Maggie was fuming. She’d been dealing with piles of paperwork and a frustrating case she’d been stuck on for weeks and just when she was about to wrap it up for the day and head home, a call came in informing her of a new lead that’d been found. Her colleagues had discovered a possible new witness.
Even though she had plans for movie night with her girlfriend, Alex, the detective knew she couldn’t pass up this opportunity. So she reluctantly sent Alex a text that she’d be late and hurried to the alleged informant’s apartment.
But of course, nothing could go right that day. When she arrived at the apartment, she found it trashed and her witness lying strangled behind his couch. She wished she would have just sent another officer, because after discovering a murder she knew she was going to be stuck on the crime scene for hours.
Sighing, she reached into her pocket to call Alex, but discovered that she had left her phone at the station. Great. Her girlfriend was going to be pissed.
They’d been dating for almost four months now and Maggie couldn’t be happier. However, she was seriously worried that her job would take a toll on yet another one of her relationships. Alex has been incredibly patient with her and Maggie knew the agent understood the sacrifices she had to make for her job. But she was bound to lose her patience one day and Maggie has had to cancel on her four times within in the last two weeks. Including Christmas crafting with Kara and her friends, which Alex still hasn’t forgiving her for having to attend on her own.
When she was finally done, she drove by the station to retrieve her phone.
(6) messages, (2) missed calls by ‘Special Agent Danvers’
[7:04pm]: Hey babe, I’m sooo sorry, something came up at work. Gonna be a bit late (read at 7:09pm)
[7:05pm]: Make yourself at home, you know where the keys are (read at 7:09pm)
‘Special Agent Danvers’ [7:18pm]: Ugh… hurry up! The pizza’s getting cold
‘Special Agent Danvers’ [7:29pm]: I might just eat it all by myself…
‘Special Agent Danvers’ [7:47pm]: I’m serious, it’s all gone.
‘Special Agent Danvers’ [8:33pm]: what exactly is your definition of ‘a bit late’ detective?
‘Special Agent Danvers’ [8:56pm]: Maggie?!??
‘Special Agent Danvers’ [9:42pm]: call me as soon as you read this
The detective groaned and tried to call Alex back to explain the situation, but after ringing a few times the call went to voicemail. ‘Well, at least she didn’t straight up hung up on me’, Maggie thought. Though, thinking about it Maggie decided that probably anything would be better than being ignored by her girlfriend.
[10.59pm]: I’m so, so sorry!!!!
[10.59pm]: I swear I’ll make it up to you!
[11:00pm]: I get if you don’t want to talk right now, but call me tomorrow morning
[11.00pm]: please
[11.03pm]: I love you
Hoping to god her job hadn’t ruined the best relationship she ever had, Maggie contemplated stopping at a diner for a quick burger, since she hadn’t had the chance to eat anything this evening, but decided against it. She just wanted to go home and curl up in her bed.
As she walked into her apartment, throwing her keys on the table and slipping out of her leather jacket she saw an empty pizza box and two glasses of wine on her coffee table. One still half-filled, the other untouched. The TV was on with some alien conspiracy show on Discovery Channel. Maggie actually considered watching it, if only to retell it to Kara when she next saw her. The blonde always got delightfully irritated by ‘dumb humans claiming to know all about aliens, when they wouldn’t even recognize one punching them in the face’.
She forgot about that, though, when she spotted her couch. Or rather the brunette curled up on it.
She had thought for sure Alex left hours ago. Either to go home and sulk or to her sister’s apartment to vent about her poor excuse of a girlfriend standing her up again.
Maggie stood there for a while, just taking in Alex’s sleeping form, snoring lightly, clad in a black shirt and a pair of cute pyjama bottoms that on anyone else, Maggie would’ve found ridiculous. Alex probably got those from her little sister.
She walked over, carefully stroke back a strand of hair that had fallen in Alex’s face and considered just letting the other woman sleep until the next morning. But Alex’s neck was twisted in an uncomfortable-looking way and Maggie figured she should probably get this conversation over with as soon as possible.
So she lightly shook her shoulder and whispered her name to wake her up. Alex stirred a few times and looked adorably confused for a split second before her eyes settled on Maggie’s face and she seemed to remember where she was. A short flash of relief appeared on the agent’s face before her brow furrowed.
‘Hey there,’ Maggie said with a soft smile. ‘I knew I was dating a nerd, but falling asleep watching Discovery Channel? Really, Danvers?’ she tried to make light of the situation.
Not a good idea, she realized instantly when Alex glared at her. ‘Do you really think criticizing my TV choices is the way to go right now, Sawyer?’ she said in a sharp tone.
Maggie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Yup, she was definitely mad at her.
‘No, Alex, listen. I’m sorry. I really am. I swear to god, I had no clue it would take that long. I know I have been horrible lately, not making time for us. But please, it won’t happen again, I promise.’ Maggie noticed that she sounded pretty desperate, but she didn’t really care. There’s no way she wanted to risk losing Alex, even if it meant cutting back on her job.
‘You think this is about you missing movie night?’ Alex scoffed, ‘God, Maggie, I was worried about you! You can’t just tell me you’re going to be, I quote: a bit late and then proceed to not answer any of my texts or calls for hours. God knows what could’ve happened to you.’
‘I- I forgot my phone at the station…,’ Maggie stuttered, not expecting that.
‘And you couldn’t have borrowed someone else's or went to a phone booth or something?’ Alex snapped.
Maggie went to reply, but her girlfriend wasn’t done. “I was this close to sending Kara out to look for you. Luckily she reasoned that the NYCP would’ve called DEO reinforcements if something serious was going on, but still. What if you’d gotten out on your own and abducted by some weird alien or if Cadmus had gotten you without anyone realizing? Or worse what if you’d been killed in some dark alley, god knows where?’ she ranted.
The detective felt a lump in her throat as she realized how scared Alex actually had been. ‘Alex, hey,’ she grabbed her nervously gesturing hands in her own, ‘I’m fine. Nothing like that happened. It was just an unexpected routine murder.’ she tried to reassure her, ‘I’m really sorry, I didn’t realize… I promise I’ll make sure to call next time, okay?’
Alex visibly relaxed when Maggie soothingly stroke her hands up and down her arms. She looked to the ground and nodded, not quite willing to forgive her just yet.
‘So, does that mean you’re not going to break up with me for being obsessed with work and borderline sociopathic?’ Maggie broke the silence.
Alex’s head snapped up at that. The question was obviously meant as a joke, but there had been a slight hint of insecurity in Maggie’s voice. ‘Of course not,’ she answered sincerely. ‘Why would you think that? You know with my job at the DEO, I perfectly understand’.
Maggie just shrugged, refusing to meet Alex’s eyes. The agent softened and brought her hands up to cup the other women’s face. ‘I’m not your ex, Maggie. I’m never going to be mad at you for doing your job.’ she insisted. ‘I know how much your work means to you, I wouldn’t resent you for that. In fact, it’s actually one of the reason’s I fell for you.’
At that, Maggie couldn’t keep from smiling brightly. ‘You’re amazing, you know that, Danvers?’
‘Uh, yeah, I know I am,’ Alex joked, ‘and because I’m so amazing I actually kept myself from eating the complete pizza and left some for you in the kitchen.’
Maggie leaned up and gave her a quick kiss, before hurrying into the kitchen. ‘God, I love you!’ she exclaimed, just now realizing how hungry she was.
Alex rolled her eyes and flopped back down on the couch. ‘So what do you say, are you up to finally showing me that ‘gayest not-gay movie ever’ you promised me?’ Alex called towards the kitchen.
Maggie walked back in, a plate full of pizza and a beer in her hands. ‘You’re not tired? You were passed out on the couch just minutes ago’, she smirked.
‘Yeah, and I’m well rested now’, Alex returned easily. ‘Unless you’re tired, I’m sure you had an exhausting day,’ she backtracked, not wanting to guilt her girlfriend into staying up too late.
‘No, no, I’d love to.’ Maggie put on the movie and made herself comfortable on the couch with Alex’s legs laid over her lap and her plate resting on top of them. She ate her pizza and amusedly watched her girlfriend slowly dosing off within the first ten minutes of the movie, despite claiming to be wide-awake a few seconds ago.
When she was done, she carefully set her plate on the table and moved Alex’s legs, so she could lie down beside her. She switched off the TV, content to just cuddle up to her girlfriend, when she heard a weak mumble that suspiciously sounded like, ‘I was watching that’.
Maggie chuckled softly and propped her head up on one hand, the other drawing circles on the small strip of soft skin exposed between Alex’s shirt and the top of her pants. After a while, she was surprised at Alex opening her eyes and turning towards her. She sleepily smiled at Maggie, before wrapping her arms around her and cuddling further into her.
‘So tell me about that routine murder,’ she murmured.
Maggie did, happy to recount her day to someone willing to listen. She hadn’t really noticed how frustrated she still was and how good it felt to just vent about it a bit. Still, she kept her voice low, not wanting to disturb Alex in case she actually wanted to sleep, but the agent listened attentively, giving small comments and indignant huffs at all the right places.
When Maggie complained about dealing with FBI agents, arriving at the scene an hour after her team had and trying to take over the case, Alex laughed. ‘Ugh, those feds are the worst, always sweeping in at the last minute, trying to control everything,’ she joked.
Maggie snorted at that, fondly remembering their first encounter. ‘Uh-huh, they're horrible,’ she agreed with a smirk.
‘I just hope that agent made sure none of his coworkers were tampering with evidence, so he didn’t make an even bigger fool of himself,’ Alex kept going.
‘Oh, I can assure you, you weren’t half as foolish as he was,’ Maggie huffed, ‘Besides, I didn’t really think you were much of a fool back then anyways. Hot would be a better word to describe it.’ She tilted her head and looked at Alex the way that always made her heart flutter.
‘You thought I was hot?’ Alex raised her eyebrows amusedly.
‘Are you kidding me? Of course I did!’ her girlfriend exclaimed with a laugh, ‘As did everyone else on that airport, I’m sure. You strutted in there like you owned the place, all business, refusing to take shit from anybody, especially me. Plus, that ‘you’re restriction ends where I say it does’-line was a turn-on, for sure.’
She earned a light slap to her shoulder and an eye-roll for that, but Maggie could see the heat rising up Alex’s cheeks as she was trying to fight down the blush and laughed, bowing her head down to kiss her. She loved when the usually calm and collected agent got flustered because of her. Admittedly, Alex had grown more confident and witty quickly through the course of their relationship, but Maggie still managed to catch her off guard from time to time.
‘I didn’t know you were into that’ Alex managed to recover, a smug smile spreading over her face after their kiss.
Maggie got a familiar twinkle in her eyes, ‘Oh, I thought I made it quite obvious I was into you’
Alex ‘hmmm’-ed into another kiss and asked, ‘So what do you say we head to bed?’ after pulling back a bit, resting their foreheads together. She rolled her eyes, knowing what was coming, before Maggie even managed to open her mouth.
‘Shut up. I meant to sleep. We’re obviously both tired and the couch is getting uncomfortable. Also you should probably change out of you work-clothes’, Alex said sternly.
Maggie settled for raising her eyebrows amusedly before getting up and pulling her girlfriend with her.
While she put on a pair of shorts and a NYCP top, Alex settled into bed. Maggie climbed in next to her and carefully pulled her closer, realizing with a smile that the other woman had already fallen asleep. She’ll never grasp how she got that lucky.