599. Chapter 599

There was only one person they ever called from back home. From back in Blue Springs.

But they called him, reliably, every week.

“He was the only other out gay kid in our town,” Maggie had explained to Alex the first time she heard them on the phone, simply, quietly, with a shrug.

Like it wasn’t a big deal.

Like their decades-long friendship wasn’t a big deal.

Like them taking punches for each other and leaving bruises for each other wasn’t a big deal.

He’d come out to them when they were both fifteen, one eye swollen shut and the other eye full of tears.

They’d come out to him when they were both fourteen, when… well, when the whole school, the whole town, found out. So, they hadn’t really had to come out to him, specifically.

Because suddenly, overnight, they were just out to everyone.

But they did have to come out to him later, so much later. About gender. About pronouns. About “you still love me, right, man?”

And he did.

Of course he did.

It took him a minute. Alex told Maggie she could fly down to Blue Springs and beat some sense into him.

She hadn’t had to.

He loved her, more than he loved his own preconceptions about the way the world is.

So it wasn’t his fault, not exactly, when one week they realized they just weren’t connecting the way they used to.

That Maggie’s stories about aliens and death and kidnap and torture just weren’t connecting with his life of beer and pool and work.

“My life is beer and pool and work, too, Tommy,” they’d protested sadly. “Just… a different kind of work.”

They didn’t fight.

Sometimes, Maggie wished they had.

Instead, they just… fizzled.

After all this time, after all these years, the past wasn’t enough to keep them in each other’s present, to launch them into each other’s futures.

“And it’s okay,” they told Alex one night, but their knuckles were red from their heavy bag and their eyes were glistening with unshed tears, because no, no, it was was not okay.

“It’s whatever, you know? I’m dealing with it, I just… it’s like I don’t have any pieces left. Of that part of my life. You know?”

Alex kissed their forehead and thought of Kara; she thought of Kara and of Clark and of Lena. She thought of watching the people she loved lose their pasts so quickly, so deeply, so harshly.

Tears stung her eyes.

“Yeah. I do. And I know… I know it’s not the same, and I know it’s not enough. But those pieces aren’t gone, Mags. They’re still in you.”

Maggie put their index finger under their bottom lip and shook their head. “But maybe not, I mean… your memories aren’t just yours, right? Other people have memories, too. Of course. And sometimes, other people’s memories become your own because that’s… well, that’s what history is, isn’t it? And I guess… I feel like without him, I don’t… I don’t have any of it. Not anymore, not even a little piece.”

“I’m so sorry,” Alex whispered, because there was nothing else. She kissed them and she held them and she fed them vegan ice cream. She licked a bit of melted ice cream off their bottom lip, and she made them smile.

It made Alex’s heart sing.

“I know you don’t like it. Talking about yourself. But, if you want… and I know it’ll never be the same… you can talk to me. About Blue Springs. I know you do, in bits and pieces, but… when Kara got here, she’d… she would tell me everything, like she was vomiting an encyclopedia, so she wouldn’t be the only one left who… remembered.”

“You don’t wanna hear my Blue Springs sob stories, Danvers,” Maggie sniffled, apologetically trying to wipe tears and snot off Alex’s shirt.

Alex stopped them with gentle hands and even gentler eyes. “I do. Always. And… losing a friend? It’s like mourning. Even if they’re still out there in the world, all well and fine, it’s… it’s like mourning. You can mourn, Mags. With me. And… and there’s a reason people tell stories, when they mourn. You know?”

“To break the awkward silence after a funeral?” Maggie offered dryly, and Alex rolled her eyes and kissed Maggie’s nose.

“To process, babe. And I’m here, okay? For whatever mourning or processing or celebrating you need to do. Okay?”

Maggie’s eyes softened under Alex’s tender gaze.

“Does that include feeding me more vegan ice cream?”

Alex smiled, and Maggie’s lips twitched upward, too.

“Always.”