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It’s not like Kara and Clark were particularly close.
They both felt as though they were from different worlds, and that they had much more different than in-common. Clark had a life on Earth. A not-quite-just-a-girlfriend who was also not-yet-a-wife. He had parents, a loving, living couple who were incredibly affectionate, both to each other and to him. He had friends, his coworkers, both superhero and civilian alike.
Kara had, well, of course, she had Krypto. And she had Krypton. She had the memory of their people and of their culture. She could speak the sacred language of Kryptonian; she was Clark’s only key to unlock understanding of the messages left in the very dramatically named ‘Fortress of Solitude.’
There was an intense relationship between the two.
They relied on one another, in a sense. But it was complicated.
Clark was the devoted cousin. He had a sense of responsibility for her, leading him to feel as though he needed to play the caretaker role. And she relied on him for any sense of normalcy. She needed the familial stability he offered.
And they had fun times together, most of which consisted of Kara and Krypto both giving Clark new grey hairs, but then, even after all the time they’d spent together, they felt like strangers.
They’d only known each other for a few years, with most of that time being spent by Kara off on a red-sunned planet, drinking herself into a stupor.
And Clark was not dumb. He knew why she was off partying every day. It was her way to deal with her grief. She’d lost not just her entire family, but her entire people, her entire way of living, on one fatal day. And she hadn’t expected Clark to be so old when she’d arrived, or so removed from their shared culture.
So when Kara called Clark to ask for help, he jumped.
“Where are you?” Clark had asked, suddenly sitting up with such force that it knocked Lois’ legs from his lap. Her face tightened as she examined his expression.
It was Kara’s tone that worried him.
“I’m, uh, shit, I’m on Earth. I’m in, god, I dunno…Texas, I think?” Her words were slurred and rushed, pain-laced with gasps and groans in between.
“You think?”
“I got hit, and I flew away, okay, I didn’t know what else to do,” She let out a harsh, pained gasp. “Clark, c’mon, please come get me.”
“Can you fly?”
“You-ah, ow-you think if I could fly I’d be calling you?”
Clark grimaced at her gasp, “Okay, I’m on my way. Check your location on your phone and send it to me. I’ll be right there.”
She hung up before he’d finished speaking.
“Who was it?” Lois asked, her posture rigid, and a tentative hand on the crook of his elbow.
“Kara. She got hurt; she’s in Texas. I’m gonna go get her.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m so sorry. Can I bring her here?”
Lois nodded, standing up, “Of course.”
And then, in an instant, Clark was gone.
Turns out, Kara had found her way to Loving County, in Texas, and Clark was frankly impressed that she’d properly guessed which state.
The location she sent him was a farm field.
He hovered above it, his eyes immediately finding a flattened line of corn, as if she’d plowed it with her body. He followed the trail and found her.
She was curled in on herself, lying on her side.
The wind blew violently, whipping her blonde hair from her face, revealing blackened veins creeping up her cheek. The wind smelled sweet, and that scent reminded Clark, vaguely, of home. But he hardly registered it. The pounding of his heart in his ears overwhelmed everything else. He’d never seen Kara taken down.
“Kara?” He yelled, landing a bit too harshly and stumbling, barely staying on his feet as he landed, sprinting the rest of the way to her side.
He knelt beside her, panic rising when she didn’t immediately respond with something snarky or even open her eyes. His hands hovered uselessly. “Kara? What happened?”
She groaned, rolling onto her back with a grimace. The sound came from deep in her chest, a pained and broken whimper that turned Clark’s stomach.
“Injected. Artificial silver and green kryptonite, fuck, ow.”
“Ok. Ok. What do you want to do right now? Do you want to sit in this sun for a minute?”
“I want you to get me out of this random fucking field, and I want my dog.” Her words were forced through clenched teeth. Her face was twisted in pain, brows knotted tight.
He nodded fervently, “I can bring you to Lois’ place, I, uh, is that okay?”
She just nodded, as he tried to, as gently as possible, slide his arms underneath her shoulders and her knees. She’d let out another soft groan as he rose to his feet, and he muttered a quiet apology into her ear.
She didn’t reply.
She was quiet as they flew to Lois’ place, not that either of them knew what to say in a moment like this.
Clark had barely avoided barreling through the window.
“Kara?” Lois’ voice was on the verge of shrill as she saw Kara limp in Clark’s arms.
“She’ll be okay,” Clark said immediately, his voice rushing to soothe as he laid Kara gently on the sofa
.
Her face was twisted in discomfort as Clark knelt again by her side.
He looked up at Lois. “Can you get Krypto?”
She nodded and turned toward the guest room, and she’d barely touched the doorknob before Krypto came flying, literally, into the living room. He clearly was aiming to pounce onto Kara’s lap, but Clark caught him mid-air.
“Be easy, Krypto.” He said, with a low voice, “She got hurt.”
The dog let out a low whine.
“What should I get her?” Lois asked, leaning against the doorframe.
“A red sun,” Kara muttered.
Clark snorted, “Yeah, why’s that?”
“Whisky would help.”
He raised a brow, “Isn’t drinking while injured like… known to be bad?”
“It helps with pain, genius.” Her voice was sharp but lacking any real heat, just poorly masked pain.
Krypto crawled onto her lap, nuzzling his snout upon her chest with a low whine.
Clark frowned.
“What happened?” He asked, his voice a bit softer.
She shut her eyes.
“There was this thing on the news about some rogue LexCorp employee shooting up a hospital. I went, shocker, but it wasn’t just one guy. It was a trap; they were expecting you, I think.” She groaned again, her lips pinching into a thin line.
Clark’s hand clenched into a fist as he looked up at Lois, and then back at Kara.
“What’d they give you?” Lois asked.
Kara shook her head gingerly, “Fuck if I know. Guy said it was, ah.” Her cheeks flushed as her face twisted again, “Synthetic green and silver kryptonite.”
There was a short silence as Kara took in a breath and eyed Clark. “Can you feel it?”
He tilted his head. “Feel what?”
She took in a ragged breath, “The kryptonite. It’s not,” Her eyes opened again, searching his face for any discomfort, “I dunno, it’s not hurting you, is it?”
He shook his head, hovering a hand over her shoulder, “No, I’m fine.”
She nodded, her relief smeared in marker over her features.
“It’s synthetic?” Lois said, stepping a little closer, “What does that mean? Is it stronger or weaker than regular kryptonite?”
“I don’t know.” Came Kara’s response. Her pupils were blown wide, and her breath was leaving her in steadily quicker huffs.
“Kara,” Clark muttered, his eyes flitting back again to Lois, “Should I take you to the Fortress? I have medical equipment there that can help-”
She cut him off with the shaking of her head, “Please, don’t move me again.”
“Oh, gosh, Kara. You really aren’t looking too hot.” Clark’s eyes were on her face, on how it looked as though the black veins were starting to subside.
“I think it’ll get worse before it gets better,” Lois said, moving to stand behind Clark, placing a hand on his shoulder, and squeezing it gently.
Kara let out a pained gasp, “Oh, well, that’s just great. What makes you say that?” Her words were slurred, all sticking together at their ends and beginnings.
“I did an article on some drugs created by lexcorp last year, with Jimmy.”
Kara nodded, her eyes squeezing shut as she groaned again, “Clark,” She let out a groan between gritted teeth, “Have you seen silver kryptonite before?”
“No,”
She nodded, “It, uh, it makes us hallucinate.”
Lois straightened up. “Are you hallucinating now?”
“Either I’m hallucinating, or stars are floating above us. You tell me.” She squeezed her eyes shut again, “Fuck.”
Clark gently put a hand on her shoulder, “You’re okay. You’re gonna be okay, pal.”
“Pal? God damn, how old are you? Fifty?” She murmured.
“Only eight years older than you.” He teased back, “So if I’m old, you’re old.”
She forced a scoff, “Yeah, right.”
There was only a short silence, barely two minutes, before it seemed like all the breath was forced from Kara’s lungs.
“Kara?” Lois called, pushing down onto her knees and scooting to sit beside Clark.
“Mom?”
Clark and Lois’ eyes met before moving back to Kara.
Her eyes were wide open, focused on the ceiling above her.
“Mom! Where, where are you going? Where are you going without me? I’ve missed you, Mom.” Her words were slurring worse now, with a limp arm reaching up to the sky. Krypto whined on her lap, his tail nervously wagging.
A few stray tears slipped from her eyes. “Please, mom.” Her words then slipped from English into Kryptonian; her tone was harsh, knitted with discomfort.
Clark pushed on her shoulder a little harder, “Kara, you’re alright. You’re here with me, with Clark.”
She didn’t seem to pay him any mind, her arm still reaching up to the sky, her words melting between languages Clark didn’t understand as her tone became more and more frantic.
And Clark became frantic, too.
“What do I do?” He asked, looking between Lois and his cousin, his free hand gesturing wildly, “Do I knock her out or something? Will that help?”
Lois’ shoulders were raised to her earlobes, “I don’t know, Clark. I didn’t even know there were different colors of kryptonite.”
Kara whimpered again, slipping back into English before sliding back to Kryptonian, “Mom, it hurts, please.”
Clark’s hand moved to her forehead, smoothing her blonde waves from her sweat-plastered skin. “It’s okay, Kara, you’re alright. I promise everything is gonna be okay.” He turned back to Lois again, “Her pupils are massive.”
Lois scooted closer, her hand falling on Kara’s wrist that was still lying limply beside her, as the other continued to reach up.
“Lois, what do I do?” Clark’s voice was pleading as his eyes flitted between the two women.
Lois gaped, her mouth hanging open as her eyes searched Kara’s eyes that seemed to be looking past Clark’s face that hovered above her.
“Kara, can you see me?” Clark asked.
Kara didn’t respond. Her face was twisted in pain or grief. Tears were sliding from the corners of her eyes and settling by her ears, tracing the slopes of her cheeks downwards. Her mouth was steadily moving, kryptonion words falling on deaf ears.
The moment stretched on, but Kara’s voice quieted, melting into murmurs in a different language as her eyes slid shut.
Her cheeks were feverishly pink and slick with sweat, but the black in her veins had gone completely.
Clark, Lois, and Krypto hadn’t moved.
The dog had taken to licking at her chin and letting out quiet whines, his usual tactic for waking her in the morning, but neither was doing the trick.
Lois had a hand on Krypto, scratching behind his ear, and the other remained on Kara’s wrist, feeling for her pulse, while Clark stared over her face.
They stayed like that for a while, until Kara’s features scrunched and unscrunched as she rolled onto her side.
“I’m gonna be sick.” She muttered, and Lois had grabbed the small couch-side garbage pail just in time for her vomit to rocket with impressive speed. “Damn.” She muttered, flopping back down onto the couch, with an excited Krypto wagging his tail on her chest. Her elbow moved to cover her eyes as she limply groaned.
“Where the fuck-” Her voice cut off when she realized Clark and Lois were staring at her. “Umm…” Her voice was gravely.
“You got dosed by LexCorp. Silver and green kryptonite.” Lois supplied, her hand moving to the base of Clark’s neck.
She grimaced, nodding shortly.
“Embarrassing.”
“Don’t be embarrassed,” Clark replied immediately. “How do you feel?”
“Like shit.” She cleared her throat, “Can I have some water?”
Clark stood so fast he almost tripped on his cape, stumbling into the kitchen and filling a cup of water to its brim.
He was on the verge of sprinting as he rounded the sofa’s corner back to her side. “Do you need help sitting up?” He asked, offering her his other hand.
She nodded.
Her cheeks were no longer pink, her entire face was now eerily and entirely void of any color.
Clark slid his arm underneath her back, helping her to prop up against the arm of the couch. She let out a hushed groan at the movement, and then took the cup of water that Clark all-but forced into her hands.
Clark continued to hover as she took a sip. She immediately coughed, the sound rattling her body as Clark reached to steady the cup of water in her hands.
“Easy,” He murmured, his brows knit in concern, as his other arm held her shoulder in an attempt to stop her from jostling too much.
She swallowed again, slower this time.
Lois didn’t say a word, just watching the rare interaction between the two cousins. She hadn’t seen them around one another too often, it was rare that they were in the same room. She remembered the first time she met Kara. She didn’t speak a word of English, and carried an invisible weight, one Lois later learned was the weight of the death of Kryton. This was only their third time meeting, and Lois felt as though she should leave, give the two a moment alone, but she couldn’t quite make her legs wheel her away from Kara's, or Clark’s, side.
Kara let out a breath that sounded like it hurt. “God.” She rasped, “I feel like I just got run over.”
Clark’s jaw clenched. “Kryptonite has that effect.”
“And it’s synthetic,” Lois added. “Do we have any idea what the long-term effects could be?”
Clark shook his head, “No.”
“Pretty sure the long-term effect is ‘sucks,’” Clark replied, earning a short chuckle from Kara.
There was an awkward pause, “Um. Thank you, thank you both.” Kara said awkwardly.
Clark began to nod furiously, “Anytime.”
Lois shot him a glance from the corner of her eye with a raised brow at his continued nodding, “Of course. Are you feeling better?”
“Yeah, I am.”