361. Chapter 361

It’s adorable that they thought they’d be able to keep her in the DEO overnight for observation.

“I was just in a cage for thirty-six hours, and you want to confine me somewhere else?” she asks, and J'onn lets the medics get good and terrified for a few moments for his own amusement – because after this hell, god, he needs some amusement – before clearing his throat and stepping forward and telling them, with as much seriousness as he can muster, that the medics should give the younger Ms. Danvers and Detective Sawyer a full briefing on Agent Danvers’s immediate medical needs before sending her home.

Because if even Maggie couldn’t keep her in bed, heaven help anyone who tries to keep her there overnight.

Especially not for observation.

Maggie drives and Kara lays Alex down in the backseat, her head on her lap.

Maggie looks back at them through the rearview mirror every few seconds.

Partially because it’s a beautiful image, and she wishes she weren’t driving so she could snap a photo.

But mostly, she keeps looking to make sure Alex is still there. Still breathing. Still safe.

They don’t discuss it – they don’t have to – Maggie just drives straight to Alex’s apartment.

Alex shudders as they walk into the front doors, and she nearly vomits when they walk into the elevator, though she tries to hide it.

But she’s with the women who know her best in the world.

So naturally, she’s unsuccessful.

They don’t comment other than to soothe her as she shivers her way up, up, up, until she scrambles off the elevator as quickly as she can.

Maggie doesn’t ask. She doesn’t have to.

She goes into Alex’s apartment first, with Kara holding Alex up at the threshold, and she checks every corner, every crevice, every window, every space.

“Clear,” she says, but soft, soothing, not like she would shout it to other officers on an active scene.

Alex nods and steps forward.

“Of course it is. I’m sorry, I’m being ridiculous.”

“No, Alex, you’re not.”

“No you’re not, babe!”

Alex’s eyes widen, and she looks between her sister and her girlfriend nervously.

But they’re smiling at each other like they’ve been best friends for years, and Alex furrows her brow.

“So a lot happened while I was away, huh?” she asks, looking between them happily, happily, because she’s never seen them get on this well, and it’s that, more than anything, that’s going to heal her.

“Turns out, Kid Danvers and I make a pretty good team.”

“Kid Danvers?” Kara grimaces, but her shining eyes give her away.

“I mean, you said on that other Earth that have Kid Flash, right?”

Kara sets Alex down on the couch and smiles, gesturing at Maggie to sit on Alex’s other side.

They surround her and wrap her with blankets and loving arms.

“So, tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“How my favorite women rescued me.”

Kara and Maggie exchange a glance, and Maggie begins with a tentative voice.

“Well, I might have borrowed your gun at one point…”

They take turns telling Alex of their fights, of their discoveries. Of their breathroughs and of their nightmares.

Maggie jumps in and glosses over the part where Kara caused the water to flood the cage.

She knows Kara’s already told her, already sobbed, already apologized, already begged forgiveness that it never occurred to Alex that she needed to give, but Kara doesn’t need to relive it.

Alex catches it, and Kara catches it, and they’re both grateful for her tact.

“You’re amazing at all this, Maggie,” Kara tells her when they end with finding her, finally, finally, finally.

Maggie shrugs. “Just doing my job.”

“No, but Maggie, Kara’s right. With that hostage thing before I was taken, I mean babe, seventeen entire hours of talking that guy down? That’s incredible. You kept all those people alive for seventeen hours.”

“And then I caused a lot of property damage,” Kara adds sheepishly, but instead of agreeing sternly, Maggie waves her off.

“And figuring out how to talk to Rick, that thing with the security cameras – ”

“It would have worked with a flash grenade, too.”

“Oh my god, Maggie.”

“I’m just saying, Danvers.”

“No, but really, Maggie,” Kara interrupts, because she knows if they restart their debate about why the hell Maggie wants a flash grenade to begin with, they’ll never, ever stop.

“Can you…” She turns bashful again, and Maggie tilts her head curiously.

“What, Kara?”

“Can you… teach me? How to be more… like you? I mean, how to read people like that. How to talk to them. How to… control your anger?”

“Yeah, you have a lot of that, huh Little Danvers?”

Kara hangs her head like she’s embarrassed, ashamed, but Maggie is on her knees in front of her almost instantly.

“Hey, Kara. No, don’t do that, I didn’t mean it like that. Hey, look at me. Kara, he was torturing your sister. He would have killed her. He was taunting you. He was… he was… I can’t describe to you the things I wanted to do to him.”

Alex stares, and Kara stares, and they both know that maybe, just maybe, the three of them are so tightly bonded – even through their strong differences – because the three of them have the same kind of rage at their core.

“But how did you… control it?”

Maggie sighs and bites her lip and stares at something in the distance that isn’t really there.

“Kara, if I didn’t control my anger, I’d be…”

“Angry all the time.” She says it in a soft voice, and Alex takes her sister’s hand, because her too, her too, her too.

“Yeah. I’d be behind bars, not… I just have to keep focused on what’s ahead, not what’s inside, if that makes sense.” She grins slyly and shifts her gaze to Alex. “Yoga helps. That kind of mental discipline. And physical discipline. So does a punching bag. James says you hang up cars sometimes.”

Kara nods and Alex kisses her temple.

“Remember what Cat told you, too,” Alex reminds her softly. “About using it. Your anger.”

“Last time I did that I solar flared.”

“But was she wrong?”

“Ms. Grant is rarely wrong.”

“I’m sure she’d be very pleased to hear you say that.”

Kara grins faintly.

“You look a little woozy, Alex.”

“Well, that’s because I am,” Alex sways slightly in her seat, and Maggie stands at the same time as Kara leans, both of them bracing Alex between them, standing her up and maneuvering her to her bed.

“Stay? Both of you? Please?” she asks, her voice groggy, finally giving out, giving in, now that she’s safe, safe, safe.

“Always, Danvers.”

“Always, Alex,” they say simultaneously, and they grin at their newfound simultaneity, and Alex grins even harder, even as she’s falling fast asleep, because her sister loves her. Her girlfriend loves her. And they’re both here, and they’re both safe, and they love her, they love her, they love her.

And god, does she love them.