618. Chapter 618
She didn’t want to wake her.
She didn’t want to wake her, but she’s not entirely surprised when she turns to find Alex sitting up, watching her with a look in her eyes that’s a cross between heartbroken and proud and in love.
She didn’t want to wake her, but she’s privately relieved and glad that she did.
Because when she crawls back into bed, Alex opens her arms.
She opens her arms and she lets Maggie fall into them, more exhausted than she would be after running a marathon, after an intense gym session with James, after a seventeen hour hostage negotiation.
Because those things, she’s trained for as an adult.
This?
This, she’s been waiting to do since she was a child.
“Why did I do that?” she asks, not for the first time, as Alex cradles her while somehow managing to make her feel strong, to make her feel powerful.
To make her feel brave instead of like she’s crawling back to the man who’s caused her so much pain.
To make her feel courageous instead of like she’s pathetic and a waste of life and just… a shame.
And, sure enough, the words out of Alex’s mouth are what she needs to hear.
“Because you’re brave. You’re brave and you’re kind and you are so damn beautiful, Maggie Sawyer.”
Maggie lifts her head from Alex’s chest to squint up at her face.
“Not so sure my looks had anything to do with calling my father there, Danvers.”
Alex mock glares before kissing Maggie’s face. Everywhere, everywhere.
“On the inside, Sawyer. You’re beautiful the way… the way a nebula’s beautiful.”
“Explain,” Maggie murmurs as she settles deeper into Alex’s arms.
“From the outside, it looks just… just breathtaking, and perfect, and gorgeous.” Alex lets her eyes drift over Maggie’s body, and she licks her lips absently. Soft heat shoots through Maggie’s core, and she relishes the way Alex’s fingers feel on her bare skin.
“But on the inside, nebulae are… they’re burning and they’re hotter than fire and they’re full of the kinds of explosions we can barely imagine. But they’re still… gorgeous. And they’re where stars are born. Which is all I ever see in your eyes, Maggie Sawyer.”
“DEO Agent Alex Danvers. My poet,” Maggie kisses her stomach, and Alex giggles, but her eyes are serious.
“It’s true, Maggie. All that fire in you? It’s forged the most beautiful things. And you don’t… I’m not saying it’s good, that you went through it. I’m not trying to… to erase that pain, like your parents…”
“Erased me,” she says, and her voice is small, and it wavers, and it’s strong.
Alex kisses her softly as an answer.
“But Maggie, you… you’re incredible. That you’ve come out of all that, as kind as you are, as sensitive, as… as generous as you are?”
“You’re the only woman who’s ever called me those things, Danvers.”
“Well, those other women clearly didn’t deserve you,” Alex deadpans, and Maggie chuckles.
“And I’ll be here, Maggie. However he responds, or not. I will be here. You were ride or die with me and my dad. And I… I’m ride or die with you and yours. But Maggie, I also… I want to be ride and live, with you. Because we have too much to do together for that whole die part. Okay?”
There’s a long silence and their heartbeats sync.
“I love you, Alex Danvers,” Maggie tells her, because there’s never been anything truer in her entire life.
“And I love you, Maggie Sawyer,” Alex kisses her, slow and deep and steady, because there’s never been anything more perfect in hers.