145. Chapter 145

They’ve had people over for dinner before – Maggie’s work partner, M’gann, a defense attorney Maggie had worked a few cases with, and of course the Superfriends – but Maggie has never fussed like this before.

And Alex is beaming, because of all the people Maggie could fuss over coming to her apartment, it’s a teenage boy that sends her into a cleaning spree, that makes her wring her hands together and run through the menu four times and change even more than that.

“I’m one of the only gay adults he’s got in his life, and certainly the closest, and I just want him to get a good impression of what a happy, healthy queer family, home, looks like,” she explains off-handedly when she notices Alex’s bemused expression, and she’s so frenzied that she doesn’t notice the casual words rolling off her tongue, the casual way she’d called it their home, that she’d called them happy, healthy.

A family.

She’s so frenzied she doesn’t notice the way Alex freezes, the way Alex gasps softly, the way Alex melts. The way Alex wants to get down on one knee right then and there and propose, because Maggie is the one, the one, the one.

But all that will wait – and Alex smiles, because they have time, because Maggie is right: this is home, this is family – because there’s a musical knock on the door, and Maggie jumps up, and Maggie smooths down her flannel and checks that her fly is zipped and leans up on her tip toes to give Alex a quick kiss to the lips with a beaming smile, an excited smile, a smile full of love, a smile full of life. A smile full of all the reasons Alex loves her, is in love with her.

Maggie pads over to the door eagerly, and pulls it open without even checking who it is, because no one else would knock in that musical pattern. No one else but her little boy.

“My favorite college kid!” Maggie exclaims as she throws open the door and her arms.

“My favorite detective!” Adrian responds, pulling Maggie into a one-armed bear hug, rocking back and forth slightly as he holds her, as they laugh just at their closeness, just at finally seeing each other again after Adrian’s first four months away at school in Central City.

Alex watches them and Alex beams. Adrian catches her eye over Maggie’s shoulder and Alex didn’t think it was possible, but his smile broadens.

“Agent Danvers!” he nearly squeals, and Maggie laughs and pulls back to let him in the apartment.

Alex steps forward and opens her arms to the boy. “It’s Alex to you, kiddo,” she tells him, and he laughs as he hugs her.

He steps back and turns so he’s facing both women, and extends a bouquet of cream-colored roses toward Alex and a bouquet of dark pink roses to Maggie.

“Adrian, thank you,” Maggie breathes, and draws him into another hard hug.

“First time I’ve got roses from a man that I actually appreciate,” Alex teases, and Adrian doubles over in laughter and Maggie leans up to kiss Alex on the mouth.

“Ohhh, you two are so precious.”

Maggie winks at him and Alex blushes, and Maggie nods Adrian into the kitchen to put both bouquets into water.

“So tell me everything, the texts and calls aren’t enough,” Maggie tells him, while Adrian sticks his fingers into the salad bowl to pick out some croutons and pop them into his mouth with a moan of appreciation.

Alex chuckles and follows suit, and Maggie huffs laughingly. “Adrian’s got an excuse, Danvers, he hasn’t had my homemade croutons in months, but you? You’re a bad influence on my woman, kid,” she nudges him, and Adrian snorts as Alex pffts and steals another crouton.

“Glad to help out,” he winks at Alex, and starts carrying the salad bowl to the table without being asked.

“So. Tell me all the things!” Maggie demands again, and Adrian bounces on the balls of his feet.

“I don’t even know, Maggie. College is so different. Central City is so different. But I like it. There’s this queer club at school, I told you, but it’s…” He glances at Alex apologetically.

“Super white?” she supplies, and he laughs with relief.

“Yeah. And super cis. A couple of the other brown trans kids and me – there’s more than just me, which I totally didn’t expect, you know? – we’re thinking of starting our own thing, you know, make sure the school gets us the resources we need, too.”

Maggie beams as she spoons salad onto his plate, doling him out extra croutons, doling him out extra tomatoes. He beams back, because she remembers what he likes best.

“I’m trying to figure out if the school’s insurance stuff can cover at least some of my top surgery, too, and if it doesn’t, the others said they’ll help me raise money for it.”

“If you need me to scan through any of the bureaucracy stuff for you, you know I got you,” Maggie tells him, and he raises his glass at Alex.

“You ever met anyone more helpful?” he asks, and she holds Maggie’s hand across the table.

“Haven’t been that lucky, no.”

“Yeah, me too. But…” Adrian squirms with a mischievous grin, and Maggie smacks his shoulder lightly.

“Spill!”

“There’s um…. there’s this girl…”

Alex laughs and Maggie whoops.

“Start of every good story!”

“I can’t tell if she likes me, though! I don’t know what to do, she’s just so…”

“Pretty?” Alex guesses.

“Good in bed?” Maggie teases.

“Perfect,” Adrian sighs as he hits out gently at Maggie, and Alex and Maggie exchange a warm glance.

“Yeah, that’s what I keep saying about this one,” Maggie says, and Adrian laughs.

“You know, Agent – uh, Alex – I’ve watched Maggie go through a bunch of girls – “

“Watch it there, kid.”

“I got you, Mags. I’ve never seen her gaga over anyone like this, though. I mean look at her, she’s all domestic and beamy!”

“Beamy?”

“Hey listen, they can’t teach me all the fancy words in just one term!”

The three laugh, and while they do, Adrian watches Alex, watches Maggie. Watches the way they meet eyes while they catch their breath, watch the way Maggie always makes sure Alex’s glass is full of water, the way Alex makes sure Maggie isn’t forgetting to eat in her excitement.

Watches the way they love each other.

Maggie’s told him stories – stories of Blue Springs, stories of being brown and queer in a white and straight world that he feels, feels so deeply, because he’s much darker than Maggie, because he started transitioning before he had support, before he had insurance – and he knows how far-fetched a dream this must have been for her, growing up with constant black eyes and scars on her arms, growing up without any lunch money and without any community.

But here she sits, right in front of him, across from a beautiful woman who looks at her like she’s staring at a piece of magnificent art, in a beautiful apartment with a beautiful meal she made just for him and just for the woman she loves, the woman she’s told him she wants to propose to.

He knows how far Maggie’s come, and he knows, he knows – because of her, because of her, because of this – that he can go just as far, too.

He knows, and his face is barely broad enough for his smile.