Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Alex knew this day would come. Eventually. It was inevitable, just a matter of time before her vigilante heroics got her into trouble, and without the protection of the DEO, she was left to fend for herself.

J’onn’s tower had a lot of things - high tech computer and surveillance system, signals to call the various heroes to action, a top secret location known only to a select few - but there was one thing it didn’t have.

A fully equipped medbay. 

As Alex shifted a little and listened to the various background noises that accompanied the daily goings on in the rest of the hospital, she found herself missing the familiarity and the comforts of the DEO medbay. Not only was it much quieter, with the soundproof, bulletproof glass, but there were no awkward questions either. If you ended up in the DEO medbay, everyone knew why. Likewise, everyone knew that what went on in the DEO stayed in the DEO. 

Alex had already been quizzed by three different doctors since she’d woken up, and although she’d tried to keep her story straight, the concussion was giving her some real problems with remembering the details clearly, so it was again only a matter of time before she slipped up. 

Thankfully, the one thing she didn’t have to explain was her vigilante attire, which was some small mercy. When her sister had found her, she’d removed the Hand of the Soldier from Alex’s wrist so that by the time Alex was delivered (safely) to the hospital, she was dressed in civilian clothing, and Supergirl was just helping a regular civilian in distress.

Of course, Alex would be having some serious words with Kara, when she saw her again, about the dangers of moving an unconscious, wounded person. But Alex knew deep down that Kara was doing what she thought was best. Besides, she would probably have x-rayed Alex at the scene and known the extent of the injuries. Kara might be able to crumble mountains with her bare hands, but she could also be extremely gentle and careful as well, after years of learning the hard way that humans, and in fact most objects, were much more fragile than she was.

 As she shifted again, trying to sit more upright so that she could breathe easier, a flash of white hot pain lanced through her shoulder and down her right arm. She squinted her eyes shut and inhaled sharply, gritting her teeth and waiting for the pain to subside. 

The door to her room opened and closed, but she was too focused on breathing deeply to try and manage the pain, so she paid no heed to whether or not she was alone any longer.

Until a voice spoke into the silence, that was, and Alex’s breath momentarily hitched again but for an entirely different reason. Though given the identity of the speaker, the presence of pain could perhaps have been explained readily enough as well.

“Damn, Danvers. You look like shit.”

Cracking one eye slowly open, then the other, Alex turned her head gingerly in the direction of the voice. It wasn’t the result of some concussion or drug induced hallucination.

Detective Maggie Sawyer stood at the foot of the bed, arms folded, an expression on her face that Alex couldn’t quite place, though she was sure she had seen it before. It was a mixture of concern, fear, frustration and annoyance. 

“Maggie?” She once more tried to sit up a little only to collapse back into the bed with a groan. She could only hold her head with her good hand and once again wait for the pain to subside. Through gritted teeth, she added, almost as an afterthought, “What are you doing here?”

“You tell me.” Maggie’s voice was now coming from somewhere to the left, and there was the sound of a chair being gently dragged across the floor. “I got a call that there was an incident downtown, looked like a mugging gone wrong and Supergirl had intervened, taking the victim to hospital. With everyone else busy on other cases, I was assigned this one and sent to interview the vic. Imagine my surprise when I turn up to find your name on the door.”

“I’m sorry,” Alex groaned, as she slowly opened her eyes. Maggie had taken a seat to the left of the bed now and had pulled out a notebook and pen from somewhere.

“It is what it is,” Maggie shrugged. Her gaze roamed up and down the length of the bed for a moment before she made a studious point of holding Alex’s gaze. “So, you gonna tell me what happened? Because I don’t, for one minute, believe it was a mugging gone wrong. The docs say your story has more holes in it than a CW show, so let’s try to at least get that straight, for the record huh?”

“Maggie, I…” Alex’s voice trailed off for a moment, as she tried to gather her thoughts. Then very slowly and very carefully, she shook her head. “I can’t.”

“Because it’s me?” The offence was evident in Maggie’s voice, and Alex cringed.

“No, nonono, if anything, you’d be the one person who would understand better than anyone else. It’s just… I can’t tell the truth because of… reasons. And without the DEO to cover tracks and, you know. It’s difficult.”

“So you were doing something you shouldn’t have been doing, without Government approval, and now you’re pleading the fifth, is that about right?” Maggie sighed. 

“Something like that,” Alex agreed quietly. 

“Look, Danvers, I need something,” Maggie flipped open her notebook and clicked her pen. “Give me something. Anything. How about where it happened?”

Alex considered for a moment. She could tell that much, at least. Perhaps if she was careful, she could give Maggie the information she needed for her report without actually revealing the whole truth. “I was down by the docks.”

“Victim was walking her dog…” Maggie muttered as she scribbled something in the notebook. “... down by the docks.” Then she looked up and nodded for Alex to continue. “What time was it?”

“Uh…” Distracted by Maggie’s muttered comment, it again took Alex a moment to work out what she was trying to say. “Um, there weren't any dogs. I don’t have a dog.”

“Sure you do,” Maggie nodded, tapping the notebook with her pen. “Says so right here in my notes. So what time were you out walking your dog?”

“I wasn’t—" Catching the glare Maggie threw her way, Alex decided it was probably best not to ask and just go along with it. For now. “Uh, ten o’clock.”

“Ten o’clock,” Maggie nodded, scribbling something else down. “Okay, and can you describe your attacker? Because you were mugged, right?”

“Um… right?” Alex nodded, then wished she hadn’t. Squinting her eyes shut, she raised her good hand to her head again for a moment.

“Take your time,” Maggie’s voice was surprisingly soft and gentle. “You took one hell of a beating.”

“You can say that again,” Alex groaned. “And I’m not sure I can describe him because… well, he’s—" 

“Not human?”

“Yeah.”

“Go ahead and try anyway.”

With a sigh, Alex thought back on everything for a moment before she tried as best she could. “He was tall, probably eight, maybe ten feet. Six hundred pounds, green scales...”

“So white male, six foot two, hundred and eighty pounds,” Maggie nodded as she made notes in her book again. “Go on.”

“What are you doing?” Alex frowned, as she was able to turn her head to give Maggie her full and undivided attention. “That’s not what I said.”

“Hair color?” Maggie didn’t look up from her notes.

“Um… he didn’t have any.”

“Eyes?”

“Hard to tell. Orange, I think.”

“Brown hair. Brown eyes. Any distinguishing features?”

“He looked like a fucking human/crocodile hybrid?”

Maggie nodded, the corner of her lips tugging up, as she clearly fought some sort of battle to keep herself from smirking. “So nothing remarkable, just your plain, average Joe. Would you recognise him if you were to pass him on the street?”

“Of course I would.”

“Soooo that’s a no then. Sounds like a pretty average, unremarkable, totally forgettable guy to me. He’s gonna be pretty hard to track down.” She snapped her notebook closed and looked up at last, then shrugged. “What? You want there to be a nationwide alien witch hunt? No alien safe from prejudice or discrimination?”

“No, of course not,” Alex groaned and rubbed her forehead again.

“Exactly. Standard procedure is to interview the victim, then based on their description, catch the guy involved. With this description, it will be impossible to catch whoever did it. It’ll be marked up as a cold case, and that will be the end of it. Your secret remains intact. Everyone’s happy.”

“Except my ribs,” Alex groaned again. “And my… everywhere.”

“What’s the damage report?” Maggie leaned forward in her seat, and her gaze roamed up and down the length of Alex’s body again even though most of it was hidden beneath the sheets of the hospital bed.

“Mostly just cuts and bruises,” Alex admitted after a moment. “Sprained ankle. Oh and a cracked collarbone. Fractured elbow. Concussion… I think there’s a herniated lumbar disc as well. Sure as hell feels that way. And if any of my ribs are still intact, I’m calling it a miracle.”

“You’ve got one hell of a shiner brewing too,” Maggie traced a circle around one of her own eyes with a finger. Alex reached up and gently probed around her eye and winced.

There was a moment of awkward silence, and then Maggie’s head tilted in that oh so disarming way that - yep, it still made Alex’s stomach flip, even now. “You said the guy looked like a croc?”

“Uh, yeah. Why?”

Delving into her pocket, the detective pulled out her phone, scrolled through it for a moment before holding it up. “Is this him?”

Alex squinted at the bright screen and forced herself to focus on the image. “Yeah, that’s him.”

“Son of a bitch,” Maggie growled, as she took her phone back, her thumbs dancing across the screen momentarily before she put it back in her pocket again. “You’re lucky you came out of that scuffle alive, Danvers. Waylon Jones isn’t called Killer Croc for nothing.”

“Killer Croc?” Alex frowned. “I’ve never heard of him.”

“That’s because up until recently, he was Gotham’s problem. The NCPD got an APB from the GCPD about a week back to say that he was last seen headed in this direction. Guess we just confirmed he’s in town.”

“We should warn my sis—" As the door opened and a doctor walked in, studying a clipboard in his hands, Alex cleared her throat. “Supergirl. We need to warn Supergirl.”

“You need to do as the good doc says and focus on getting better,” Maggie stood up and patted the doctor on the shoulder gently. Then she headed for the door but paused and held up her notebook briefly as she glanced back. “Thanks for your time, Miss. Danvers. I’ll be in touch.”

“I...Maggie...wait!” But the Detective was already gone. With a groan, Alex sank back into the bed and closed her eyes. “Well, fuck.”

Chapter Text

“You’re sure his name is Waylon Jones?” J’onn J’onzz sat in front of the computer, scrolling through pages and pages of data. “Because I’m not finding anything here.”

“That’s what she said.” Alex sat beside him, her left hand fiddling absentmindedly with the stitching on the hem of the sling on her right arm. One foot was propped up on another chair, and she had a couple of cushions, one behind her neck and another tucked behind her back for further support. All in all, she was about as comfortable as she was going to get as they searched for information on her attacker. And yet J’onn still wasn’t convinced. His eyes constantly turned in her direction even as the rest of his body remained turned towards the computer. 

Biting back an irritated retort after he did it yet again, she focused on the more pressing issue at hand. “She said that up until recently, he’d been Gotham’s problem. Maybe Kate knows something?”

“It’s worth a shot,” J’onn agreed, as on another screen, he pulled up an encrypted email and began to type out a message to Kate Kane.

As he was typing, there was the telltale thud of boots on the balcony of the Tower followed, moments later, by the smell of fried dough. 

“Hey,” Supergirl smiled warmly, as she appeared beside Alex, holding out a paper bag. “I know you don’t usually eat sugar in the middle of the day, but I figured that probably doesn’t matter at the moment. Seeing as, you know?” She motioned with her free hand to the foot that Alex had propped up on the chair.

“Thanks.” Alex took the paper bag, inhaling the sweet, heavenly aroma of freshly baked doughnuts. Before she could even so much as move to take one, however, a blue blur appeared momentarily in front of her as the bag rustled. When she peered inside, there was one less doughnut than there had been previously. “Kara!”

“What?” The Kryptonian shrugged, the telltale ring of sugar around her lips proof of her theft, even as she tried to hide the incriminating item behind her back. As Alex’s scowl deepend, Supergirl sighed. “Oh come on Alex, I’m starving. I only had two breakfasts this morning.”

“Whatever,” Alex sighed, rolling her eyes as she reached into the bag and pulled one out for herself as well. It was still warm and smelled divine. As Supergirl pulled the doughnut from behind her back and demolished it in three bites, Alex took more time over her own, savouring every bite, even as she turned to J’onn. “Any luck?”

“Not yet,” he shook his head then held up a hand when Alex nodded at the paper bag in her lap, a silent invitation to help himself which he silently declined. “We’ll just have to wait and see if Kate comes back with anything.”

“I’ve done three complete circuits of the city and still couldn’t find anything,” Supergirl shook her head, as she pulled up another chair and flopped into it, licking the sugar from her fingertips then brushing the crumbs from her super suit. “Short of checking out the sewers again, which for the record was totally gross, I don’t know what else to do. If I was a gigantic murderous crocodile, where would I hide?”

“Do we even know what brought him this way in the first place?” J’onn sat back in his chair and spun it to face the two girls. “National City is a long way from Gotham.”

“Some crocs have been known, after a particularly violent territorial dispute, to migrate hundreds of miles in search of new territory,” Alex mused around a mouthful of doughnut. “Maybe he grew tired of all the chaos in Gotham and decided to find someplace new to call home?”

“Yes, but why here?” J’onn shook his head, turning to the computer and pulling up a map of North America for them all to see. Then he highlighted National City in bright blue and Gotham city in red. “He could have stopped off at any number of places between Gotham and here. But you say she got an APB from the GCPD that warned he was heading this way?”

“That’s what she said,” Alex finished the doughnut and licked the sugar from her lips, glancing inside the bag and debating whether she wanted a second or not. Catching her sister’s longing, puppy dog eyes, she sighed and held the bag out for Supergirl to take.

There was no hesitation on the Kryptonian’s part, and she was already delving into the bag before it had ever left Alex’s hand.

“She? She who?”

“Maggie.” 

“What?” Supergirl sat up in her own chair with a gasp. “You saw Maggie? When? Where?!”

“In the hospital. Considering I had to play the part of a civilian when you took me in, the police were called to investigate. Turns out Maggie was assigned the case.”

“Wow,” Supergirl rubbed the back of her neck. “Bet that was awkward.”

“It could have been worse. She made sure there wouldn’t be any follow ups to the investigation though, which was… unexpected." Alex reached behind herself to try and adjust the cushion that had slipped ever so slightly, then hissed in pain. Supergirl was there in an instant, doughnuts forgotten. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Alex protested weakly, her hand clenched and her teeth gritted together. It was obvious that no-one believed her. Hell, she didn’t believe herself right then either.

“Maybe you should go home and rest,” Supergirl suggested as, now more comfortable, Alex sat back in the chair and let out a shaky breath.

“I am resting,” Alex pointed to the chair she was sitting in. “Not exactly running a marathon here.”

Supergirl’s scowl would have been fierce if she’d used it on anyone other than Alex. “Not what I meant, Doofus. I meant you should be at home in bed, or in front of the tv with ice cream and other… you know. Comfort stuff.”

“And go stir crazy, not knowing what’s going on out in the world?” Alex raised one eyebrow. “No thanks. Look, this is as close to the action as I’m likely to get for a while. Please, don’t take this away from me too?”

“Is it because of Kelly?” Supergirl picked up the paper bag from where it had fallen on the floor, retrieved the last doughnut from inside then crumpled the bag in her fist. 

“What’s Kelly got to do with anything?” This time it was Alex’s turn to unleash a glare that had Supergirl wilting in her seat.

“Well, it's just, ever since you two broke up, you’ve pretty much thrown yourself into the superhero role - which is great!” Supergirl hastily held up, in surrender, the hand holding the paper bag. “But you’ve barely spent any time alone, so I thought maybe you were, I dunno. Lonely? Afraid?”

“Pfft, I’m not afraid,” Alex scoffed. “Who’s afraid? I can be on my own if I want to. I lived on my own for years. I’m fine on my own.”

“Uh huh,” Supergirl shoved the last of the doughnut into her mouth, chewed it briefly, then swallowed. “So how come I'm having to stay at yours at the moment?”

“Uh, doctor’s orders?” Alex said, as if the answer should have been obvious. “There’s a lot I’m not allowed to do at the moment until I’ve healed a bit, so I need to be with someone else who can do that stuff for me.”

“Since when have you ever paid attention to what you can and can’t do?” The crinkle appeared between Supergirl’s eyes.

“Since it might literally end my vigilante career,” Alex sighed. “And any other careers that don’t involve sitting behind a desk. And no, I do not want a job at CatCo so you can forget that one right now.”

“Was just trying to help,” Supergirl pouted, brushing some more crumbs from her lap. Then her head tilted to one side. “Ugh, I’m really sorry. Duty calls.”

“Go on,” Alex sighed as her sister jumped back to her feet, then leaned down and kissed Alex’s cheek lightly. “Go be Super.”

“I’ll be back later to take you home,” Supergirl promised, before she dashed out onto the balcony and took to the skies.

“You know she means well,” J’onn chuckled.

“I know she does. Why would you think I didn’t?”

“Your thoughts are very loud today.” That said, he turned back to the computer, leaving Alex to her apparently very loud thoughts. Of which there were now many. And not all of them were about killer crocodile hybrids that may or may not now be stalking through her city.

More than once, they strayed in the direction of a certain crude-mouthed, petite detective before Alex could catch herself and deliberately think about something else instead. More than once when she did this, she was sure she could see J’onn’s shoulders shudder in what could be an attempt to suppress a chuckle. 

Oh, to be back out on the streets instead of being cooped up inside these four walls!

<><>

A few hours later, Alex was reclining on her sofa, scrolling through Netflix, tub of ice cream balanced in her lap when there was a rap at the door. 

“It’s open, Kara!” She called out without thinking as she carried on scrolling. The door opened and someone stepped inside, then closed the door gently behind them. “So I’ve added a few more shows to the watchlist on here and I thought—" Turning towards the door, Alex blinked. “You’re not Kara.”

Maggie glanced down at herself then back up, one of her trademark dimples popping as she smirked. “Nope. At least I wasn’t the last time I checked. Stranger shit has happened in this city recently, though. Mind if I come in?”

Alex nodded, even as she drew the fleece blanket up over herself a little more and set the ice cream tub to one side, feeling suddenly very self conscious. 

“Appreciate it,” Maggie hovered uncertainly in the doorway for a moment, then moved further in and took a seat in the single chair, away from Alex, leaving plenty of space between them. “So, uh… how are you doing, Danvers?”

“Oh you know,” Alex tried to act casual, but this was easier said than done when her stomach insisted on doing some sort of Olympic gymnastics routine whilst her heart hammered furiously at her aching ribs. 

“Can’t say that I do,” Maggie shook her head. There was another awkward moment of silence and then she sat forward in the chair. “Look, I’m just going to get down to business: Waylon Jones, Killer Croc. Tell me you Superfriends have something on him? Some way to stop him?”

“Superfriends?” Alex frowned.

“Time’s short, Danvers. Yes or no. Can Killer Croc be stopped?”

There was a tone in Maggie’s voice, and Alex sat forward as much as she was able, pointing the remote at the tv to turn it off and plunging the apartment into a sudden, deafening silence. “Has something happened?”

Maggie scrubbed at her face with her hands for a moment, taking a deep breath before she looked back up. When she did, her eyes were wet with unshed tears. “There was an ambush. He, uh… he took out five of my guys in one swoop. They never even knew what hit them.”

“Fuck,” Alex breathed. 

“Jim was with them. You remember my partner, Detective Jim Warren?”

“Maggie, I’m so sorry.”

Again there was a long, tension filled silence, as Maggie wiped away the tears with the back of her hand, then took another deep breath. “So, yes or no, Danvers? Can you help me?”

“We’re trying Maggie. We—" Alex was cut off by the sudden, sharp ring of a phone. A quick glance down at her phone told her that it wasn’t hers, but if there was any doubt, Maggie’s voice confirmed it a few seconds later.

“Detective Sawyer… Where?... You do not go near him, do you understand? Walsh, do you understand?!... You stay away from him until backup arrives. I’m on my way.” Standing, Maggie slid her phone into her pocket. “He’s been cornered downtown. All available units are being called to respond. I’ve got to go.”

“Maggie! Maggie, wait!” Alex tried to stand up, yelping in pain, as her ankle twisted in her haste to get up and her ribs screamed in protest. But the Detective was already gone. “Maggie! Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Scrambling for her phone, Alex hit a number on speed dial and waited, even as she gingerly sat herself back down on the sofa. “Come on, come on, pick up damn it.”

“Alex?”

“Kara! We need your help downtown.”

“Uh… I’m kind of in the middle of something at the moment.”

Alex frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It means I’m in Metropolis. There was a riot in Arkham, and pretty much every single inmate made a break for it. Most of them crossed the bay from Gotham to Metropolis, and now Kal and I are trying to round them up again.”

“Fuck!” Alex exclaimed, ignoring the pain, as she sank back into the sofa. 

“What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

“The NCPD have found Killer Croc. They’ve cornered him, but it’s going to be a bloodbath, Kara. He’s already murdered five officers. The rest are going to be slaughtered. And Maggie - oh Gods, Maggie’s with them.”

“Alex, it’s going to be - oof! It’ll be- hey, do you mind buddy, I’m trying to have a conversation here! That’s just rude. Alex, I’m really sorry, but I’ve got to go. This is getting out of hand now. What about J’onn and Nia?”

“J’onn and Nia,” Alex nodded her head slowly. “Right. Of course. They can help. Hey, Kara, be careful, okay?”

“Always am. Speak to you soon. Love you.”

“Love you too.” Ending the call, Alex hesitated as her thumb hovered over another of the contacts in her phone. Then before she could stop herself, she’d hit dial, and the phone was back to her ear.

The line was answered a few seconds later, but nobody spoke. There were just a few dull thuds, a grunt or two, and then a louder thud before finally, “Whoever this is, it’s really not a good time.”

“Kate, it’s Alex.”

“Danvers, Hey. Like I said, now’s not a good time.”

“Yeah, Kara said about the breakout. Don’t worry, I just needed to ask you a quick question.”

“You want to know how to bring down Killer Croc.”

“Uh… yeah.”

“Sorry, Danvers, Bruce was the one who dealt with Croc. That was before my time. I honestly don’t know.”

“Fuck,” Alex muttered quietly. And then she nodded. “Alright, thanks anyway. Stay safe.”

There was another dull thud followed by another grunt. 

“Kate?”

“Yeah, yeah. Later, Danvers.” The line cut off and Alex blinked as she stared at the now blank screen on her phone. 

After a moment of consideration, she dropped her phone on the coffee table and pulled out her laptop instead, firing it up and awkwardly signing in one-handed. Logging into the Tower through her remote access, she scrolled through the various CCTV images and footage from the cameras dotted all around the city. It took her a few attempts to find the ones in the downtown area, but when she did, it was easy to follow the trail of destruction and carnage. 

J’onn and Nia were already on the scene, attempting to subdue the rampaging monster as more and more NCPD cars screeched to a halt. Officers jumped out, guns drawn, using the doors and hoods of their vehicles as cover.

As another cop car pulled into view, Nia was hurled through the air to land on the hood of the car. The officer inside immediately ran to the fallen superhero as J’onn traded a few punches with the gigantic creature, before he too was sent flying into the side of a riot van.

There was still no sign of Maggie, but it was only a matter of time before she arrived on the scene as well. Alex slapped the laptop closed. She was making herself insane, or rather her inability to do more than drum her fingers or bite her nails, on one hand, was making her insane. If only there was something, anything, she could do to feel less completely and utterly useless.

There was a noise at the door, just the click of the lock, and Alex turned eager for someone, anyone to distract her from her own worst enemy: idle thoughts. Okay, perhaps ‘anyone’ was too big a leap.

“Lena, what the fuck are you doing here? Who gave you a key? Wait, did you break in?”

For her part, Lena slowly raised a brow in a familiar look of appraisal. “You look like crap,” she said, tucking her purse a little tighter under her arm. It was a defensive posture, one Alex was used to with criminals and billionaires alike. “I take it Kara didn’t tell you to expect me.”

“Why would she?"

“Typical. Your sister said she'd be out of town on... business for a bit and asked me to look in on you. I'd gathered I was at the end of a very long line of folks who were unavailable before she got to me. But I won't stay anywhere I'm not wanted so—”

“No, no, wait.” It was a bad idea, an awful idea, a crazy idea… but that didn’t mean it wasn’t the best idea she had right now. “Stay. I need your help.”

Chapter Text

Alex explained her dilemma, though her physical condition was rather self-explanatory, while Lena perched on the edge of a chair like the cushions were made of nails. It was the least comfortable Alex had ever seen Lena look on a visit, though to be fair, they were seldom and always accompanied by Kara in the past. Likely, it was that absence, the issue that had led to the great unfolding of a carefully tucked friendship, that had almost led to tragedy which caused both of their current unease. If Alex had to choose anyone to help her, her sister’s ex-best friend would not have been in even the top thousand. That was a purely emotional response though, and if she looked at it logically, both from a moralistic and scientific point of view, Lena was likely the best conspirator for the job. If you needed rules bent into a pretzel, the Luthors invented the sport.

Characteristically, Lena listened dispassionately and then summed up Alex’s need. That was when she finally relaxed (slightly), and a hint of a smile came to her ruby lips, as she said, “I may have just the thing. How mobile are you? Can you leave the apartment?”

That’s how Alex found herself in an elevator leaning heavily on a crutch, going down several floors from the ground floor of L-Corp. After the Reign incident, Alex had a fairly good idea where they were heading. What was a mad scientist without a secret lab, after all? It was still impressive to see it. Kara had described it often enough, but that had seemed to be more about medical research as opposed to engineering. 

“You redecorated?”

Lena cast a side eye at Alex and didn’t respond with anything more than the click of her heels, as she excited the elevator. “Take any seat. I can bring in a cot from the other room, if you’d like.”

“I can sit up. I’m not an invalid.” The look Lena shot in her direction said otherwise, but Alex chose to ignore it and settle into the comfort of a nearby seat. “Okay, so what was easier to show me than to explain?”

Lena paused from clicking keys on a keyboard to pick up a remote. There was a buzzing of power, and a case lit up revealing… was that what she thought it was?

“Is that a Lexosuit?”

“It’s my design based off of my brother’s original design, yes. I’ve made changes, upgrades, and a series of customizations. It's a better suit.” 

“Is it powered with—”

“Kryptonite?” Lena glared over her shoulder, but Alex didn't back down, not on this. “No. It has a series of solar cells and can recharge, during the day, while in flight. Here, I power it through the building’s grid which is also solar. It’s not as efficient a source as Lex used but also not so…”

“Murderous?”

“Are you sure that seat is comfortable, Alex? I could bring in a high horse for you if you prefer.”

“After the crap you pulled, you don’t think I’d have the right?”

“You almost blew me up.”

“To stop you from mind controlling the world.”

There they stopped, a simple but complex impasse created over years of pressure that abruptly came to a fulmination. Horrible circumstances can make even the best people do unspeakable things and destroy friendships in their wake.

Still, Lena paused, seeming to reflect, and when she spoke again, there was less anger in her voice. “I was in pain and lashing out.”

“And I was protecting the people of Earth. I won’t apologize for that no matter how much I wish there had been a different way. You left me no choice.”

“We’re not having this discussion right now, not if you want my help.”

“Right, your help.” As good of a distraction arguing with Lena had been, Alex really did need her help, so maybe poking the bear wasn’t the best idea… especially when the bear was a genius scientist from a murderous family and with morally questionable values. “So… How does that suit help me?”

With a nod, Lena seemed just as happy to leave that argument behind them for another day, a day that would no doubt come to a head eventually but not today. Today there were people that needed rescuing, and as Lena had told Alex the last time there was an emergency, no matter what issues they had between them, she’d be there to help if lives were on the line. 

“Much like the Lexosuit… ugh, the ego never ends with him. Anyway, much like the suit my brother made, this is designed as a manned exoskeleton with flight capabilities and tactical weapons. However, I added many upgrades, one of which will be useful in this endeavor. It can be controlled remotely.”

“That thing is remote controlled?” Alex repeated, as she studied the suit up and down with a frown. Then she looked down at her arm where it was tucked away in the sling, and shook her head. “Unless it’s a one handed control, it’s not going to help at all.”

“Oh, ye of little faith.” A few taps of keys caused a section of the floor to slide back, and up rose some green rings with chairs and pieces of equipment all around them. It looked like a two-person gyroscope, one where they sat next to each other, with some space between, but facing in opposite directions. A set of gauntlets and boots hung off each chair, and helmets rose high above. Large screens, with folded up keyboards, rounded off the setup.

Alex struggled, momentarily, before awkwardly getting to her feet and limping over. She stopped about a foot away, her gaze roaming all over the device, before she turned to Lena in a mixture of awe and confusion. “When you said remote controlled, this wasn’t quite what I was expecting.”

“I gathered, but the newest version of the Xbox wasn’t quite up to the task, so I built this myself.” Lena patted one of the seats but didn’t step inside the contraption. “Do you need a hand getting up there?”

Alex eyed the seat in front of her, then her face set into one of grim determination. Setting the crutch to one side, she reached out and took hold of one of the beams. Her eyes turned and studied it all for a moment longer as she calculated how she was going to manage it. Then gritting her teeth, she pulled herself up with her good arm, reached out with her good foot, bit back the yelp of pain as her ribs screamed in protest, and half sat, half fell into the seat. Taking a moment to let out a shuddering breath, she then started to shift herself into the seat properly. A thin trail of sweat had broken out across her brow, and her breathing had grown shallower, but she’d managed it. Flashing a brief but triumphant smile towards Lena, she said “I’m good. You?”

“That looked completely pain free,” Lena deadpanned. “What else did you break? Any internal bleeding?”

“I’ll be fine,” Alex was already looking at the various controls on her side. “So what does what?”

“Alex,” Lena waited a moment until Alex made eye contact, “I’m trying to offer you a shot of something to help with the pain.”

“Unless it’s a shot of scotch, I’ll pass. Now seriously, what does what? That thing has weapons, right?”

“I meant Toradol. Non-drowsy, won’t slow your reaction time, non-opioid, and good for acute pain, but it’s an NSAID, so I wanted to rule out internal bleeding. I won’t argue with you, as if it would do any good, but you might perform better in less pain.”

Alex reached for one of the gauntlets then hissed in pain and held her side for a moment. With a deep, albeit laboured, sigh, she nodded. “If I say yes, will it get you to tell me what these controls are any quicker? Or do I have to start pressing buttons to find out for myself?”

Lena’s smug smile was completely unappealing but not unwarranted. “I’ll get you a syringe and 60 mg of Toradol. Go ahead and put the boot and gauntlet on your left side.”

“Well I can’t exactly put them on my right side,” Alex grumbled quietly, even as she did as she was told. Her foot slid into the boot easily enough, and even the glove was a comfortable fit, as she flexed and curled her hand into a fist a couple of times to get a feel for it. She jumped slightly when Lena took her arm and rolled up her sleeve, but between the pain and realization of what Lena was doing, Alex calmed quickly and accepted her injection without complaint. Whatever else anyone could say about Lena, and there was a lot both good and bad, she had a steady and smooth hand with a needle, a reminder that this was far from Lena’s first rodeo. “What, no lollipop?” Alex asked as Lena stepped away.

“I’m not exactly the lollipop type of doctor. Anyway, I hardly think you’d take food from me.” She disposed of the sharp and took her seat in the chair to the side of and facing Alex. “That should kick in in about fifteen minutes. Until then, you’ll have to grin and bear it. Now, where were we?”

“You were going to show me how to kick crocodile ass with this thing. Though so far I have a boot, a glove and I’m not seeing a lot of ass kicking. So can we speed this up? Mag—" Catching herself quickly, she changed what she was going to say. “Many people are counting on us.”

Lena had dropped down the keyboard on her side and was typing away as Alex spoke. “Right, well, normally, this is controlled by two people when used remotely… hypothetically. One wears the gear and controls the suit’s actions, and the other monitors systems and brings weapon choices on and off line. It’s still a work in progress.”

“You had me at weapons,” Alex nodded. “So let’s go. How do we go? Is there an on button or something? An instruction manual? Anything?”

“I am the instruction manual, and this is the on button.” Lena reached up, pulling down the helmet until it covered Alex’s head and then lit up. “L-Suit, new user voice interface activation code Omega, Epsilon, Alpha, Alpha, Beta.”

“Code, accepted,” responded a mechanical yet obviously female voice. “New user, please state your designation.”

“Um…” 

“Say your name, Alex.”

“Why didn’t it just say that?” Alex grumbled, then cleared her throat and spoke a little louder. “Alex Danvers.”

“New user designation is Alex Danvers, confirm?”

“Confirm,” Lena said.

“Good afternoon, Alex Danvers, and welcome to the L-suit Mach 1. What are our tasks today?”

“Combat, live, not training. Full weapon arsenal available. Full tactical use,” Lena said.

“Negative. This system is not yet approved for live combat.”

“Override Omega, Delta, Epsilon, Theta, Chi, Zeta. User: Lena Luthor.”

There was a brief pause, and then the voice said, “Authorization accepted. Preparing for live combat deployment.”

“System, run executable file: split user.”

“Running.”

“I hope this works. I had to write a bit of code to allow it to accept left body controls from your side and right from my side. If you could work the keyboard or weren’t injured, it wouldn’t be a problem. The code is a bit… rudimentary, but it should do the trick. In the meantime...” 

Alex’s visor changed, and instead of looking through it she was looking at a head’s up display. It included a view of herself and Lena in the control gyroscope. As Alex turned her head left and right, up and down, her view changed with it.

“Alright, my screen displays the visuals from the suit. Alex, is your display working?”

“I’ve got robot vision with a heads up display, if that’s what you mean?”

“That’s what I mean. Hold on.” There was a hiss of sound from behind them, and then the case between the robot and the outside world moved away. “Now this is where it gets tricky, but we should get the hang of things fairly quickly. When I move my right boot, you’ll feel your seat tilt slightly as the gyroscope reacts. You’ll also see the view shift on your display. You move your left boot then, and it will correct. That’s walking… if I didn’t screw up the code.” 

“Do I want to know what will happen if you did?”

“Ideally, nothing will happen, but it’s not an ideal world.”

As Lena warned, her view changed slightly, and the gyroscope shifted ever so slightly as the suit took a step forward. It was a quick intake of breath before Alex bore down and moved her left boot as if taking a step forward. Thankfully, the suit reacted as Lena had predicted, and it moved forward leaving the two humans back at their neutral position.

“Excellent. Alex, I’m going to give you a small display so you can see a readout that will reflect the positioning of the robot.” At her words, a small robot hologram appeared in the lower left corner of Alex’s display. “When I raise my hand like this, the display should do the same.” Which it did. “How are we doing?” 

Alex looked down even as she raised her own hand in front of herself. On the display, the hologram of the robot did the same, whilst through the visor she was now looking at the hand of the robot being held in front of her, instead of her own. She nodded quickly and gave a thumbs up. “All good.”

“We really should run some tests and do a few practice runs, but as I said, this is not an ideal world. You have control of the head, and I’ll bring up weapon options on the display. The suit will respond to your voice. If you want to use any of the weapons systems, just name one on your display and say “activate”. The system will tell you when it has a lock, unless it’s a melee weapon, and you say “deploy” to fire. It used to be fire to fire a weapon, but I had a fire in an earlier test run and— anyway, any questions?”

“So many,” Alex breathed. “But none of them are appropriate for now. I think we need to get going and figure it out on the way. As long as you’re sure you’re up for this? This isn’t going to be some test, or training simulation. This is going to be real. Are you okay with that? With what we might have to do? With what we might have to see?”

“I appreciate your concern with my psyche, but it’s not much more than a collection of scars at this point anyway. L-suit, prepare for disembarkment flight protocols.”

Everything shifted, as the suit moved on its own, walking across the lab to a large chute. Alex looked up as the ceiling there pulled away and revealed a long darkness and a distant light. “Countdown in three, two, one.” Then they were moving, the gyroscope shifting slightly with the motion. The light grew and grew until they blasted out above L-Corp into the sky of National City. “Flight achieved. All systems stable. Destination?”

“L-suit, there’s an all police unit response call downtown. Head there,” Lena said.

“Affirmative.”

It wasn’t like flying, Alex decided. She’d flown often enough in a plane or helicopter, or with Supergirl, but there were similarities. The pressure from the Gs was absent, something about which Alex was entirely grateful right now, but the display was impressive and the motion immersive. It was like playing a video game that would make Winn have a nerdgasm. Alex probably wasn’t that far off herself.

Quickly, they arrived at the scene of carnage and destruction, and all thoughts of fun and games were put aside. There were smashed cars and buildings, rubble covering the street like some wartorn city on the news. There were a few scattered bodies too, some of National City’s finest, and medical crews scurried to react to them all.

“L-suit, use the police radio frequency and codes to update EMS on the location of any downed persons not being attended to by medical personnel,” Lena said.

“Affirmative.”

“Now, let’s go find the big alligator that made this mess.”

“You can’t miss him,” Alex was turning her head in all directions, trying to see where he was. It only took a moment. “There he is, over to the left. The big assed green dude holding up - oh fuck, he’s got J’onn! We need to get over there now.” 

“Hold on.” Red crosshairs appeared over Killer Croc on the head’s up display, and Lena said, “L-suit, lock on target. This is your primary target until reassigned.”

“Affirmative.”

“Alex, the suit should now ignore other potential targets and actively work to keep us trained on and engaged with the enemy.”

“Should? Can you at least try to sound more convincing when you say things like that?”

“Certainly, because we Luthors are known for our unbridled optimism. L-suit, engage.”

The suit didn’t respond verbally. It descended rapidly on a near-collision path with the target from which it pulled back in the last moments. It left Alex a little shaky, as she literally had to find her footing, but she recovered quickly and acted on instinct, planting her fist in the gigantic crocodile’s face, making him drop J’onn who he had been spinning around by one leg and bashing into objects.

“I hope your Martian friend is sturdy. That looked painful,” Lena said, echoing Alex’s thoughts. “Okay, I’m bringing in melee weapons on your display. Remember how to use them?”

“Say the name followed by activate. I got it. Show me what you got.”

“Then deploy to, well, you get the picture.” 

A picture is indeed what Alex got. A spear, energy gloves (which looked like glowing suit hands), an axe, a ball and chain, and a selection of other weapons came on screen. Alex was about to start with the axe just to get down to fighting when something else caught her eye.

“Hold on, is that a lightsaber?”

“It’s a hard light energy weapon that resonates at—” Suddenly, Lena’s clinical voice cut out, and a childlike enthusiasm that revealed the scientist’s relative youth came through. “Yes, it’s a lightsaber. Pretty cool, huh?”

“Lightsaberactivatedeploy!” Alex stumbled over the words in her haste to get them out, looking down to her hands and waiting impatiently.

“That’s not its name, and please, articulate.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Alex took a deep, cleansing breath then tried again. “Hard light weapon, activate. Deploy.”

Like magic, or technically through the wonders of current technology, a chamber opened in the suit’s left arm, and the handle of a sword was pushed out into the hand that Alex controlled. Then with a hum that was (almost) copyright infringement, a light sprang forth in a vague blade shape.

“Hold on,” Lena said, “Shield, activate. Deploy.” On the back of the other arm, a series of metal pie wedges sprang out, spun, and locked into place like a round shield. “That should help. Let’s go.”

Alex took a step back with her left foot, twirling the blade in her (robotic) hand, as she tried to get a feel for it. She was fighting off-handed, which would be a disadvantage, but she had trained with both hands when practicing with swords and batons at the DEO, so whilst not as comfortable using her left hand, she wasn’t completely useless with it either. “Alright, Fish Face, let’s dance.”

As Killer Croc recovered from her fist to the face, he let out a guttural, spine chilling roar of rage and lunged forwards. Alex swung the blade at him instinctively, cracking it across the back of his wrist. He snapped his hand away as if he had been scalded, and she looked down at the weapon in her hand in surprise. “The fuck, Lena? I thought you said this was a lightsa—" Croc’s second lunge almost caught her off guard and she had to swipe at him again. This time, however, she delivered three good, solid blows not just to his arm, but to his torso and head as well before he backed off. “Lena, move your goddamn feet, foot, whatever, or we’re going to be sitting ducks!”

"Maybe give me some direction? I'm trying to reprogram the neural network for a new and unfamiliar user while also configuring the controls to two separate users at the same time, but please, yell in my ear. That can be your contribution to speed this process along."

“Ugh, alright fine. Lena please move us to the left. Like now! Lena we need to—" Alex swung the sword again, fending off even further attacks. “We need to move now!”

“I’m trying. This is my left!”

“What?! No if I’d wanted us to go to your left, I’d have said right! I mean left left! My left!”

Lena’s response was a grumble, but the suit shifted left in an at first awkward but eventually more collected cadence. They had the beginning of coordination, and they were now in motion and circling their foe instead of standing there like a combat dummy in the training room. Alex could work with this.

“Alright, thanks. Ok, can you raise the shield? Bit more? There, keep it there, good. When I say, raise it up high, okay?” Alex didn’t wait for confirmation this time. She studied Croc as they circled him, the HUD alight with various readouts. A quick dart forward with her left foot and she came within reach, striking him in the side. She backed off quickly and as he advanced on her, she waited, waited, waited, “now Lena!”

And Lena did. It was well-timed too as a large claw headed for their head, instead striking off the solid surface of the shield. The force was enough to make Alex glad she wasn’t physically in the suit though.

Swinging the sword round, she connected a good, solid blow to his lower torso, somewhere around where she presumed his kidneys would be, and he staggered back. “Back it up,” she instructed. “There’s not much room here. We need to find a better place where we’re not going to trip over anything.”

“Hold on. Let’s see if we can’t get this monstrosity to follow us. Flame Blasts, activate. Deploy” From the front of the suit, dual blasts of fire shot out into the torso of a very unhappy, and rather loud about it, crocodile man. It only lasted for a few seconds before ending, and then the suit lifted off, over Killer Croc, and landed several feet behind him facing the other way.

“I can’t see—” Alex didn’t even need to finish that thought before her view changed to 360 degrees. “Oh, that’s nice.”

“Let’s hope he takes the bait, and we don’t trip over each other. Do you have a plan for where you want to go?”

“He’s a crocodile. Water is his element, so we need to keep him as far away from that as we can. That includes the sewers.” Alex tried to think of anywhere near enough to their current location that was unpopulated and large enough that they could fight on a much more even footing, both literally and figuratively. Anywhere that wasn’t the docks or the harbour or the waterfront. However her mind was drawing a blank. “I guess the rooftops maybe? Though how do we get him up there?”

“L-suit, set off the evacuation alarm on 1247 East Landry Street”

“Affirmative.”

“Alex, I’m going to assume you know how to use one of these,” Lena said, and a whip icon showed up on Alex’s heads up display under weapons. “It’s metal. Snag him, and let's take this fight somewhere less congested.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Alex nodded. “Whip, activate. Deploy.” Glancing down at the item in her hand, she couldn't help but smile. “Kara has a friend who uses one of these. Well, she uses a lasso but close enough. She gave me a few pointers once.” And then she cleared her throat quickly, aware that that might possibly have come out completely wrong, and not how she’d intended it to at all. Grasping the whip by the handle, she let the tail unfurl down by her feet then after a moment or two to try and gauge the distance, she flicked her wrist, there was a sharp crack as the tail snapped through the air and coiled itself firmly around one of Croc’s ankles. She tugged sharply to make sure it had a firm grip. “Okay, let’s go!”

“Thrusters are active,” Lena said, as they lifted into the air. “Okay, he’s a heavy boy. I’m bringing up the building on your display. It’s two blocks away. Let’s see if we can make it there before he steers us into something.”

The smile fell from Alex’s face, as she glanced down to see Killer Croc struggling and flailing from the end of the line beneath them. “Ugh, can’t this thing go any faster?!”

“If it had a different power source, yes, but I thought we agreed that might be frowned upon.”

“Alright, alright, point taken. Jeez. Seriously, is there nothing you can do to speed it up? Some coding or, I dunno. Something?!” She glanced down again then groaned. “Because now he’s chewing the wire. Of course he is.”

“I’m trying, Alex. God took six days to make the world, and on the 7th, He rested. I'm not God, Luthor ego about that aside, and you're catching me on a rare day off. Try praying for patience." There was a clicking of keys, and then Lena added, “Okay, I rerouted power from another system, life support, which we won’t need since this thing is unmanned. You should feel a boost… now!”

“Holy shit,” Alex blinked as she did indeed feel… something. It was an odd sensation, much like flying, but one that she didn’t have time to dwell on for too long. “Hey, I think I see the rooftop. What is this building? Are we sure it’s empty?”

“L-Suit, confirm evacuation complete.”

“Confirmed.”

“We’re good. It only has a skeleton crew of security during renovations. I’m just glad the shelter isn’t open yet.”

“You’re opening another shelter?” Alex asked, momentarily distracted from their flight.

“Yes. Well, I was planning on it assuming we don’t manage to destroy it in this fight, but knowing how likely that is… maybe.” As they neared the building, Lena said, “Prepare for descent.”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Alex glanced down at their captive again, who was still furiously chewing his way through the steel of the cable around his ankle. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“That’s what I say every morning before I get out of bed. Here we go.”

They descended partway before Killer Croc managed to chew through the cable, and as he fell off, the resulting lack of weight jettisoned them back up quickly. They spun for a moment before they righted themselves and headed down again. There he was, one very pissed crocodile hybrid, waiting for them.

“Hold on, I’m going to hit the boosters briefly to move us further away before we land.” And she did. They were several feet away from the grasping hands of Killer Croc when a blast from their back moved them away and turned them mid-air so they landed, facing him. “Weapon options up!”

“Energy gloves, activate. Deploy. Lena, keep that shield up as well. We’re going to need it.” Alex raised her own blue glowing fist in front of herself in a ready stance. “Considering his size, he’s fast, trust me on that. We can’t underestimate him again. That was my mistake the first time he and I went toe to toe.” 

“So that explains your current,” the shield went up as a flurry of blows came down, “condition. Hits hard too. I’m going to move power from the thrusters to the joint stabilizers now that we’re not carrying cargo.”

“Sure, you do that,” Alex replied as she focussed on Croc’s movements. Each time she saw an opening, her fist would dart out with a left hook here, a jab there. She even managed a sloppy backhand that sent his fist wide when it looked like Lena wouldn’t get the shield up in time. “He’s not getting the better of me again.”

“You have flares as an option. Set them off, but target Croc. They’re in your shoulders. They won’t affect melee weapons.”

“Flares, right,” Alex saw them appear on her HUD as another option, even as she glanced at the left hand shoulder of the suit. “Okay. Flares, activate.” 

“Target locked. Confirm target.”

“Deploy.” 

The red target marker blinked twice, and then the display went oddly darker. Alex was about to question that, as it seemed like a power loss, when the screen lit up from the flares that hit Killer Croc in the face, and Alex was suddenly grateful for the shading. He staggered away, grabbing at his own face, and they jumped in close. While Lena blocked flailing blows, Alex ducked (grateful that scrunching down the helmet seemed to convey her meaning as well as for the pain reliever in her ribcage) and launched a series of body blows that staggered their foe. Then she rose quickly, slamming an uppercut below his jaw and rocking him backward.

“Stay with me, Luthor. Keep on him,” Alex said, as she advanced, and happily, Lena followed along. 

They landed several more blows that were obviously having the desired effect. Their foe seemed to be flagging from the constant abuse, and sitting in a lab as they were, the humans were nowhere near as affected. As Lena flashed weapon options on the display, Alex activated those she needed for the situation. They seemed to have managed a kind of symmetry that was wearing their foe down, as they circled and struck again and again, but that might have been what made them cocky.

Of course, they were near the building’s edge, facing away, when Croc dropped and spun. It could have been a spinning back fist, and they danced back, but perhaps that was the plan. Killer Croc’s tail struck out, knocking the legs out from under the robot, and no sooner did the gyroscope turn to reflect this new angle than the suit was hit with a body slam in mid air, knocking it backward and off the building where it fell, and fell, and fell.

“Luthor, thrusters!” Alex said even as she tried to torc her body, a move she would likely feel later, to get them pointing up. “Luthor!”

“Hold on! Thrusters!”

They kicked in, slowing but not stopping their descent. It was still a solid landing, as they divotted the the street below, but this was thankfully an unmanned flight.

“L-suit, system’s check,” Lena said in a voice far too calm for the situation. 

“System’s check. Minor external damage to aft shielding. All systems operational. Power at 83%”

“We’re good.” There was something, perhaps relief, in Lena’s voice, but Alex couldn’t be sure. The younger woman usually held her cards close to the vest, and recent events had only inflamed that.

“Good, get us thrusters so we can—”

“Are you okay in there?” Through all the moving and twisting about, how could it be one voice that hurt the most?

As the suit pushed up to its knees, Alex looked up into the concerned face of Maggie Sawyer. Concern shifted instantly into relief. If Maggie was here, she was fine. Alex had made it in time.

“I’m fine I— Fuck, how do I—”

“L-suit,” Lena cut in. “External microphone active, user, Alex Danvers.”

“Confirmed.”

“Voice modulation at 30%,” Lena seemed to add as an afterthought. “She shouldn’t recognize your voice… if you care.”

The problem was Alex did care. She nodded at Lena, realizing too late she was actually nodding at Maggie. So she pushed to her feet and said, “I’m fine, Detective. Unfortunately, so is Killer Croc.”

“Yeah, he’s a tough SOB. He hurt a bunch of my guys, um… What do I call you?”

“Introductions later. Right now, I have a date with a reptile.”

“I’ve had a few of those,” Maggie said with her casual charm even in the most hostile situations. “Look, I can take a squad of men and head up to—”

“No!” The last thing she needed was Maggie on the roof. She’d taken Croc up there to keep him away from people, and her ex was the last person she wanted to cross that line. “You and your men stay here, Mags. I’ve got this.”

Maggie squinted, head tilting left, as she peered closer at the helmet. “What did you say?”

“I said I have to go… now!”

Taking the hint, Lena hit the thrusters, and the suit ascended again. Before they had reached the rooftop, she asked, “So, did you know Detective Sawyer was going to be there?”

It wasn’t a question Alex had expected from Lena, and at the same time, she was sure Lena already knew the answer. Though blind to the trees that surrounded her, the young Luthor kept a careful eye on the forest. Alex had mostly lived in Lena’s periphery, but there was a time when they’d become friends, and that led to the current hostility. Lena had been attacked too often, the subject for assassination, to take it personally, but betrayal was different. Alex was far on the outs again, and that meant she was back in Lena’s sights.

“She’s part of the NCPD, and this was an all hands on deck type of situation. Of course, she was there.” It wasn’t an answer, and Alex was sure Lena knew it too, but the subject was dropped. Anyway, they still had a huge supervillain with whom to deal. “Why the fuck won’t he fall down?”

“Only the good die young, Alex. That’s my secret to long life.” Now this self-depreciation Alex definitely hadn’t missed. “Okay, I’m bringing close range rockets online. After those are done, we’ll move to the machine gun.”

“I don’t care if we have to throw the kitchen sink at him. I just want him down.”

“No kitchen sink, unfortunately,” Lena said as they hovered a few feet above the rooftop and several more feet away from the growling monster. “This is more of a high-tech Swiss Army knife.”

“Then get me the corkscrew. I don’t care. Everything you have, Luthor.”

So weapon after weapon came up on Alex’s display, and they moved, fired, struck out, wove, fought with all the suit had. Alex saw red displays as each weapon emptied, and their energy was now under 50%. Still, Killer Croc fought on.

“Fucking fucker,” Alex growled as she scrolled through the few remaining weapons. “Energy net? Why not? Energy net, activate. Deploy!”

A physical net shot out of a panel in the front of the suit’s torso, and from a cable running back to the suit, energy poured. It brought Croc down to his knees, but before they could celebrate, he pushed to his feet and spun, yanking them off their feet. The cable released, apparently as a safety reaction, but the suit slid along the roof, bits of concrete breaking around them. Their damage still seemed to be minor, but was quickly adding up. However, when they stopped, the real issue wasn’t the angry creature bearing down on them. No, the real issue was what happened next.

“Hey, asshole, catch!” Maggie Sawyer had decided to ignore Alex’s warning and do her damn job, and why did that surprise Alex even for a moment. It actually didn’t but the RPG on Maggie’s shoulder was new. Alex and Lena ducked as she fired, hitting Killer Croc square in the chest. It was several heart pounding moments before the smoke cleared, and Croc laid unmoving on his back.

“Hell yeah!” Maggie yelled, as she moved closer.

Still, the creature had taken a hell of a beating and kept fighting. This must have finished him off.

“Is he—”

“No clue,” Alex said as she stepped between an advancing Maggie and the downed foe. “Mags, stay behind me. Let me check.” The first gentle nudge with her boot got no reaction as did the second one. It seemed they’d won the day.  It seemed that way. 

Red eyes flashed and strong arms encircled the suit before either Lena or Alex could do anything. There was an unpleasant crunch of metal, and the screen went red, as alarms sounded.

“That can’t be good,” Alex said.

“It’s not. Our shields are failing, weapons are almost depleted, and we’re burning through energy trying to maintain integrity. There’s only one thing left to do.”

Something called ‘force barrier’ showed up on Alex’s head’s up display. What it did was anyone’s guess, but she trusted in Lena to know her suit and deployed it without question. A force field appeared around the suit and around Killer Croc, not saving them but locking them inside together.

“And how does this help us?” Alex asked.

“It doesn’t, but we’re going to end this, and we don’t want your detective hurt in the process.”

“She’s not my detective,” Alex replied.

But Lena said nothing to Alex in return, instead saying to the suit, “L-suit, initiate self-destruct!”

“Verify self-destruct code.”

“Omicron, Chi, Nu, op-silon, Tau, Theta, Psi, Xi.”

“Code confirmed. Self-destruct initiated.”

“How long do we have to—” There wasn’t even a flash of light. The screens went dark, and they were disconnected without further fanfare. “Okay, not long. You don’t even have a countdown?” Alex asked as she shook off the gauntlet.

“Countdowns get interrupted, and bad guys get away.”

As Lena pulled the helmet off of her, Alex asked, “Yeah, but isn’t that thing sometimes manned… by you?”

They held eye contact for several awkward moments, and Lena’s unwavering gaze and silence was telling.

“Let’s check the news,” Lena finally said, clearly not interested in discussing any suicidal tendencies and clicking local news onto the screen, changing channels until they had the view from a helicopter. “If that didn’t take him down, I don’t know that we can.” 

Alex hated to agree, but her thoughts were echoing Lena’s in this. It was an unfortunate subject for them to finally find common ground. They watched in relative silence as the smoke cleared, and one lone figure still stood on the rooftop (which had seen better days). However, it wasn’t a killer crocodile hybrid. Instead, it was a very familiar, petite detective, and Alex suddenly remembered how to breathe.

Within a minute, J’onn appeared, looking a bit shaky, with Dreamer in his arms. As Dreamer wrapped Killer Croc in power, J’onn knelt by the downed creature's side, hands pressed to the scale-covered skull. Anyone who knew J’onn as well as Alex did would recognize the use of Martian mental abilities, and when a swaying J’onn stood, steadied by Dreamer but nodding, Alex couldn’t resist a fist pump.

“He’s out! Fuck yes!”

“Good because that was my kitchen sink.” Lena gingerly left the gyroscope, and Alex, to move to another console. Soon the click of keys was the only sound breaking the silence.

“So, um, thanks,” Alex said when she finally managed to pull herself free from the contraption and hobble over to Lena. “You really came through today.” When all she got was a noncommittal hum, she added, “I owe you. If I can ever pay you back, let me know.”

“Pay me back?” Lena spun in her chair one brow raised, and Alex took a step back because of… Alex didn’t know what, but something was clearly about to happen. “We just destroyed a seventeen million dollar piece of technology. Have you got that lying around under your couch cushions?”

“Seventeen… oh, fuck me. Lena, I had no idea. I’m really sorry. If I could—”

“Oh, relax, Alex.” The broad grin that crossed Lena’s face was one of the most natural ones Alex had seen on her. “We used almost every weapon in live combat, put flight controls through a workout, wrote some new code that will work well after a spit polish, and even got verification on the self destruct function. The data I received today is invaluable. Anyway, I have three more suits in various stages of construction, and the next one will be that much better now.”

“Jeez, lady, way to give an unemployed civil servant a heart attack,” Alex said, clutching at her chest but with a smile to match Lena’s. “I was pretty sure I was going to be turtle waxing your whole fleet of limos for the rest of time to pay off my debt.”

“I’m not sure what that means, but I’m sure it’s witty.”

Alex shrugged with her good shoulder, trying not to react when her elbow twinged. “You made a huge difference today, so thank you.” Alex held out her left hand, and though it seemed like Lena might decline, the younger woman clasped it in her own.

“I’m always here to help when there’s trouble. No matter what else you think of me, I hope you can believe that.”

“I do. Maybe we can do it again sometime without so much destruction. We made a pretty good team today.”

“Yes, who would have believed it,” Lena replied with a dry chuckle, “a Luthor and a Danvers working together.”

“You know, I’m not the only Danvers in town. I know you helped us with your brother… again, and I know you and Kara have been talking some. Are you two—”

“My relationship with your sister is complicated.”

“By complicated do you mean she lied to you for years for fear of losing you, and when you found out, you tried to mind control the world?” Though probably not the best thing to say to someone who had just made a several million dollar investment to help you, judging by the tension in Lena’s jaw and the grinding of her teeth in response, Alex had no regrets. If they were going to move forward, they had to deal with the past first. “Look, if you want my advice—”

“I don’t. I don’t ever want your advice.”

“Okay but—”

“No,” Lena said, whipping back around and dropping into the chair.

“Fine. Jeez, snap my head off. I swear, you two act like a couple of useless lesbians sometimes. Just admit you love each other and stop being so damn dramatic.”

As quickly as Lena had turned away, she spun back. It was an expression Alex had never seen on the younger woman before. It was open, sincere, and painful. It was raw emotion, and though she hadn’t seen it on Lena, Alex had seen it before. She saw it in the mirror after Maggie left. It was the last thing Alex expected, but in hindsight, it was something she should have anticipated. Friends don’t lash out and try to protect anyone else from ever feeling the pain of betrayal over a friend. Three years of Lena’s life had culminated in a mistake almost too big to come back from, one that wasn’t excusable but was now explainable.

“Oh shit, Lena I—”

“Goodbye, Alex.” The walls were up again, that moment of truth fleeting. “The elevator will bring you to the lobby, and my driver will take you home.”

“Wait, just give me a minute. I had no idea—”

“I’m asking you to leave, and I don’t think you’re in any condition to try and disagree if I force the issue.”

So Alex left, took the long ride up the elevator and the even longer ride home with one question on her mind. ‘Did Kara feel the same way for Lena?’

That question was still in the back of her mind as Alex took the long, limping walk down her hallway. Being away from the chatter of the elevator had seemed like a perk when she’d first moved in, but right now, she could use some handicap parking on her own couch. At least she’d had drop off service in front of the apartment. 

She allowed herself to think about medicine interaction and whether she could have one cold beer, which she had definitely earned today, as she struggled to pull out her keys and get them in her lock one-handed… but the door was already unlocked. Her hand went for the holster that was not on her hip, and with a heavy sigh, she pushed the door open. If someone was here to kill her, she was going to have that cold beer as her last meal and let them do their worst. She was too damn tired at this point.

Still, she gripped her crutch tightly in her good hand. Instincts were hard to override. As the door opened, light streamed into her apartment, and a sliver of illumination bisected her living room. It was enough to spotlight the lone figure on the couch, head in hands and shoulders jerking haphazardly.

“Maggie?”

At first, it seemed like the detective didn’t hear her name. There was no response, and Alex was about to repeat it when, with a sniffle, Maggie raised her head. She squinted against the glare when Alex flipped on the lights, but those brown eyes soon widened in recognition and… surprise?

“Alex?” Maggie’s voice quivered as she rose, her face stained with rivulets from shed tears, and moved toward Alex, “You’re alive?”

That was as absurd a statement as Alex had ever heard, although the way she was sure to feel when Lena’s pain reliever stopped working, Alex might later question her own status among the living.

“Of course, I’m alive. Why wouldn’t I be—” Alex’s eyes widened and then closed as lips, lips she never thought would meet her own again, bridged the gap and connected… connected them again, connected Alex with feelings she’d been trying to suppress, connected her with a past she thought would be her future, connected her to the reality she’d been trying to deny. She still had feelings for Maggie.

Alex was barely aware of the clunk as her crutch hit the floor so she could grab hold and pull Maggie in even closer. They’d always kissed so naturally, and though at the time Alex had wondered if it was because her experience with women was singular, the last few years had taught her otherwise. She’d kissed a lot of other women and even opened her heart to love again in that time, but this was something that felt right, almost meant to be. Even after all the time apart, kissing Maggie felt like going home.

The kiss ended, leaving Alex reeling, only steadied when Maggie grabbed her and held tightly yet again. “I thought… When your suit blew up I… Oh, God.” 

Alex’s hand went to her lips, still moist from the kiss, as if needing proof it had happened, that this wasn’t a dream (one she’d had before). 

“I’m sorry,” Maggie said, stepping away and disappearing out the doorway, the pounding of her feet proof she wasn’t walking but running from whatever that was.

Alex’s mind was working even faster, as she dragged herself over to the couch and dropped down, hand to her lips again. Maggie had kissed her. What did that mean? Did that mean anything? Did she want it to mean anything? Without answers, she grabbed a pillow from the couch, covered her eyes, and moaned. Man, she could really go for that beer right now.

Chapter Text

Although her elbow still twinged every now and then, for the most part, Alex was feeling pretty damned good. She raced along Highland Avenue, and despite the fact her hood (which by some small miracle and maybe more than a little Martian intervention) was remaining in place, it also meant that the wind couldn’t flow through her hair like it often did when she and Kara went flying together. Still, she was feeling an overwhelming sense of freedom and - would peace be the right word? Right then, she would have said yes. She did feel at peace on her beloved Monster, as it roared through the streets of National City. 

She’d missed this, missed being able to jump on her bike and go. No hobbling or limping, no awkward one-handed fumbling with everyday objects, just being able to get on and do the things she loved without anything to stop her.

Up ahead, the disco of lights dancing off every surface told her that she was drawing nearer to her target, but she still didn’t have them in her sights. Gunning the throttle, she ducked down and leaned with the bike, as it took a corner much faster than any normal, sane person would ever have attempted. But Alex knew what she was doing. She knew her bike, and she knew its limits.

A crackling in her ear alerted her to some radio chatter that she presumed would be about her current objective.

“Supergirl?”

“Maggie, hey! Hi! So those armed robbers you asked me to deal with aren’t so armed anymore. Well, I mean they have arms, obviously, but they don’t have guns. I just delivered them to the NCPD for you, but I heard you were having a hard time with the getaway truck? Is it still getting away?”

Finally, Alex could see the cars up ahead. Four NCPD squad cars following some kind of beaten up, much faster than it should ever have been truck that was clearly giving them the runaround and leading them on a merry dance. If Alex was going to do anything, she needed to get in front of the squad cars, which were annoyingly fanned out and blocking her path. 

Sitting up a little on her bike, she looked all about for a moment before spotting something that might be of some use, further down the road. It was risky. Very risky in fact. But Alex was about 80% sure there would be no-one around at this time of night.

Or so she hoped. Turning the bike sharply to the right, she aimed for a vehicle transporter that was parked at the side of the road, it’s top ramp down.

“God damn it, Walsh! Next time I drive! Yes, Supergirl, they are. Any chance of an assist?”

“Aww I’m really sorry, Maggie, but there’s a fire two blocks down from CatCo that’s raging out of control. Don’t worry though, J’onn promised to send you some back up.”

“Backup? From whom?”

Alex hit the gas, as she came to the ramp of the transporter, hoping and praying she’d timed it right, shot up and off the end, soared through the air and over the nearest squad car, landed back on the tarmac with a jolt that sent a sharp but thankfully only brief jolt of pain through her ankle, shoulder and elbow, then hit the gas again.

"Oh, that kind of backup. The suicidal kind of backup."

"Suicidal? Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, just... Yeah, we're all good here. Good luck with your fire."

“Suicidal, my ass,” Alex grumbled to herself, as she pulled up alongside what she was sure was now a heavily modified truck, considering it was managing to outpace the standard issue squad cars with relative ease. Thinking a pistol into her hand using the Hand of the Soldier, she shot out the two tires on this side of the truck and hit the brakes so hard that her bike tilted forwards onto its front wheel. Its back end reared up and threatened to tip her forward over the handlebars and would have succeeded, had she not been expecting the motion and moved with it to maintain her balance. Then as the truck skidded in front of her, she dropped the bike back onto both wheels, hit the gas, and moved up along the truck’s other side, shooting out those two tires as well.

The chase ended only a matter of seconds later, and Alex skidded her bike to a halt a little further up so that she could look back and make sure the NCPD got their guy.

The driver was already on his knees outside the cab, hands behind his head, as armed officers advanced on him, issuing clear warnings for him not to do anything stupid. The driver complied readily, and Alex breathed a sigh of relief, as Maggie cuffed him, hauled him to his feet, and shoved him toward her partner who led him away. It would be a short-lived relief when Maggie’s gaze locked on Alex’s, and as the petite detective moved toward her, every thought and feeling Alex had worked very, very, very hard to try and bury for the past few weeks came crashing back in on her.

“Stop or I’ll shoot!”

Ah, the sweet sounds of an emergency came to the rescue as the passenger, who apparently wasn’t ready to surrender as easily, broke free and took off on foot. Alex was all too happy to give pursuit, easily vaulting a fence with a little parkour action up some crates and off the side of the building, and gaining on him quickly. As they rounded the corner of the alley that headed back towards the street, it was a pursuit that ended quickly as Maggie stood at the end with her pistol drawn and backup handcuffs dangling from her other hand.

The passenger skidded to a halt and turned, trying to do a 180, but he was spear tackled as Alex took him down like he had the ball on the one yard line at fourth and down. Regaining his footing, he tried to fend his attacker off, but every ham fisted blow was countered and every desperate kick avoided with ease. It was almost as if she was toying with him, letting him think he had the upper hand. Okay, so maybe Alex was toying with him, but she wanted him to feel like he was doing a good job, and she had a lot of kinks to work out after being laid up for so long. She only let the game last for about thirty seconds however before she decided that enough was enough and ended the confrontation with a series of swift but efficient blows that forced him to his knees, winded. Maggie strolled up, slapped a pair of cuffs round his wrists and then motioned to one of the other officers to come and take him for processing.

“Hey, thanks for th—" Alex didn’t wait to hear anymore, already around the corner, over the fence, back to the street, and onto her jet black bike, as she roared off into the distance.

It wasn’t that she was avoiding Maggie. It was part of the vigilante’s code... or something. No hanging around and chatting, especially with the cops. She didn’t want a problem with the union. The vigilante union was a thing, right? Right. She tuned into her scanner, looking for some other trouble that needed her attention, something to occupy her mind and help her to bury the aching in her heart down, down, down again back where it belonged. It would be a lot of digging.

<><>

“You could have stayed to say hello, you know.” Kara pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her nose with one finger, then took a big bite of the bagel that Alex had bought for her a few moments earlier.

“No, I couldn’t,” Alex countered as she broke off a small piece of her own bagel and popped it in her mouth. The two sisters walked along the waterfront, enjoying a rare morning together before both their respective jobs sucked them back into the worlds of journalism, vigilantism and superheroism again.

“Why not?”

“Well, because…” Alex faltered for a moment, but only a moment. “Because you needed help.”

“I’d already put the fire out and was dealing with a cat up a tree. I think I could have managed.” Kara gave her sister a knowing look, and Alex groaned, caving in at last.

“Alright, yes, I’m avoiding her. Happy?”

“Not in the slightest,” her sister shook her head, then took another big bite, before speaking around her mouthful. “It’s Maggie. Why would I be happy that you’re avoiding Maggie?”

“Because,” Alex groaned, as she slumped down on a nearby bench. It was the same bench where she and Kara had sat, all those years ago, when Alex had first confessed her feelings for Maggie and how she was quite possibly gay.

Of course there was no ‘quite possibly’ about it these days. Alex was out, loud, and proud. And yet here she was, back on the very same bench, with her sister, having a conversation about Maggie, and all those confusing feelings had returned again. The same ones she’d struggled with before. Only this time, she knew what they were and what they meant.

She could feel Kara watching her, and sure enough, when she turned to her sister, there were those blue eyes, watching her expectantly as she also sat down, as if she was waiting for something. The rolling motion of Kara’s hand for Alex to continue was enough to tell the elder Danvers sister that this conversation was far from over.

“Because?” Kara prompted when Alex still hadn’t answered.

“Because…” Alex passed her bagel across to Kara, her appetite lost all of a sudden, as she stood up and started to pace a few paces in one direction then turned and paced back in the other direction again. “You know, I’m up all night…” 

“Well, you are a twenty-four-seven vigilante, so I’m not surprised,” Kara shrugged and took a bite of Alex’s bagel, now armed with one doughy product in either hand and looking very much like the cat who got the cream.

But Alex didn’t mind. Speaking about it out loud was already helping her to put her thoughts into order and give her some perspective, whether Kara was actually listening or not.

“No, Kara, I mean… I mean I’m up all night, just thinking about it. About her. You know? I thought that when we… when she and I broke up, I thought I’d moved on. I thought I was okay. It took me a while to date again, sure, but then there was Kelly, and I thought that maybe then, finally, I was moving on. I thought that I was over Maggie. And for a time I was. Until she showed up in the hospital room that day, and all of a sudden all these feelings just came flooding back like a tidal wave, and I couldn’t stop them.”

“So what’s the problem?” One bagel paused halfway to Kara’s mouth, a serious expression on her face. Even the telltale crinkle had appeared.

Alex continued pacing back and forth, her feet on autopilot now as one hand raised and she gently touched her lip with one finger, reliving that moment again in her mind. She could almost taste Maggie’s vegan cherry lip balm, and it nearly made her smile. Biting her lip, she dropped her hand back to her side, turned sharply on her heel and paced back the other way again. “The problem is that after she kissed me—" 

“Hold on! Stop right there! You mean years ago when the two of you first kissed, right?”

“What?” Alex frowned as she stopped pacing and turned to face her sister. Then she shook her head and started to pace again. “No, no, a few weeks ago. After the whole Killer Croc thing. Anyway after she—" 

“She what? You what?” Kara was so clearly outraged that she’d stopped eating. “You and Maggie kissed weeks ago? Why am I only hearing about this now?”

“Hey!” Alex pointed a finger sharply at her sister as she stopped pacing again. “Don’t you take that tone with me! When it happened isn’t important. It’s what happened after that is.” She took a breath and ran a hand through the loose strands of her hair, wondering best how to word it. “After we kissed, she just… took off. I mean literally. She said sorry and then she ran. She ran down that hallway like… well like your friend Barry.”

“Oh, that’s fast.” Kara took a bite of one of her bagels and ate at a much more human speed. It was Kara’s ‘thoughtful eating’, a process which Alex was all too familiar with. Two more bites followed, all in relative silence, before she spoke again. “Why?”

Alex sighed again as she slowly sat back down on the bench and gazed out across the water. “Because clearly it was a mistake. Why else would she apologise and then get the hell out of there? She was crying, and then we were kissing, and then she was running, and I honestly have no idea what the fuck happened that evening. Only that she clearly regretted it enough to say she was sorry.”

“Sorry about kissing you?”

“Uh huh,” Alex nodded.

“Okay, but my question still stands. Why was she sorry about kissing you? I mean, if you kiss someone and then apologize, it could be because the kiss was bad…” Kara waited, gaze locked on her sister.

Slowly, very slowly, Alex raised one eyebrow. “It wasn’t. She knew it. I knew it. It was… it felt… ugh, it doesn’t matter. If it wasn’t about the kiss, then why did she run?”

“I don’t know. That sounds like a Maggie question. You could maybe, and this is just a crazy idea from your local alien, try asking her.”

Alex closed her eyes and took another deep breath, dipping her head slightly even as she shook it. “I can’t. I can’t bear to have that talk with her because I know exactly what she’ll say. That it was a mistake, she was overly emotional, wasn’t thinking properly, and that it shouldn’t have happened. It won’t happen again, and… I just can’t, Kara.”

“Do you think it was a mistake?” Alex couldn’t do more than open her mouth before Kara added, “Do you think what happened between the two of you weeks ago was a mistake, or do you think what happened between you two years ago was a mistake? Do you think you made a mistake that drove you apart, or do you think she made a mistake by not staying and fighting for you, or fighting with you, if that's what it took? Alex, this all comes down to communication, to compromise. There's her truth and your truth but the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. If you love her, admit it to yourself and talk to her about it. If you don't, you might be making the biggest mistake of your life.”

Alex was silent for a long time as she contemplated her sister’s words, before finally she nodded, slowly. “That’s really good advice, Kara. Maybe you should take it too.”

“Huh?” Kara said around a mouthful of bagel.

“Oh, you know. Mr Plum, in the billiard room, with the candlestick.”

“Alex, I don’t under—”

“Get a clue, Kara!”

Still, the expression on Kara’s face stayed just as blank, just as blissfully unaware, and it quite frankly made Alex a little envious. “Are we still talking about you and Maggie?”

“You might be. I’m talking about a certain billionaire CEO and our resident Kryptonian.” Alex gave her sister a very pointed look. “You can be great at giving advice, but sometimes, you need to start taking it too.”

“Lena?” Kara ducked her head but not before her little smile showed. “I don’t… It’s not like that. Lena and I are… we're just friends. We’re… I don’t know what we are, but we were never… I mean Lena doesn’t… I don’t… Lena?” As her voice cracked, she chanced a glance up, and the uncertainty shone in her eyes.

“I was actually talking about Clark and Lex,” Alex fought with everything she had to keep a straight face. “But now that you mention it…”

“Alex, Lena doesn’t…” Kara shook her head, but her eyes shifted, and it was clear the seed had been planted, or watered or whatever the hell was going on inside that Kryptonian skull, and certain now rather obvious feelings were starting to spread. “You think that Lena and I… Lena?”

Alex reached out an arm and wrapped it around Kara’s shoulder, pulling her a little closer. “Look, I spent some time with Lena recently, and I think you two need to talk. A lack of communication is what broke Maggie and I. Don’t make the same mistake we did. You’ve got plenty of time to make more mistakes of your own. I know things between you and Lena are complicated, but that’s why you need to sit down and talk to her. Be absolutely honest about everything. Talk to her about what happened. And talk to her about why it happened as well. It’s the only way you will both move forward. Like you said, there’s your truth and there’s her truth. But the actual truth of what happened is somewhere in the middle. You both need to find that middle ground.”

“I… I…” And what looked to be a denial turned into a nod. “You’ll talk to Maggie?”

Alex took a deep breath and thought about her answer for a long moment, before she finally nodded as well. “You talk to your complicated, I’ll talk to mine.”

“Deal… after I finish my bagels.”

Chapter Text

As it happened, Alex didn’t have to wait long before she ran into Maggie again. It was almost as if, now that particular door had been cracked open ever so slightly, Fate was doing everything in its power to kick the door in completely and force the two of them back into each other’s lives.

This time, Alex was chasing a group of teens who thought it would be hilarious to rob an elderly convenience store clerk, lock him in his own back room, and make off with the cash register and a crate of beer each. There had been four of them to start off with, as they’d sauntered out of the store, laughing and congratulating each other on a job well done. Their expressions upon finding a hooded vigilante waiting for them in the alleyway beside the store were priceless. As the obvious leader of the group stepped forwards to square up to her, (his vibe was high school quarterback who was all brawn and no brains), the others had all stood about jeering and catcalling, egging him on. 

He clearly thought he was God’s Gift, as he trash talked, complete with arrogant hand gestures and boastful looks towards his ‘crew’ who whooped and cheered on encouragingly, clearly enjoying the spectacle. None of them seemed phased, as the sound of sirens grew steadily louder, either. Clearly, the only thing they were focused on at that moment in time was the smug jock who was going to “kick her ass”. 

It was hardly the most original trash talk. Alex stood with arms folded, waiting for his monologue to wrap up so that she could put him in his place.

At long last, he advanced on her in what she assumed was meant to be a threatening manner. His words alone were not going to get rid of her. Sighing impatiently, she wished he would hurry up. It was eight o’clock on a Thursday night, after all. She was missing sister night to be here right now. 

Three swift moves later, she had the idiot pinned to the ground beneath her, squealing and begging for mercy, as she cable-tied his hands behind his back. 

The entire mood in the alley shifted in an instant. Suddenly, it became every man for himself, as the remaining three turned tail and ran, dropping the stolen loot in their haste to get away.

“Why do they always run?” Alex sighed, almost conversationally, to the jock pinned beneath her. Patting him lightly on the shoulder, she stood. “Stay right there, big man. I’ll be back.”

As the fleeing teens came to the end of the alley, a police patrol car screeched to a stop and a uniformed officer jumped out, grabbing the smallest of the teens, who had been trailing behind the others and hadn’t quite made it out of the alley before his path was blocked. 

Alex didn’t even wait to see what happened next. Never breaking stride, she simply slid across the hood of the squad car and was running again as soon as her feet hit the road. The sound of pounding feet coming up behind her briefly caught her attention, and then a very familiar, very petite, raven haired detective drew level, booted feet pounding on the uneven gravel of the newest back alley they had turned into. 

They were gaining on the teens. It was only a matter of seconds before they were within grabbing distance now, and Alex couldn’t help but smile at the familiarity of this feeling. Running alongside Maggie, not away from trouble, but towards it. It was exhilarating. It was fun. It was —

“You take left, I’ll take right,” Maggie’s voice cut across Alex’s thoughts. “On three.”

“Three!” Alex and Maggie lunged together, grabbing their respective targets and tackling them to the ground. Knowing they were beaten, the teens didn’t even bother fighting or struggling, as they were cuffed and read their rights.

A second squad car pulled into the alley behind them moments later, and two more uniformed officers came forwards to take the teens away.

And then there were just the two of them, the detective and the vigilante, alone in the alley together. Alex tugged her hood further forward and turned away, suddenly self conscious and deciding that she wasn’t ready to face Maggie yet. 

“Thanks for the assist, Danvers.”

Alex froze then very slowly peered round the edge of her hood to see that oh so familiar smirk, and those sparkling brown orbs, alight with amusement. God damn it.

With a sigh, she flipped her hood back as she turned to face Maggie completely. There was no use hiding it any longer. “How did you know?”

“I’m a detective, Danvers. I detect things.”

“I should have known,” Alex chuckled, as she shook her head helplessly. “So what gave me away? Is there something I need to change to protect myself?”

“A mask would be a good call, but I guess those are against the Danvers Sisters’ Code of Heroics .” Maggie’s smirk was infectious. “Outside of that, it’s probably as good as things are gonna get. It’s not your face that gave you away anyway.”

“Oh?” Alex looked down her body, turning to make sure no-one had stuck a ‘kick me’ sign on her back with her name or something ridiculous.

“Yeah, let’s just say I’ve run behind you before, and I’ll never forget that view.” And when Maggie’s gaze raked down her body and settled, rather pointedly on her ass, Alex had to swallow twice to keep from sputtering. “Quite the, um, scenic view you got going on there. Nice… suit.”

Alex could already feel the heat rising in her cheeks, and she looked away quickly before making a vague, sweeping gesture towards herself. “The suit. Right. So…this is me.”

“And I’m guessing you’re no longer Agent Danvers either. Doesn’t exactly look government issue, after all. You got a superhero name to go with that fancy getup, or what?” Maggie folded her arms across her chest, as she studied Alex up and down, making no effort at all to hide that that was exactly what she was doing.

“Uh yeah,” Alex rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “Sentinel.”

Maggie appeared to consider for a moment before she nodded. “It suits you.”

There was a moment of awkward silence as Alex glanced down at her feet and scuffed one boot in a small arc in front of herself. 

“So, I’d better get back to the station and book those kids in. Thanks again for your help, Sentinel .” The way the name rolled off the detective’s tongue sent a warm tingle down Alex’s spine, even as her eyes shot up, and she found herself speaking before she could stop herself.

“Drink?” The half strangled, half whispered attempt at speaking was pathetic, even to Alex’s own ears.

Maggie paused. “Come again?”

Alex cleared her throat and tried again. “I said drink. As in do you want one? With me? Or not. You know, whatever.” Her shrug did very little in the way of covering up the utterly disastrous and not to mention downright awkward attempt she had just fumbled her way through. But after a brief pause, Maggie’s emerging smile told a different story.

“You sure that’s a good idea?”

“It’s just a drink,” Alex shrugged. “So that we can talk. I think we need to talk.”

“Talking over drinks?” There was another long pause before finally Maggie nodded. “Sure, I can do that. I get off in half an hour. Once I've processed these little douche balls, I'll meet you there.”

“Really?” Once again, Alex failed spectacularly to hide her feelings, as her heart soared up into the clouds and beyond. “I mean sure. That’s-that would be… yeah. Great. Cool. So meet you there then. At the, um… the bar. Where they serve drinks. At the bar. Cool.”

“Anyone ever tell you that you turn into your sister when you get flustered?” Maggie chuckled, taking a few steps backwards and offering a sloppy salute. “See you later, Danvers. I’m holding you to that drink.”

<><>

Alex tugged up the collar of her jacket as she walked quickly down the alley leading towards the door of Al’s Dive Bar, her footsteps echoing and providing her with a rhythmic drum beat that matched the rapid hammering of her heart against her ribcage and did little to calm her nerves. Overhead, the skies darkened and not just because it was late evening. A storm was threatening, the weather apparently in tune with Alex’s emotions. Which was ridiculous. It was weather. It couldn’t do that… could it?

Stranger things had happened in National City, after all.

Reaching the door, she stopped. One hand reached out. And then just as quickly, she jammed both hands in her pockets, turned on her heel and walked away a few paces. Then stopped, took a deep breath and turned back. It was just a door. A regular, metal, open and shut door that would lead inside the bar to where Maggie was waiting for her.

She hoped.

Or did she? Was she hoping Maggie was there?

Of course she was.

But then what if it was a mistake? What if her going to the bar and having a drink with her ex was a mistake?

No, this was good. It was a good thing. It was just a drink. Nothing more. And besides, she’d promised Kara that she would do it. She’d skipped the remainder of sister night to do this. 

She reached for the door again but just as quickly withdrew her hand once more. Because what if Maggie thought it was a mistake? Even if Alex didn’t, Maggie might.

Or worse still, what if Maggie didn’t show?

What if Maggie was running late because of work, but Alex thought she wasn’t coming, so she left and then Maggie showed up after, and Alex wasn’t there so then Maggie thought that Alex thought that it was a mistake?

What if Alex stayed because she was so worried about missing Maggie, so she stayed until closing, but in reality Maggie did think it was a mistake and didn’t come?

What if—

The door was suddenly pushed open, making Alex step back, and with a heavy sigh, M’gann studied Alex. “Enough already. Get in here and have a drink. Your thoughts are too loud. You're giving me a headache.”

Alex ducked her head sheepishly and followed the Martian inside. Stepping over to an empty space at the bar, she hesitated for a moment, looking all around, scanning for any signs of a certain petite, raven-haired, dimple-armed detective. When she couldn't see anyone matching that particular description, she dragged out one of the stools and sat down heavily, her fingers drumming out a tuneless rhythm on the bar top.

Her head continued to swivel left and right at every tiny noise - the sound of laughter, glasses clinking together, a chair being scraped across the floor, a cue ball striking another ball… and then the sound of something being placed on the bar in front of her. Turning her head towards the bar, she saw two drinks had been set on coasters in front of her by M’gann.

“Drink up,” M'gann said. “You feel like you need it. Now, since you asked for my advice—”

“I didn't ask for advice. Thanks, but I'm fine.”

With a tap of her head, the Martian equivalent of calling bullshit, M'gann cleared her throat and continued, barely noting while clearly ignoring Alex’s interruption. "Since you asked for my advice, here it is. Communication is the basis for a successful relationship. You and Maggie both made assumptions last time and then allowed the other person to continue with those once you knew better. You have a second chance, and not a lot of people get that. Use it wisely."

Alex opened her mouth again to protest but found that she couldn’t really so picked up her drink and took a sip of it instead to buy herself a few seconds of time whilst she thought over M’gann’s words. Then slowly, she set her drink down again. “So... just talk to her? What do I say? What do I do? What does anyone say or do in this sort of situation?"

M'gann’s smirk would have been annoying if the woman’s advice wasn’t always so good and in this case needed. "See, I knew you wanted advice. Be honest. Tell her the things that you wish you'd had a chance to do before. Do something you're very good at." She tapped Alex's chest, just a few gentle taps, but it was steadying. "Face down your fears and be brave." 

Alex nodded, already feeling a little more confident, though whether it was the drink, M’gann’s words or a combination of both, she couldn’t tell. "I can do that. I can be brave.” She sat up a little taller on the stool, and then almost immediately deflated again. “But what if she doesn't even show up?"

With nothing more than a tilt of her head and thrust of her chin, M'gann gestured to the door. It was closed, but a few seconds later, Maggie walked in. Damn M’gann was good at this. "You're not the only one being loud tonight. Remember, be honest but gentle. She's a lot more scared than she lets on. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a Delorvian who's thinking about doing something extremely stupid. I need to go talk him down before I need to bail him out."

Alex took another swallow of her drink, preferring the burn to the near palpitations in her chest. M’gann’s drink still sat on the bar, and Alex lifted it toward the bartender who was busy breaking up a fight that apparently hadn’t started yet. Convenient.

“Hey, Danvers.”

Alex turned suddenly, staring into brown eyes that could still make her weak in the knees no matter how often she saw them. For some things, there was no building up an immunity.

“Maggie, you’re here.” Well, if stating the obvious was going to score her points, Alex was off to a great start.

“You invited me.” Maggie didn't seem to be doing much better, and somehow that was… comforting? There was parity, and though it wasn’t everything Alex needed to get through this, it was a good start. "Club soda? Is that for me?” Maggie said, as she hopped up onto a stool and took the drink from Alex before she could be corrected. "How'd you know I wasn't drinking tonight?"

A glance to the other end of the bartop earned Alex a wink from her guardian angel… Martian… same thing. "Uh, a little bird told me."

“Clever bird.” Despite having shown up for a drink and conversation, Maggie seemed satisfied to peer into her glass like a fortune teller into a crystal ball. It was several minutes of truly awkward silence before Maggie said, “So, Danvers—”

It was the same moment that Alex chose to break the ice. “Mags, I was just—”

That let some of their mutually held tension out, and though it was obvious neither was relaxed, when Maggie nodded and offered a small smile, Alex smiled back.

“Pool?” Maggie said. “I seem to remember you suck at it, and I do like showing you up.”

“Yeah right,” Alex scoffed, as she jumped down from her stool and grabbed her drink. “You’re still not getting that grenade, Sawyer.”

“We’ll see about that.” Maggie placed her drink on the edge of the pool table, as she examined the pool cues. Having selected something acceptably straight, and it took everything in Alex not to make a joke about that because they probably weren’t in that place yet, Maggie said, “I’ll rack ‘em up. Want to break to see who goes first or flip a coin?”

“I went first last time,” Alex shrugged, setting her own drink down on a small table nearby. Then she motioned to the table with her hand. “After you.”

Maggie stilled, her cue frozen in her hand for long enough that Alex nearly asked what was wrong, but she finally made eye contact, nodded, and mumbled. “Yeah, you did.” Then she was racking the balls before placing the cue ball and taking her shot.

“So,” Alex started, her eyes studiously glued to the balls as they shot across the table in a scatter pattern after Maggie’s first shot. “Did you get those kids processed earlier? Well, I mean obviously you did because you’re here but, um… I mean the… paper… work? I bet there was loads of it to do, what with them being kids and all. And, you know. Lots of paper to, uh, work on. Right?”

Shut up Alex. Just shut up.

She scrubbed the back of her neck with one hand, then grabbed up her drink quickly and took a large gulp to stop herself from saying anything else. Then nearly choked. Okay, so that was maybe too big a gulp. Clearing her throat a couple of times, she took up her own cue as she waited for it to be her turn. “Crazy weather tonight, huh?”

“Yeah. It may be always sunny in Philadelphia, but it’s gloomy as hell out there right now. If it does rain,” Maggie rounded the table and pointed to a ball and then across the table, “five ball, side pocket,” before lining up her shot and grimacing when she failed to sink her target, “let’s hope it keeps the crazies inside. We could all use a quiet night. Your turn. You’ve got stripes.”

Momentarily distracted as she walked a circuit round the table and assessed the lay of the balls, Alex nodded at last. “Ten ball, corner pocket.” Pointing to the corner pocket opposite where she was standing, she lined up her own shot but hesitated before she took it and glanced sideways at Maggie, opened her mouth to say something then thought better of it and took her shot. As the ball sunk into the pocket, she stood up straight and looked for her next shot. “To be honest, quiet nights are kind of boring. Had way too many of them when I was laid up after the whole Croc incident and couldn’t wait to get out on the streets again. I am definitely not cut out for a desk job. Twelve ball, side pocket.” This time she wasn’t so lucky, and although the striped ball bounced away off the cushion and towards the middle of the table, the cue ball sank straight into the pocket. “God damn it. Your go.”

“Scratch, bad luck.” Maggie’s grin, a familiar and unwelcome sign of gloating, was on full display as she circled the table with the cue ball in hand, searching out her best shot. “Speaking of Croc, want to explain how you got your hands on that robot? That was a nice piece of tech. I assume your old job didn’t let you walk with some pens, a ream of paper, and a robot armed with ballistic missiles when you left. That wasn’t your pension, was it?”

Alex coughed and sputtered slightly, setting her drink down quickly before she spilled any more of it, having made the mistake of choosing that exact moment to take a sip. After a second or two to compose herself, she sighed. It was pointless to even try and argue. "How'd you know it was me? It was my ass again, wasn't it?"

"Your 'ass' is scattered across a two block radius. Three ball corner pocket,” Maggie called, sinking her shot easily, as she got to choose her cue placement. “Nah, it was the way you said my name, when you called me Mags. You're the only one who's ever said my name that way... ever." That hung in the air between them, leaving a lot unsaid and a lot to be said. That was what tonight was all about though, right? Even as she scoped out her next shot, Maggie steered them back to the previous topic at hand. "So, care to tell me where you got the giant Rock 'Em Bop 'Em robot anyway, or is it a ‘the less I know the better’ kind of situation?"

Alex grinned as she stepped aside to make room for Maggie. “That's actually a long story and kind of a surprising ally, but it's interesting. Oh, speaking of interesting, want to hear something interesting Lena said to me?"

"Is it about her being gay for your sister?" As Alex gaped, Maggie shrugged. "What? I'm a detective. I detect. I also have a finely attuned gaydar. It can let me know when a girl’s gay even before she knows it."

“I-I… well yeah you… just hurry up and take your shot. I already cancelled sister night to be here. Please, don’t make me cancel brunch tomorrow, as well.”

“Have you always been this cranky? I don’t remember. Two ball side pocket.” Though close, Maggie’s shot narrowly missed the pocket and ricocheted off to the side. “Crap. You’re up.” 

“Twelve ball, side pocket again,” Alex said as she stepped up, already knowing her shot before she’d even reached the table. This time she didn’t miss and the correct ball went into the pocket whilst the cue ball stayed out. “Thirteen ball, corner pocket. And it wasn’t a robot. More like a suit that was being controlled remotely.” As the next ball went into the pocket as called, Alex looked around the table quickly, then made her next call. “Fourteen ball, side pocket.” 

Her lucky streak came to an end when the ball bounced off the cushion and rolled to a stop, tauntingly close to the edge but not quite far enough to tip over. Alex was tempted to bump the table with her hip under the pretence of losing her balance, but thought better of it. “You really can’t miss that next shot, by the way. I pretty much set it up for you, although…” she tilted her head as she made a point of looking up and down the detective for a moment. “The table is quite high. Want me to go get a stepstool from M’gann so you can see what you’re doing?”

Maggie turned slowly, her gaze resting heavily on Alex who worried that it was too soon or that she’d gone too far, but when those dimples popped, it was more like coming home. “Okay, the sarcasm I do remember and do not miss. If I’ve told you once I’ve told you a thousand times, some people are born tall and some people are born awesome. Don’t be a sore sport.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Alex said, grinning. “I guess I drew the ‘short’ straw.”

“Asshole,” Maggie fake coughed. “Anything else you want to say to me?”

“No, sorry, I’m done. I’ll be nice from now on. I promise. I’ll even let you know when it starts raining.” Maggie’s squinty-eyed glare made it clear she knew this was a setup, but it left Alex no less satisfied as she said, “You know, since it will hit me first.”

“Wow, way to hit a woman when she’s down.”

“You’re down? I can’t tell from here.”

Maggie chuckled and stepped back with her drink, taking a sip and raising it, like a little toast, to Alex. “Go ahead. I feel like you have about two years worth of those saved up.”

“Well, I have to admit, they aren’t in short supply,” Alex chuckled as well. This was more like it. This easy banter felt much more comfortable. Much more natural.

“You know, I don’t have to stand here and take this,” Maggie said. “I can go to almost any bar in this town and get insulted. Don’t think you’re something special, Danvers.”

“Hold on,” Alex looked Maggie up and down once more, deciding to get in one last shot before she called it quits. “Let me go get you a ladder so you can say that to my face.”

“Okay, I take it back.” Maggie turned toward the bar, her empty glass held up until she quickly received the nod from M’gann in return. Then she faced Alex again, her smile soft but also a little sad. “I did miss this.”

“Yeah.” Alex sucked in a breath, then nodded as well. She downed the last of her own drink and studied the empty glass in her hand for a moment. “I missed you too.”

“Yeah.” Maggie sighed. She put a foot forward, heel resting as if in mid-step but then withdrew and took two steps back allowing well beyond personal space. “Look, can we talk about the elephant in the room?”

Alex held up one finger to Maggie then motioned for M’gann to bring her a refill as well. Somehow, she got the feeling she was going to need it. Then she turned to Maggie. “Before we do, are you sure you don’t want anything stronger?”

“Want? Yeah, but I’m driving tonight. Last thing I need is some officer pulling me over for a DUI or me being the asshole and being a DUI. This town has enough problems. You can drink for both of us.”

“Sure,” Alex bit her lip and nodded then managed a weak smile at M’gann as she brought their drinks over and set them on the table without a word, though she did give Alex a knowing look that somehow seemed to imbue Alex with some newfound and much needed courage. “So… believe it or not I didn’t ask you here so I could insult your height all evening…”

“Evidence would argue otherwise but go on. Why did you invite me here?”

“It’s complicated,” Alex couldn’t quite look Maggie in the eye, as she reached up to rub the back of her neck again. “See the thing is… well what happened was… I mean when you… you know…” She risked a glance up to Maggie’s eyes then quickly wished she hadn’t as her newfound courage sputtered and died. Another gulp of her drink later, and she tried again. “You kissed me.”

“Gotcha. Yeah, that’s the elephant.” Maggie stared down at her shoes for several moments before she met Alex’s gaze again. “I apologize.”

“You… You do?”

"Yeah, I wasn't thinking. Okay I was thinking. I thought you were dead when I saw that robot thingy explode. I went to your apartment, hoping I was wrong, hoping to find you there, but you were gone. I thought you were dead, but then you walked in that door and... I stopped thinking. All I knew was that you were alive and that I wanted to kiss you, so I did. It crossed a line, and I apologize. If I need to apologize to anyone else, I’ll do it."

“Huh?” Alex shook her head, trying to get a quickly derailing conversation back on track. "It's not that. You took me by surprise, was all, and I couldn't exactly go after you."

"And then you avoided me, which I get. I can’t say as I blame you. Is an apology not gonna cut it here? What do you need from me?"

"I just need you to listen right now. You're right," Alex admitted. “When I could walk around, run around, again, I sort of chickened out, but that wasn’t fair to anyone involved, and as I’ve been reminded, that isn’t who I am.”

“Okay, I’m listening. Who are you then?”

“That’s a big question, one I’ve asked myself a lot in the past year, in the past two years, since you… left, I guess.”

“I left.” Though it was a statement, there was an unspoken question there and more than a hint of pain. True, Maggie had been the one who walked away, but Alex had held open the door for her.

“Just hear me out, okay? I've done a lot of thinking, a lot of getting to know myself since we split ways. Kelly and I, we went halfway across the country to adopt this beautiful baby. It was, God, Mags, away from National City so much felt right about that but also weird, you know? I was a different person there, and I'm so grateful for Kelly. She was my rock. So I'm in this hotel room with Kelly, waiting for the phone to ring so I can take my baby home—"

"I'm sorry. I was wrong,” Maggie said, pushing off of the table she was leaning against.

"What? What just happened?"

"Fuck, I can't do this." Maggie said, and then she bolted.  

It was like that awful day all over again. Alex stood frozen, watching Maggie disappear from sight, and there was nothing she could do.

"Go after her!" M’gann shouted, pulling Alex from her daze.

"No, she doesn't want—”

“Yes, she does.” M’gann neatly vaulted the bar and strode, rather aggressively, toward Alex. “By all the gods, how are there so many humans when you're all so bad at courtship?"

It wasn’t much, just a glimmer of hope, but Alex grabbed it for. "She... She does? Are you sure?"

M'gann shape shifted, leaving Alex staring into the very scary face of… herself. "Don't make me do this for you. Go! Now!"

That was all the encouragement that it took, and Alex launched herself out into the night mumbling, "Winn was right. I am intimidating."

Of course, it had to be raining. How sickeningly cliche. She was about to confess her love to someone, in the pouring rain, like something out of a cheesy romance flick. Assuming she could get Maggie to actually stop and listen to her first, that was.

“Maggie! Maggie, wait!”

The Detective slowed, but didn’t stop. Alex wondered if she’d heard and chosen not to acknowledge that Alex was there or if the driving rain had drowned Alex’s words out. 

“Maggie! Mag-oh, fuck it…” Alex stopped running, cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted at the top of her voice as loud as she could. “ Don’t walk away again !”

That did it. Maggie stopped in her tracks then turned very slowly to face Alex, palming strands of soaked raven hair away from her face, even as Alex hurried forwards without trying to look like she was hurrying. 

“Hi!” Alex forced a bright, albeit nervous smile as she caught up, her own hair slick and plastered to the side of her head, water running down her face. She blinked droplets furiously away from her eyes for a moment and noticed that Maggie very much looked like she wished she was anywhere else, right about then. Alex took a breath. “So here’s the thing. I was wrong.”

“That’s great and all, Danvers, but can we maybe table this for another—" 

“No, no, hear me out, Maggie. Please? If I don’t say this now, I might not be able to say it at all.”

Maggie sighed, but made a rolling motion with one hand. “Ok, but make it quick. I gotta see a guy about a thing. What were you wrong about?”

“Us.” Alex bit her lip for a moment as she looked down at her hands, picking at her thumb nail with her other hand, if only to give herself something to focus on that wasn’t one very hot, pretty, stunningly beautiful, amazing, outstanding… and very, very wet detective. 

“Oh.” The tone of Maggie’s voice, however, caused Alex to turn her eyes up again. Maggie sounded wounded? Hurt? But why? It took Alex a moment to realise what she’d said.

“Oh! Oh gosh no, nonono not like that! You and me, that was like the best thing that ever happened to me. It’s still the best thing that ever happened to me. And what I’m trying to say is… well the thing is… I mean what I want to say is that… I was wrong to walk away from what we had. I made a choice, and I chose very, very badly. And not a day has gone by where I haven’t regretted it ever since, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that I’d done the right thing.”

Even as Alex reached out, hopeful, Maggie took a step back. “What about Kelly?” 

“My ex-girlfriend? What about her?”

“Your ex -girlfriend?” Wide-eyed despite the pouring rain, Maggie put her hands on her hips and rocked before turning away, walking a very short - but still anxiety inducing circle - to face Alex again. “Well, fuck a duck. What are you saying, Danvers?”

“I’m saying,” Alex took another deep breath and then forced herself to look into those beautiful brown eyes. They very nearly stole the breath from her again, and her heart skipped several beats even as someone set her stomach on spin cycle. “I’m saying that I love you, Maggie. I’ve always loved you, and I was wrong to ever let you walk out of my life.”

Was that cheesy enough to merit a place in those ridiculous rom-com chick flicks that Kara loved so much? Ah well, when in Rome…

Alex stepped forwards, closed the gap between them and before Maggie could say anything, she’d taken the detective’s face, cupping it gently in both her hands and pressing her lips against Maggie’s.

Maybe there was something to this whole kissing in the rain thing after all, Alex decided as she felt Maggie’s arms reach up and - wait, what? She was being pushed back? No, no no no that wasn’t supposed to happen! 

Alex’s eyes snapped open in time to see Maggie stepping away, but the detective was smiling. and Alex frowned, completely wrong footed.

“Danvers, it’s fucking freezing out here, and your shirt is leaving very little to the imagination. Can we maybe take this somewhere warmer? Preferably where there’s a roof over our heads?”

Alex was too confused to use words, so instead, she nodded mutely, her brain still whirring at a hundred miles an hour to try and catch up to the situation and what the hell was going on.

Maggie nodded to one side and more specifically to her black cruiser. Stepping round to the driver’s side, she shielded her eyes with one hand even as she called over the top of the car, “Well what are you waiting for? Get in! Seems we’ve got a lot to talk about!”

That did it. Alex scrambled frantically for the door, all but falling into the familiar leather embrace of the car’s passenger seat, the driving sounds of rain muted to a dull background noise as soon as she pulled the door closed.

Maggie reached for some of the controls and switched on the heating, the pair of them waiting and shivering in silence for it to warm up enough that they could both speak again without fear of accidentally biting their tongues in the process.

“So, your place or mine?”

Chapter Text

Maggie standing in the living room of her apartment brought all sorts of memories and feelings rushing to the surface, as Alex toweled her hair dry. Her first instinct was to push them all back down, to be like Elsa. Conceal, don’t feel. Don’t let it show.

And then she realised what they were doing at her apartment in the first place, and all thoughts of concealment vanished in the blink of an eye. Throwing the towel onto the bed, she reached into her closet and pulled out a very particular and specific fleece hoodie that had been tucked away at the back, which she carried over to the waiting detective and held out for her. “Here. This should be your size.”

Maggie held up the NCPD Academy hoodie, eyeing it with what Alex assumed was preparation for some sarcastic statement, but all that came out was, “Yeah, looks like it will fit me,” before tugging it on over her t-shirt. “I hope you don’t mind, but I started a pot of coffee. I figured we could both use something warm to drink, and as much as doing otherwise was tempting, this should be a sober conversation.” 

“Yeah,” Alex agreed, as she headed back to her closet and pulled out another hoodie, then tugged it on quickly as well. “Yeah it should. I’ll grab us both a mug. You, uh…. Make yourself… um. Well, you know.” She’d very nearly said ‘at home’ but stopped herself. Was it too soon to be saying things like that? This was very new and very uncertain ground she was treading on now, and without M’gann’s steady but silent guidance or a glass of scotch to give her some Dutch courage, Alex had no idea how to navigate it safely.

Without waiting for a response from the other woman, she hurried round the island counter and into the kitchen area, where she set about making two mugs of coffee, both with honey.

Carrying two steaming mugs into the living room a few minutes later, she set them down on coasters on the coffee table while Maggie stood with her back to Alex. There was a tension to the detective’s stance, and detective was the word. When working a case, when gathering evidence, Maggie went into an entirely analytical process. It wasn’t unlike a computer gathering data. However, nothing much had changed at Alex’s place. There were a few new pics with Kara, one from last Thanksgiving that had the sisters and Eliza, and Alex had replaced a lamp that had fallen victim to Kara playing charades. Outside that, there wasn’t much to see for one who had been here before.

Alex cleared her throat, smiling and gesturing to the mug of coffee she’d set on the table. “I only have real milk, but I did have some non-dairy powdered creamer that hadn’t expired… much, so I used that. I assume nothing has changed on the coffee front.”

“No, everything is pretty much the same,” Maggie replied cryptically with one more glance around the place before sliding the mug to the opposite end of the table and picking the seat that was the farthest from Alex. One careful sip of her coffee resulted in a nod. “This is good. Just how I like it. Thanks. So...” She let that hang in the air, waiting like an open door.

Forcing herself to relax despite Maggie’s obvious unease, Alex took a sip of coffee and let the warmth fill her body. It was just what the doctor ordered. “So,” Alex repeated, “what were we talking about before we nearly drowned in an alley?”

“Mistakes, regret, and your relationship status. You’re single.” Maggie’s eyes scanned left and right quickly. “You are single, right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Alex frowned as if this answer should have been obvious. “Yeah I am. Didn’t we go over that already?”

“Yeah, I just uh…” Maggie took another sip of her drink, but this time her gaze skirted slightly under the table as she put it down. “I wanted to be clear. You called Kelly your ex, but there isn’t someone else in your life, anyone else?”

This time Alex raised an eyebrow, as she took a sip of her own drink before cradling it in her hands and relishing the warmth. “Nope. Just me.”

“Okay, cool. Cool.” And when had Maggie become such an awful liar? Tension riddled every part of her body, and her gaze refused to settle on Alex’s for more than a second before returning to its security sweep of the perimeter. “Just… you.”

Alex sighed and set her mug down. “Alright, what is it? What’s going on? First you kiss me. Then I kiss you. We come back here and now, what? I have cooties?” She gestured to the huge gap between them. “And you’re acting like someone is going to jump out on you at any second. Is there something else going on here? What am I missing?” 

“Sorry. I’m not trying to give you mixed signals though, yeah, that’s fair,” Maggie admitted, as she placed her mug on the coaster, scrubbing at her face with both hands before settling back in her seat. “I don’t think anyone is going to jump out at me. I assume you have a babysitter, but I was just looking for stuff, you know? It’s just weird how little your life looks different.”

Alex mentally ran over those words in her mind once, twice, three times and still she didn’t understand them. Shaking her head, she held up a hand to Maggie. “Wait, hang on. What stuff? What babysitter?” 

“Baby stuff and the person to sit on the… baby? Which is not what a babysitter does, but you know what I mean. So, boy or a girl?”

“Uh, neither?” Alex frowned, part way to reaching for her coffee mug but pausing, arm still extended as she turned to look at Maggie incredulously. And then very slowly, she sat up, leaving the mug on the table. “Oh… oooh, is that-? Did you-? Wow. Okay, um… huh. Is that what this is all about?” Her hand raised to run through the long, still damp strands of her hair. “Oh, boy. Yeah, that makes sense now.”

“So you’re doing the non-gendering parenting thing? I can respect that. Don’t force a gender identity on the kid because it aligns with their sex. That’s very you.” Maggie smiled, a sad sort of thing that didn’t reach her eyes and was so reminiscent of two years ago when she said, ‘I’ll see you around, Danvers,’ in a way that implied otherwise. “So what’s their name?”

“Maggie,” Alex sighed, turning to face the detective and give her full attention to what she was now sure was one very big misunderstanding. “Mags, look at me? Please?” She wanted to reach out, take Maggie’s hand and give it a reassuring squeeze, but something made her hold back. Instead she waited for Maggie’s eyes to turn up, and then even as she held the gaze of the other woman across the couch from her, she spoke again, her tone calm, composed and gentle. “There is no baby. There never was. The adoption fell through.”

“Oh.” It took a few moments for whatever inner dialogue Maggie was experiencing to play out on her face and settle into… The word wasn’t panic. It wasn't fear but more like apprehension, an unsteadiness rarely seen from the confident woman who knew herself so well. “So you’re single, you don’t have a kid, and we’re in your apartment. Right, so that means… Throw me a bone here, Danvers, what does this mean, and what genius decided we could talk about this over coffee? I’d like to have a few words with management.” 

Without a word, Alex rose and headed for the kitchen, rooted around in the back of one of the cupboards for a moment, before returning with a bottle and holding it out for Maggie as she sat down again. “Here. We could always make the coffee Irish, if that helps.”

“Couldn’t hurt at this point.” Maggie added a splash of whiskey to her mug before tilting the bottle toward Alex. “You’re not making me drink alone, right?”

“Pfft, no,” Alex reached for her mug and then held it out so that Maggie could pour. “Although I’m already ahead of you on that front, remember? And those club sodas really didn’t improve your game by the way.”

“Oh, now we’re talking about my game?” Maggie smirked, and it was clear she didn’t mean pool. It wasn’t a fire, but when you blow across embers, they glow, and right now, they were putting off a bit of light and heat. However, she slid back in her seat, not making any attempt to close the distance physically. “I’m trying not to be a dick here, but you know I didn’t leave because I didn’t want you. I didn’t leave because I didn’t love you. I left because you wanted something from me I couldn’t give you: motherhood. It’s been two years, two years for you to live that dream. What the fuck happened?”

“Wow,” Alex let out a long, slow breath as she set her mug down on the table. Then she held out her hand and took the bottle, raised it to her lips and took a large gulp straight from the bottle before setting it down quickly and trying not to cough as it burned the back of her throat. “Okay. Where to begin. Uh, well, I signed up for the adoption stuff. Put my name down, filled out all the forms, everything. J'onn made me the Director of the DEO, and he told me it was so that I wouldn't be out in the field as much. I could lead from the Operations room, and I could go home to my family at the end of each shift. They would never have to worry about something happening to me."

"Except I saw you out there more than once, and it didn't exactly look safe to me," Maggie frowned as she lifted her mug of now very Irish coffee to her lips and took a few sips.

"Exactly. If anything, being a Director pushed me to get out there even more. To lead by example. To prove that I was worthy of the title of Director. I felt like I had to earn respect that came naturally when I was an agent, when I was an equal to the other agents." Alex sipped at her coffee again for a moment as she pondered. "So I threw myself into the job even more, especially when Colonel Haley was sent to oversee everything. I did stupid things, took stupid risks to prove that I was a great leader. Not just to the other agents, not even to the Government higher ups or to the Colonel. I needed to prove it to myself as well."

"But you're not a leader anymore. You don't have to prove anything to anyone, least of all J'onn."

"No. But I also don't have the support or backing of a team of other agents if things go wrong. If I'm out there and something happens, I'm on my own. Killer Croc, case in point. If anything, it's even more dangerous than it ever was before." Alex set her mug down with a sigh. "But I love what I do. When I got benched after my run-in with Croc, I started to go stir crazy. I wanted to be back out there. I wanted to get back on the front lines. I didn’t want to be the ‘man in the van’ or whatever. That’s not who I am. And that's the problem. As long as I go out there and risk my life, day after day, how can I ever expect anyone to want to raise a family with me, never knowing if I'll even come home? Being a vigilante isn’t a nine to five job. I can’t spend the day running round kicking ass and still be home in time for bath and bed. It… it doesn’t work that way.” 

Maggie opened her mouth to say something, or so it seemed, but then she closed her mouth again and nodded instead. So Alex carried on. 

“How could I ever hope to raise a child on my own, either? I always thought I'd be strong; I'd do it alone. But I think… I think I was too focused on that one particular detail that I couldn’t see the whole picture. And now I finally get to help people in a way that I can do some real good. Even more than I was ever able to do at the DEO."

“What are you saying?” Maggie’s mug had paused halfway to her lips.

“I’m saying that I want to be a mother. Nothing will ever change that. But I want to be Sentinel even more.”

Maggie looked at her coffee for a moment longer, then set it down and pushed it to one side, motioning for the bottle of whiskey instead, which Alex readily passed across. “Wow. Okay. Um… in that case I’m going to need something stronger than this. You got any glasses?”

“Yeah, sure,” Alex got up and went to fetch two glasses, then came back and set them both on the table, before sliding one across to Maggie, who shifted a little closer to reach for it, but then retreated again as she poured herself a generous helping of several fingers of whiskey.

Alex waited for Maggie to finish, then poured herself a slightly less generous amount, in her own glass. Though she didn’t drink it. Instead she stared down into the liquid, watching it swirl around and around, finding the motion oddly soothing. “ I’ve had to face a lot of hard truths recently. About myself. About everything. I… I hit rock bottom. And it was only then, I found out who I really am. That was when I found the real me. And that was when I finally saw the bigger picture, for the first time.”

Maggie, at long last, finally sat forward in her seat, closing the gap ever so slightly between them. It wasn’t much. There was still a huge chasm filled with things done, things not done, things said, and things unsaid. But it was a start.

“And what is that bigger picture?”

“It’s… you. It’s always been you.”

“Right. For a second you almost had me there, Danvers,” Maggie shook her head and took a large gulp of her drink.

“I mean it, Mags. I'm being serious. I fucked up. Badly. So, so badly. And then I didn't have the courage to try and put it right, so I forced myself to carry on, like everything was fine, like I could move on and get over it and it was just another break up, right? People break up all the time. Marriages dissolve, and people get divorced or separated. People move apart and move on. But I couldn't. I've never been able to stop thinking about you, Maggie. Even when I was with others, you were always at the back of my mind. And you always will be. Every woman after you will just be a piece of you. And I'll spend the rest of my life trying to put those pieces together, like a puzzle, until you're back in my life again.”

“But I can’t give you what you want,” Maggie spoke quietly, her voice barely audible.

“Yes, you can,” Alex matched her tone as she moved closer on the sofa and reached out, taking one of Maggie’s hands gently in her own. “Because…” She took a deep breath, then smiled with utter and complete conviction, even as she gave Maggie’s hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “I choose you.”

“What about children?”

“I choose you,” Alex repeated calmly.

“What about a family?”

“You are my family. You and Kara and Mom. You guys are all I need.”

Maggie bit her lip as she looked away for a moment, staring down at the drink in her glass. Then she took a deep breath as well, set the glass to one side and turned so that she was facing Alex, their knees almost touching, the gap between them almost gone. Almost, but not quite.

“Are you sure, Alex? You’re… you’re not going to change your mind a few years down the line or anything?”

“I’ve had two years since we broke up, and I’ve done nothing with them. If it was going to happen, it would have. I guess I’ve just come to accept that now.”

She almost added that she was hoping in time Maggie might change her mind about having children of her own, but she kept quiet and decided that was one comment best not voiced aloud.

Instead, she said, “I can’t miss what I’ve never had. But I missed you. Every day. I thought I’d never see you again, and yet here you are now. I can’t help but think that it’s some sort of sign.”

“Now I know you’re getting soft on me,” Maggie chuckled.

“Well, you know… even us badasses have our moments.” Alex attempted a casual shrug.

“Yeah… yeah we do. We should be who we are, right?”

“And kiss the girls we wanna kiss?” Alex asked hopefully. 

This raised another chuckle from Maggie, who nodded, even as she placed a hand on Alex’s cheek to pull her closer, gently. “Exactly.”

The gap between them vanished as they came together for their third kiss since their reunion. And Alex couldn’t help but think that the third time really was a charm. Maggie was back. She was home. And Alex was going to do everything in her power to make sure she never pushed her away, ever again.

<><>

The next morning, the two of them were walking down the street together, hands held gently but firmly between them, as Alex’s free hand held her phone to her ear.

After hearing Kara’s bright, cheerful voicemail for the fifth time, she hung up and tucked her phone into her pocket with a shake of her head.

“Still not answering?” Maggie glanced across.

“Voicemail again. I hope she’s alright. Maybe we should head over and just check?”

“Sure. We can holler ‘food’ through the door. That usually does the trick, right?”

“Right,” Alex nodded and couldn’t help but smile as a hand gently squeezed hers. She moved closer so that their arms lightly brushed against each other and was greeted with a warm smile from Maggie in return.

Two blocks later, after some light chatter and banter, as they found themselves easily falling back into their comfort zones again, Maggie suddenly stopped and her hand almost tugged free of Alex’s grip. Alex stopped quickly as well, her eyes darting all around for signs of danger.

“Danvers, cancel that. Your sister has a guest.”

“Wait, what?” Alex snapped out of her search for danger and turned to look at Maggie, confused.

In answer to her question, Maggie tapped on the hood of a black town car. “This is Little Luthor’s ride.” Reaching for something on the windshield, she pulled off a piece of paper and studied it quickly, her dimples emerging as she read whatever was on the page. “It’s got a ticket for overnight parking in the street.” Maggie waggled her brows at Alex who, wide-eyed, turned up to stare at Kara’s apartment above them, almost as if expecting to actually see what was going on. Then she shuddered and turned her eyes away again quickly. Nope. That was a need to know basis, and she definitely didn’t need to know.

Maggie tucked the page back under the wiper, and as Alex raised one quizzical brow at her, she said, “I was going to snag it and take care of it for her, but fuck it. That bitch can afford it. Let’s let them be.”

“I guess Kara sorted her complicated as well,” Alex sighed happily. “I mean, it’s been a long time coming with those two. Seriously.”

“Says the woman who had no idea they were even a thing before a few weeks ago.”

“Well… I… yeah but… I mean…”

“See this? This whole naive ignorance thing you’ve got going on here, Danvers? Kind of cute,” Maggie reached up and stole a quick kiss which caused Alex to blush. “Come on, I know this great place that does vegan crepes.”

“Ugh, no, not the vegan stuff again,” Alex groaned, though her inability to keep the big stupid grin off her face betrayed the fact that she honestly didn’t mind. Vegan ice cream may have been gross, but she was willing to try anything else, in the spirit of compromise, as she and Maggie had discussed at length the previous evening.

They’d stayed awake for hours, talking about anything and everything, before finally snuggling up together on the sofa and falling asleep in each other’s arms.

Communication had led to the breakdown of their relationship last time, after all, and both were eager not to let that happen again. So they’d literally talked about everything. And a big part of their discussion was about compromise and how they would each need to be willing to sacrifice things for the other, as they wouldn’t always be on the same page and wouldn’t always be able to get their own way.

When Alex had tentatively brought up the idea of children ‘in the future’, Maggie had even agreed to consider it, but that was as far as she was willing to go. Still, that was good enough for Alex. It was a step in the right direction. She was hoping that perhaps in time, she would be able to sway Maggie round to the idea like she’d done with Valentines Day. Instead of arguing and fighting because Maggie said no, instead of walking away and calling it quits, this time Alex was going to persevere. She was going to fight for it. But she wouldn’t fight with Maggie over it. And if at the end of the day, Maggie still said no… well then, Alex would accept that.

Everything happens for a reason, and what will be will be.

“Earth to Danvers?”

“Sorry,” Alex blinked in surprise to find that they’d come to a halt outside a cafe that proudly announced, via a sign in the window, that they were serving a full vegan menu, including vegan crepes. “Just thinking.”

Maggie eyed her, brows slowly dipping as she reached for the door handle. “You’re not having second thoughts are you?”

“What? No! No of course not! I promised I’d try your vegan stuff, and I mean it.”

“I meant about us.”

“No way,” Alex shook her head more forcefully this time.

Maggie studied her up and down for a moment longer, then nodded, her smile returning. “Good to know. C’mon, let’s eat. I’m starving.”

“Now you’re sounding like my sister.”

“The day your sister eats anything vegan is the day Hell will freeze over.”

“I dunno, Mags. I give it a month before Lena converts her.”

As they sat down at a table and picked up one of the menus, Maggie smirked over the top of hers at Alex. “You want to put your money where your mouth is, Danvers?”

“Pfft, no,” Alex scoffed as she picked up her own menu. “That is one bet I’m certain to lose. Kara wouldn’t be caught dead eating anything even remotely healthy.”

Scanning up and down the vegan menu, whilst trying not to look too longingly at the regular menu every few seconds, Alex finally picked out what she was going to have and when a waitress came over, she and Maggie placed their orders (a vegan breakfast burrito and a coffee for Alex, apple and cinnamon crepes for Maggie with an orange juice), then the two of them sat back to wait for the food to be brought out to them.

“So…” Maggie looked around for a moment, then leaned forward and Alex instinctually leaned forwards as well, as Maggie spoke quietly. “Can I ask you something?” At Alex’s nod, she continued. “What happened to the DEO? Really?”

Alex also glanced around as well. Thankfully no-one was in earshot, so she replied. “Lex Luthor happened.”

“Ah,” Maggie nodded. “I know the world loves him, but there’s something seriously off about him. I just can’t place my finger on what.”

“You have no idea,” Alex muttered.

“So you weren’t… you know? When it…?”

It took Alex a moment to work out what Maggie meant, but when she did, she shook her head quickly. “No, God no. I actually quit a few weeks before. I couldn’t stand it there any more. It… it wasn’t the place I knew and loved anymore, so I had to get out. I quit, and then a few weeks later, it was destroyed. I’m not even sure how, to be honest. I’m just glad everyone managed to get out in time, and no-one was hurt.”

“You quit, huh? Is that the story behind the new suit then? I knew it wasn’t government issue the moment I saw it.”

“It’s Martian,” Alex smiled proudly. “I’m a vigilante now.”

“Yeah, I’d noticed. And how does that pay, huh?” There was a tone to Maggie’s voice, but Alex couldn’t quite work out what. Still, she got the feeling that it was perhaps a loaded question.

“It pays,” she replied carefully.

“Yeah? How much?”

“Well… it’s… it’s not cash, as such,” Alex rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

“So it doesn’t pay then.”

“It pays in justice!” 

“Justice won’t pay the bills, Danvers. Or keep a roof over your head. And it sure as hell won’t feed your sister. Maybe it’s a good job she and Little Luthor have finally figured their shit out. The amount your sister eats, she needs a billionaire to afford her food bills for her.”

Alex wanted to deny it, but found that she couldn’t. She was saved from having to come up with any sort of reply by the arrival of their food, however. After thanking the waitress, Alex eyed her burrito suspiciously for a moment, then picked it up and took a tentative bite.

Okay, so it wasn’t as bad as she’d expected.

She took another, larger bite.

Okay it really wasn’t that bad at all. She could see Maggie watching her eagerly, and sighed as she finished her mouthful. “Alright, yes, it’s really good.”

“Told you,” Maggie smirked.

As Maggie started on her own food, Alex set her burrito down. “Why were you asking?”

“Hmmm?” Maggie glanced up, her own mouth now full of food. But her unspoken question was clear enough to Alex.

“About my job. Or apparent lack of one.”

It took Maggie a moment to chew and swallow, but when she could, she finally replied. “I care about you. I can always see if there’s any spots in the NCPD? I mean, sure, it’s not the DEO, but it’s a start, right?”

“I dunno, Maggie. I… I kind of break the rules too often to be a cop.”

Maggie snorted. “Yeah, that’s true. Okay, how about a doctor then? You’re an MD, right?”

“I dropped out of med school, but J’onn later made me finish my studies whilst I was at the DEO,” Alex nodded.

“So put it to good use. Be a doctor. Help people that way.”

Alex picked up her burrito again and took another bite so that she could have some time to think about her answer. Maggie was right. She had the skills. Why not put them to some use?

It was definitely something to think about.

Chapter Text

‘Community Medical’... The name on the business card in Alex’s hand matched the name over the door. It was new. Well, the building was an old warehouse, one-story of bricks and steel made to withstand the shifting seismic plates, if not the inevitable superpower fight, from which California sometimes suffered. The renovation that had turned this place into some sort of general clinic as opposed to storage was new, new enough that though Alex had heard rumors of it on the street, this was her first time seeing it in person. She didn’t expect to do so with an invitation for what seemed like a job interview but color her intrigued.

Inside, the facility was more modernized than Alex had expected. The waiting room was large and clean with various locals scattered among the chairs and paying her little mind. A receptionist typed away into her computer while chatting through a headset, finally sliding the plastic divider open and tapping on a sheet of paper on a clipboard hanging from the wall.

“Sign in here,” she said, barely glancing at Alex before pushing another clipboard and piece of paper out. “Your medical history goes here. Do you want the HIPAA paperwork so you know how your PHI is protected?”

“Um actually,” Alex held up the card, flipping it over so the handwritten part was visible, “I have an appointment to meet… someone?”

“Oh, thank God,” the receptionist mumbled. “Of course, Dr. Danvers, we’ve been expecting you. We’re so glad you could make it. Give me just two minutes, okay? I’ll have someone right out.”

While she waited, Alex checked her phone and scrolled through messages from Kara that were pics of animals and food. At least some things never changed. She was just about to jump on Twitter when a door opened and an Asian man in a lab coat stepped out. “Dr. Danvers?”

“That’s me,” Alex nodded quickly, as she stashed her phone in her pocket then extended her hand to him.

“I’m Dr. Lee. We really appreciate you coming out to meet with us today. If you follow me, I’ll show you the facilities.” Dr. Lee began his tour with a generic patient room (chair, examination table, wash station, and cabinets filled with supplies), one of many down the hallway, before leading Alex through the lab and then to radiology. The MRI and Cat Scan she hadn’t been expecting. “As you can see, we have a full range of diagnostic equipment and treatment facilities. We only do minor surgeries, like arthroscopic day surgeries, but it’s more than you’ll get from most clinics. Anything major or needing an overnight stay we refer for transport to a local hospital. Of course, we’re hoping to get more people in for early detection and treatment to avoid higher cost and more invasive procedures. Any questions so far?”

“Where to start,” Alex rubbed the back of her neck as she turned in a slow circle, motioning with a vague hand gesture to indicate the building around them. “How long has this been here? I mean I heard rumours, but I never expected you to be fully up and running already.”

“We opened in November. The goal was to have the place up and running before the holidays and we managed that… barely.” A swipe of a keycard unlocked an impressive supplies closet. From a bin, he grabbed the kind of handheld scanner one might see at a grocery store for scanning in larger items without taking them out of the cart. “Every room has one of these. Each patient gets a barcode on their chart. They get put into the system, and any supplies that are used need to get scanned. It’s as simple as scanning the patient’s chart and then the tag on the disposable equipment. We use this to keep track of supplies for reordering and to confirm a lack of allergens. Between you and me, most of these people haven’t seen the inside of a medical facility since they were born if they even saw one then, so we’re really building their history from scratch. Good so far?” 

“It sounds like a lot of thought has been put into this place,” Alex agreed, incredibly impressed. “Who funds it? Is it some charity organisation? I’m guessing the sorts of patients you get here aren’t the type who can afford insurance, after all, so the funding has to come from somewhere?”

“We don’t even accept insurance. So few people who come through our doors have it that it would cost us more than we’d get paid to hire the staff to deal with the billing,” he said, as he closed the door behind them and led Alex down another hallway. “We accept donations from patients, but that’s more likely to be a home baked pie or some bread. Seriously, I hope you like baked goods and have a sweet tooth or can take them home to someone who does.”

“Well, I love baked goodies as much as the next person, but I’m sure my sister will love them even more,” Alex smirked. “Food is kind of her thing.”

“She can expect to be kept well fed. As to the funding, we’re an accredited 403b so a nonprofit charity. We do have a small board that’s in charge of fundraising. I know there are plans for some sort of annual or biannual event, but that’s above my paygrade. The checks clear, and the supplies keep rolling in. People are able to get treatment. I’m sure it’s just a bunch of rich folks trying to wash away their guilt, but I don’t care. I’m vaccinating kids whose parents have never had a vaccine before, and that’s what matters.”

“Hell yeah,” Alex agreed, her attention split between Dr. Lee’s enthusiasm for the work and the state of the art facility. “Um, so the invitation I received was a bit vague. It didn’t mention hours, and I do already have a night job so—”

“We’re looking for someone 9-5 Monday through Friday. Shift swapping around is a thing, but it’s not mandatory. We’re flexible though. If you need to start a little bit earlier or end later, that can happen. We have a lot of part time retail workers coming in here who have time during the normal work day. It’s one of our busier times.”

“9-5, really? Wow, that would be great. Sign me up.”

“You want the job?” Dr. Lee asked, stopping in his tracks.

“So far, sure. I’d want to see the contract, talk salary, the usual but—”

“That’s outside of my purview. However, if you’re ready to negotiate terms, here you go.”

Alex stared at the facility badge he held out, the one with her picture on it. It wasn’t a bad picture either, far from the usual overexposed mugshot that made her look like it was taken on a rough morning after a fun night. “I got the job?” she asked, as she examined the laminated plastic.

“Honestly, Dr. Danvers, it was yours to refuse when you showed up. I was told you were hired pending your response. This is where I get off.” He gestured to elevator doors, an oddity on a one story building, and gave Alex a winning smile. “I look forward to working with you… on occasion.” Then he was gone, leaving Alex with more questions than she had when she showed up.

There were no buttons anywhere on the frame around the elevator, just a slot for a badge to slide through, so Alex did the only thing that made sense. She slid in her badge. The result took only a few seconds for the door to open. Tentatively, Alex entered, and the doors closed behind her, as an automated voice said, “Please state your name.”

“Um, Alex Danvers, Dr. Alexandra Danvers.”

“Welcome, Dr. Danvers. Please place your hand on the panel provided.” A metal panel near the door slid open, exposing a flat grid with a handprint shape.

“Okay, what the fuck is with all of this security?” Alex asked, as she pressed her palm to it.

“I’m not authorized to answer that question, Dr. Danvers.” The panel turned green, and another opened. A single eyepiece lens, like on a microscope, extended. “Voice authentication confirmed. Please look directly into the retinal scan.”

“This better not be some DEO bullshit,” Alex grumbled even as she leaned forward and looked into the redlight.

“Identity confirmed.”

Alex flexed her hand, glancing down at the Hand of the Soldier, as she ran through a list of possible self defence weapons in her mind. Just in case. Though until she saw her surroundings, and wherever this elevator was taking her, she couldn’t be sure if a handgun or a baton would be more suitable. Still, whatever she decided, all she had to do was imagine it appearing in her hand and the Martian tech would do the rest to make it happen. It was for this reason that she never went anywhere without it these days.

Prepped for a fight, Alex was almost disappointed when the elevator traveled down and opened to another medical facility. As state of the art as the previous one had been, this one was out of this world. Literally, some of the equipment she had only seen in schematics from alien cultures, yet they were medical and not weaponry. Others were state of the art tech, the types of things you’d see as prototypes in expo shows. It was like someone had taken the clinic from above and dialed it up to an eleven. When a drone stopped long enough to scan her and give a brief chirp followed by, “Human, female, all scans in the normal range or better,” before continuing on its way, Alex had to take that assessment up to a twelve. 

She was still looking around, trying to take it all in, when a man in a lab coat came by helping another with an arm that was supported due to obvious injury. “Excuse me, but who’s—”

The man in the lab coat didn’t slow, just gestured toward another part of the facility and continued off with his charge. When the injured man looked back and blinked twice, once horizontally and once vertically, Alex knew she’d left Kansas behind her. Now the whole interview, or lack thereof, made sense… sort of. There were few people on this planet with Alex’s level of knowledge of alien physiology, but that was need to know level information, and most people didn’t need to know. Walking around a piece of equipment that had obscured her view, Alex had the answer to her question before she got to voice it.

“Put him down here,” said a familiar female voice. Even before seeing the sharp jawline and outfit that screamed boardroom and not surgery, Alex was nodding along. Who besides Lena Luthor had the money, technology, and general wherewithal to set up something like this? The list was painfully short. Alex stood back as Lena attached a set of diodes to the head of her patient, who was definitely not human, and then slipped on a headband that connected her to... him?... by wires. “Ugh,” she grunted and leaned against the side of the cot. “Patient presents with pain radiating from the pollex up into the axilla. With a human male, I’d say this was a pulmonary issue, but given the species, I believe we’re dealing with gastrointestinal distress, possibly even a blockage.” She slipped off the headband, clearly shaken. “I want a complete GT scan.”

“Right away, Dr. Luthor,” said someone marking up a chart for her, and a trio of medical personnel got to work, as Lena turned and took several cleansing breaths.

When her gaze met Alex’s, Lena pushed fully upright and gave Alex a crooked grin. “You made it,” she said, as she crossed the busy floor and headed Alex’s way. “Glad to see you here, Dr. Danvers.”

“This place is…” Alex paused, turning and looking all around. Then she shrugged and grinned, at a loss for words. Her eyes did a quick, visual assessment of the other woman before she added, “Are you alright? That looked… painful. Whatever the hell that was.”

“It’s not pleasant is what it is, but if we don’t have a common language or a translation program in which we feel we can trust, it’s the fastest and most accurate way to make a diagnosis… assuming we’re dealing with another two-armed, one-headed, biped. When more body parts get involved, it can make things challenging, but we’re working on that.” Lena paused briefly to nod at and initial a chart that was thrust in her path before continuing on to Alex. “I bet you have a lot of questions. I know I would so go ahead.”

“I thought you were building a shelter?” Alex sidestepped out of the way of an empty gurney as it was pushed past. 

“Well, I was. Until a certain Crocodile put those plans on hold.”

“Sorry,” Alex shrugged sheepishly.

“On the contrary. It was nice to be considered a hero for a change. Instead of… well. A Luthor.”

Alex sighed and shook her head. “Look, Lena, if you brought me here to argue—" 

“I brought you here to work, Alex. You have extensive knowledge of alien anatomy, unlike anyone else I know. Your DEO expertise makes you perhaps the most qualified person on the West Coast for this job.”

“And that answers my next question.” 

“Why you were invited to come here and work?”

“You and I haven’t exactly seen eye to eye recently...”

“To put it mildly.”

“So I guess I’m just… well I’m looking for the catch if I’m being brutally honest.”

Lena sighed, then motioned with one arm for them to step aside, into a quiet corner away from the activity of the busy alien medical centre.

“There’s no catch. I assure you,” Lena said at length. “This?” She made a sweeping gesture with one hand to indicate the facility. “This is my way of trying to make up for the unfortunate Non Nocere incident.”

“Unfortunate, my—" At Lena’s raised brow, Alex cleared her throat. “Sorry, sorry.”

“If you have anything to say to me, Alex, I’d appreciate you got it all out of your system so that we might move past this unpleasantness and at least try to be professional around one another. But now is not the time for that. So I’ll ask you this, one time, and one time only. Do you want to work here? Because like it or not, whilst this is not my full time job, and I do have several other businesses to also divide my time between, you will still be seeing a lot more of me around here. If you and I cannot at least agree to a professional relationship for the sake of those who need our help, then I suggest you leave the same way you came in.”

Alex didn’t immediately answer. Instead she took the time to actually look around at the place, at all the aliens who were being treated, who could be themselves, in their true forms, without fear of having to hide who they were, without fear of being judged or ridiculed or even worse, simply because of what they were.

Then she blinked and almost, but not quite, did a double take, before pointing to two beds across the room. “That’s… that’s a Gordanian! And a Karnan in the very next bed! How… how the hell did you manage that?!”

“How did I get two sworn enemies to reside peacefully under the same roof?” Lena stepped up beside Alex with a smile. “I didn’t. It would seem that this place has been declared a neutral safe zone to all aliens, where they put aside their differences for the duration of their stay. A bit like that bar you and your sister often go to. What’s the name? Al’s Dive Bar? Isn’t the same true about that place?”

“I mean sure, but mostly folks just go there to drink and be left alone,” Alex shrugged.

“And here they come to receive medical treatment that they would have been unable to receive anywhere else. I don’t know who created the neutral agreement, but as long as it stands, all races are welcome, and all tolerate one another as equals.”

“Wow,” Alex breathed, seriously impressed. She watched it all for a moment longer, then turned to Lena. “Well, I guess if they can do it, then so can we. Truce?” She held out a hand to Lena, who eyed it for a moment, then raised her own hand to shake with a nod of her head.

“Truce.” Then she leaned to the side and unhooked a white lab coat from the line of coats along the wall and passed it across to Alex. “Welcome to the team, Dr. Danvers.”

As Alex slipped the white coat on, she knew that she and Lena still had a long way to go to repair things between themselves, but she’d meant what she’d said. If two mortal enemies could put aside their differences in this place, in light of a much more pressing issue - namely that of being healed - then she could take a leaf out of their book and put aside her differences with Lena as well. At least during working hours. 

Off the clock, she was still allowed to be pissed at the young woman, and until they had a serious talk about everything and got it all out of their systems, then she was going to keep feeling like that. But between the hours of 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, she and Lena would be two colleagues who collaborated and worked together to heal the sick, the injured, the needy and those who literally couldn’t go anywhere else.

<><>

By mid afternoon, Alex had already treated a Trombusan with severe indigestion, a pregnant Tamaranean who had been worried about her unborn child after feeling no movement for a day, a Valeronian with concussion after a car accident, a K’hund with conjunctivitis, and Darla the Roltikkon who had sliced her hand open on a tin she had been trying to open and needed stitches. Being one of Maggie’s exes, Alex had been a little wary about treating Darla at first, but the Roltikkon hadn’t said anything, and if she remembered Alex, she didn’t acknowledge this fact.

“Dr Danvers? Patient for you in Bay 3,” Shiloh the receptionist informed her as she walked over to find out about her next patient. Taking the chart, Alex scanned through it quickly, then looked up to see a familiar face waiting for her in Bay 3.

“Dreamer?” She stepped into the bay and tucked the chart with Dreamer’s notes into the bin at the end of the bed. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I had a run in with Spike,” Dreamer shrugged. “Something upset him, and I don’t quite have Supergirl’s knack for dragon taming. He caught me with his tail.” She reached up and brushed back some of her long brown hair to reveal a congealed patch of blood on the side of her temple that had partly run down her face. “It’s probably nothing, but I heard about this place so figured I'd come and get it checked out.”

Alex took a clean, sterile pair of gloves and snapped them on as she listened, then began to gather a few items onto a small trolley that she wheeled over to the side of the bed Dreamer was sitting on.

“You did the right thing, coming to get it checked.  Head wounds often look worse than they really are, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Let's get it cleaned up and see what we're working with.”

“I’m surprised to see you here,” Dreamer started conversationally, as Alex maneuvered an overhead lamp so that she could get more light on the area in question.

“It’s my first day,” Alex smiled. “Believe me, I’m as surprised as you are.” She pulled out a slender flashlight from her pocket, but before she clicked it on, she said, “Okay, Spike hits hard. I can confirm that from experience and a very expensive repair bill for my bike. So we’ll need to rule out concussion. Let’s start with some basic questions. What’s your name?”

“You… you want me to say my actual name, or—?"

“Superhero name’s fine,” Alex smiled gently.

“Oh. Phew. In that case, Dreamer.”

“Alright. What year is it?”

“2021.”

“What day is it?”

“Tuesday.”

“Great. I’m just going to shine a light in each eye briefly to check your pupillary reaction.” As Dreamer settled back onto the bed, Alex clicked her flashlight on, then used it to check that Dreamer’s pupils were contracting and dilating as they should. Both were equal and responsive, which was always a good sign.  

After making a few quick notes in Dreamer’s chart, Alex then set about gently cleaning the blood to find that it was as she’d suspected. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked, and a few steri-strips later, she stepped back and peeled off her gloves, depositing them in the nearby bin.

“Alright, all done. Keep an eye on any headaches you have. Over the counter pain relievers should help, but if they persist or get worse, you need to come back and get it checked out again as it could be a sign of something else going on internally.”

“Thanks Alex,” Dreamer smiled brightly as she sat up. Then, looking over Alex’s shoulder, she nodded. “Hey, is that your girlfriend?”

Alex turned to see Maggie walking towards them both armed with a big, dimpled grin and two coffees in a cardboard tray. “Maggie! Hey!”

“I’ll leave you guys to it,” Dreamer jumped lightly down from the bed. “Thanks again, Alex.”

“Be careful out there,” Alex nodded. “And remember to keep an eye on those headaches.”

“Having fun?” Maggie asked, as she set the cardboard tray down on the bed that Dreamer had recently vacated.

“I am, actually,” Alex nodded with a smile as she wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and gave her a quick kiss. 

“Doctoring suits you, Danvers.”

“Thank you for talking me into coming here today. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect.”

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, your talents were wasted as a Government lackey and even more so as management. This is where you belong.” Maggie picked up one of the takeaway cups of coffee and handed it across. “Here, I figured you could use one of these though.”

“You have no idea,” Alex herself hadn’t even realised how much she needed it until she popped the recycled plastic lid off and inhaled the sweet scent. And then she paused. “Wait a minute… is this…?”

“Now I’m hoping I got this right,” Maggie held up a hand in front of herself and using her other hand to tick things off on her fingers, she said, “Grande, oatmilk, triple shot dirty chai with two pumps of vanilla?”

If Alex’s mouth could have hit the floor, it would have, then. As it was, she looked down at the very elaborate and completely perfect drink in her hand, gulped to try and clear the lump in her throat, then took a deep breath as she looked up at a now very anxious looking Maggie.

“I got it wrong, didn’t I,” Maggie sighed, holding her hand out. “Give it here, I’ll go back and—" 

“You remembered,” Alex breathed at last. “All this time and you still remembered my favourite Noonans order.”

“Hey, once you memorise something that ridiculous, it stays with you for life,” Maggie smirked, though the relief in her eyes was obvious.

For a moment they stood in silence, neither of them really knowing what to say, so choosing to sip at their drinks instead. Until at last one of the nurses called over, “Dr. Danvers? You’re needed in Bay 5!”

“Coming!” Alex called. Setting the drink down quickly so that she didn’t spill it, she stepped forward and took Maggie’s face tenderly in both hands. “Thank you.”

“It’s only coffee,” Maggie replied.

“No, not just for that. I mean for everything. For giving us another chance. For… for remembering.”

“Yeah well, you’re a hard one to forget, Danvers.”

Sharing a brief but tender kiss, the two of them stepped back, and Maggie picked up her own coffee and the cardboard tray again.

Alex picked up her own coffee as well. “Dinner tonight? My place?”

The dimples popped, and Maggie held her coffee out, bumping it lightly (and carefully) against Alex’s. “Deal. Hey, look I know you’ve got to get back but… uh… you think it’d be alright if I brought a few bits with me later? Spare clothes, maybe a toothbrush or something to keep at yours?”

“Bring whatever you want to bring,” Alex grinned as she started to back away. “My house is your house. I’ll see you later, yeah?”

“I’ll be there,” Maggie nodded as she also turned to leave.

For the rest of that day, Alex had one thought and one thought only on her mind. Maggie had asked if she could move some of her stuff in. Only a few things, tiny, small things. But things, nonetheless. And that could mean only one thing. 

Maggie was coming home.