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The flash is instant, the alley she’s standing in vanishing momentarily before the world is bright around her once again.
Alex blinks spots from her vision as a red and blue-clad blur lands in front of her.
“Alex, are you okay? You went off comms for a moment and Winn couldn’t find you?”
“I’m fine.” She glances around but everything seems the same as it was before.
“Alex?”
“Hmm?” Alex hums, eyes back on Kara.
“Maybe we should get you back to the DEO, make sure everything checks out.”
Alex agrees, because something weird definitely happened.
She accepts Kara’s lift back to the DEO where J’onn meets them. “Supergirl’s mission was a success, do you know why your comms dropped?”
“I’m getting weird readings from that alley,” Winn pipes in, joining the group as he taps away on a tablet in his hand. “I think you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ll keep checking, see if I can figure out what caused it.”
At Kara’s instance, one of the doctors runs a few tests on her but everything comes back clear, just like Alex knew it would. Something weird did happen in that alley, but she herself feels completely normal.
Despite her protests, J’onn gives her the rest of the day off anyway and Alex only says yes if he promises to call her if anything big happens.
Kara offers her a lift home, because apparently she’s still worried about her. Alex only let’s her because even after all these years, she still can’t resist Kara’s pout.
The moment they land though, Alex knows something is wrong and she rethinks leaving the DEO and refusing more tests.
This is definitely her apartment, there are scatterings of her belongings everywhere, but there’s a lot of stuff she doesn’t recognise, the lamp beside the couch isn’t hers and neither’s the fruit bowl in the middle of the table. She wishes the coffee machine she spots on the counter was hers, it’s much fancier than the one that had been there this morning.
But the real clue that something is wrong is the frankly alarming amount of baby stuff scattered around the room. She knows she wants a kid someday, a family, but this is something else entirely.
She’s about to question Kara when Kara’s phone rings.
“Hey, honey.”
Alex looks to Kara in shock, who is she talking to?
“Yep, I’m dropping Alex at home then I just have to finish my article and then we can have dinner, if that still works for you?”
“Perfect,” Kara continues after a moment. “I’ll pick you after work. I love you.”
A moment later Kara hangs up the phone.
“Who was-“ Alex doesn’t have time to ask her question, cut off by the lock clicking and Maggie opening the door.
“Kara called me, are you okay?” Maggie asks as she spots them and makes her way across the apartment.
Alex turns back to Kara. Why on earth had she called Maggie of all people?
She’s engulfed in a warm hug before she can even realise what’s happening. Maggie is solid against her and despite herself, Alex can’t help but sink into the unexpected contact.
“Babe?”
“I’m fine,” Alex manages to get out, the contact making it hard enough to concentrate but babe??
Maggie pulls away, one of her hands coming up to tuck a loose strand of Alex’s hair behind her ear.
She has no idea what’s going on but this can’t be real.
“Duty calls,” Kara says, cutting through Alex’s thoughts and even she can hear the sirens in the distance. Alex wants to ask her more about what exactly is going on here but before she can, Kara is gone.
“Are you okay?” Maggie repeats. “Kara didn’t tell me much, just that something strange happened when you were on a mission earlier.”
Alex glances around. “I think something’s wrong.”
“Wrong? Do we need to get you back to the DEO?”
“I…” Alex trails off, she’s not sure what she needs.
“Come on,” Maggie says, slipping her hand into Alex’s.
Alex can do nothing but follow Maggie’s lead, she still has no idea why Maggie is even here. Sure, she likes that Maggie is here, likes that she’s looking out for her and that she cares for her, but she’s not sure why Kara called Maggie specifically.
“I’ll call Lena on the way, see if she has time to pick up Jamie from daycare.”
“Jamie?” Alex asks. She doesn’t have time to wonder why she’d call Lena, there’s just too much information hitting her brain at once.
That stops Maggie is her tracks, clear concern in her eyes now. “…our daughter.”
Alex blanches. Daughter?
Maggie’s concern only grows as she presses the back of her free hand to Alex’s forehead. As her hand retreats, Alex’s catches the glint of what looks suspiciously like a ring on Maggie’s finger.
“You’re married?” she blurts, which definitely isn’t the most important thing right now but she has to focus on something.
This is all to much to handle.
“What year is it?”
The question throws Alex completely, what sort of question is that? “2017.”
“Okay, we need to get you to the DEO immediately.”
“What, why?” But as Alex takes in everything she’s just learnt, she thinks she already knows the answer.
“It’s 2021.”
---
Maggie explains what’s going on to J’onn as soon as they arrive and Kara returns not long later, looking equally concerned as Maggie.
“It’s that alley,” Winn says. “Something’s not right, the readings are all over the place. I suggest we start there.”
They go to the site where things had turned strange, Winn setting up equipment while Alex looks over the data. There’s definitely something wrong with the readings.
Kara uses her x-ray vision to look for anything out of the ordinary but comes up empty.
Maggie steps up beside her. “We’re not together yet, are we? Where you’ve come from?”
Alex puts down the tablet she’d been using and gives Maggie her full attention. She shakes her head, even as it gives her hope for the future. Now that she knows what’s going on, she feels so much calmer about the whole situation. “Are we happy?”
Maggie threads their fingers together. “You make me happier than I ever thought I could be.”
Alex smiles. “I think you make me happy too.”
Maggie smiles, nudges her side. “I do, you’ve told me so yourself.”
The thought fills her stomach with warmth.
Static in the air is the only clue that something is about to happen and the next thing she knows, her hand is empty and Winn and Maggie are no longer there.
Kara is though.
“Thank God you’re back.” Alex gets hit by what feels like a brick wall, her sister pulling her into a tight hug.
“How long was I gone?”
“Not long,” Kara says, looking around. “There was another you here, you wouldn’t tell me anything except that she was from the future and that we just had to wait here and you were going to return.”
“You met future me?”
Kara nods.
“What was she like?”
“Exactly the same as you except she was cooler.”
Alex hits her on the shoulder, but only manages to hurt herself.
“She also said that you should just go for it, after what you’ve seen, you already know what the answer is. Which was incredibly cryptic but I assume you know what it means?”
Alex nods. Translation, she should ask Maggie out.
“Come on,” Kara says with a smile. “We’re going to have some explaining to do to J’onn.”
They debrief her at the DEO, Alex being purposefully vague about what she’d seen. That’s all of their futures, and while she mostly learnt about her and a bit about Kara, it’s better if no one knows but her.
They’re happy, both of them, in the future, and that’s what matters.
And also what matters is Maggie. She wants that, the life they had, and she knows what she has to do to get it, thanks to the advice of her future self.
Which is incredibly weird to think about but clearly she knows what she’s talking about.
She goes and finds Maggie.
And then she doesn’t let any of her previous fears stand in the way.
Maggie likes her, that much is clear from the future and if she wants that life, a wife and a child, then she has to do something about it.
She has to ask out the woman she’s had a crush on since they met, even if she didn’t know it at the time.
“Do you want to have a drink with me?”
Maggie opens her mouth to answer but Alex cuts in, needs Maggie to know her intention.
“For the record, I’m asking you on a date.”
Maggie’s dimples come out in full force, her smile turning soft, and Alex knows she’s made the right decision.
‘I’d love to.”