Chapter 11

Alex and Maggie head for the dining room, neither of them happy about having to rush. They lost track of time joking around in Alex's room and wider up not having time to change out of their sweaty workout clothes.

Kara, Lucy, and James are already sitting down and talking to one another. James grins, standing when he sees them enter.

"Hey Alex." He greets her with a hug. When he pulls back, he raises an eyebrow at Maggie. "And who is this?" James drawls, giving Alex a pleased look.

She freezes, recognizing that gleam in his eyes. It's the same one he had when he thought she had a thing going on with Vasquez a year or so ago. He thinks she is dating her? Alex normally hides her emotions well but for some reason there's a blush coloring her cheeks.

"Sir Maggie Sawyer." Maggie saying, holding out her hand and they shake.

"James Olsen," he greets. He gives her an impressed look. "A knight, huh? Congratulations."

James gives Alex a pointed look, letting her know he's silently giving his misguided approval.

"She is Alex's new partner," Kara chimes in.

Alex resists the urge to groan as James' smile grows. Why would she phrase it like that? Alex sneaks a look at Maggie, who luckily does not seem to notice that James thinks they're girlfriends.

She has to admit, it's kind of funny that James has a better gaydar than her sister does.

"Alright, kids. Sit down," Cat orders as she strides into the room followed by Eliza and Jeremiah. "I have news."

They all sit down at the table in roughly the same spot that they were the night before. Which means Alex is sitting next to Kara and Maggie again. James catches her eyes from across the table. He winks at her and then gives her thumbs up. Alex glares at him, silently urging him to shut up. She doesn't want him shoving her out of the closet, though she knows he is too good of a person to do that.

Cat clears her throat as food is set down in front of them, drawing all eyes to her. "We will be publishing the newspaper tomorrow morning."

Alex's eyebrows raise. "So soon?"

"We think it would be best to do this as soon as possible." Eliza answers. "We don't want misinformation spreading."

"Are you ready for this?" Alex asks Kara.

She lets out a breath. "As ready as I'll ever be." Alex takes Kara's outstretched hand in hers. "Just..." She trails off for a moment, then continues in a small voice. "What if they hate me for being an alien."

"We are the most accepting Kingdom of aliens, you will be okay. And if you aren't, I will personally kick each and every one of their xenophobic butts." Alex promises, smiling when it makes her sister giggle.

"You can't just fight everyone who doesn't like me." Kara points out after she finishes laughing.

"Watch me," Alex deadpans. She gets an idea and turns toward J'onn. "Sir, can we patrol tomorrow?" He purses his lips. At this rate, she might just have to resort to her puppy dog eyes. "People know my face, they can come up to me and ask questions about Kara if they're curious. Plus, I can show Maggie around the city."

J'onn is silent for a moment longer but she can tell by the look in his eyes that he has already made his decision. "Fine."

Alex resists the urge to whoop victoriously and settles for grinning widely. She snickers to herself when she sees Maggie wiggles a bit in her seat happily at the good news. Alex can tell her partner is trying to be subtle about her adorable little happy dance so she doesn't say anything.

"Thank you, sir." Alex says. "You won't regret this."

"I better not," he says in a harsher tone than usual. She knows it's because he will worry about them. He softens his voice when he starts speaking again. "It's good to see that the two of you are getting along."

Alex shrugs one shoulder, a small smile playing on her lips. "Sawyer isn't terrible."

"You getting soft on me, Danvers?" She hears Maggie ask.

Alex turns to look at Maggie and her breath catches in her throat. She's cocking her head and beaming at her, dimples on full force. Alex tries not to act as hopelessly gay as she's feeling right now. She didn't know gay was emotion she could physically feel until now. Crap, she's really gay and why does her partner have to be so gorgeous?

"Pfft, no." Nailed it.

Alex knows she's blushing again and looks away from her unfairly beautiful partner. Lucy is raising an eyebrow at her and Alex knows her friend at least suspects her sexuality now.

Dinner continues after that with everyone discussing what could happen the next day. Alex once again is the first to get up afterwards to leave.

"I'll come with you," Maggie offers.

She seems completely unaware of the knowing look James and Lucy exchange.

"Uh sure. I can walk you to your room." Alex responds. She inwardly curses her awkwardness around pretty girls.

"Thanks, Danvers." Maggie smiles at her again and Alex swears she can feel herself melt a little hit.

They walk towards Maggie's room and Alex shoves her hands in her pockets. They make small talk about what they might run into the next day, each scenario getting even more absurd than the last. Alex honestly can't remember a time she laughed this hard around anyone other than Kara.

Maggie pauses in front of a door and smiles. "This is me, Danvers. I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow," Alex responds shyly. "Meet you at the DEO at 8?"

"So early?" Maggie sighs and Alex thinks for a moment that maybe she should change the time until Maggie chuckles at her. "I'm kidding Danvers. You should have seen your face!"

"Thanks, Sir Maggie." Alex says sarcastically and then struggles to find something to say after that. "Anyway, good job today. You're better at fighting than I expected."

Maggie's expression softens further. "You're sweet." She partially opens her door, knowing she should go before she kisses her new partner. "Goodnight, Alex."

Maggie gives in slightly and kisses Alex's cheek, resisting the urge to laugh at her wide eyes and surprised expression. She goes inside her room, leaving Alex standing there, frozen. The door clicks shut behind her, snapping her out if her cute girl induced gaze.

Alex is blushing even harder than before and reaches up to touch where Maggie kissed her. Her skin burns where her partners lips touched her.  She walks all the way back to her own room with a dopey grin on her face that actually scares some of the guards on duty.

Alex shuts her door behind her and leans back against it, running over the events of the day in her head. She sighs happily and thinks about Maggie. How good she looks even when she's sweaty after training for hours. How her dimples show up when she's smiling. How she made Alex's heart skip like thirty beats within minutes when she took her leather jacket off and showed off her muscles. How she...

Alex cuts herself off. Hang on. Does she have a crush on Maggie? Alex starts pacing and thinks about it. She has only known her for a few days and she has already become a big part in Alex's life. It's too soon to have a crush. Right? She hasn't had a crush since her high school years when she liked her straight best friend. Which was a few years before she even knew she's gay. She is not an expert with crushes.

She is however an expert in Kara's crushes. Perhaps she can use her sister's tells for when she has a crush and apply them to herself. She makes and goes through a mental checklist.

Does she think about her pretty much constantly? Check. Does she get that far away dopey look when she thinks about her? Double check. Does she want to be around her all of the time? Quadruple check. Does she want to kiss her? Infinite checks.

Alex stumbles over to her bed on shaky legs and sits down. She focuses on her breathing for a few moments before she regains control of herself.

She tips her head back and lets out a string of quiet explicit is. She has a crush. Already. It can only get worse from here.

It's barely a minute later when Kara bursts through her door (thankfully not literally) with a worried expression. She must have heard Alex swearing.

"Hey," Kara murmurs.

She sits next to Alex on her bed, enough distance between them for her to pull away if she wants to. Alex rests her head on her sister's shoulder.

"Are you okay, Alex?" Kara asks.

"Yeah, just..." She trails off, letting out a loud breath. "Everything's happening at once."

"Would you like to talk about it?"

Alex realizes she kind of does. This is a big thing for her and she doesn't want to have to do this alone. She knows she isn't quite ready to come out to anyone else, but she is ready for Kara.

Alex steels herself for her sister's reaction and takes the plunge. "I'm gay."

Ooh, bet you weren't expecting that! I wasn't! I'm going different from what's canon because Alex needs a support system here, even if it's just Kara for now. And hey, now Alex AND Maggie know they're crushing on each other! And I loved the Sanvers scenes in this chapter so much, they're such adorable nerds. Anyway, thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!