Chapter Text
Alex carefully examined the room while still appearing to be focused on her laptop. She didn’t look out of place at all; the coffee shop offered free wifi, table service (except when really busy), and plenty of outlets. She was far from the only person there studiously working. Or, in her case, pretending to be studiously working as they set up a sting.
The last civilian exited the coffee shop, the remaining patrons actually a collection of undercover agents from three different government agencies.
Alex shifted in her seat, readying herself for action, and tapped a key on her computer, sending the “go” signal to all of her agents' devices simultaneously.
She sprung out of her chair in concert with a dozen other agents, guns and badges coming out. The shop workers froze for a single blessed moment.
Then it all went to hell.
---
As soon as she was free of the building, Alex stomped towards Supergirl, who was standing off to the side, talking to some flunky agent who was taking studious notes.
“You!!!” Alex roared.
The flunky looked up, turned pale when he saw Alex’s face and bolted. Supergirl turned, did a double take at Alex’s expression, then shrunk a little after frantically looking around for anyone else Alex could be yelling at.
Alex stopped inches away from the super and poked her in the chest. It hurt. “We had everything under control! And then you come in and muff everything up!”
“I helped,” Supergirl tried to protest.
“We had it handled!”
Vasquez, who had sidled over as soon as Alex stormed up, chimed in, flicking through the security footage on her tablet. “Actually, Supergirl did minimize casualties. You yourself probably would have gotten pretty badly hurt. Worse then you are, I mean.” She looked pointedly at Alex’s arm, which was hanging stiffly by her side. Then Vasquez smirked. “I know you think you can outrun a bullet, but you’re just fast, not ‘Super’-fast.” She shot a grin at the superhero, who smiled back hesitantly.
Alex hit Vasquez with her most dreaded glare. “Not helping, Vasquez!”
Vasquez was annoyingly unaffected by the glare. She just shrugged and wandered off to corral the crime scene techs.
Alex turned back to Supergirl, poking her once more “Seriously! What were you even doing here? Do you skulk around in alleys waiting for trouble? What were you thinking, jumping into a very obviously government operation? We had plans! The sort that depend on knowing who’s friendly and who isn’t, not getting distracted by some civilian trying to be a do-gooder! You caused more confusion, more damage, and made the whole thing take longer than it needed to be. My agents had to spend precious energy dealing with you instead of taking down the bad guys.” She gestured behind her. “And now look! We’ve got a destroyed shop front, contaminated evidence . . .” Alex paused in her rant, distracted by a police detective trying to take over the scene. She was easily rebuffed, however, with the weight of the agencies behind the op and sulked back to her cruiser. There was a long pause while Alex scanned the scene. It seemed clean-up was going as efficiently as could be expected.
A small cough turned her attention back to the superhero. "I’m really sorry. I didn’t know it was an official operation. I heard the guns and thought it was a hold-up. Then I got there and everybody was yelling and . . ." she trailed off, her voice quiet.
Alex gave the superhero a good look. She had her arm wrapped around her middle and was sheepishly digging the toe of her boot into the concrete, creating an impressive hole as she did so. And now Alex felt bad.
"No, I suppose you couldn't have known. We were trying to keep it a secret, after all. And I didn't have to be a dick about it."
"You weren't a, a, jerk." She muttered.
Alex quirked half a smile. Now that her anger had fizzled away, she could acknowledge that this particular super was pretty damn adorable. Much more attractive than Superman. Even if she did have his horrible fashion sense.
"I kind of was." Alex restated. "You were only trying to help, after all, and everything worked out in the end. You even saved my life, if Vasquez is to be believed."
This seemed to make the superhero sadder. "I know, but sometimes it feels like I just make things worse! I mean, I messed up your op and broke your arm and, and, did a lot of property damage!" She glared balefully down at the now crater under her foot, snuffling back tears.
"Hey, hey, it's okay." Alex reached out and awkwardly patted her on the shoulder. "Look, maybe we can get you some training, huh? Some practice with your powers, some ethics classes, maybe enroll you in the academy or something. That'll help."
"You, you could do that?"
The superhero looked up through her lashes, a wet smile on her face.
Alex swallowed. This woman was really too attractive for Alex's sanity. "Sure." She waved Vasquez back over. "I don't think anyone will mind and it would make everybody's life easier if we worked together, right?
Vasquez unsuccessfully hid a smile at Alex's bumbling words. "What do you need, boss?" She glanced at Alex's arm. "Besides a medic."
"Ah, Vasquez. We were just discussing the possibility of working more closely with our local superhero. Can we get Supergirl here signed up for some academy classes?"
Vasquez glanced at Supergirl's hopeful face and then back to Alex, who was trying to look like this plan had been around for months and not something she came up with off the cuff to make a pretty girl stop crying.
"Working more closely with our local superhero. I just bet you do. Sure thing." Vasquez pulled out a notepad and scribbled some stuff down. "Here's our contact info. You can call or email or whatever and we can talk about which classes would be most effective and fit with your schedule."
Supergirl accepted the note and tucked it away in some pocket. “Will this make up for ruining the op?”
Vasquez glanced at Alex who was again frowning at the techs hauling evidence from the coffee shop. When it appeared Alex wasn’t going to answer Supergirl, she replied. “You didn't ruin the op. But, yeah, I think it will really help. You could take some classes on hostage negotiation or local regulations. It’d certainly make the agents feel better about working with you and make you more effective.”
"Okay, I’ll do that.” Supergirl turns to Alex, “But how can I make it up to you?"
Alex, once she realized Supergirl was talking to her, waved it off. “It’s fine. You reduced casualties. No need to make it up to me.”
“I broke your arm!”
Alex shrugs. “Not the first time.” She felt a buzz in her pocket and pulled out her phone. It was her mom. She sighed. “I need to take this, excuse me.”
She stepped away a few yards, vaguely listening to Supergirl and Vasquez starting to go over the training academy’s schedule as she picked up.
“Hey, Mom.”
“. . .”
“Yeah, I’m planning to come down this weekend.”
“. . .”
“Well, it depends how long the paperwork takes. We just finished a big case.”
“. . .”
“No, I’m not married to my work.”
“. . .”
“No, Mom.” Alex paced in a tight circle, ending up facing Supergirl and Vasquez, who now appeared to be discussing . . . tattoos? “I’m not going to be alone for the rest for my life.”
“. . .”
“I’m not undesirable! I’ll have you know I have been on several dates recently.”
Supergirl and Vasquez stopped chatting and were now blatantly eavesdropping. Vasquez even had the temerity to snort at Alex’s comment. She knew very well the last date Alex had been on was over two years ago.
“. . .”
“No, of course I haven’t asked her, it’s a bit soon for that!”
“. . .”
“Okay, fine, I'll suggest it, but don’t be disappointed if she can’t make it.”
“. . .”
“No! I’m not making her up!”
“. . .”
“Look, Mom, I need to go. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“. . .”
“Okay. Love you. Bye.”
Alex shoved her phone back in her pocket and glared at Vasquez. “Stop sniggering.”
Vasquez chuckled. “Can’t help it. You just invented a fake date to get your mom off your back, and I don’t think it worked.”
Alex groaned. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. She’s never going to believe me if my fake date conveniently doesn’t show up.”
“Can I help?” Supergirl chimed in.
Alex opened her mouth to politely decline when she paused. "Actually, yeah. What are you doing for the holidays?"