620. Chapter 620

Alex understands why Kara and J’onn can’t be at the shower.

And Maggie understands why Alex keeps checking her phone, to make sure there are no urgent updates from the DEO.

To make sure her sister and her father aren’t coming home from Mars in pieces.

Hell, Maggie keeps checking her phone, too, because they’re family now, aren’t they?

They understand why two of their most important family members can’t be there, so they try not to talk about how sad it makes them both.

They don’t expect to get another shower in its stead.

This time, with everyone.

With J’onn and Kara and – somehow – J’onn’s father, and Lena, and Lucy.

They don’t expect Eliza to do another round of cooking and Winn and James to do another round of cleaning and they don’t expect another round of gifts, but that’s exactly what they get.

It’s exactly what they get when Maggie is a wreck and her eyes are swollen and the only reason they’re even at Kara’s apartment to begin with is because they wanted to pick up their gifts as a way to try to cheer themselves up. Because they thought it would be empty, not brimming with people who love them.

People who wrap their arms around Maggie and tell her that she’s loved, that she’s good enough, that she’s wanted.

“You are our family, and we’re yours,” J’onn tells her, and she hugs him long and hard, because he found his family today, but he also lost it again, and she can’t imagine what it feels like for him. But in her own way, she did, too.

He seems to understand her meaning, and he hugs her all the deeper in response.

“Congratulations, Maggie. You finally found a keeper,” M’gann wraps her arms around her, and when Maggie and Alex both stammer that she’s too busy for wedding showers, she laughs and she smiles and she shakes them off.

“I’m fighting for a life where we can be at peace and have happiness with our families. And this is mine,” she gestures around the room, and Maggie sinks back into her arms with a warmth born of too many long nights drinking together, sharing stories and sharing pain, sharing joys and sharing dreams.

And now, sharing this party. Together.

M’yrnn turns out to be an incredible storyteller.

Which works well, because somehow they feel like a more ebullient party would be a bit much for the older man after hundreds of years of isolation.

So they listen to his stories, and Alex holds J’onn’s hand, and he squeezes hers, and M’yrnn thanks her for taking such wonderful care of his son all these years.

M’gann leans into Alex and kisses her cheek. Alex blushes and Maggie smirks.

“Sir, may I ask you a question?” Winn asks, partially because he’s been barely keeping it in this whole time, and partially to spare Alex the experience of crying in front of everyone.

“Of course, young man,” M’yrnn answers, and J’onn groans, because he’s pretty sure he can guess what’s coming.

His guess is accurate.

“What was J’onn like? As a boy? It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, obviously – “

“No, no, not at all,” a smile spreads across his face, and J’onn glares teasingly at Winn while James hands him another beer. “This celebration is about these two fine ladies, however, so I want to make sure these are stories they want to hear before launching into – “

“Yes, please.”

“Absolutely, yes please, sir.”

M’yrnn laughs for the first time in hundreds of years, and the sound nearly makes J’onn weep.

Alex holds his hand and James puts an arm around his shoulder and Winn puts his palm to his own mouth and Kara holds J’onn’s other hand.

“J’onn was a mischievous boy,” M’yrnn tells them, and Alex and Winn whoop while Kara giggles into Lena’s shoulder, under the observant eyes of Eliza, and James exchanges wagging eyebrows with Maggie and Lucy.

“Were you now?” M’gann flirts, and J’onn buries his face in his hands in mock displeasure.

He weaves stories for them of J’onn’s rebellious streak as a young boy and as an adolescent; of the ways he always tried to shirk his responsibilities and run off with his friends; the ways he learned to psychically project his presence in his room at night while meanwhile he was out exploring the mountains; the ways his mind was always in the stars rather than his education.

They laugh and they spill beer and J’onn doesn’t stop smiling once, even after his face starts to hurt from the intensity of it.

Winn sidles up to Maggie in the kitchen as she’s pouring Eliza another glass of wine, as she’s getting Alex another beer.

“My favorite pool shark,” he greets, the laughter of their family so close behind them, warming them both, buoying them against their demons.

“My favorite undertrained DEO agent,” Maggie teases, and clinks her beer bottle against his with a twisted grin.

“So, J’onn’s dad, huh?” Winn asks, and they lean against the counter as they watch him. As they watch their families.

“Yeah.”

“Seems to be getting along with his son after a couple centuries better than your dad’s getting along with you after a couple decades,” Winn offers, and there’s only empathy in his voice.

Maggie stiffens, and Winn holds his arm up. “Okay?” he asks, and when she nods, he puts his arm around her shoulder.

“I don’t know how much Alex has told you. About… about my dad.”

“Winn, I’m a homicide detective,” Maggie reminds him, but it’s gentle, and it’s sensitive, and it’s loving.

“Right,” he sighs. “Listen, he… he has a way with words. I heard your dad does, too. Makes it so he sounds both horribly deluded but also possibly right at the same time. Like, he’ll point out structural problems with the world, and he’s so right. It’s just… it’s just that the conclusions he comes to are terrible. Sometimes, they’re… they’re inhuman.”

Maggie nods quietly, looking up at Winn like she’s never quite seen him before.

“I know you don’t like talking about yourself. And no, Alex didn’t have to tell me that, I can just… I can tell. But I… look, I can’t imagine what you went through, but I… I wasn’t a wanted kid, either. My parents… I wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough to keep my father from becoming a killer, and I wasn’t enough to keep my mother around. So I know you don’t like to talk, but if you ever want to just… be… with someone who maybe understands, just a little bit… I’m here.”

There’s a long pause as they watch M’gann lean in to kiss J’onn, as Kara blushes and beams and looks away and James and Alex slap an excited five. They both have faint smiles on their faces, and they’re both here and decades away.

“You’re a good egg, Schott,” Maggie tells him, and he squeezes her closer to him gently.

“I learn from the best, Sawyer,” he grins, and he hesitates for a moment before kissing her cheek.

“We’re gonna go back to the party now and pretend this moment never happened, aren’t we?” he asks.

“What moment?” she winks.

And they do go back to the party.

But they don’t pretend the moment ever happened.

It was too valuable for that, and they both know it.

So they cherish it instead. They build on it instead.

As a family.