478. Chapter 478

She watches her sister throw her arms around this woman – this new woman. This new woman who seems sweet, who seems to really like Alex – maybe even love her – but she rejected her before she embraced her, and she made Alex cry.

Kara is forgiving, perhaps to a fault.

But she doesn’t easily forgive people who’ve made her sister cry.

And Maggie Sawyer has made her sister cry.

Worse, she’s made her sister doubt herself.

Doubt who she is.

To be fair, she’d also been the reason Alex was discovering who she is. But Kara isn’t dwelling on that part right now.

Right now, Kara is dwelling on the part where her sister is parting her lips and opening her heart to a woman who’s made her cry, and it makes Kara feel lonely. It makes Kara feel jealous.

More to the point?

It makes Kara feel terrified.

Because if she needs one thing on this planet – in this universe – she needs her sister.

And Maggie might just be the one who takes her away.

So Kara stabs at the ice in her glass of club soda with her straw, and she sighs, and she lowers her eyes so she doesn’t have to see anymore.

But she can still hear Alex’s racing heart, and she can still hear them laughing in between kisses.

She sighs, and then she jumps.

Because she knows the rhythm of the heartbeat suddenly standing next to hers.

“This seat taken?” a voice that always surprises her with how high, how thin, how soft it is, asks.

“Sara!” Kara stands, nearly spilling her club soda down her front, and not caring in the least. She tosses her arms around the smaller woman, who laughs even as she breathes the wind back into her lungs.

“Cisco told me you were upset last time you guys talked. He figured I might wanna come over here and scope things out. See if you require the services of a time traveling, international assassin.”

“You’re not an assassin, Sara,” Kara corrects gently, and Sara raises her eyebrows in a sigh as they both sit down, knees touching, bodies automatically leaning into each other.

“And you don’t always have to pretend you’re okay,” Sara chides, gesturing to M’gann for a double shot of tequila.

“I take it this won’t have any effect on you?” she grins, holding her shot glass up for a toast after thanking M’gann and tossing her a wink.

“None at all,” Kara sighs, clinking her club soda glass to Sara’s shot glass.

She downs it in an instant, and Kara licks her lips absently.

“So what’s bothering you, kid?”

Kara’s eyes drift across the bar to her sister, now leaning over Maggie’s bent body, adjusting the pool cue in her hands and whispering something that Kara would really rather not hear in her ear.

“Oof. Which one do you have your eye on? Because both of them are damn fine, I gotta say, you have good taste – “

“What? No, no, Sara, that’s – no, the – the one with the short hair, that’s Alex, that’s my sister.”

Sara’s eyes brighten. “You wanna get with your sister’s girlfriend? Shit, Kara, Cisco called you the right – “

“No! Sara, I don’t want Maggie, I… I miss her. Alex. I miss her.”

Sara sighs, suddenly sober, and she puts a gentle hand on Kara’s knee.

“Wait, no, Sara, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t talk to you about missing sisters, mine is right across the room, I didn’t mean – “

“Hey, no no, Kara, don’t do that to yourself. Laurel…” Sara’s voice cracks. “She’d want nothing more than for me to help you feel better about Alex. I know how much… I know how much you love her.”

Kara nods, putting her hand on Sara’s to squeeze slightly.

“Listen, I don’t know your sister. But I know the way you talk about her. And Kara, it sounds like you two… it sounds like you two are unbreakable. Stronger together, isn’t that what that S means? I feel like that’s your thing. With Alex. You two are stronger together. I know it was like that with my sister. And I don’t want to see you pull away from her because you’re scared to lose her. Because that’s the perfect way to actually lose her.”

“I’m not pulling away – “

“Really? Then why aren’t you playing with them?”

“They need their alone time, I – “

“They came to a bar chock full of people and all their friends. If they needed alone time tonight, they’d be at home. Getting up to… other things.”

“Ah ah ah, okay, enough!”

Sara smirks and Kara adjusts her glasses.

“Should I… ask to play with them? Do you want to meet them?”

Sara grins and winks and stands, offering her hand to Kara’s in a grand, exaggerated gesture.

“I thought you’d never ask.”