Chapter Text
“How are they?” Alex demanded as she raced into the medbay, Kara and Mon-El not far behind her. Winn was sitting on the bed closest to the door having the back of his head examined while J’onn was lying, either resting or unconscious, on the other one. Winn didn’t look over when Alex entered, but when she reached out and grabbed his arm, he did turn his head slowly to make eye contact.
“How is he?” Alex asked Danielle, the tech who was currently holding a slightly spotted pad of gauze to the back of Winn’s head.
“He is right here,” Winn said with a wince. His right hand went to the back of his head, to hold the gauze in place while his left waved Danielle away. “And he is fine.”
Alex continued to look over Winn’s head, for the moment ignoring his assessment, until Danielle spoke up. “Agent Schott took a nasty hit to the back of the head and briefly lost consciousness, but he isn’t showing signs of a concussion.”
“That’s good to hear.” Alex tightened her grip on Winn’s arm in relief, then asked, “And how’s J’onn?” as she headed over to her boss’ bed and began reviewing his vitals. It was only out of the corner of her eye that she saw Danielle excuse herself from the room.
“He’ll be fine.” Winn winced again then gently said, “Look, Jeremiah got the jump on us. Down in the server room.”
Alex felt like she’d been punched in the gut. “He couldn’t have,” she breathed, before her brain raced to make sense of what she’d heard. It had to have been someone else: a double, an alien in disguise, a robot even. Not her father.
She looked back at J’onn, this time really seeing the angry, still oozing, cut on his cheek. “Even if my dad has turned, there is no way he could have overpowered J'onn.”
At that very moment, J’onn’s eyes flitted opened. “Yeah. That's what I would have thought,” he said in a voice more gravelly than usual.
“J’onn," Kara said with audible relief. "Thank Rao you're okay."
J’onn just rolled his head slightly so he could face Alex. “Jeremiah's arm, the one we thought had nerve damage, it's been enhanced. Cybernetically.”
“Like Hank Henshaw?” asked Kara.
Again, J’onn seemed to ignore the question as he looked up at Alex and shook his head. “Jeremiah isn't who he was. I'm sorry.”
“Not as sorry as Cadmus is gonna be.” Of that, Alex was absolutely sure.
The situation quickly devolved as they tracked Jeremiah to the woods and Alex was unable to pull the trigger when he was in her sights. Then, because she didn’t have enough to deal with already, her mom showed up at the DEO, disrupting Alex’s plan to check on Winn and J’onn. Given that her mother had come all this way though, Alex filled her in on what they knew about Jeremiah while dropping her off at a nearby hotel, before returning to the DEO, where she pulled herself together in the locker room while changing back into her uniform.
After checking in on J’onn and confirming he was suffering no lasting effects from his fight with Jeremiah, she wandered down to the server room where she found Winn sitting amidst a pile of parts, holding a laptop connected to the server racks by a long yellow cord with one hand while furiously typing with his other. From this angle, Alex was able to see Winn squinting at the screen, despite the fact his nose was only a few inches away. The gauze was gone from the back of his head, but a slim red line, almost perfectly centered on his skull, was still visible.
Alex lowered herself to the ground off to Winn’s side and slid a plastic clamshell containing a tuna fish sandwich and house-made chips over to him. Winn startled as the container came into contact with his leg and skidded to his left as far as the yellow cord would allow.
“Whoa there, tiger,” Alex said, holding her hands up to her shoulders to show she meant no harm. “It’s just me.”
Winn blinked at her in confusion for a moment, before recognition set in. “Jesus, Alex. You’re going to give me a heart attack if you keep that up,” he grumbled as he resituated himself in his original spot and rubbed at his upper left chest with the hand not holding the laptop.
“I didn’t mean to. I thought you heard me.”
Winn pointed to the ceiling, where the A/C unit was running at full blast, then to the servers which were humming happily. “Over all that? I’m human, not Kryptonian.”
“I’ll be louder next time,” Alex promised. Then she pulled a small bottle of Advil out of her pocket and slid it across the floor so that it crashed softly into the takeout container. “For your headache.”
“I already took four.” Winn put aside his laptop and dug hungrily into the sandwich. “My favorite,” he said around a very large mouthful of food. “Thanks!”
Alex hadn’t yet moved on from the fact Winn had downed four Advil, twice the recommended dosage. “Your headache is that bad, huh?” If that was true, he should be at home resting, not still trying to work on what Jeremiah had stolen from the mainframe… Not that Alex thought she’d have any luck actually getting him to leave. Not when Jeremiah was still out there.
Fortunately, Winn shook his head, but was unable to hide a wince as he did so. “I’ve had worse.”
“Myriad?”
Winn swallowed a massive mouthful of sandwich then said, “No. I, uh, was in a bad car accident when I was nine. On the way to Disneyland with my mom. Banged my head against the window. Couldn’t look at a screen for ten days, which was torture for a nerdy kid like me.” Winn paused for a brief second then added, “I never did get to go to Disneyland. You think Mon-El would like it? I could probably rope—”
Suddenly, Winn broke out into a coughing fit, which left him rubbing at his throat... which Alex just now realized was ringed in a rather distinct set of bruises.
God, Winn. If Jeremiah was able to knock out and seriously injure J’onn, a Green Martian, who knows what he could have done to Winn, who was, for all intents and purposes, a normal human.
Alex couldn’t let herself spiral on that now though. Later, yes, after she was sure Winn was situated, and she was back in the comfort and privacy of her apartment, but not now.
She rose to her feet and snagged Winn’s reusable water bottle from the nearby worktable. As she sat again, she started rubbing large circles on Winn’s back with one hand while holding out the water bottle with the other.
Winn took it with a shaky hand, popped the lid off, and pulled in a few short sips. When his chest stopped shuddering, he turned to Alex and gasped, “Thanks.”
“Was it your throat?” Alex asked, not entirely sure she wanted to hear the answer.
Winn shook his head again. “Choked on the crust.” Then, as if sensing where this conversation was headed, he quickly added, “You’d think I’d have learned how to breathe and swallow separately by now. I am almost—”
“Can I see them?”
Winn reflexively shrugged down into the comfort of his hoodie, hiding his neck from view. “I’m fine, Alex. Really. They’re not that bad.”
“Please.”
Winn looked at her for a long moment, his expression almost pained, but then caved and pulled down his hoodie to reveal the bruises. “It’s not as bad as it looks.” Alex felt her jaw clench as Winn barreled forward: “I shouldn’t have gone in there. Shoulda called you guys instead.”
“You did nothing wrong.” Alex ghosted her fingertips across Winn’s throat, unable to miss how he flinched when she did so. “It was his fault. Not yours.” The words were hard for her to admit, even though they were the truth. She felt tears working their way into her eyes, and forced them back. Not yet. Not until she was home, safe, and away from prying eyes.
Winn looked like he wanted to say something, but Alex cleared her throat first. “Did Danielle look at this?”
Winn nodded, his expression fracturing slightly. “They’re totally superficial, supposed to be healed in a few days. There’s nothing for anyone, especially you, to worry about.”
Alex very much doubted that was true, but she nodded all the same. “How much longer do you have down here?” she then asked, desperate to distract herself from the imminent breakdown looming overhead.
Winn shrugged, then returned to eating his sandwich more slowly, taking sips of water every few bites. “I’m restoring the backups of the drives that were damaged. We’re lucky he mainly shot out the monitors and not the server racks cos then we’d have been in some real trouble.” He looked at her and winced again. “Sorry.”
Alex waved off his concern. “Then what?”
“Well, when they’re all up and healthy, we can run a full scan and see what was accessed most recently.”
“How long will that take?”
“Uh, a few hours maybe? Depends on how long it takes to restore the drives.” He looked over at her then said, “But I can get Demos to do this if you need me to do something else.”
“No, but I don’t want you here all night alone either. You need some rest.”
“I’ll rest when this is all over,” Winn said, closing the plastic clamshell and holding up three crumby fingers in a Scout salute. “Hell, I might even go to Disneyland if J’onn will give me the time off.” He then paused, visibly considering it. “That’s not creepy, right? A single man going to Disneyland by himself?”
“No,” Alex said, laughing despite herself. “Not at all. I think you should go.”
“Maybe I will.” Without warning, Winn reached over and pulled Alex into a hug. “I’m sorry,” he said, head buried tightly into her shoulder.
It should have been fine. She should have been able to reach out and return the hug. She should have been able to keep it together for another hour. But somehow, Winn’s kindness was the straw that broke the dam holding back her tears. “I have to go,” she stated, pushing up from the floor as wetness danced behind her eyes and her nose began to run. “Please don’t stay here all night.”
“Alex,” Winn called as he struggled to his feet and tried to chase after her. But by the time he made it out of the doorway, she was long gone.