Chapter 69

Despite the fact that Kara gets bored halfway through Alex's (very thorough) questions about the armor, she still sticks around and answers them all. Alex gets pretty good feedback and rolls her eyes fondly when Kara cheers at hearing that her questions are over.

"Go change, dork." Alex says, pushing Kara's shoulders lightly. Kara indulgently allows herself to be moved by Alex. "Can you put it back on the mannequin? I have a few things to improve."

"Yeah. And Alex?"

Alex looks up from where she has begun to write down her notes. "Hmm?"

"Please don't stay too late, okay? It's already almost dinner time." Kara pleads.

"I won't. Plus, if I forget, I now have an amazing girlfriend who will bodily drag me from here if I stay too long."

"Damn straight!" Maggie says from the other side of the room.

"More like gay!" Vasquez chimes in.

Maggie laughs at their joke. "I knew I liked you for a reason, Vasquez."

Kara and Alex exchange an amused look. Alex shoos her away and Kara goes into the bathroom only to emerge a second or two later in her normal clothes. She quickly reapplies the armor onto the mannequin.

"I'm going to grab Lena and then some dinner. Love you!"

"Love you too, Kara."

Kara kisses Alex's cheek and gives her a pointed look. Alex huffs, knowing that's just Kara wanting to make sure she stays healthy and actually eats. Alex pretends not to hear the sound of her sister kissing Lena in an attempt to convince her to leave earlier. She's not at all surprised to see Lena and Kara walking out a minute later, hand in hand. Kara's always been good at knowing how to get her way.

Alex jots down her ideas and does some quick rough sketches on a drawing of the armor she has that isn't covered in notes. She notes what needs to be altered or removed and where they are. She doesn't even blink when someone sits down next to her.

Alex gets down her ideas and only when she's satisfied with her notes does she look up. She doesn't try to get in a little brainstorming about how to alter it or anything. She knows that if she goes down that rabbithole, she might lock herself up in her lab for a couple of days straight, running on coffee and the food an exasperated Kara (and J'onn) brings her. Alex really does know, that has happened before. A couple times. Kara hates it, Vasquez and Winn get it, and J'onn tolerates it as long as she's taking care of herself.

She looks up and jumps at the sight of Maggie sitting next to her. Sure, she could tell someone sat next to her. She just didn't expect them to still be there. Alex can't even remember when Maggie sat down.

"Hey," Alex greets.

Maggie's resting one elbow on the lab table, using it to prop her head up as she watched Alex with gentle eyes and a dimpled smile.

"Hey. Am I going to have to drag you out of here?" Maggie asks.

"No, I promise. Just one more thing."

Maggie lets out a good natured groan but the sparkle in her eye tells Alex she doesn't mind. "Oh yeah, what?"

Alex uses one finger to gesture for Maggie to come closer until their faces are inches from each other.

"This," Alex whispers and brings their lips together.

Maggie hums against her lips and draws Alex closer. Eventually, she stands so she can kiss Alex better. And so that she doesn't fall off the stool. Maggie pulls back slightly to pull in a deep breath of air and changes the angle of their kiss slightly, to the delight of Alex. Alex reaches up to cup Maggie's face with one hand and to tangle her fingers in her hair with her other.

"Sir Alex." J'onn's voice startles them and they break apart. "Sir Maggie. If you would please continue that elsewhere, where you are not near a mind reading alien."

"I thought you didn't read minds without permission." Alex says.

"I can hear thoughts if they're loud enough." He gives them pointed looks and they both blush.

Alex clears her throat awkwardly. "Right. Sorry, J'onn."

He smiles warmly, a more common sight in the past week despite what's been going on. Alex wonders if M'gann finally got the guts to talk to him.

"Would you like a progress update, sir?" Alex asks.

J'onn nods and Alex and Maggie take turns telling him about their progress.

***

Even with Alex's perfectionism, it doesn't take her very long to finish the suit. The only thing she's waiting for is the blocker that Lena and Vasquez are developing. Since Winn and Maggie have a team of scientists helping them and Lena and Vasquez don't, after Alex is finished, she decides to help them.

Lena and Vasquez have spent their time poring over Alex's impressively thorough notes on Kryptonian bodies and how they work (Alex has spent an extensive amount of time studying that with Kara) as well as her studies on Kryptonite. Alex joining them is more than welcome. It's a relief, truly. Sometimes Alex will reference things in the papers that neither Lena or Vasquez know about. Lena's specialty isn't biology, she's more of a machines build-it kind of woman. So sometimes reading Alex's papers makes her go cross eyes and get more confused than she originally was.

Of course, Lena and Vasquez are brilliant in their own right and have made pretty good progress. But having Alex is better than they could have hoped for. Her specialty is bio-engineering, specifically with aliens and metahumans (though they're a lot less common than aliens). Not to mention the fact that Alex has been studying all the things they need to know about for years and is more knowledgeable than even the papers. The fact she can explain things to them in simpler terms is invaluable.

"This is where we could really use some alien technology." Alex sighs.

"This is the DEO, don't we have some alien tech that could be useful?" Vasquez asks.

"We probably do. It would be so much easier if we had an expert on-" Alex cuts herself off and Lena can practically see the lightbulb going off above her head.

Kara walks in and Alex's eyes track her. She knows why her sister is here, knows that she's here to get lunch with Lena (and maybe kiss while they're there).

"Hey darling." Lena greets Kara, getting a swift kiss on the lips as a greeting.

"Hi Lee. Ready for lunch?" Kara asks.

"I know you certainly are." Lena teases, poking Kara gently in the stomach, which growls in response.

Kara blushes at the noise and Lena chuckles, taking her girlfriend's hand in her own. They make their way towards the exit but Alex's voice makes them pause.

"Kara, Lena. Can you both stay when you come back from lunch? I want to talk to you." Alex says. Kara and Lena exchange a worries glance. "It's not anything bad, I promise. It's about what we're working on."

Kara nods. "Yeah, I can stay. I'll bring you guys some food, too."

"Kara, you're a goddess." Winn says gratefully.

"No, I'm Kryptonian." Kara deadpans, then giggles at how even Lena groans quietly and rolls her eyes fondly.

It seems like only a couple of minutes pass before Kara and Lena are back, Kara going around and handing plates off food to everyone that's still there and not at lunch themselves. By now, she knows everyone's preferred lunch because if she didn't bring food, Alex is certain that over half of them would forget to eat. Including her and Maggie. Well Maggie might remember, if she glances at the clock to see how long she has until she can cuddle with Alex in their bed. Alex... Well, she gets in "the zone." Where not much matters but what she's currently working on. It's not the most healthy way to work, but she's done some of her best work that way.

"So what do you want to talk about?" Kara asks as she sets a plate of food in front of Vasquez and one in front of Alex.

"Kryptonian technology. I know you were almost the youngest person to join the Science Guild in... A long time. So you remember the technology there, right?"

"Of course. But most of it can't be built with the materials you have on Earth." Kara muses. "What do you need?"

Alex explains what she, Vasquez, and Lena have come up with so far. It's not a ton, but that along with how she explains what she's thinking they could do with Kryptonian technology is enough for Kara to pick up on what could work.

"I have an idea. It's not Kryptonian technology, per se, but it is alien technology we had on Krypton. And I think we have something just like it in DEO storage somewhere." Kara says excitedly.

Next chapter, more working on the blocker and then a bit more work on the armor... Did you guys notice how I carefully avoiding saying anything about the technology? Well if you didn't I just pointed it out so now you know! I'm by no means a science-y person. I know basics and stuff, but this kind of thing is out of my league and I didn't want to write something I know like nothing about. So! Avoidance! And I promise, there'll be more Sanvers and Supercorp coming up, I just need to get through this part first! Anyway, thank you for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!