577. Chapter 577

It was usually Adrian that brought kids who needed validation home to Maggie and Alex.

That day, it was Kara.

That day, it was Kara because there was an attack on National City High and one of the girls who was injured – not seriously, thanks to Supergirl – begged, begged, begged for the medics not to call her parents.

Supergirl eyed her and swooped in just as the medics were trying to insist that regulations mandated them to let her parents know.

“Maybe I can talk to her for a moment?” Kara had asked, her voice low in her Supergirl capacity.

And when the girl – Leslie, her name was – whispered to Supergirl why she didn’t want the medics to call her parents, Supergirl nodded and asked her if she’d like a hug.

She did.

“But I’m really going to need you to get that cut on your arm looked at,” she’d told her. “I can have a few friends of mine look at it and fix you right back up, if that’s okay.”

It was.

So she took her to the DEO, and J’onn’s potential rage about Kara bringing an unvetted child into the facility without anyone’s permission simmered to nothing when Kara just widened her eyes at him. He nodded, frowned, crossed his arms over his chest, and bent slightly, remembering what it was to have a daughter who was significantly shorter than him, and trying not to.

“Did Supergirl tell you that this is a top secret place, and you can’t tell anyone its location?”

Leslie nodded. “I know a thing or two about secrets,” she murmured, and he glanced at her stiff collared shirt and at the barrette in her short hair, and he nodded.

“Well, I have a doctor here that’s very good at listening to secrets,” he told her.

“That’s what Supergirl said!” Leslie perked up, like she was just realizing that Supergirl had just flown her somewhere, that Supergirl was talking to her, helping her, introducing her to her friends.

And as if on cue, Alex strode out of the med bay, lab coat on, brisk walking, head turning, I-have-somewhere-to-be-right-now stride on.

“Leslie? Hi. I’m Doctor Danvers. I hear you’ve got something you need stitched up.”

Leslie held up her arm and Alex bent to examine it keenly.

“Alright, that shouldn’t be too hard. Do you want to come to the med bay with me?”

Leslie glanced at Supergirl, who nodded down at her. “Doctor Danvers is the absolute best there is, Leslie. She’ll take really great care of you. And I’ll be right out here when you’re ready, okay?”

Leslie nodded as she followed Alex.

“Danvers!” A low shout from down the hall made them both turn, and Alex broke into a wide smile.

“Hey, babe.”

Leslie’s eyes flew wide.

“I got Supergirl’s text, she said – oh, hey, you must be Leslie. Nice to meet you, I’m Maggie.”

Leslie blinked with an emotion she didn’t know how to articulate, but she thought it might have something to do with introducing herself to one person – Supergirl – as her real self, as Leslie, and then having the three people she met next – big, important people, it seemed like – all automatically call her by that name, no questions asked and no sarcasm or cruelty to be found.

“She’s my girlfriend.”

“Fiancee, Danvers, or did I miss something?” Maggie teased.

Alex beamed and bounced on the balls of her feet. Leslie marveled at the transformation. “Nope, I just like hearing you correct me.”

“Nerd.”

Leslie’s eyes traveled between them with awe and with admiration and with something that looked an awful lot like longing.

Alex giggled before sobering and led the two of them into the med bay, where she prepped Leslie for stitches.

“So,” she asked conversationally as Maggie watched her work, as Leslie held on tight to the stuffed animal that Maggie passed her. “Supergirl tells me you didn’t want the medics on site to call your parents. Even though something really awful just happened. Everything okay at home?”

Alex flinched at her own lack of finesse, but Leslie didn’t seem to notice.

“Yeah. No. I just… Doctor Danvers, are you gay?”

Alex laughed, but Maggie laughed so hard she nearly toppled a set of microscope slides off the table nearby.

“Sorry, I’m so sorry, Leslie, it’s a good question, an important one. I just… yes, I’m a lesbian. I didn’t realize until I met Maggie, and that was… kind of a big thing for us, so that’s why we’re laughing. Why Maggie’s… still laughing, apparently. Why do you ask?”

“I think I’m gay.”

“Well there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that,” Maggie sobered enough to say earnestly.

“But the thing is, I’m not gay as in I like boys. People call me gay because I like to be more feminine. But I don’t like boys. I like girls. But people think I’m a boy. But…”

“But they’re wrong,” Alex supplied softly, casually, as she stitched Leslie up.

She nodded, and so did Maggie, slowly, supportively.

“So I’m a girl. And I like girls. I think my parents would be okay if I was a boy and liked boys. I think they’d get used to it. But I don’t know… I’m a girl. So I’m a lesbian, but also… well… a girl. It’s the girl part I just don’t… I don’t know how to tell them. That part. The girl part. That I’m a girl. And I… I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this, I don’t know you, I – “

“Hey, hey, you’re okay. You’re not doing anything wrong,” Alex reminded her, and Maggie had never been so in love.

“But how do I…”

“Tell them?”

Leslie nodded, her eyes transfixed on the small stitches Alex was making in her arm.

“You might wanna be a doctor when you grow up, Leslie, the way you can watch me stitch you up like that,” Alex grinned approvingly before Maggie started answering.

“Well, how do you communicate with them best? Like, are you the serious talks type of family, or the texting type, or maybe joking around? When do they hear you best?”

Leslie gave a dry laugh. “When I cry.”

“Yeah, sometimes we do that when we come out,” Maggie murmured, and Alex resisted the urge to pull her into her arms.

“I guess sometimes they interrupt me. Like, when I try to tell them something that’s important to me, if it makes them uncomfortable, they like, try to talk about what’s on TV or something. So maybe writing them something. Because then they won’t interrupt me.”

“What do you think you’d want to say?” Alex asked, careful to keep her tone casual.

“That I love them. That there’s nothing wrong with how they raised me, that there’s nothing wrong with… with me being a girl. That I’ve sort of always known I wasn’t a boy, but I didn’t know I was a girl until I realized I could be. That I want them to know because I want them to know all of me. That they’re not losing a son, that I’m still their same child and I still like the same things, I’m just their daughter now. That I love them and I need them to love me. As a girl. With my name. Because they raised a great daughter, even if they didn’t know they were doing it. And I want them to be proud of themselves that they raised such a badass girl, and I want them to be proud of me because I am that badass girl. I… yeah. That stuff. I’d want to tell them that stuff.”

Leslie sniffled and she trembled while Alex and Maggie fought to keep their own eyes dry.

“You said that really beautifully, Leslie,” Maggie told her, and she made a mental note to pick up three dozen donuts for Kara as a thank you for doing this.

“Do you want us to help you write it down before you go back to school?” Alex asked, and Leslie lit up like she was on top of the world.

“Yes, please,” she beamed, and when J’onn and Kara peaked in a half hour later, they’d never seen so much giddy joy in the med bay.