422. Chapter 422

She’d been a fan of Leslie Willis’s show.

Of course she had been. The girl was queer as fuck and had absolutely no reverence to speak of.

But Cat Grant?

Maggie was quite a bit more than a fan.

Meeting James Olsen – becoming friends with James Olsen – was one thing.

She’d admired him and she’d studied his techniques and she’d spent hours pouring over his photographs, but that was nothing like this.

That had nothing of a sexual layer.

But this?

She would feel bad about it – being turned on when she gets back to base, back to their bar, to find Cat Grant calling Winn Winslow and calling the president (damn, damn, the president) Olivia – but one glance at Alex tells her that her girlfriend is in a similar boat.

She smirks because she knows that look – Alex’s gay panic look.

That look of sudden comprehension, of holy shit that’s what that feeling was, of holy shit I really am super gay, aren’t I?

She runs to Alex – runs to her, because she was just in a war zone, and seeing someone she fangirls and crushes over is one thing, but the arms of her beloved are quite another – and suddenly no one else is in the bar, no one else is in the world.

Because Alex is breathing out her name and Maggie is breathing in Alex’s breath and their lips are parted and their hands are grasping for skin, grasping for a pulse, grasping for life, because they’re both alive, both safe, both here.

The Queen of All Media clears her throat, and when Alex and Maggie separate their lips and press their foreheads together breathlessly, they’re both blushing deeply.

“Cat,” Alex clears her throat, finding the taste of her little sister’s old boss new and different in her mouth. “This is my girlfriend, Maggie Sawyer.”

“NCPD, Science Divison,” Maggie sticks out her hand. “It’s an honor to meet you, ma’am.”

Cat’s eyes travel up and down Maggie’s war-stained body, lingering on the badge on her hip, on the slight bulge where she’s keeping an extra gun.

“Well I should certainly hope she’s your girlfriend, Agent Danvers; we can’t have random women running in off the streets to our dive bar resistance cell just to make out with one of our leaders and make off with our plans for revolution, now can we?”

A smile is playing on her lips, and she takes in the way Alex’s hands have yet to leave Maggie’s body, the way Maggie’s hands are still grasping at Alex’s to make sure she’s here, to make sure she’s alive, safe. Breathing.

“And where have you been, Detective?” she wants to know, although she has a fairly good idea.

“Guardian and I were evacuating the elementary school, Ms. Grant. The kids and their teachers are all safe in a bunker,” she turns to update Alex, who nods and sends a quick message over a walkie to her agents to tell them to make sure that bunker stays secure.

“Well, you certainly do choose your company well, Alex,” Cat grins elusively, and Alex and Maggie both melt more than a little bit inside.

She can’t say the same for Kara.

Not entirely.

Because her so-called boyfriend returns, willingly, without her.

Without her, without her, and Cat knows Alex – and probably Maggie, as well – will destroy him when they get back from wherever that positron cannon contraption is, but Cat also knows that she can’t resist having the first go.

She saunters past an angry-looking Winslow, stilling him with gentle, subtle fingers, and she stops only inches from the Daxamite prince’s body, brushing nonexistent dust off of his shoulders and straightening his shirt like he’s Crater off to the prom.

Except she’ll be proud and bursting with love when she sends Carter off to the prom.

She wants to kill the man she’s grooming now, her eyes studying his wary face.

“You’re Kara’s former boss,” he tells her as if she doesn’t know. “You gave us the distraction we needed to get away from my mother. Thank you.” His voice is light, but he’s frozen in place like he’s terrified of her.

And well he should be.

“Mmmm,” Cat begins, toying with him, because if she doesn’t toy, she’ll resort to cruder tactics. Hell, she might resort to them anyway.

“I did orchestrate a brilliant distraction, didn’t I? A nearly foolproof plan to give you and Lena a chance to get home to safety. And Supergirl, of course. The woman you claim to love.”

She pauses and Winn watches and Kara’s boyfriend gulps.

“What I would like to know – it’s Prince, isn’t it? – is how you can possibly justify leaving her on that spaceship at the mercy of your mother and a very, very desperate plan to save this planet. Oh, wait, I think I know this one. It’s almost as though I’ve seen this on cable television before. Do you have such few qualms about laying waste to this planet and enslaving the people your mother doesn’t kill because that system worked so well for you back home? And I’m not sure what kinds of numbers you had to pull on that woman to make her forget who she is, how strong she is, how worth it she is – god knows, I’ve been away too long – but I’m back now, my dear, and I assure you, we will repair the damage you’ve done. All of it.”

He jumps at a sudden burst of solemn applause from the corner of the bar, and he and Cat and Winn turn as one to see Alex and Maggie, soberly reveling in the wake of another needed Cat speech.

“I will end you if anything happens to her because you left her up there,” Alex crosses the room and slams him with ease into the nearest wall.

“Whoa,” Winn calls, and Maggie takes one of Alex’s arms and Cat the other, both of their other hands on either of Alex’s hips.

“There will be more than ample time for that once we get her back safe, Alex,” Cat reminds her, and Alex trembles, and she slams him hard into the wall again before letting him drop unceremoniously to the ground.

“I take it you have a plan,” Cat turns to Alex bracingly, Maggie desperately blocking out any fantasies that might be tempted to spring into her mind, into her body.

“Maggie and I have the start of one, yeah. But it’s gonna involve all of us.”