314. Chapter 314

Alex’s phone chirps and she grabs it immediately, instinctively, before it can wake the woman sleeping next to her.

She squints at the caller ID, at the time, and her stomach drops.

“Winn, are you okay? Is Kara okay? Is – ”

“No, no, relax Alex, it’s not DEO stuff, it’s – everything’s – you know what, that’s your I-was-sleeping-so-hard-because-I’m-recovering-from-a-wild-night-with-my-lady voice, so I’m just gonna let you – ”

Alex rubs her eyes and sits up, making sure the covers stay wrapped around Maggie’s nearly naked body as Maggie sighs and shifts around at the loss of contact without opening her eyes.

“I don’t have a voice for – you know what, no, Winn, what is it?”

“I – it – I’m sorry Alex, it’s just… Kara and James are in this really intensive training with J’onn and Lyra’s out of town with her brother and I – ”

“Spit it out, Schott, what is it?”

“My dad… my dad called. I didn’t take it, but I – he – ”

Alex’s stomach lurches and she runs a hand over her face, her heart breaking more than she wants to portray in her voice.

“Where are you?”

“I’m home, where else would I – ”

“Come over. I’ll leave the door open for you.”

“No, Alex, I shouldn’t have called, you’re with Maggie, I – ”

“Winn, get over here. And bring coffee.”

Maggie rolls over and gropes sleepily for Alex’s body with her eyes closed. “And donuts,” she calls groggily, and Alex grins down at her.

“You hear that, Winn?”

“Loud and clear. Give me a half hour. And Alex – ”

“Don’t make me regret being nice to you, Schott. Just get over here.”

She hangs up before he has the chance to change his mind, before he has the chance to talk himself out of reaching out to her.

She purses her lips and shudders slightly and sighs, slipping out of the bed to unlock the door for him.

“He okay, Al?” Maggie croaks, sitting up to watch Alex pad across the living room sleepily.

“He will be,” Alex whispers across the house. “Sleep, babe. He won’t be here for another half hour.”

She slips back into bed and Maggie melts into her arms immediately. “You’re not mad? I mean, you don’t mind?”

Maggie turns and puts a clumsy, groggy hand to Alex’s cheek. “Why’d I be mad at you for being a great big sister, Danvers?”

Alex pffts and shakes her head and is grateful Maggie can’t see her blush.

“You’re the best, you know that?” she kisses her, and Maggie grins with her eyes closed.

They’re not sure how or exactly when they drift back to sleep, but they both immediately snap back awake when the front door creaks open and light from the hallway spills into the apartment.

“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, it’s me,” Winn holds up his hands as best he can with coffee and donuts, because if he knows nothing else, he knows the women in his life.

“C’mere, you,” Alex invites, and Maggie remembers with a jolt that she’s not wearing a shirt.

“Also, pass me that t-shirt on the floor in the kitchen, would you?” Maggie asks with a cocky, sleepy grin, and Winn chuckles slightly.

“Kitchen fun times, huh Danvers? Nice – ”

“Don’t – don’t say anything else,” Alex cuts him off, and Maggie chuckles this time.

He steps up into Alex’s room and passes Maggie her shirt with his eyes studiously closed.

Alex takes the opportunity to study him. His shoulders are stooped and he’s in one of James’s old hoodies and his eyes, even closed, are swollen. He looks tiny and he looks terrified.

She remembers sobbing into Maggie’s arms about her father.

She remembers Maggie sobbing into her arms about her own father.

How small it made Alex feel. How small it made Maggie look.

“Okay,” Maggie tells him, shirt on now, and Alex shifts and pats the bed between her and her girlfriend.

“Come on,” she says, and Winn just stares.

“You tell anyone about this and you will find out exactly what those index finger techniques are – ”

“You know it’s not as scary when you have sex-bed hair and your girlfriend just needed me to collect her shirt from your kitchen floor – ”

“Yeah, babe, also, index finger threats? Like, has a whole new meaning now, doesn’t – ”

“Traitor! You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“Actually, um… you invited me over to support me? So, it’s all about my side?”

Alex sighs and shrugs and holds out her hands for her coffee, and Winn provides.

Maggie holds out her hand too, but when he offers the coffee, she just shakes her hand again. He grins and presents her with the entire box of donuts.

“Now you’re getting it,” she says through a mouthful of chocolate glazed. “Get over here before Danvers and I make like Kara and eat the whole damn box.”

Winn gulps and sets his and Maggie’s coffees on the bedside table and crawls over Alex – she doesn’t move to make it easier for him, a shit-eating grin on her face and a mock-glare on his – to settle between them. Maggie tosses the covers over him and holds out the donut box.

“So what happened?”

Winn sighs and shrinks into himself and stuffs a donut into his mouth.

“Caooellheae?” he tries to ask around a mouthful of chocolate frosting.

“Try again, Schott,” Alex furrows her brow at him, and he tastes a gigantic gulp.

“Can you tell her, Alex?”

Alex heart breaks and she sips at her coffee and she almost reaches out to touch his face. Almost.

“Winn’s dad called him tonight. And he’s… he’s in prison – for um – ”

“He’s the Toyman,” Winn supplies quickly, like ripping off a bandaid, leaning over Alex to get his coffee so he doesn’t have to meet Maggie’s eyes.

But Maggie just nods and puts her hand on his knee and urges him to take another donut.

“I figured, Winn. I just – it’s not mine to bring up if you don’t wanna talk about it.”

Alex and Winn both turn to Maggie with looks of identical shock.

“Detective, guys. It’s kind of my job. And it’s not like your names aren’t, you know, the same.”

Winn casts his eyes down and digs into a jelly-filled.

“Funny thing, though. Because the names are the same, but the people are so different,” she continues, softly, softly, and Winn looks up at her with wide eyes and a set jaw.

“That’s not what he says. He says we’re the same. He said it when he escaped, and he said it again in the voicemail he left tonight.”

Alex does reach out to touch his face this time, briefly, softly, and Maggie smiles sadly across the bed at her girlfriend.

“Well, my dad says the reason he was willing to forcibly deport thousands of innocent people is me.”

“And mine says I’m a disgusting disgrace and selfish and am going to hell and he never wants to see me again.”

Alex exhales with tears in her eyes and Winn turns to Maggie with a furrowed brow, concern and sadness all over his face.

Maggie tilts her coffee cup toward his in salute, and offers simply, by way of explanation, “Lesbian.”

“Maggie, I… I didn’t know. I’m… I’m so sorry.”

“Well hey, dysfunctional, abusive relationships with fathers’ club in this bed tonight. At least there’s donuts, right?”

Winn smiles and leans to put his head on Maggie’s shoulder, and Alex wishes it were game night, not comfort night, so she could take a picture.

“Invite Kara and James with their dead dads and we’ll have a real party,” Winn deadpans from Maggie’s shoulder, and Alex tosses her arm around him, her fingers playing on the back of Maggie’s neck.

“You’re nothing like your dad, Winn. Nothing. And even if… even if you have those things inside you, it’s the choices, you know, that you make. And you’ve chosen to… to save the world, dude, not destroy it.”

Winn sighs and sits up, grabbing a third donut from the box at Maggie’s feet, biting into it and offering the rest to Alex miserably. She accepts and keeps her arm steady around his shoulders.

“How can you be sure?”

Alex sighs and chews thoughtfully.

“You know, Kara didn’t really have a lot of friends. Growing up. She was the weird kid, the freak who never quite fit in. People always took advantage of how kind she is, how… how amazing she is. And then she interviewed at CatCo, and she met you, and you know when she first told me about you, about this IT guy who takes her to lunch and explains all of Cat Grant’s idiosyncracies so she doesn’t get fired, and laughs at her terrible jokes and makes terrible jokes of his own, and has toys all over his desk and stammers when he gets nervous but always, always stands up for her when people try to dismiss her as incompetent just because she’s… well, Kara… I was suspicious of you. I… I didn’t trust it. You. I thought you just wanted her, that you wanted to use her for something, that you were making fun of her. But the stories never stopped. The stories about how good you were to her. And then I met you, and you… you were real. You just… you just really cared for her. And then she started dating the only other friend you had and you just… you took care of yourself, and then you just… you kept caring. You’re rare, Winn. You… you saw Kara. You always saw her. So no. You’re nothing like your dad. Because you see goodness in the world and you’re not threatened by it, you don’t want to destroy it, you just want to make more goodness yourself.”

“Alex, I – ”

“No, nope, don’t say anything. I’ve just fulfilled my yearly quota of being nice to you, so really, you don’t wanna push it.”

“I was just gonna tell you that you have some powdered sugar on your lip.”

“I can get that for you, babe – ”

“God, guys, I’m right – ow, Maggie, that’s my foot – it – okay – I’ll just… I’ll be on the other side of your inexplicably massive bed…”

“Winn.”

“Mmhmm.”

“I love you. Okay?”

“I love you too, Alex. I love you too.”

“Aww, guys, you’re so sweet!”

“If anyone at the DEO finds out about this, I swear to god, Sawyer – ”

“What are you gonna do, babe, threaten me with your index finger? Cause that’s not a threat – ”

“Oh my god, why are you both like this?”

“Oh Alex, come on. Look at my puppy eyes! And your woman’s dimples! You love us!”

Winn activates his best puppy eyes and Maggie flashes her biggest smile, and Alex, for once in her life, is defenseless and feels amazing about it.

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.”