling began to give in on them was permanently etched into her mind, like she was sure Lena's frightened eyes would be.

"It's a PTSD thing. My mom was a psychology minor, so she was able to talk her through it fairly well, and soon enough, she was back to the same old Kara we all know and love. I'm sure that she'll be able to bounce back, but I should've warned you about this when you told me that she had started having night terrors again."

"What do I do? I can take tomorrow off, but not the next two weeks. Can I bring her to work with me?"

"I don't know. We can try to work something out between the two of us, and I'll get my mom to fly in to talk to Kara, so I'm sure she can watch her while she's here."

"I don't need anyone to watch me." Kara's voice came out hoarse and weak. "I'll manage on my own. I'm a grown up."

Alex nodded solemnly and headed back to work, managing to hide the surprise she was inevitably feeling that Kara was speaking already. Lena pressed a gentle kiss to the top of Kara's head.

"You scared me, Supergirl."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's not your fault." She looked at Kara questioningly. "I didn't know you had really bad anxiety."

"It's not normally really bad," Kara admitted. "Like Alex said, it's more of a PTSD thing."

"That's understandable," Lena said, pulling Kara closer. "Alex said that she keeps some medicine here for you that will limit your brain activity so that you can't dream. Do you want to try to get some sleep?"

"I will if you will," Kara smiled sadly. "I'm sorry for keeping you up these past few nights."

"Stop apologizing, would you, love?" Lena requested, returning the sad smile. "I love you, and that's the kind of thing people do for those they love. We help each other, remember?"

"I know," Kara said, snuggling into Lena's chest. "And I'm grateful. I don't know what I'd do without you, Lena."

"Nor I without you," Lena returned. 

(A/N I have two chapters that I wanna write, one where Kara finds a puppy and one about Lena's birthday. Which one do you guys want first?)