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“You have no idea, do you?”
Alex went still, unnerved by the quiet anguish in Maggie’s voice. Around them, DEO agents came and went, securing the scene and preparing the prisoner for transport. They all studiously ignored the lover’s spat happening right in the middle of everything.
“I thought… I thought you and me…” Maggie looked at the ground. “Doesn’t really matter what I thought, what I think, does it?”
“Maggie…” Alex breathed, her frustration bleeding away. She knew she’d acted rashly, again, but when she’d seen Kara go down, she had leapt forward without a second thought, ignoring Maggie’s pleas to stop. If Kara hadn’t gotten right back up and protected her, Alex knew she’d have likely gotten eviscerated for her foolish heroism. With a sigh, Alex stepped toward her only to jerk to a halt when Maggie held up her hand.
“It’s obvious you care more about this job than anything else, Danvers. Or maybe it’s someone on the job.” Maggie reluctantly met Alex’s gaze again, tears beginning to brim in her dark eyes. The sight hit Alex like a sucker punch to her solar plexus. “So I’ll leave you to it. Hope you’ll be very happy together.”
It took Alex a moment to realize what was happening. Maggie wasn’t just walking away from a fight, she was walking away from her. For good. Alex sprinted after her, grabbing Maggie by the arm and urging her around to face her. “No. It’s not like that. Maggie, please…”
“Why, Alex? Why are you asking me to stay when I’m just in the damn way?”
“You’re not in the way,” Alex insisted. “You don’t understand…”
“I understand that you risked your goddamn life for her. Again. It’s always about her. Last I checked, she was the invulnerable one. She doesn’t need your protection, but that doesn’t stop you from flinging yourself in front of Supergirl every chance you get.” Alex tried to put her hands on Maggie’s shoulders, but Maggie batted them off. “I begged you, Alex. I begged you not to go in there, and you didn’t listen. Because she always comes first with you. I’m tired of clocking second to Supergirl, to your goddamn coworker. You want to throw your life away, fine. I clearly can’t stop you, but I’m sure as hell not going to sit around and watch.”
Alex said nothing as Maggie shoved past her, her boots crunching on the gravel as she walked away.
****
Maggie was on her second glass of whiskey when the knock came. She frowned, turning her head and looking at her balcony door, starting slightly when she saw a caped silhouette on the other side. For a petty moment, she considered leaving the hero out in the chilly night air, but she figured Supergirl would just break the damn door down if she wanted.
With a sigh, she set her glass down on the coffee table and got to her feet. Supergirl gave her a half-hearted wave as Maggie jerked the door open. “Not really up for a social call,” she muttered.
Supergirl seemed remarkably unsure, her usual confidence missing. “May I come in?”
Those entreating blue eyes weakened Maggie’s resolve, and she stepped aside, sweeping her arm toward the apartment.
“Thank you,” Supergirl murmured.
Maggie returned to the couch, scooping up her glass and polishing off the rest of the contents before filling it again. “Want some?”
“Doesn’t really work for me, I’m afraid.” Supergirl drew hesitantly closer. “I just left Alex. She’s pretty much doing the same thing you are. She’s... She’s wrecked.”
The news caused a pang in Maggie’s chest, a longing for Alex’s arms, the warmth of her, the scent of her. “Yeah, well…” Maggie swallowed with difficulty, feeling guilty and angry at the fact. "She’ll get over it. Honestly, I’m surprised she’s not out celebrating.”
“Maggie,” Supergirl chastised.
“No more nagging girlfriend to badger her about being smart and trying not to get herself killed.” Maggie knocked back another more of her drink, wincing a little as it burned all the way down. She was determined to get blackout drunk and forget this night. Forget Alex Danvers if that was even possible.
Supergirl’s features twisted into a frown before she settled in a chair across from the detective. “Can I ask you something?”
“Could I stop you?” Maggie glared at her, refusing to be intimidated.
“If you want me to leave, I will,” Supergirl promised her, her gaze gentle and sad.
Maggie was tempted, but she knew it’d feel too much like kicking a puppy, and she wasn’t nearly intoxicated enough to be that mean to this woman. “Fine. Ask. But then I get a question.”
“Fair enough.” Supergirl studied her for a moment. “Do you love her?”
Throat tightening with emotion, Maggie drew in a harsh breath. “I don’t see why that makes any difference.”
“Trust me, Detective. It makes all the difference in the world.”
Maggie gazed into the amber liquid in her glass. “Yes,” she whispered, admitting it to herself as much as the superhero. “Really thought… I thought I’d found the one, you know?” Maggie drew in another shaky, hurting breath. “I’m such an idiot.”
Supergirl smiled at her, but her features were pained. “Ask me your question.”
“Do you?” Maggie swallowed again, the lump in her throat aching.
“I love Alex more than anything in this world. More than anything in two worlds,” Supergirl admitted. “But it’s not what you think.”
“Yeah? What do I think?” Maggie challenged.
Supergirl got up from the chair and came closer, settling next to Maggie on the couch. “I was 13 when I landed on Earth. For me… my world had just ended. It had been wiped from the stars. On Krypton, I didn’t have powers. It’s Earth’s yellow sun that gives them to me here.”
Maggie shifted, the drink in her hand momentarily forgotten. “That’s not the sort of information you should be sharing, Supergirl.”
“It’s the sort of information I share with people I trust. With the people I let closest to me.” Supergirl looked at Maggie hesitantly, almost as if seeking permission to continue.
Shrugging, Maggie tried to tamp down her curiosity and the small thread of shy pleasure that stole through her at being entrusted. There had to be a reason for the superhero’s confession, but knowing Supergirl would risk so much for Alex just made it clear how much Maggie was in the way. “I don’t know what you think this is going to change.”
“Hopefully everything.” Supergirl smiled faintly. “So I landed on Earth. 13 years old. Alone. My family dead. My world gone. And suddenly, I had powers. I could fly. Shoot lasers out of my eyes. See through walls. And my strength…” She shook her head. “I was so scared to touch anyone for fear I’d hurt them… kill them.”
Maggie could scarcely imagine it. “Did Superman raise you?”
“No,” Supergirl said softly. “He… he wasn’t equipped for that.” She leaned back slightly to look at Maggie. “But a good family took me in. They were scientists, friends of my cousin’s. They raised me with a lot of love, and a lot of patience…”
“That couldn’t have been easy,” Maggie allowed, sympathetic to the woman beside her even if she wanted to hate her.
“Not even a little.” Supergirl glanced at her again. “Now imagine being the 14-year-old child of those scientists who suddenly had to make room for this weird, alien sister.” She looked at Maggie pointedly.
The truth dawned on Maggie slowly, hundreds of moments between Alex and Supergirl shifting and reforming in Maggie’s memory, letting her see them again in a different light. The big picture that remained left Maggie in awe of the woman she’d been falling in love with, suddenly having the missing piece to the beautiful puzzle that was Alex Danvers.
Maggie took a sharp breath, staring at the woman before her. “Kara,” she whispered
Supergirl nodded and gave her a cautious smile. “Alex… Alex has spent nearly half her life taking care of me, protecting me from the world and myself. It’s ingrained in her down to her DNA. Maggie…”
Hesitantly, Kara reached over, grasping Maggie’s hand. Her touch was gentle, almost light, and Maggie stared, wondering what it took the woman next to her not to accidentally crush the brittle bones beneath her fingers.
“Six months ago, I thought I was going to die saving this planet. I made Alex promise me that she would find love. That she would have all the things she’d sacrificed because of me, because she got saddled with me as a sister. And she did, Alex promised. But then she saved me, because that’s what she does, and I worried she’d forgotten that promise.” Kara took a deep breath. “And then she met you.”
Maggie’s heart began to thud in her chest as Kara looked at her with soft, warm eyes.
“My sister is so crazy about you.” Kara laughed a little. “I swear to Rao, she will not shut up about you.”
A smile sprang to her lips. Maggie couldn’t help it, even as tears began to glitter in her eyes.
“She loves you,” Kara said gently. “And I know she’s reckless, and stubborn… very stubborn, and she’s stupidly brave, and I…” She took a shaky breath. “I get it, if this is all too much for you. You didn’t sign up for a girlfriend with a superhero sister. I’m some pretty significant baggage where Alex is concerned. And I get it if you don’t think you can handle watching her risk life and limb because… because I know how hard that is. How terrifying that is to watch. If I lost her, I don’t know what I’d do.”
Maggie stared at her.
“But… if… if you love her enough...” A tear tracked down Kara’s cheek. “Maggie… Alex is worth it.”
Maggie stroked her bottom lip with her forefinger, feeling almost numb, overloaded with information. “Sister, huh?”
Supergirl smiled slowly. “I could tell you stories about 15-year-old Alex learning to drive and taking out half the mailboxes on our street. Or how she bought me my first paint set when I was 14 so I could recreate my memories of Krypton. Why I risked everything to come out of hiding to save Flight 237.”
“Alex was on that plane,” Maggie realized. She shook her head, trying to imagine how she would handle suddenly getting a Kryptonian for a sister before even getting her learner’s permit. Alex was even more amazing than she’d realized.
“I can’t promise you that Alex won’t throw herself in the line of fire for me,” Kara confessed. “God knows, I’ve tried to stop her. I can only tell you that she does it because she loves me.”
Maggie sat in silence for a long moment before she nodded. “Thank you. For telling me.”
“What are you going to do?” Kara asked.
“I won’t tell anyone.”
“I didn’t mean about me.”
Glancing at the superhero, Maggie gave her a tight smile. “I don’t know. I need to think things over a little.”
Kara looked disappointed but understanding. “I’ll leave you to it then.”
Maggie heard the door open and close, and then Kara was gone.
****
Head pounding, Alex tossed back another couple of aspirin, swallowing them dry. Wincing at the taste, she wished the medicine could do something about how much her heart hurt. She probably should have just called in sick, but self-inflicted pain didn’t seem like a good excuse for staying home and wallowing.
“You look terrible.”
Alex leaned back on her stool slowly, turning to face her sister. “Might as well match the way I feel,” she said softly.
“You heard from her?” Kara asked.
Weakly, Alex shook her head. “Don’t really expect to.” Tears threatened again, and Alex marveled she had any left to shed. “Don’t really blame her.”
“Alex,” Kara murmured, crowding closer before putting her hand on her sister’s shoulder and squeezing slightly. “Don’t be mad, but… I… I talked to her last night.”
Frowning, Alex stared at her. “You talked to Maggie?”
Kara nodded. “I told her.”
Sucking in a cold breath, Alex straightened. “Kara…”
“Whether you and she…” Kara hesitated. “She’s earned my trust, Alex. I know you’ve wanted to tell her. That your stubborn need to protect me was getting in the way. I’ve already taken so much from you, I couldn’t take this…”
Tears blurred her view of her sister, and Alex swallowed roughly. “I don’t know if it will change anything, but… thank you for trying.”
“Agent Danvers. Supergirl,” J’onn greeted as he stepped into the lab.
Alex quickly wiped the tears off her face and willed herself to sit up a little straighter. “Sir.”
“You look like hell, Danvers,” J’onn murmured.
“Thank you, Sir,” Alex grumbled dryly.
“I hired a new agent today. Wanted to introduce her to you both.” He smirked slightly as he gestured to someone in the hall. “Although I believe you’ve already met.”
Alex went slack-jawed as Maggie rounded the corner, standing there in DEO black, a holster and gun already strapped to her thigh. Kara slapped a palm over her mouth to keep from releasing a giddy laugh as Maggie smiled at them both, smug.
“Agent Danvers, I’ll expect you to bring Agent Sawyer up to speed on protocols and get her certified on all weapons.” J’onn barely smothered a smile as Alex gaped at her girlfriend. “Will that be a problem?”
“N-No, Sir,” Alex spluttered.
“Good. I’ll leave you to it then.” J’onn winked at Kara before leaving them alone.
“Maggie…” Alex breathed as her girlfriend came closer.
“I can’t stop you from having your sister’s back,” Maggie admitted with a half-smile for Kara. “But I can have yours while you have hers.”
“Welcome aboard, Agent Sawyer,” Kara greeted with a wide, beaming smile. “And well-played.”
“I thought so.” Maggie glanced back at Alex, her expression cocky and challenging. “You got anything to say, Danvers?”
Alex shook her head, staring at her with wonder. “You really quit the force to come work here?”
“I figure you two could use all the help you could get.” Maggie grinned at them both. “Not to mention the pay and perks are better.”
Without another word, Alex stepped forward and kissed her.
“And that’s my cue,” Kara murmured. “I’ll just… not that you two are… being totally ignored here. That’s fine.” She walked to the doorway, lingering for a moment as she watched her sister keep her promise, before smiling and leaving Alex and Maggie together.
Where they belonged.