496. Chapter 496
He stumbles and he slurs slightly, but he actually sinks a shot instead of catapulting the cue ball across the bar.
Maggie’s not sure quite how Winn is a better pool player – a safer pool player – when he’s drunk, and if she’s being honest with herself, she’s not quite sure how she wound up in this situation.
Alone with her girlfriend’s brother, in their bar, him so drunk he’s starting to squint every time he tries to focus his eyes on her face.
Kara and Lena had gone home early to… Maggie smirks at the look of pleased horror – pleased because her sister is so happy with Lena, horrified because she’s not trying to think about her sister getting laid – on Alex’s face as they left the bar hand in hand, lips on lips.
James and Alex had departed soon thereafter, just to take a stroll and to talk, probably, about Kara, about Lucy, about love lost and friendships solidified.
And now?
Now, Winn is tossing his hand up for a sloppy high five after he dimly registers that he actually sunk the nine ball.
He stumbles with the force of his own attempt at celebration, and Maggie catches him by the chest.
“Whoa there, buddy,” she grins softly, soothingly, setting him back on his feet and keeping her hands on his shoulders until he stops swaying.
“Hey, you saved me!” he exclaims, excitement flowing over his face. “You know, not everybody can say that their favorite pool shark makes a living out of saving people! Because that’s what you do, Sawyer, you know?”
He squints as he tries to make eye contact with Maggie, and when he succeeds, he claps his hand on her shoulder.
“You’re a good egg, Sawyer,” he tells her, not for the first time.
Maggie laughs lightly and shakes her head, putting her hand on his.
“You’re drunk,” she dismisses him, and he shakes his head so intensely that he almost falls over again.
Maggie arches an eyebrow as she stares up at him, steadying him.
“I’m not – I mean, it would appear – “
“Mmhmm,” Maggie teases, skepticism all over her face, and Winn tosses his hands up haphazardly and leans heavily on the side of the pool table.
“Okay! Okay, fine, maybe – maybe I’m just a liiiiitle bit drunk. But J’onn says I don’t have to work in the morning – you ever thought about how that sounds like mourning – but you can’t tell when I say it out loud, only if I add the u in writing – you know Kara used to have so much trouble with spelling, a Kryptonian type of dyslexia, you know, yeah, you do know, I remember we were talking about it, and don’t tell her – don’t tell her, Maggie, okay? – but now she can spell even better than me, and I won the spelling bee every year in middle school!”
He straightens up when he says this last bit, both pride in himself and in his best friend, and Maggie smiles and pulls up a stool, pool forgotten.
“That so?” she encourages him while hailing Darla for water.
Winn nods earnestly.
“Kara says that Alex won all the science competitions in middle school. And high school. And college. She probably won a science competition as an infant.”
He chuckles at his own joke, and Maggie nods her thanks at Darla while maneuvering the glass into Winn’s hand.
“You know Alex… Alex Danvers. You know, she used to actually scare me? Like, not in a sister way, but like, actually. Because she could kill people, and she did, she does.”
His face goes sober for a moment before he shakes his ears out like he has water in them and carries on, sipping on his water between sentences.
“But then Kara was attacked. By the Black Mercy. You know the Black Mercy? I mean, not personally – I’m glad you don’t, those things are hell, who would want to know a Black Mercy personally? I guess that makes them lonely, though, poor things… but Alex fought to get us into the DEO. James and me. With Kara. To take care of her. Do you know this story? Did Alex tell you?”
He leans forward to clap his hand on Maggie’s shoulder again and he splatters them both with his water.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Maggie, I’m sorry, I – “
“Hey, dude, it’s fine, you’re fine, it’s just water, I’ll get you more – “
“See? I told you you’re a good egg, Sawyer.”
“Not so bad yourself, Schott.”
Winn shakes his head, pain flickering behind his eyes before he forces it out with the earnesty of what he wants to tell Maggie. What he needs to tell Maggie.
“No, but Alex doesn’t talk enough about herself. About the good things she does. I’m worried she doesn’t tell you. Because Kara isn’t the only superhero Danvers girl, you know? I mean, I know you know. Have you seen the way you look at her? I guess that would be hard, to see… but James takes pictures! So you can see it. So I know you know she’s a superhero!”
He points seriously at her with his index finger, and she can’t help but chuckle.
“Yes, Winn, I know I’m dating a superhero. I’m the luckiest woman alive.”
“See, but that’s exactly… that’s exactly my point, Sawyer! No, no, don’t shake your head, don’t do that! I mean, you can do what you want, it’s your body, your head, but I mean, no, it’s important! Alex… she was different before you, she… she didn’t laugh like that. She never giggled. I mean, don’t… don’t tell her that I’ve seen her giggle, she’ll kill me…”
He smiles, and leans his head forward onto Maggie’s shoulder.
“But in a sister way. Because you know, I’ve been bullied before. Hit before.”
He tugs his head with a great heave off her shoulder so he can look her in the face.
“By my foster siblings. Called me gay, called me a geek. I didn’t know how to tell them I wasn’t gay, I was bi. Am bi. Like the Nsync song, right? Bi bi bi… no? Kara loves it. Oooh, we should perform it at the next karaoke night! But see, that’s the thing they wouldn’t like. The things they’d hit me for, yell at me for. I don’t like yelling.”
He squints across into Maggie’s eyes, and she knows just what he means.
“But Alex? Alex – did she tell you she keeps extra food for me in the DEO? Because she knows Kara’s not the only one who gets hungry all the time? And did she tell you she comes over at night sometimes, when Kara’s out Supergirling and my dad calls from prison? She comes over with James, and they both take care of me until I fall asleep. She takes me out every year on his birthday, on the anniversary of the day he was arrested. I don’t know how she knows those things – probably DEO files – but she remembers. Every year. She’s my sister, Sawyer, you know? So when I say you’re a good egg… Really, I’m saying thank you. For being you. Because Alex deserves a good man in a storm. And you are, Sawyer. That’s you.”
Maggie licks her lips and swallows her tears. She realizes with a jolt that his hand is on her thigh, that her hand is on top of his.
She realizes with a jolt that she’s never been alone with a drunk white man and felt… safe. Felt happy.
Felt… family.
So when Alex and James come back from their walk, she waves them off when they offer to take him off her hands.
She hugs James and she kisses Alex – makes out with her, really, her tender and passionate and perfect, because she didn’t know the stories Winn told her, and god, she loves her, she loves her, she loves her – and she holds Winn steady on the walk to her car.
When he wakes up on her bed, a banana and aspirin and water beside him, Maggie on the floor next to the bed, he groans and he smiles and he speaks in a groggy, groggy voice.
“I could’ve taken the floor, Sawyer,” he murmurs, and he smiles blearily when he hears her hum in acknowledgement.
“I wanted you to be comfortable, Schott,” she protests, and he pats the bed next to him clumsily.
“You can be comfortable too, Maggie. If you’re comfortable.”
“I didn’t want to violate your space,” Maggie says groggily as she pulls herself up from the floor.
“Get in here, Sawyer. What are siblings for, right?”
Maggie smiles with tears in her eyes that she doesn’t even bother trying to hide. She hops onto the mattress next to him, and grins as she lets herself shift back to sleep.
“You’re a good egg, Maggie,” Winn mutters as he drifts back into sweet unconsciousness.
Maggie sighs happily and lets her body relax.
She’s safe with her brother-in-law. Her brother.
Safe and very, very happy.
“You’re a good egg, too, Schott.”