172. Chapter 172

Maggie’s used to waking up alone.

It used to be because even when they would stay the night, they’d slip out in the morning.

Now, it’s because Alex Danvers likes her morning runs. A lot.

Maggie prefers her heavy bag, and her sleep, so she’s perpetually in charge of breakfast and coffee.

And that works just perfectly for her.

But today, she doesn’t just pad out of the bedroom and find herself in the living room.

Today, she finds herself in the house Alex grew up in, in Midvale, and she smiles as she tip toes downstairs, taking her time to gaze at pictures of Alex and Kara in various stages of adolescence, her heart swelling with each moment.

She sneaks past James and Winn sprawled out in the living room, Winn wrapped in blankets upon blankets on the floor, limbs all akimbo, James taking up less space, arms above his head, breathing slowly on the couch.

She loves that Eliza and Jeremiah invited them all to Midvale to get away, to crash together at a beach house without having to shell out a half a month’s worth of rent, after their latest, decisive, victory against Cadmus. They certainly all needed it.

Maggie knows that of course she was invited – she’s Alex’s girlfriend, she was instrumental in rescuing Jeremiah, of course she was invited – but she can’t quiet get over the feeling of shock, the feeling of awe, that Kara and the other Superfriends seem to feel like she actually belongs. That she’s in the house her girlfriend grew up in and her parents aren’t threatening to run her out of town and back to wherever she came from for corrupting her daughter.

Quite the opposite; two of Alex’s parents are sitting quietly in the kitchen together, Jeremiah’s hand on Eliza’s, drinking coffee in whispers so as not to disturb their girls’ friends in the living room, and seemingly utterly unsurprised to see Maggie up so early, to see Maggie’s hair tousled like she’d had sex with their daughter in their daughter’s childhood bed – because oh, she did – to see Maggie in their house as part of something natural, as part of something good, as part of something right.

“Sorry to intrude, I didn’t think anyone would be up – ” Maggie whispers, and Jeremiah shakes his head at her and taps the kitchen’s bar stool next to him.

“When Alex was a girl, she’d wake up every morning to go surfing. She’d be quiet and considerate – too considerate, always, that girl – ” He smiles broadly, fondly, gratefully, when he sees Maggie nodding emphatically in agreement – “but I always knew, and I could never sleep while she was out there. She’s excellent, of course, I just…”

Maggie thinks about every time Alex goes into the field without her, and she nods.

“I know what you mean.”

Jeremiah smiles and Eliza sips at her coffee with her eyes glued to Maggie’s face, and Jeremiah shrugs. “The water’s too calm for her to get any good waves this morning, so she’ll be swimming. But still – I guess a decade of being locked away by Cadmus doesn’t kill all the old habits, huh?”

There’s a pattering of feet upstairs and Jeremiah chuckles.

“Well, the boys are about to get a rude awakening. Kara’s up.”

Maggie grins and Eliza sighs affectionately and sure enough, faster than humanly possible, Kara is downstairs and Winn is yelping and James is groaning and Jeremiah and Maggie are laughing because Kara is come on come on come on time to meet Alex on the beach, the beach, when do we get to go to the beach all together like this, and J’onn’s gonna meet us soon, come on come on!!

“Yeah, the beach is great, Kara, but when do we get to sleep?” Winn wants to know, yanking the blankets back over his head, but James leans down and rips them off, knowing it’s better to surrender than try to fight, because when Supergirl is determined, she gets her way; even moreso, Kara Danvers.

“Alright, alright! I’m up! It – Maggie, why are you already up? You’re making us look bad!”

“I think your bed hair’s already doing that for you, Schott.” Winn groans and his hand flies to his hair. “No, I’m joking, it’s cute.”

The banter and the teasing and the laughter and the sweet relief of just being together and not strapped into armor, lives about to be taken away at any moment, echoes throughout the house as Maggie slips into a bikini under one of Alex’s t-shirts and basketball shorts, as Winn slathers himself in sunscreen and Kara bounds through the house checking on everyone because are you ready yet are you ready yet are you ready yet.

When finally, everyone is, Kara squeals and leads the Superfriends – Jeremiah and Eliza elect to let the kids have their fun – way down to the beach, waving her arms wildly above her head and shouting to the figure way out in the water. “Alex! Alex! Alexxxxx!!!!”

Alex pauses and waves and does something with her hand that Maggie can’t see, but Kara can, of course. “She’s got five more lengths to go, she’ll be in soon,” she translates, and Maggie smiles at her girlfriend’s consistency, her girlfriend’s sheer power.

J’onn joins them as Alex is starting to swim back to shore, and he hugs Kara and covers Maggie’s bare shoulder with his hand, and Maggie beams, still unused to the growing fatherly affection from the man, but loving it.

“Nice shades, sir,” she tells him, and he gives her a rare grin.

“I quite like yours as well, Detective Sawyer.”

“What about me, J’onn? Do you like mine?”

“Mr. Schott, your sunglasses are no doubt calculated to make you look sophisticated and cool, which you might have been able to pull off if your swim trunks weren’t emblazoned with the crest of the House of El.”

James snorts and Maggie tries to hold down a chuckle. Winn brandishes the plastic shovel he’d brought to help him build the perfect sandcastle and splutters. “Well hey, listen, I’ll have you know that these shorts were super popular – ”

“In the sixth grade. Before your best friend was Supergirl.”

“Hey, Guardian, did anyone ask your opinion? Mr. Look at My Six Pack I’m So Cool I Don’t Even Need to – to – hey! Wow!”

Everyone turns to follow Winn’s gaze, and Maggie’s jaw drops and her knees go weak, because Alex is striding out of the water, body dripping, hair tossed just so, black bikini highlighting all the right things, a small, cocky grin on her face.

James whistles and Kara whoops and J’onn grins and Maggie just can’t speak, because Maggie’s whipping off her sunglasses to get a better view and Maggie’s brain is short-circuiting.

“Hot damn, Danvers!” Winn shouts, and then his eyes grow wide with giddy excitement. “Hot Damnvers!”

James laughs and Kara groans and J’onn chuckles and Maggie gulps and Maggie wets her lips and tries to remember that little thing called breathing, because water droplets are dripping down Alex’s nearly naked body, and her eyes are fixed, only, on Maggie.

“I don’t care that my sister’s the one with the superpowers, I will personally throw you into space if you say that again, Schott,” Alex calls as she strides closer, and Maggie thinks she should try to speak, try to do something other than stare, other than let her jaw rest in the sand.

She inclines her head toward J’onn, not taking her eyes off Alex. “I um… your Earth daughter’s very… um… very beautiful, Director Henshaw.”

“Yeah, I’m sure beautiful was the word you were looking for, Sawyer,” James teases, and J’onn laughs.

“I’m sure you’re right, Mr. Olsen, but at least Detective Sawyer was raised with some level of decorum.”

“Yeah, you should’ve heard the sounds coming from Alex’s room last night, decorum my – ”

But Alex has reached them, now, and Alex is smacking Winn upside the head, and Winn is flinching and everyone is laughing and Alex is putting her hands on Maggie’s bare hips.

“See something you like, Sawyer?”

“Good god, Agent Danvers, can you not wait until I’ve had the chance to absent myself before you – you – ”

Everyone, even Alex, turns to J’onn, waiting for his wording, shocked because he’s never spluttered before.

“Seduces her girlfriend right in front of you?”

“Makes sweet love to her right here on the sand?”

“Right in front of her childhood home?”

“Because really, what else is vacation for if not to abandon your friends and bang your girlfriend?”

“I’m right here guys.”

“No one’s abandoning anyone, I can just take her right here right now, yall can stay or leave, I’m not particular, but it’s your call – ”

“Oh, yeah, real nice decorum, Sawyer – ”

“Lalalalala, I am not hearing any of this!”

“Good god, if this is why there were no beaches on Mars, I am eternally grateful.”