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It had taken a lot of organizing, but finally, Alex and Maggie were both free on the same weekend. Both had managed to put in time off for work, meaning neither was even on call. As soon as they had confirmation from J'onn and from Maggie's sergeant, Alex booked the cabin.
It was their first vacation together. They'd drive up to the mountains on the Friday, after work, and come back home on Sunday evening. Just a short, quick trip, getting away from everything.
The Daxamite invasion was still fresh in their minds. While they were both a little hesitant to go, Kara had implored them to take the time to themselves and to relax. She assured them she'd take care of anything that came up.
Alex had been a little worried about leaving Kara alone — she still wasn't over Mon-El — but J'onn and Winn said they'd keep an eye on her. Winn said he'd try to organize a game night that weekend with James and Lena.
That had been the last hesitation on Alex's part. When they got into the car on Friday after dinner, she was ready to just put everything behind them and focus on a lovely weekend together.
They listened to the Barenaked Ladies on the way up to the cabin, starting with Gordon and moving through Maybe You Should Drive and Born on a Pirate Ship. They were singing along to Hello City on the live album, Rock Spectacle, when the GPS told Maggie to take a right off of the main road. The car rumbled across the dirt road, just the occasional streetlight to guide their way as they climbed higher in elevation. They continued for another several minutes, driving deep into the woods, before coming to the end of the road. As the website had said, they saw the porch light on at the cabin, waiting for them.
They pulled into the dirt driveway by the cabin and Alex got out, taking a deep breath of the pine-scented air. "That smells amazing," she said.
"It does," Maggie agreed.
Together, they brought their bags to the front door where Alex found the false rock that housed the key. She opened up the door and flipped on the lights.
It was beautiful inside. Hardwood floors greeted them with a big stone fireplace and a cozy couch. A large flat-screen TV was also in view.
"Danvers, how much did this set us back?" Maggie laughed.
"Oh, it was a lot," she admitted. "There's a hot tub on the back porch."
"Ooh, can't wait."
They brought their bags into the bedroom, which had a king-size bed and luxurious wall-to-wall carpeting. There was a full ensuite bathroom, with a massive tub. The view from the bedroom looked out on to the small lake. It was too dark to see much, but Alex could see the stars out and they were plentiful. "I want to spend some time stargazing," she murmured.
The kitchen was state-of-the-art, pretty out of place for a cabin, but still somehow retained a somewhat rustic feel. They unpacked their food from the coolers they'd brought and put everything into the fridge. They were more or less settled within twenty minutes and next up was trying out the hot tub. Alex turned it on and let it heat up and grabbed two beers from the fridge.
Eschewing their bathing suits, they settled into the warm, bubbling water in the cool, autumn evening.
"To a weekend for us," Alex toasted.
"For us," Maggie agreed, clinking their bottles and then taking a sip.
They'd turned off the lights in the cabin so they could see the stars and Alex just gazed upward, letting herself look into infinity. It always took her breath away.
She noticed Maggie repositioning herself closer to Alex. "All right, Danvers, show me the stars."
She grinned. "It's gorgeous out tonight, isn't it? You can just see through to the rest of the galaxy."
"Yeah?"
She nodded. "See that kind of hazy, blurry white line?" she said, pointing.
"I think so, yeah."
"That's the center of the Milky Way."
"No kidding?"
"For real. It's hard to see. Man, I wish I'd brought my telescope," she muttered. "Anyway, that's the center of our galaxy and we're in a spiral arm, a fair way away from the center."
"That's wild, I had no idea," said Maggie. She sat back, looking up. "To think we're looking at this huge, distinctive part of our galaxy… and who knows how many other galaxies are out there."
"Right? We're looking into infinity. Into eternity."
Maggie leaned against Alex. "I'm glad you're part of my eternity."
She smiled and kissed the top of Maggie's head. "Me, too."
They spent some time with Alex pointing out various constellations and showing roughly where Krypton would have been, had it survived.
"It's still amazing to think Kara and Clark made it all this way," Maggie remarked.
"87 light-years away," she murmured.
"Wow."
"Yeah, the Kryptonians' technology is nothing to sneeze at."
They chatted for the next half hour or so, drinking their beers, letting the cool air around them and the warm water of the hot tub relax them. Soon enough, they started yawning.
They crawled into bed shortly thereafter, snuggled together, and fell asleep.
***
The next day, they slept in and went for a short hike to one of the surrounding nearby peaks for lunch. It wasn't a particularly high one, not compared to the others, but it still gave them a beautiful view for a picnic.
In the afternoon, they spent time in the canoe on the lake and playing Scrabble indoors.
Alex was trying desperately to place RAVENS on the board in their third game, but it didn't look as though she could fit it anywhere. She looked at her tiles again and wondered if she could spell anything else that would fit. R A V E N S S. There was VANES, RAVES, SANE, VERSA. She frowned. Nothing would fit that would get some bonus points. They had each won a game and Maggie was leading, so she would have to put down a good word in a good spot if she wanted to win.
Without warning, the lights went off, leaving the room only lit by the dying rays of the sun.
"Uh, oh," Maggie murmured. "Power failure?"
Alex made a face and got up to go to the kitchen. She flipped the lights on there, to no avail. "Nothing here," she called, opening the fuse box to be sure. None of circuits seemed broken.
Maggie had connected to the spotty 3G service on her phone and reported the outage to the local power company, while Alex hunted for candles and matches.
She returned, victorious in her search, with an electric camping lantern, several candles and a box of matches.
"Anything on the website for the power company?"
"Nothing. Not even an acknowledgement that there's an outage here," she muttered.
"Well, at least we won't be cold, not with the fireplace, and we have light."
"And some food from the picnic, I guess."
"Yeah, not too bad," Alex said, nodding. "Guess we'll call that a tie on the Scrabble game, then?"
Maggie looked up at her. "Sit your ass back down, Danvers, we can finish the game by candlelight."
Alex sighed and lit a candle, bringing it back to the board.
***
After Maggie's victory, they'd started a fire in the fireplace, as the power had yet to come back on. Alex had set up candles around the living room, while Maggie prepared dinner.
"Well, it's the same as what we had for lunch," Maggie said, bringing the cold cuts and bread to the table, along with various condiments. "Sandwiches."
"At least we have beer too," Alex grinned, grabbing a bottle.
"There is that."
They sat at the table and assembled their sandwiches.
"You know, this may be the first real candlelit dinner we've ever had together," Alex remarked.
"Really?"
"Really." She chewed pensively. "We didn't eat on Valentine's Day."
"No, I guess we didn't." Maggie made a face. "Sorry."
"Maggie, you more than made it up for me," she smiled. "It's fine. And this is nice — romantic, even."
"Danvers, we're in the middle of the woods with no power."
"Exactly. Just me, the woman I love and a fire in the fireplace," Alex insisted.
"You have a weird definition of romantic, but I do like the fact that we're alone here with each other. No emergencies to deal with."
"Or alien attacks."
"Or dealing with wedding vendors."
Alex smiled. "It's nice, just being here with you. Without distraction."
Maggie nodded. "Yeah, okay. I can get on board with that."
They finished dinner soon enough and moved to the couch. Alex put another log on the fire and sat down on the couch, Maggie curled against her side.
"Penny for your thoughts, Danvers."
She chuckled. "You want me to be honest?"
"What kind of question is that? Yes, I want you to be honest," Maggie replied.
"When did you fall in love with me?" Alex asked, quietly.
"What?" Maggie sat up to look at her.
"I mean, I know you said it after the whole rescue thing. But, uh… when did you realize you were in love with me?"
Maggie tilted her head. "Before Valentine's Day, for sure," she said.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. Maybe… maybe when you texted me and asked me to come by your apartment, you know, after you…"
"Made the dumbest mistake of my life in pushing you away?" she chuckled.
"Well, I wouldn't have put it quite that way," Maggie grinned, curling back up with her. "But yes." She nestled herself against Alex's chest. "What about you?"
Alex smiled. "Before you ever even spent the night."
"No way. That early?"
"I had never, ever felt like this before," she said. "All I knew was that you were on my mind, all the time. I wanted to be with you, touch you, kiss you. All the time. I knew it had to be love. I could finally understand cheesy love songs and poetry. It couldn't have been anything else."
"And now?"
"Now, well, I guess the newness of it all has faded a bit… but that doesn't mean I don't still think about you constantly. I see something funny at work, and I want to tell you about it. I see a dog on the street and all I can think of is that we're gonna get a dog, someday."
"We're not naming her Gertrude."
"You totally agreed to Gertrude."
"I thought you were dying, Alex," she protested. "You can't hold me to something I promised when your life was in danger."
"Oh, sure, okay, I see how it is," Alex grinned. "Anyway. To get back to the question… You're my first thought when I wake up and my last thought when I fall asleep. You… infuse every part of my life, Maggie. And I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you."
Maggie sat back up. "You gettin' soft on me, Danvers?"
"Absolutely."
"Good." With that, Maggie reached out and pulled Alex to her, kissing her languidly.
"You know what else I don't think we've done before?" Alex asked in between kisses.
"What's that?"
"Made love by candle and firelight."
"Well, let's rectify that egregious error, shall we?"
Alex grinned. "Yes, let's."