585. Chapter 585

He’ll need her to go through basic training. He makes that very clear.

He’ll need her to go through basic, and advanced tactical, and strategic planning.

But he’d like her to consider working for the DEO. Not full time.

He knows how much she loves her job.

But Kara does it.

They both lower their eyes at that, at the mention of Kara.

He wants to know what she thinks.

“I’d be honored, sir. Absolutely honored,” is her response, and the corners of his lips turn upward.

“Excellent. I’ll have Pam from HR get in touch with you regarding the details.” He stands and offers to shake her hand. She takes it, but gently, hesitantly.

He furrows his brow.

“Was there something else, Detective?” he asks, and he feels her nerves. Feels how strongly she’s thinking about Alex.

He desperately hopes those thoughts aren’t about the… things… they were doing in the armory this morning, that he overheard Winn and Vasquez teasing Alex about.

“Yes sir, I… um… can we… can we sit? Again?”

He’s never heard Maggie Sawyer stumble over her words – he reserves that for Agent Schott, the youngest Danvers girl, and the eldest (only when, of course, she’s talking about Maggie) – and he sits with his level of confusion rising.

J’onn gestures for her to continue.

She gulps.

“I’ve been meaning to… I…” She looks down at the table in front of her and something steels behind her eyes.

He wonders how Alex ever managed to get this woman’s defenses down enough for them to love each other so much.

Then again, if anyone could do the impossible – and have the impossible done to her – it’s Alex Danvers.

“After the invasion, Alex asked me to marry her. I know she’s told you, and I know… I know this might be old fashioned, or misogynist, or… I don’t know. I know Alex doesn’t need anyone’s permission to do anything, but I also know that Alex thinks of you like a father. Like her father. And I’m going to call Eliza tonight, but I… I said yes. To Alex. But I wanted to make sure… that that’s okay with you. As… as her father. And if it’s not, I wanted to ask if there’s anything you think I can do, to be… more worthy. Of her.”

There’s a long silence, and for a moment, Maggie’s mind screams so loudly about her own father – about his love, then his hatred, his rage, his rejection – that J’onn almost goes to embrace her, to fight away her demons. To tell her that she’s becoming a daughter to him, too.

That she doesn’t have to have no father. Not anymore.

“Maggie,” he begins after a long, long moment. “I watched Alex grow up. For her father. And you’re right. I love her like she’s my daughter. I always want to protect her. Like she’s my own. It started as a promise to her father, but it became… something else. And in all those years watching over her – and then, in all her years at the DEO – I’d never seen her like she is with you. I’d never heard her… giggle.”

He allows himself to smile, and he covers Maggie’s hand with his own when he finds her fighting off tears.

“Except when she was with Kara, but that… it’s not the same. It’s not less, or more, but it is different. With you… Maggie, if anyone is worthy of loving Alex Danvers, it’s you. I’m honored that you asked, and I… yes. Yes, of course. Just you never stop loving her as well as you do right now. Because I am nearly as strong as Supergirl, and she is my daughter.”

He tries and fails to look stern.

She tries and fails to banish tears from her eyes.

And when he hugs her, she nearly breaks.

Because he hugged her after… after. But it wasn’t like this.

It wasn’t just the two of them, and it wasn’t in the pure relief that their Alex was alive, was safe.

This… this is like being hugged by a father.

And she never, ever, ever wants to let go.