192. Chapter 192
She’s late to game night, but Maggie isn’t.
She’s late to game night, and she’s on her way up the stairs to Kara’s apartment when her phone starts buzzing out of control.
Alex, no one’s hurt, everyone’s okay, but you might want to get here as soon as you can.
Um, Alex, I know James just texted you, but seriously. Get here, stat. No invasions or anything, but like. Soon. Please.
Alex sprints up the last stairs and opens Kara’s door to the sound of her girlfriend and her sister’s voices mashing over each other.
“Oh come on, Kara, I’ve heard Eliza make snide remarks about it, so clearly you all noticed! But no one ever thought to do anything about it?”
“Maggie, she’s a grown woman – ”
“Wait a second, wait a second, Little Danvers, I like you a lot, I do, you know I do, I don’t take just anyone to that bowling joint we went to last week, but you can’t seriously be using that argument right now!”
“She is, Maggie, it – ”
“Okay, so, Alex is a grown woman when she needs support and help from her family, but when it comes to how she lives her live in complete denial of her own feelings, in complete denial of her own needs, then she’s, what, just doing right by her family? What about her family doing right by her?”
“Maggie, hey, come on, babe, Kara does right by me all the time – ”
“Stay out of this, Alex, this doesn’t concern you!” Kara chimes without looking at her sister, and James, Winn, and Alex all stare at each other, and they all gulp.
“Kara – ”
“No, Alex, your sister’s right – ”
“But guys, I’m standing right here – ”
“Okay, fine, you know what, Al? Fine. Here’s the thing: your sister decided that tonight we’d all have beer instead of root beer, and I – ”
“And there are a few bottles of root beer in the fridge for Alex – ”
“But it would be so much easier for her if we all – ”
“Okay, alright, I get it. Beer, root beer, me, alcohol issues, whatever.” Alex is in DEO mode now, and Kara and Maggie are both shrinking away somewhat, closer together. “Right, so. Kara. Maggie’s right: it would be a lot easier for me if there wasn’t all this alcohol around. But I’m also surrounded by people who care about me. By my family. So I’ll be okay, Maggie. Because, Mags, that’s the thing you don’t know yet about these people: I haven’t always made it so easy for them to love me. Yes, yes, you’re right, living my life completely for Kara, completely for what my parents said I should do? You’re right, that’s not okay, you’re right. But these people? These people who didn’t say anything to me about the alcohol? Maggie, you didn’t know me… before I knew you…”
“Nice one, Alex – ”
“Winn!”
“Thank you, James. You didn’t know me, Maggie, I was…” She stops and she sighs and she meets Kara’s warm, wet, supportive eyes, and Kara nods her on softly, lovingly. “I was impenetrable, I was…”
“Downright terrifying.”
“Winn.”
“Am I wrong?”
“Winn!”
“Thank you, James. I just…”
Kara takes over, now, and Maggie’s eyes are soft, and her shoulders less tense, and her posture more open.
“Maggie, you opened Alex up in a way none of us have ever seen. She’s happier, she does absurd things now, like giggle. At work.”
Alex blushes and Maggie beams and James and Winn snicker while Kara reaches for Maggie’s hands.
“And something about you – everything about you, Maggie – brought that out of her. And I will always be grateful for you. The first person, probably, to know exactly how to love my sister, how to make her truly happy. How to see the things that we… that I… didn’t want to see. And you’re right, Maggie, you’re right, about the alcohol, and about her independence, and about just… but she’s my sister, Maggie, and you get to call me out, you do, but you don’t get to imply that you’re the only one who loves her or really knows her. Because you’re not.”
Maggie stares into searing blue eyes and she nods slowly, and Alex puts her hands over her mouth as James stands to hold her, as Winn squeezes her arm softly, because Maggie is kissing Kara’s hand and she’s pulling her into a deep, full-bodied hug.
“I know I’m not, Kara. And she loves you, more than I’ve ever seen anyone love anybody. But you know that, don’t you? And you know I would never take her away from you.”
“Promise?” Kara asks as she pulls away, but though she’s still holding Maggie’s hands, she looks at Alex, not Maggie.
“I promise,” Alex chokes, and she brings Kara into her arms, and Kara offers her hand to Maggie while her other arm wraps around Alex.
And it’s a nice moment, it’s a healing moment, it’s a perfect moment.
Until James, Winn, and Alex realize that this bonding moment at the start of game night means that Kara and Maggie are going to start teaming up for everything, in every round, in every game, from Mario Kart to Monopoly.
And against Kara Zor-el and Maggie Sawyer, NCPD as a unified front, none of the others stand a chance.