Chapter 1
She heads to the hospitals first.
Not in her Supergirl costume, of course – she doesn’t want to draw undue attention. The last time she was here, someone managed to snap a blurry video of her in action on an iPhone. Apparently, Barry and the others were able to explain away the strange flying girl who could shoot lasers out of her eyes by chalking it up to alien-induced mass hallucination, or something, but she’s not going to risk altering the timeline by getting spotted again.
Plus, she’s pretty sure this isn’t what Cisco had in mind when he’d given her his universe-crossing transponder thing.
This being skulking around an alternate version of National City looking for her sister.
But Kara doesn’t have time to process the ethics of using cross-dimensional travel for non-world-saving purposes. This is the third and only hospital left in National City, and she’s already spent almost half a day hanging around the other two without much luck. This has got to be it.
Kara flips the page of the newspaper she’s pretending to read and takes a deep breath, willing herself to listen. Past the hospital chatter and beeping monitors and wheeling gurneys; down the hallways and corridors and into the wards; searching and flitting through every living being in this building for Alex – her voice, a laugh, or any mention of a “Dr. Danvers”–
“You know, honey, you’re not fooling anyone.”
The voice is clear, sharp, and seems to be coming from somewhere nearby. Kara jerks and crushes the edges of her newspaper, lowering it to locate the source. It’s coming from the middle-aged nurse behind the counter opposite Kara, who is currently watching her with knowing eyes.
“You’ve been sitting in that same seat for almost two hours now, so you might as well go ahead and tell me if I can help you with something,” she nods.
Kara hesitates. The nurse is still looking at her, but there is a tiny hint of a smile on her lips. Her eyes look sharp but kind.
“I– I’m looking for someone,” Kara says finally.
“Well, you sure aren’t going to find them by just sitting there pretending to read that newspaper,” the woman lowers her glasses conspiratorially, and Kara’s eyes widen at being caught. So much for being inconspicuous, she scolds herself.
“So, want to tell me who you’re looking for, or should I just go back to pretending I don’t see you sitting there?”
Kara lets out a breath. She considers, for a split second, asking this nurse about Alex. But then she remembers Flashpoint and the fact that she isn’t even supposed to be here in the first place, and panics when she realises she shouldn’t have been noticed at all. And Kara’s been here for hours. If she hasn’t managed to find Alex yet, it’s probably because Alex doesn’t actually work here.
“No, no, that’s okay. She’s not here. Thanks, though,” Kara says, hastily picks up her things, and leaves.
--
Kara flies to the Danvers’ home next, mostly because she hasn’t got a clue where to go. In a universe where Kara had never crash-landed into Alex’s life via space pod, Kara was so sure this Alex would’ve gone and become a doctor eventually. Just like her Alex, this one would probably be saving lives and being brilliant and badass and beautiful–
She slows down as she reaches the house, checking to see if Eliza is home. Kara finds her holed up in the Danvers’ study cum mini-laboratory, bent over a microscope. Which is great for Kara, because she knows from experience that an Eliza at work is an Eliza so absorbed that she probably wouldn’t notice if an alien entered her house looking for clues on where to find her daughter.
Kara quietly eases herself into an open window and takes a moment to gather her bearings, noiselessly hovering an inch above the ground. The house is mostly the same as she’d remembered it back on her Earth, but parts of it are out of place.
For one, her room isn't actually her room (of course) but seems to be another study or library of sorts. Family pictures still hang along the walls, but without Kara around, most of them are of Alex.
Kara stops as she comes across one of a grinning Alex with her surfboard and frowns. It’s familiar because the Danvers’ hallway back on her Earth had this same photo of Alex at about the same age, but it’s also…different. Alex’s surfboard is red instead of blue, and her hair – which had been long on Kara’s Earth until she’d joined the DEO and had it cut – hangs short and shaggy-wet below her chin.
But there isn’t time to obsess over the length of teenage Alex’s hair or surfboard preferences. Kara has already spent much longer than she’d expected in this universe, and she knows from experience that every minute spent here is a minute away from her Earth. The last time she’d been off-world to help Barry fight the alien invasion, she’d come home to a very cross Alex demanding to know where she’d been and scolding her for not leaving a note.
Kara figures Alex’s room would be the best place to start, so she hovers down to the end of the hallway. She’s just shut Alex’s door quietly behind her when she hears the front door open and shut. Kara glances through the door at the lab across the hallway, but Eliza is still there so who could it- oh. Oh. Kara looks down in time to see Jeremiah start walking up the stairs.
Kara knew, of course, abstractly, that on this Earth Jeremiah would likely still be alive and safe, but seeing him in the flesh is completely different. She can’t help but watch as he heads straight to the lab as if he just knows that Eliza would be there. He bends down to peck a smiling Eliza on the mouth, in that casually couple-y way he always did, when Kara was a kid and before he had disappeared.
Kara’s fingers drift towards the lead-lined glasses in her back pocket, her throat thick.
It’s suddenly too much, and Kara really, really shouldn’t be here, so she backs away from the door, away from Eliza and Jeremiah and this house that she knows so well but never lived in, and she fumbles to get the window open so she can get herself out of here.
--
Kara doesn’t even realise where she’s going until she finds herself back in the city, two blocks away from Noonan’s. She’s still got an hour before she really needs to get back to her Earth, so she ducks inside.
Noonan’s looks exactly the same as it did back home (right down to the fact that Suzy’s on her regular Wednesday evening shift behind the bar) but after the day Kara’s had, she’s not sure if she finds it reassuring or discomfitting. Suzy takes her order with a polite smile and no recognition whatsoever, and Kara settles herself down at her usual spot.
Kara absently picks at the sticky buns on her plate. She’s starting to think it was a dumb idea to have come here in the first place. Honestly, she didn’t think it’d be that hard to find her sister, but here she is, 8 hours later, and still no Alex. She’s lucky she hasn’t been noticed (except that nurse, her brain supplies helpfully) and she should really be getting back soon before her people back home start to notice she’s–
“Hey, think I could steal that napkin over there?”
Kara blinks, snapping out of her thoughts at a familiar voice because no, it can’t be, but it is, and she looks up to see Alex, smiling down at her.