440. Chapter 440

She notices the moment she walks back into the DEO.

Of course she notices.

Their thoughts are practically screaming, and she makes a note to ask J’onn how the hell he’s been dealing with hearing all this from his daughter these last few months.

Hell, she’s surprised she hasn’t heard their thoughts from Mars.

Alex and Maggie’s.

Both mostly, if she’s being honest, Maggie’s.

Because she’s more attuned to Maggie’s thought-processes, more attuned to Maggie’s idiocyncracies.

Alex was family, but Maggie was both family and old friend.

So she notices the moment she walks back into the DEO – how deeply in love they are.

When she left, it had had all the trappings of the beginnings of love, the buds, the seeds.

And now?

Now, it nearly defined both of their existences.

“Maggie,” she calls, because she’s drawn to her thoughts, so of course she sees her first.

Maggie rips off Winn’s headset and passes it to Vasquez, giving her quick instructions to keep the EMTs, NCPD, and fire department apprised of where they’re most needed, and she jogs straight into M'gann’s arms.

“I missed you,” she tells her, and god, does she mean it.

“We talked on video just last week,” M'gann contorts, but she hugs her closer, hugs her tighter, all the same.

“Well we don’t all have Martian lifespans and eternal patient,” Maggie teases, and M'gann laughs as she pulls back, as she cups Maggie’s cheeks in her hands.

“You look like you’re holding up,” she says, all the things she has to say, has to ask, about last week, about Rick Malverne and Alex and that damn cage, just barely dripping from the surface of her words.

“I am,” Maggie nods. “I have to be.”

“No, you don’t,” M'gann offers, and Maggie sighs.

“I missed you,” she repeats, and M'gann grins.

“You think very loudly,” she changes the subject, and Maggie blushes.

“I’m sure you think very loudly about a certain DEO Director, too – not mine, yours – it’s not my fault I can’t read minds,” Maggie counters.

“Or that you think loudly.”

“I mean, have you seen her? You’d think loudly too,” Maggie raises her voice slightly so Alex can hear her, so Alex can sidle over to them, a small, somewhat embarrassed but extremely pleased grin on her face. She pulls M'gann into a hug and Maggie positively beams.