Chapter 2
Susan Vasquez wasn't that much for spoken conversation.
Instead, she talked with her actions, with short phrases, with massive gestures that you missed if you blinked.
Like addressing Kara and Alex and Lucy as "ma'ams." She loved being able to do that.
Like saving all their lives, every day, with the calmness of her calculations and the collectedness of her communication. Their military structure didn't allow her much by way of thanks – all in a day's work – and in those moments when it got to her, her team would notice. Alex or Lucy took her out for a drink, or J'onn brought her lunch. She loved those moments.
Like helping Kara rescue Alex and J'onn from Cadmus by letting her get the intel she needed. She'd loved listening to the chaos as reports started trickling in that something was amiss, that the prisoners, her friends, her team, her family, were getting away.
Susan Vasquez spoke through her actions.
So come Christmas, she had a plan.
Alex Danvers wasn't in the closet – not anymore – and anyone who heard her open her mouth for long enough to say the word "Maggie" could tell she was heels over head in love.
And it was clear as day that Maggie liked – she'd even say loved – Alex back.
So Susan couldn't figure out for the life of her why they weren't together yet.
Winn had muttered something about them just being friends, them being in different places. Susan glanced over at the way Maggie – who'd been granted access to the DEO more and more frequently these days – stared at Alex while she bent over a computer, muttering about gamma rays to herself. She knew longing when she saw it.
Just friends, indeed.
Winn knocked his shoulder into her gently. "You're into this Maggie girl, too? Because you're staring at her almost as much as Alex is."
Susan rolled her eyes and restrained from knocking Winn on the back of the head: the was Alex's job. "No, I'm not – can you get the Director and Agent Danvers out of here this afternoon? I only need a couple of hours, a trip to the Christmas pop-up by the waterfront, and one of those tactical drones you've been working on in your down time."
Winn blinked and didn't know what to inquire about first: the Christmas pop-up, or the tactical drones.
He also wasn't sure which one scared him more.
But working at the DEO, he was learning what Barry Allen had learned within fifty seconds of interacting with Cat Grant: sometimes speaking was not the right choice.
He made a sort of strangled noise in his throat and nodded, already coming up with a credible wild goose chase to send J'onn and Alex out on.
An hour later, the deed was done – Alex and J'onn had brought Maggie and some other agents to a warehouse on the far side of the city in search of a series of false leads Winn had orchestrated carefully.
And Susan had slipped out of the DEO empty-handed and returned with a rather large, rather lumpy sack slung over her back. She'd placed it next to her chair in the command center and gotten back to work like nothing had happened.
Winn couldn't take it. Within minutes, he was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet next to Susan's seat, waiting to learn what was in the sack, why he had to get rid of J'onn and Alex.
She kept a straight face, ignoring him and continuing her programming, for as long as she could without laughing.
"Yes, Mr. Schott?" she finally asked in an uncanny imitation of J'onn.
"Well, it – I – you sent J'onn and Alex away, and then that sack, and – "
A swooshing of the air around them both sent Winn's tie nearly smacking Susan's face.
"Hi Supergirl," they both greeted, and Kara, hands on hips, went right to business.
"What is it, Agent Vasquez? Is my sister okay?" She looked around for Alex, but found no sign of her.
"It's almost Christmas, Supergirl," Susan told her simply, and Kara's brow furrowed like that was the last thing she'd ever expected to hear. And… it was.
"Uhhh," she spluttered.
Susan stood up. "Your sister," she said softly. "And Maggie Sawyer." She paused, and Supergirl started nodding slowly while Winn just looked between them blinking rapidly. "Agree?"
"What do you have in mind?"
"Mr. Schott, do you have those tactical drones?"
Winn nodded slowly, shuffling toward a compartment under his desk to haul out three mini drones with tactile grips and laser guns.
Susan dragged the bag up and into her lap. Supergirl gasped and clapped her hands excitedly when Susan opened it with a flourish.
"Yes!" Supergirl cried, and Winn came rushing back over. Susan closed the bag before he could see.
"Mr. Schott, please program the drones to hang these securely at every doorway, above every control panel, every computer and especially in every lab. Supergirl will help them. The job gets top priority, and needs to be completed before the Director gets back to base with Agent Danvers."
Supergirl nodded overenthusiastically in agreement.
"Um, okay, but uh… what exactly are they hanging?"
Susan just turned back to her work with a mysterious smile on her face, knowing exactly what was going to happen next.
Sure enough, the sack burst open again as Kara exclaimed loudly, "Mistletoe!"
Alex didn't notice at first. She was too busy arguing with Maggie about the effectiveness of differential versus rate-zonal centrifugation when pressed for time, but J'onn noticed immediately.
Largely because he was rolling his eyes at the girls – at his girl, at how happy she was, even though he saw her pining and didn't know quite how to bring it up with her – and as his eyes shifted upwards, he noticed the tiny green sprig with a bright red ribbon tied around it, affixed to the ceiling.
He stepped out of the way automatically – he'd been on this strange planet long enough – and knew immediately why they had turned up no real evidence at the warehouse.
He just wasn't sure if he should scold Mr. Schott or Supergirl first. Still, he said nothing, just walked with Alex and Maggie back to the control room, eyes sweeping the room at the dozens of agents staring at the two oblivious women.
Maggie noticed something was amiss first.
She still didn't quite feel at home at the DEO – certainly not the way Alex did – because she certainly trusted Alex with her life, and by default of her trust in Alex, she trusted J'onn and Supergirl, but they weren't her own superiors. She had her own orders to follow, and while she'd already destroyed many rules for the sake of working with Alex and the DEO – even being here right now, working with an extra legal organization, could cost her her shield – she was always acutely aware of the risk of being here.
The way everyone knew each other, but still looked at her as "Alex's cop friend."
And they were sure looking, now.
Was those agents peeking out of that lab even… snickering?
Her back went ramrod straight and she almost stopped walking. Surely the DEO wasn't stupid enough to employ such blatantly homophobic… nope. No. Nope.
She followed their gaze and her eyes found not one, not two, not three, but at least six different green sprigs with red ribbons within vision, all arranged on ceilings, on tops of doorways, above crucial equipment.
Mistletoe.
Mistletoe that certainly wasn't there just a couple hours before.
Her eyes shifted to J'onn's, as Alex was still nerding out, still oblivious to the Chrismification that someone had gotten up to while the Director'd been out. J'onn just arched an eyebrow at her, and she wondered if that meant he would kill her if he tried anything with his daughter or if he was encouraging her to go for it.
Her mouth was dry and suddenly she realized that Alex was waiting for a witty retort.
They'd reached the control room by now, and they must have passed directly under four different sprigs of mistletoe by now, but if one of the parties didn't notice, it didn't count, right?
"See? Don't even have a response. Because I'm right, Sawyer," she teased smugly, and shifted so she'd be standing right in Maggie's space.
Glancing up – and keenly aware that Winn was not looking at his computer, and that Kara was not staring over his shoulder at whatever he was not working on, and that Agent Vasquez did not usually sit facing this side of the room – Maggie gulped and stepped back from Alex.
Panic – deep, acidic, horrible panic – swept through Alex's stomach at the sight of Maggie stepping back from her, at the sight of her pulling away. Again.
What had she done this time? She thought Maggie liked that she was a nerd, she thought Maggie liked her. Hadn't she said she didn't want to imagine her life without Alex in it? So why was she taking a full on step back suddenly, and at her job, god, no less?
All of that fear, all of that panic, flitted across her eyes in the flicker of a moment, and Maggie saw it all.
"No, Alex," Maggie said softly, softly, but she didn't step forward, didn't move to console her with her body like she so, so, so deeply wanted to.
Somewhere, somehow, Winn or Susan – hell, maybe even Supergirl, Maggie couldn't tell – had rigged up the Glee version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (at least it felt somewhat less violent in this version) and the tune started floating softly through the control room.
Maggie didn't know whether she wanted to kill them all or thank them on bended knee. Alex's next move would determine that, probably.
Maggie pointed upward, gently, screwing up her face into an apologetic smile as she did so.
Alex furrowed her brow and reluctantly followed the path of Maggie's finger. It took her a moment of staring up at the dangling mistletoe to process what the hell was happening. To process the soft, scared look in Maggie's eyes. The way she gulped and licked her lips, the way her gaze was wide and open, no trace of her typical, flirtatious sarcasm now that Alex had finally noticed the mistletoe above them.
Supergirl backhanded Susan in the shoulder excitedly, repeatedly, as they watched the scene unfolding between them, and Susan swatted her away, but her eyes gave her away.
"That kiss was so bad you wouldn't even replay it for the sake of Christmas?" Alex asked softly, so softly that Supergirl was the only one aside from Maggie who heard.
Supergirl's heart broke for Alex, remembering her tears, her humiliation, that night, how hard, how painstaking, it had been to build her up again.
Maggie's heart broke for Alex, for how stupid she had been, for how close she had come to losing her, for how Alex didn't understand that she was just scared, terrified, petrified, but it was Christmastime and on Christmas, you tell the truth.
"Alex, I replay that kiss every minute of every day." She stepped forward, and Alex's eyes flew wider than Maggie had ever seen them.
The entire DEO took a collective breath – J'onn had never seen so many agents poking their heads into the control room, not even when there was that showdown between Lucy Lane and her father – and Maggie took the deepest breath of all.
"Alex, it's Christmas time, and there's mistletoe, and when it's Christmas and there's mistletoe, you… you kiss the girls you want to kiss. And I just… I want to kiss you. I just – "
And she remembered that her lips had been soft but damn not that soft, and that she'd tasted like beer but now it was more like coffee and mint, and this time her hands were on Alex's cheeks and Alex was frozen but then she was melting and Winn was whooping and Supergirl was clapping and Maggie was melting right back into Alex, and then there was her tongue flitting across Alex's bottom lip and Alex's tongue was responding in kind and Alex was moaning and Maggie was backing them both into the nearest computer terminal and J'onn was clearing his throat and now Maggie was absolutely certain that he approved because she wasn't dead yet but she also knew she was about to get the most intense shovel talk ever from Alex's space dad and she had never looked forward to any awkward conversation that much because Alex had opened her eyes and was smiling at her with that smile and looking up, pointing up, because there was yet another cutting of mistletoe directly above where Maggie had pushed them and Alex was shrugging and apologizing to J'onn, telling him, "Sorry sir, I have to kiss her again, we can't afford to go out into the field with all that bad luck sticking to us," and Maggie had never been kissed like that and neither had Alex and god could they just walk around with mistletoe dotting the ceiling forever because Christmas season had never, ever tasted so good.
J'onn gave up when the cheers really erupted from the dozens of agents looking on, and Susan composed her face into a carefully feigned innocence as he strolled over to her seat.
He turned his back to the other onlookers, clapped her on the shoulder, and winked.
"Quite in the holiday spirit, I see."
"Yes, sir."
A pause. Alex's hands were buried in Maggie's hair, now, and J'onn could swear he saw a tear trickle down both of their faces.
"Nice work, Agent Vasquez. Very nice work indeed."