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Alex keeps a bracelet in her sock drawer. But it's nothing dramatic.
It's just a bracelet, coloured silver and gold. It's elegant, but it's certainly not special.
Maggie finds it once, before they broke up. She'd been searching for a pair of her own socks, and she'd stumbled upon that instead. Seeing it held aloft in her hands feels wrong in Alex's gut, but she doesn't react to that. She doesn't rush over and snatch it from Maggie's hands, or get defensive, or act weird about it.
"I think I got it as a gift one birthday?" is what she says, instead. "I don't have any other bracelets, and I never wear it, so I never know where I should keep it."
There's something in Maggie's eyes when she says "It's nice", but Alex shrugs it off. She barely remembers where she got it, after all.
But she does.
She remembers exactly where she got it.
She remembers spending months looking into designs on incognito searches on her laptop in Midvale, before deciding she needed to have one custom-made. Remembers saving up her allowance and the money from summer jobs, just to be able to afford it. She remembers sneaking it into shop class, so that she could engrave the Kryptonian markings on the inside. Out of sight, but always there. The markings were important. They were the most important part.
Alex keeps a bracelet in her sock drawer. But it's nothing important.
It's just a bracelet.
When she brought it home, she considered putting it in a lead box - before she realised that something like that would just make its presence incredibly obvious to Kara. A box of lead blocking Kara's vision is a lot more noticeable than a tiny piece of jewellery.
And besides, it's not like she's hiding it from Kara or anything. That would be ridiculous.
It would be ridiculous for her to look at Kara grieving the loss of Mon-El, and to lie in bed with the bracelet between her fingers. Turning it over, feeling the markings carved on to it. Mouthing the foreign, Kryptonian words to herself.
So she doesn't do that, and she never has.
Alex keeps a bracelet in her sock drawer. But it's nothing she remembers.
For a while, at least.
J'onn wipes her mind, to protect Kara, and she forgets all about it for a little while. But she catches herself looking at rings in shop windows, instead. Looking at them the way she hadn't since being with Maggie. And she doesn't know why - doesn't know what's driving her to do it, as she wanders the city and chats with Kara as they go to get some breakfast-for-dinner together. Doesn't know what makes her heart climb into her chest when she passes by a jeweller's, and sees the diamond rings glinting.
She doesn't know why she seeks out Kara's hand and holds it whenever that happens.
Until she remembers, again. And suddenly the truth feels harder to escape than ever before.
Alex keeps a bracelet in her sock drawer. But it's nothing she'll share.
She doesn't think she'll ever share it with the person it's meant for - it's safer for it to stay hidden away. She doesn't think she'll ever be brave enough to give it to Kara - the idea being rejected sparks too strongly in her heart. She doesn't think she could survive Kara's rejection - and she knows she doesn't stand a chance.
But still, she keeps it. She keeps it in her sock drawer, because getting rid of it would mean giving up.
And she won't give up on her dreams.