Maggie was just about to get on her bike and drive to the Alien bar to meet Alex when she felt her phone vibrate in her back pocket.
“Hey Danvers, I’m about fifteen minutes away from…”
“Maggie get every available unit you have to L-Corp, now”. Alex interrupted, quickly hanging up the phone.
After running half a dozen red lights, Maggie found herself outside L-Corp, heart racing in her chest at the urgency in Alex’s voice. She strapped on her bulletproof vest before loading her gun and entering the building, followed by a dozen of her colleagues. She sees Supergirl fighting against someone who looked exactly like Hank Henshaw and, by the looks of things, she was losing.
Maggie was shooting her weapon constantly but the bullets were having no effect on the cyborg. The only real opportunity she were given was when he was distracted by the opening of what appeared to be a portal, when Supergirl swept him off his feet in his moment of confusion. The cyborg was quick to react, looking directly at Maggie before shooting a blue laser at her body.
Maggie closed her eyes, bracing herself for impact. When it did not come, she opened her eyes, only to realise that Alex had dived in front of her at the last moment.
The DEO agent started to fall back with the impact of the laser. Maggie caught her in her arms and lowered her to the ground. She held onto Alex as she struggled for air, gasping out something inaudible.
“You’re going to be okay, Alex. It’s all going to be okay. I’m here. I need you to stay with me.”
In an instant, Alex was taken from her grasp and lifted off the ground by Supergirl, slipping in and out of consciousness as she was taken to the sky, presumably to the DEO, where they would hopefully be able to save her. Maggie struggles to breathe, finally realising what had just happened, Alex had taken the laser for her. Alex had saved her life.
She couldn’t move. She could only hear the sound of her own heart racing, trying to decipher the events that had just occurred.
She felt a heavy hand on her shoulder and saw the real Hank Henshaw. In a low, almost sympathetic voice, he said “Try to get some sleep detective. They may be working on her for a while” and, with that, Henshaw walked out the doors of L-Corp, got in a black SUV and disappeared from sight.
In a state of shock and utter disbelief, Maggie mounted her bike and raced off home, feeling hot tears streaming down her face as she slowly came to terms with the events that had just occurred. As soon as she opened the door to her apartment she went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of whiskey before sliding down the wall nearby, struggling to find any remaining physical strength. It was around midnight and, after another swig of whiskey, she realised she had very little hope of sleeping tonight.
She was just about to turn on Netflix in an attempt to distract herself when there was a knock at the door. Curious, she grabbed her gun and approached the peephole. Seeing the tear stained face of Kara Danvers, she placed her gun on the table nearby and opened the door.
Maggie didn’t really know what she expected in that moment, but when she felt the younger Danvers sister wrap her arms around her, it took only a few moments for her to return the embrace, collapsing into her arms.
Neither woman had any idea how long they stood there, silently holding each other, providing comfort they so desperately needed. When they released each other, Maggie welcomed the younger girl inside, grabbing two glasses from the kitchen before joining her on the couch.
They sat there for hours, sharing happy memories that they each had with Alex over the course of their relationships. Kara sharing embarrassing stories of Alex during High school, Maggie sharing the different stories of losing to Alex at pool, her eyes glistening with unshed tears at the thought that these may be the last memories she ever creates with Alex.
It was almost three am by the time Maggie fell asleep on the couch after a long, comfortable silence with Kara.
__________ __________ __________
Maggie woke up around nine o’clock the following morning, struggling to remember how she made her way to her bed last night. As she sat up from her bed, she started to feel the aftermath of the alcohol she consumed the night before, the pounding headache making her feel sick to her stomach. She slowly made her way to the kitchen to grab herself a glass of water and an aspirin, when she found a note on her benchtop.
You’re welcome to go see Alex at the DEO tomorrow morning, chances are I’ll see you there.
- Kara
Maggie quickly swallowed the aspirin and the glass of water before returning to her room, pulled on a fresh pair of jeans and her boots and shrugging on her favourite leather jacket. She quickly brushed her teeth and washed off her tear stained makeup before grabbing the keys to her Ducati, locking up her apartment and racing to the DEO.
__________ __________ __________
It must have been about eleven o’clock by the time she actually reached the DEO. As she advanced towards the medical wing, Maggie saw Supergirl exiting the room she could only assume was Alex’s. She approached Supergirl with a certain level of caution, mostly because the Kryptonian’s interactions with her in the past have been less than friendly.
“How is she?”, Maggie asks, trying to gaze through the half open curtains of Alex’s room.
“The medical professionals believe she will make a full recovery. However, they… they don’t know when she’ll wake up”, Supergirl says, her voice wavering.
“She hasn’t woken up yet?” Maggie could barely keep the surprise out of her voice. She feels her eyes tearing up and her hands start to tremble. She clenches her fists in a poor attempt to keep her tears at bay.
“She’ll be okay, Sawyer”, Supergirl says, walking closer to her and places a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. “Alex is a fighter.” and with that, she was gone.
Maggie wiped at her eyes and slowly peeked into the room, realising that a woman who she could only presume was Alex’s mother was by her side, holding her hand and talking to her. The detective sat down in a chair out in the hall, waiting to see the girl who had saved her life. She placed her head in her hands as she tried, and failed, to come to terms with all the emotions that were coursing through her.
Maggie was struggling with the thought that less than ten meters away from her, the girl who she is falling for is fighting for her life. The girl who she turned down in order to protect her and the pain that would follow if their relationship were to fail.
“I shouldn't get involved with someone who's just fresh off the boat, those relationships never work.”
No matter how hard she tried, Maggie couldn’t stop the memories from that night flooding back to her. The look on Alex’s face as she realised what Maggie was telling her, and the pain she had felt watching Alex walk out the door of the bar, not understanding why Maggie had turned her down.
As she recalled the event of that night weeks ago, she unconsciously grazed her lips with her fingers, remembering how good it had felt to feel Alex’s lips on her own, her hands on her cheeks as she pulled her in for that piercing kiss and, for a moment, she allowed herself to kissed back. She allowed herself to succumb to the lips that had been tempting her since the moment they had told her where her jurisdiction ended.
Despite having turned Alex down all those weeks ago, in this moment, sitting 10 meters away from her, she so desperately just wanted to hold Alex, tell her all of the things she tried to tell her that night in the bar and most of all, tell her that she didn’t care that she was fresh off the boat, that she just wanted her. She wanted Alex.
Maggie had been sitting there for almost twenty minutes when she finally saw the woman leave Alex’s room. She quickly wiped her eyes to get rid of any signs that she had been crying. Despite never meeting the woman, Alex’s mother clearly recognised who she was.
“Maggie… Maggie Sawyer?” the detective looked up at the mentioning of her name and the woman continued, “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Maggie looked at the older woman, the only emotions in her eyes being compassion and kindness as she looked at her and, in that moment, she lost all control. Tears were streaming down her face and the only words she could mutter to the woman was that she was sorry for the pain she had caused. Eliza bent down to Maggie’s eye level, the girl she had no doubt her daughter had feelings for, and embraced her in a hug.
Maggie had no idea what she had done to deserve such kindness from this stranger, the thought that Alex’s mother knew who she was both thrilled her and scared her, not knowing exactly what the DEO agent had shared. Maggie returned the hug and Eliza told her that she had nothing to feel sorry about. When she had seemingly gained control of her emotions, Maggie looked at the woman, who gave her a sympathetic smile.
“I’m Eliza by the way”, the older woman said, realizing that she hadn’t yet introduced herself. “Alex and Kara’s mother.
Maggie stood from her chair, extending her hand to the woman.
“Maggie Sawyer, but it appears as though I don’t need to be introducing myself.” Maggie lets out an unsure laugh and Eliza cracked a smile.
“Alex has told me a lot about you”
“All good things I hope”. Yet again Maggie released an uneasy laugh, clearly awkward about the conversation.
Eliza sent her a warm and sympathetic smile. A smile that seemed to understand that everything Maggie had done was to protect her daughter.
All of a sudden, their uneasy conversation was interrupted by half a dozen nurses and doctors running into Alex’s room, one of which was pushing the crash carts along with her. Maggie and Eliza rushed to the door, but were quickly told they needed to wait outside the room whilst they tried to restart her heart.
They stand together in the corridor, hearing the flatline of Alex’s heart rate, the doctor yelling “Charge to two hundred”, and hearing the sound of the volts travelling into her body.
Maggie and Eliza hold each other, neither knowing what the fate of their loved one was going to be. They hear the doctors recharging the paddles, and another round of volts being applied to her failing heart. Maggie feels tears streaking down her face and she feels completely numb, the only thing she feels in the moment being the heartbreak that would come from Alex never knowing how she truly felt about her.
Eliza seems to understand the thoughts going through Maggie’s mind right now, because in the uncertainty of the moment, she leans over and says, “she knows”. Suddenly, Alex’s heart rate is the only thing she hears as it echos in the room, beating incredibly fast, but still beating.
Maggie rushes into the room as the nurses are clearing out, she pulls a chair over to sit next to the girl that has been on her mind constantly since she walked on to her crime scene all those weeks ago. She took her hand in hers and ran her thumb over the palm, an action that calmed part of the storm of emotions that had overcome her in the past half an hour.
Her hands started to shake as another wave of emotions hit her. What if Alex never woke up? What if Alex died never knowing how she felt about her? “She knows”, what did Eliza mean by that?
“Danvers I need you to wake up for me. I… I didn’t mean what I said that night. Well, I did mean it, but not in the way you took it. I like you, like, like you, but I was scared that I would hurt you, that our relationship would run its course and you would realise that I’m nothing special. That everything would lose that shiny coating and you would realise I’m just... me. Sociopathic, workaholic me. But I don’t give a shit anymore Alex, because you’re not allowed to die without me telling you how I feel… I... I love you.”
Maggie felt the hand she had in her grasp give a weak squeeze. She thought she had imagined it until she heard Alex clear her throat, and with an attempt at Maggie’s signature smirk, she husked,
“You gettin’ soft on my, Sawyer?”