Chapter Text
“I can hear you, but I won't.
Some look for trouble, while others don't.
There's a thousand reasons I should go about my day,
And ignore your whispers which I wish would go away, oh oh oh.”
Alex rubbed at her eyes tiredly with one hand as she stood in front of the video wall in the DEO operations room. It had been a very long day, but the DEO had finally managed to catch a serial killer alien known as Roach who had been terrorising the citizens of the Docklands area for close to a month before the combined efforts of the NCPD, the DEO, and Supergirl had finally been able to corner him.
He hadn’t gone down without a fight, however, and five of her agents were being transported back in medical evac choppers to receive urgent treatment in the infirmary which had already been prepped to await their arrival. Thankfully, Agent Vasquez’s preliminary on site assessments had suggested nothing life threatening had been sustained by any of the agents, so Alex was chalking this one up as a win, under the circumstances.
“Director Danvers,” Agent Dox, also known to his friends as Brainy, approached her side with a tablet in hand which he was studying as he spoke.
Alex glanced at him out of the corner of one eye, still pinching the bridge of her nose between finger and thumb as she tried to ease the tension that had built up behind her eyes through stress over the past couple of hours.
Brainy seemed not to have noticed as he was still studying his tablet intently. “First of the medical evac choppers has just landed on the roof, and the second has an E.T.A of thirty four point seven two five seconds. The infirmary is prepped and ready for the arrival of the agents. However, it appears there are now six who need treatment. Agent Whitby was discovered unconscious with a suspected concussion and is also being brought in.”
Alex nodded slowly as she dropped her hand back to her side, placed both on her hips instead and tilted her head backwards, eyes closed. “Good. That’s… good.”
“It is?” Brainy asked in confusion as he finally looked up at her. “Director Danvers, I have just informed you that a sixth agent is in need of medical attention and you respond that this is good? Perhaps I have missed something?”
“Huh?” Alex’s eyes blinked open and she sighed, turning to look tiredly at him. “Oh, no, I meant… it doesn’t matter. I’m just glad we got the bastard, that’s all. Make sure the agents get to the infirmary immediately and keep me updated on their conditions.”
“Of course,” Brainy nodded, watching her with narrowed eyes. “Also Supergirl is inbound with our pesky Roach. Shall I have her put him in an interrogation room for you?”
“Not tonight, Brainy,” Alex shook her head and turned away from the video wall at last, her hands dropping from her hips to rest at her sides. “Let him stew in a cell overnight. I’ll see him tomorrow.”
“Very well. Director Danvers?” Brainy paused, not too sure he should carry on, but knowing it was too late now anyway. Still, he waited for Alex’s acknowledgement of his question, which came moments later with a barely concealed eye roll.
“Yes, Brainy?” There was a definite growl to her words that she wasn’t able to hide, however. A growl of frustration at his apparent need to keep her talking when all she wanted to do was go home.
“May I enquire, is there something wrong, Alex?” Brainy stepped closer to minimise the risk of anyone else overhearing his informal use of her name instead of her title. “You seem somewhat distracted. If I’m not mistaken - and I very rarely am - that is the seventh time today you’ve pulled your phone out, looked at the display, frowned, and put it away again without further action. You seem less pleased each time. Would you care to discuss what’s upsetting you?”
Alex blinked, surprised by his comment. Unlike Brainy, she hadn’t been keeping count. Her hand went to the utility belt of her combat suit where she kept her phone. She withdrew it to have a look and glanced at the screen then shook her head, her hand already moving to replace it again. “It’s just a wrong number.”
Seven of them, just as he’d predicted, and all of them saying the same thing. ‘Call me.’
“Interesting,” he mused as she locked her phone then paused to glance at the lock screen wallpaper for a moment, which was a picture of herself and her girlfriend Kelly Olsen. Then she replaced the phone at her belt again as she started to walk towards the locker room, Brainy falling into step beside her. “Very interesting.”
Kelly was away in Metropolis for a couple of weeks on a business trip, so Alex had her place to herself, which meant that if she wanted a quiet night in with her pyjamas, a bottle of scotch and some trashy tv for company, Alex knew she should just keep walking and say nothing in reply to his comment. There may even be some rocky road left, assuming Kara hadn’t found it already.
And yet, even as these thoughts passed through her mind, her mouth had a whole other idea entirely. “What is?”
Brainy blinked at her, surprised. Apparently just as surprised as she was that she’d asked the question, it would seem. However, he quickly gathered himself back together and as one hand held his tablet down by his side, the other curled into a loose fist in front of him, as it so often did when he was trying to explain a point or process in great detail. “I am merely observing that whoever is sending you those messages seems particularly persistent for it to be a simple case of ‘the wrong number’. Perhaps someone really does need your assistance?”
“And perhaps it's just some drunken fool texting the wrong person and not taking no for an answer,” Alex shook her head. “We’ve all been there. Whoever it is will realise their mistake in the morning.”
“Yes, but what if it’s not just a wrong number?” Brainy pressed, getting more and more animated as he somehow convinced himself of this fact, even if he was currently failing to convince Alex herself. “What if these are messages from someone who needs our help? They are desperately reaching out, hoping and praying that we will hear their cries and go to their aid.”
“If that’s the case-” Alex pushed open the locker room door and held it open for him, before following him through. “- then why haven’t they tried calling? Why are they just sending the same exact message over and over, but not saying anything else? If they need help, why aren’t they asking for it, specifically?”
“Perhaps they cannot specify what is wrong?” Brainy suggested as Alex walked over to her locker, unlocked the door with the set of keys from her belt, then reached inside and pulled out her bike helmet and leather jacket.
Setting them on the wooden bench behind her, she started to unclip the kevlar breastplate and wrist guards of her combat suit that she was wearing, placing each piece carefully inside the locker and only half listening to Brainy as he explained - in great detail - about some movie from 2004 called Cellular that he and Nia had watched together the evening before. It was a movie, he informed her, about a woman who was kidnapped and held hostage in an attic with a broken phone. Using the wires of the broken phone, she was able to dial a random number and had to convince the guy on the other end of the line that she was in danger and needed his help.
Noting the look in Brainy’s eye as he finished explaining the synopsis of the film with a flourish, Alex shut her locker door with perhaps a little more force than was necessary, making him flinch. But he never lost the spark in his eyes.
With a defeated sigh, Alex held out her hand and motioned for his tablet. Then, placing one booted foot on the wooden bench, she carefully balanced the tablet on her knee as she withdrew her phone from her belt again and copied the digits of the number across onto his tablet. Once done, she tucked her phone away and gave the tablet back to him again.
“Run the usual scans and checks on it, and if you still think there’s something to it then call me.” She held up one finger to him and fixed him with a stern glare. “But only if it is something important. Do you understand?”
“Affirmative,” Brainy nodded.
The two of them stood there for a few moments longer, as Alex pulled her jacket on, her eyebrows slowly rising higher and higher with each second that passed. At last, she groaned, once again knowing she would probably regret it, but her mouth was apparently working of its own accord yet again. “Anything else, Agent Dox?”
“Oh, I… um… no, Director Danvers. I shall get on to this immediately.” He bobbed his head in an awkward nod to her. And then he managed a somewhat awkward smile as well, realising that they were alone and he didn’t need to be so formal. “Have a good evening, Alex.”
“You too, Brainy.” Picking up her bike helmet, Alex turned and headed for the door, though she did pause to glance back to him briefly. “Don’t stay up too late.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” he nodded again, tucking the tablet close to his chest, his other arm held behind his back as he stood up straight to attention.
Alex offered him the ghost of a tired smile then left, heading down to the parking lot where her bike was waiting for her.
She’d barely made it out of the underground parking lot, however, when the comm device built into her helmet crackled momentarily, and then a familiar voice sounded in her ear.
“Hey, Alex, Brainy said you were headed home for the evening? Did you forget sister night round mine?”
“Crap,” Alex groaned. “Kara, I’m so sorry. This whole thing with Roach and everything else this weeks, it’s just been—”
“Hey, no I get it. It’s fine,” Kara was trying to sound optimistic, but failing dismally. “We’ll just… some other night, I guess? I just figured with Kelly away and all… but it’s fine.”
Glancing up and down the road to see that it was clear both ways, Alex was struck with a dilemma. If she turned left, she could be home within ten minutes. If she turned right, she could be at Kara’s in five. As much as she desperately wanted to turn left, she found herself indicating and then pulling out to the right. “No, no I’m on my way.”
She’d made a promise after all. It was a Thursday night, and Thursday nights were always sister night. Always had been, always would be.
She could practically feel Kara’s excitement radiating down the line as her sister let out a squeak of glee. “What are we watching tonight?”
“I dunno,” Alex slowed down then came to a halt at a red light, the engine ticking over and humming with power as she waited for the lights to change. “You pick.”
“Alright, but hurry up. I’m not sure how much longer I can go before I have to order without you. I’m starving.”
“Kara, you’re always starving,” Alex chuckled as the lights changed and she kicked her bike into gear again, racing down the empty streets towards her sister’s loft apartment in the distance. “I’ll be there in five.”
<><>
Okay it had taken Alex six minutes to get to Kara’s in the end, but the look on Kara’s face as Alex walked through her door could have fooled anyone into thinking it had actually been six hours.
“Don’t give me that look!” Alex warned as she set her helmet on the kitchen worktop and shrugged off her jacket, dumping it alongside the helmet. Then reaching up, she undid the hair clips holding the longer strands of hair into place on top of her head, allowing it all to fall loosely once more. It opted for a right handed parting this time, so she tucked the strands back behind her ear and left it as it was. “I got stuck at every red light possible between the DEO and here.”
Pulling her phone from her belt before she also unclipped that and set it with her jacket and helmet, she carried her phone over to the couch and flopped next to her pouting sister, only now noting the array of take out menus spread across the coffee table. “You weren’t kidding when you said you were starving.”
“Nope,” Kara shook her head, the P popping as she gathered the menus and dumped them in Alex’s lap. “I’m gonna go grab you a change of clothes. You get dialling.”
“What are we having?” Alex leafed through the various menus.
“All of it?” Kara shrugged as she headed to her window, unlatched it and was gone before Alex could even remind her that she was still in her civilian clothes.
“If anyone sees her flying dressed like that,” Alex grumbled to herself, making a mental note to reprimand Kara’s foolishness when she got back. Then she picked up the pizza menu, turned it over to get the number from the back - and paused.
Unlocking her phone, she scrolled to the text messages that kept pinging through (she’d had another two since leaving the DEO) and hit the details option to see the number they were being sent from. Then she held the phone up in front of her, next to the pizza menu, to compare them.
“What the—?” Her eyes cast about at the other menus, looking for another pizza one, as Kara was often known to have about four or five of the same menus, just in case she accidentally misplaced one. Regardless of the fact she knew the entire menu off by heart, cover to cover, front and back and actually didn’t need a menu at all.
As she was pushing aside a couple of the other menus in her search, Alex paused, then picked up a menu for Mo Lin’s Chinese and held that up as well. Same number. Then a menu for the Thai Lotus, and Il Sorriso Italian.
“O-kay. What the actual fuck?”
Spreading the menus out on the table so that she could see all of their phone numbers clearly, she held her phone and turned her eyes constantly between the phone and each of the menus in turn. The same number was on every single menu. The number that had been texting her over and over all day.
Her phone pinged again and another text message appeared. ‘Call me.’
“I’m just tired,” she shook her head, flopping back into the cushions of the couch and rubbing her eyes with the heels of both hands. “I’m tired and I’m imagining things. That’s all.”
Silently counting to five, she sat up again, picked up her phone and the menu, intending to dial the pizza place this time, when she realised that the number was still the same. The number on her phone, and the number on the pizza menu. Another quick glance at the other menus confirmed that they were all the same as well.
“Son of a - alright, fine! I’m calling you! Whatever the fuck is going on here, let’s just get this over with,” Alex exclaimed into the silent apartment as she hit dial on her phone and held it up to her ear.
It rung a grand total of five times without answer, but just as Alex was about to hang up on the sixth, the line clicked and finally someone spoke.
Two words. That was all it took. Two simple words, and Alex hitched in a breath so sharp that it physically hurt. Like a knife to her chest. Whatever she was expecting, it certainly hadn’t been that. It was as if time itself just stopped. She forgot how to breath. She forgot how to move. Her heart forgot how to beat. For what felt like an eternity, Alex Danvers forgot how to even exist. All thanks to two words, spoken down a phone line from an unknown number.
<><>
When Kara returned with Alex’s clothes tucked under one arm, she found her sister sitting on the couch, in a state of shock.
Running to her sister immediately and dropping to a crouch in front of her, Kara took the phone from her sister’s motionless hands and set it to one side, not even noticing that there was an ongoing call.
“Hey, Alex? Alex, hey, talk to me? Alex, what’s going on?” Kara took Alex’s hands in her own, urging her sister to snap out of her trance-like state.
If Alex had been a computing system, there would most definitely have been some sort of error message on the screen right now that said:
An unknown error has occurred. Alex Danvers will now shut down.
If the problem persists, please contact system administrators.
As it was, Kara kept calling her sister’s name over and over, but it wasn’t until a gentle hand was placed on Alex’s pale cheek that she finally blinked and slowly came back to her senses, as if waking from some sort of dream.
“Hey,” Kara smiled gently when at last Alex was able to fix her gaze back on her sister. “Hey, there you are. What happened?”
“I… um…” Alex tried to speak, but her voice was coming out in a hoarse rasp, so she cleared her throat and then tried again. “The phone.”
Kara glanced to the phone and only now realised that there was a voice calling out to them, asking if everything was okay and what was going on. Picking the phone up, Kara lifted it to her ear and then said carefully, “This is Supergirl. Who am I speaking with?”
There was a pause, and then from the other end of the line, “Well, shit.”
“Maggie?!” Kara gasped, recognising the voice instantly, just like her sister had. “Wha- What’s going on?”
“That’s exactly what I want to know!” Maggie exclaimed. “Is everything okay? What the hell’s going on? My phone rang, but when I answered there was no-one there. I thought it was a butt dial, but then I heard you calling to Alex. Has something happened?”
Kara glanced to Alex, who was now sitting with her head in her hands, then shook her head even though she knew Maggie wouldn’t be able to see it. “I’m not sure. But I’ll find out. It’s great to hear from you, by the way.”
“Um… yeah… likewise, Little Danvers.” Maggie’s alarmed tone had faded back to more of her usual, familiar one instead, perhaps knowing that Supergirl was there with Alex and would sort out whatever was going on. “How… how have you been?”
“Good,” Kara nodded, pushing her glasses up her nose as she stood up, walking away from her sister and taking the phone with her. “Things are good. How about you?”
“Can’t complain.” There was a long, drawn out silence as neither of them knew what to say to the other, before at last Maggie sighed. “Listen, kid, as great as this was, I really have to get back to work. Could you do me a favor and find out what the fuck this was all about? Because I’d sure as hell like to know now.”
“Of course,” Kara nodded, immediately. “I promise, you’ll be the first to know. Soon as I know anything.” She glanced back at Alex, then with a sad smile added, “Take care, Maggie.”
“You too, Kara. And… say hi to your sister for me?”
“Sure thing,” Kara disconnected the call, hesitated for a moment then stepped back over to the couch, sat down gently and placed a comforting hand on Alex’s back.
Alex still had her head in her hands, but she wasn’t crying. Her grief went so much deeper than that, but Kara could feel it radiating off her in waves.
Grief, sadness, regret, pain. So, so much pain.
Every feeling that Alex had been working so hard to force down and bury since she and Maggie parted ways. Every feeling that she had convinced herself and the world that she wasn’t feeling, just so that she could put on a brave face and carry on as if nothing had ever happened.
Every single one of those feelings had now erupted like a dormant volcano, awoken at last, only to catch everyone by surprise.
Kara knew that when her sister was like this, words wouldn’t help. Not even scotch would. What Alex needed, right there and then, was just someone to hold her close and help her to realise that her world hadn’t ended after all. As much as it may have felt like it had, there really was hope on the horizon. She just needed someone to guide her towards it.
And as much as her growling stomach protested, Kara knew that her sister was far more important than food, right at that moment. So she leaned across and wrapped Alex into a big hug, pulling her close. Alex crumpled in an instant, falling into Kara’s arms like a wilted flower as she buried her head in Kara’s strong shoulder and the first sobs began to escape, getting more and more pronounced as the walls finally came down and a tidal wave of repressed emotions burst free.