Chapter 3

"Sir Maggie Sawyer."

J'onn lights up slightly, but since he's such a stoic man it's really obvious. Especially to Alex, who has been working with him for years. "Sir Maggie? I have heard of her, she's an incredible knight. We'll be lucky to have her with us."

Now Alex is even more intrigued. J'onn rarely ever has high praise for people, let alone people he's never met.

"When will she be arriving?" Alex asks.

"Tomorrow," Jeremiah answers.

Alex's eyes widen. That means the DEO will have to do a lot to prepare for her arrival, she won't be getting much sleep tonight if any at all. They have so much paperwork to print out, a new room to prepare...

"The others and I will take care of it, Alex." J'onn tells her before she can think more about all they have to do. She frowns at him and is about to object when he speaks again. "You are going to be spending the day tomorrow with Kara showing Mr. Lord around. You will need your rest."

"I hate mind reading." Alex grumbles, though J'onn knows her so well by now he probably didn't need to.

"Let's go to bed, Alex." Kara says quickly. "It's getting late."

Alex frowns deeper. Kara usually isn't like this; dessert hasn't even been served yet. And she isn't mad at J'onn or ready to yell at anyone to make her sister so desperate to get her out of here so something else must be going on. Her eyes immediately go to Maxwell, who's unabashedly staring at her with hunger.

Alex's skin crawls and her jaw clenches and she knows Kara can hear her heartbeat increase as her anger rises closer and closer to the surface but she can't bring herself to care. Her fists tighten in her lap. Now J'onn has inevitably caught on, he once told her that he automatically tunes into her thoughts and emotions whenever she's distressed and he's nearby.

"Alex," J'onn says. "Perhaps it is best if you two go to sleep."

Not wanting to ruin the day by punching Maxwell Lord in the face (even though he more than deserves it), Alex stands and lets out a quiet, shaky breath.

"Fine, let's go Kara. Goodnight everyone," she nods politely. "Maxwell, I will see you tomorrow."

He smirks at her in that infuriatingly cocky way that makes her want to march over there and tell him what she really thinks of him. She refrains (barely).

Alex gives her parents a kiss on the cheek, following her sister's example automatically, before following Kara out the door. Kara takes her hand and they walk down the halls until they get outside Alex's room.

"Are you okay?" Kara asks worriedly.

Alex gives her the most genuine smile she can muster up. "I will be, yeah. I just hate having that creep look at me." She lets out a breath. "At least you'll be with me tomorrow. I don't know what I would do without you."

"Break his nose," Kara teases with a grin, making Alex laugh. "Maybe his arm too if he tries to touch you."

"That's true," Alex admits. "No promises, Kara. And I'm wearing my armor." She says with finality.

"Your cool armor?" Kara gasps excitedly.

"My cool armor," Alex confirms.

"But you said it's just a prototype! You haven't even let me see it!"

"It's ready for its first field test."

The "cool armor" as Kara has been calling it, has been Alex's side project for the past year. She hasn't let anyone see it or read her notes aside from J'onn. She finally got it all together and ready for its first test about a week ago, but she's been so busy training and trying to find a particular alien that's annoyingly good at hiding that she hasn't had time to test it. Alex has made sure that its light enough for her to move around freely in and tough enough to withstand a sword strike, but testing hasn't gone further yet.

"Oh, this is going to be so awesome." Kara bounces up and down excitedly.

"It would be more awesome if we didn't have to be around him," Alex sighs.

"We can ditch him if he gets too terrible." Kara suggests.

"You would risk Mom and Dad yelling at you?" Alex asks, surprised.

Kara isn't always a sticker to the rules (after all, she did fly Alex around the Danvers Kingdom one night when they were younger) but it's not often that she does something that could incur the wrath of Eliza and Jeremiah.

"It's better than having to listen to him saying prejudiced things." Kara says, fiddling with her glasses. "Sometimes I want to punch him too."

"Ma'ams?" A hesitant voice says.

Alex automatically straightens up and looks over to see Vasquez walking towards them carrying an unsealed cardboard box.

"Vasquez," she greets.

"J'onn told me to take this to you. Goodnight." Vasquez gives them a smile and then heads back the way she came.

"Goodnight." Alex responds absentmindedly. What could this be?

She opens up the flaps and rolls her eyes. Of course J'onn knows she wanted to try it out tomorrow. She hadn't even thought about it at the dinner table, so he must have just known.

"What is it?" Kara asks curiously, peering over her shoulder.

"It's my armor," Alex says.

"It's... Black." Kara remarks, cocking her head.

If anyone else said that, Alex would take offense but she knows that Kara is just surprised.

"So is most of the other things I wear," Alex points out.

The DEO doesn't regulate what their agents/knights wear (the title depends entirely on whether or not the person has been knighted or not). However, most people Alex works with wear black because of their own preferences. Not to mention the fact that it makes it a lot easier to pick out someone on your side in the field when they're all wearing similar or the same color.

Personally, Alex loves wearing black. It makes her feel more confident in her own skin, like she can blend into the shadows easier. So of course she made her armor in that color.

"That's true," Kara nods and smiles at her. "We should go to bed soon if you want to be able to wake up in the morning, Alex."

Alex grumbles good-naturedly and pokes her sister in the side, wishing not for the first time that Kara could be ticklish. Kara giggles nonetheless, humoring her sister.

"Goodnight, Kara."

"Goodnight!" She kisses Alex's cheek. "If I don't hear you up by eight, I'll wake you up myself."

Alex groans, making Kara laugh. She goes into her room, closing her door behind her which muffles the sound of her laughter. Alex rolls her eyes but knows Kara's "threat" is probably for the best.

Alex hates waking up early, always has. She's gotten good at it because of her work at the DEO, but she doesn't hate it any less than she did when she was a teenager. If it were up to Alex, she would sleep in much later, especially with her tendency to work into the wee hours of the morning.

And Kara's method of waking her up is less than pleasant. At first when she was hesitant about touching anything because she was afraid of breaking things, Kara would wake her up by singing some beautiful Kryptonian song about Rao. Now that she has control over her powers, she jumps on Alex's bed until she gets up. She's broken four of Alex's beds that way.