724. Chapter 724

She doesn’t think anyone notices – certainly not the kids – the way she bites her lip when the history teacher from the fourth floor pops her head into the Science Office, all the way up on the sixth floor, just to bring her coffee.

“Don’t spill that all over yourself there, Danvers,” Winn smirks from the inner office as Alex blushes at the lab reports she’s supposed to be grading.

“What? Why would I – “ She throws a plush microbe at him when she looks up to catch the look on his face; more specifically, his playfully waggling eyebrows. “Don’t you have something better to do right now, Schott?”

He checks the outer office for lingering students before leaning toward his colleague conspiratorially. “Listen, Danvers, I might be the computer science teacher, not the chem guy, but even I can tell you and Sawyer have ridiculous – “

“Don’t even finish that sentence.”

Alex holds up an index finger with one hand while her other reaches for another microbe – a plushie version of a rotavirus – to toss at him. He relents, but he doesn’t stop smiling.

And, as she goes back to her grading – once she makes sure he’s not looking her way – so does she.

Because, truth be told, Winn has a point about the way Maggie Sawyer makes her feel; the way she can never tell if Maggie’s fingers brush hers when she brings her coffee on purpose, or if it’s her imagination; the way she stammers and blushes when Maggie talks science, talks about the only reason she teaches history, not biology is because she could never get down with the vivisections and such.

It makes Alex swoon.

Everything about her, from the way she always has chalk on her jeans to the way her students seem to adore her, to those belts she wears and those damn button ups and that motorcycle and that little laugh and that tilt of her head and…

“Alex? Alex.”

“Huh?”

“You’re spilling coffee all over your kids’ labs.”

Alex jumps slightly before glaring. “Tell anyone and die, Schott.” She sounds deathly serious, but the fact that she has a standing Thursday night date with Winn and his boyfriend, the art teacher Mr. Olsen, just to kick back and unwind, takes some of the bite out of her tone.

“You should invite her out with us,” he says casually, like he’s reading her mind, as they both rush to soak the coffee out of the lab reports. “It’ll take the pressure off of an official date, and come on, James and I are fun. We’ll show her a great time.”

It turns out, though, that Alex doesn’t have to make a decision about orchestrating a group date with the gorgeous history teacher any time soon: the school makes her decision for her.

She’s irritated when she gets the note in her mailbox – it’s her turn to chaperone one of those overnight junior trips, something about skiing.

She’s irritated and she’s grumbling under her breath about having to miss her weekend with her little sister… until she notices who else in the faculty lounge got a note in their mailbox.

And she promptly trips over her own two feet.

“Ms. Danvers?” one of her favorite students – not that she’s supposed to have favorites, but this boy is an absolute delight – is asking her just a couple of hours after that in the junior Anatomy and Physiology elective. “We… kinda lost you there. You were talking about actin-myosin complexes?”

The boy has a glint in his eye, but it’s not malicious. It’s a little concerned, a little amused, and she appreciates his kindness, and his generosity. Even so, she feels the eyes of all her students on her and she curses herself for letting some silly crush distract her from doing her job.

Dammit.

“Right you are, Adrian, sorry about that. Why don’t you tell us what happens once the calcium ions are released, Mr. Rodriguez?”

The boy sits up straighter in his desk and beams the way he always does when she addresses him as Mr. Rodriguez or sir – something she deliberately avoids doing with most of her other students – and she can’t help but smile.

Maybe, lapse of attention aside, she’s not such a terrible teacher.

She feels it again, though, when – the next weekend – she’s lugging a small duffel bag onto a cheap coach bus that’s just a couple steps up from a cheese bus.

Because usually, Alex Danvers has a presence. But today, for some reason – and maybe it’s the sunglasses and casual National City University hoodie she’s wearing, because hey, they are going on a trip, after all – her students seem to be… giggling. A lot.

At her.

Not that she’s averse to fun in her classroom. To the contrary. Having Kara as a little sister has taught her a lot about creating safe atmospheres for insecure teenagers.

So she’s used to her students giggling. But with her. Not at her.

She doesn’t put the pieces together until Maggie Sawyer rolls up on her motorcycle and Alex’s stomach drops through the pavement.

Because the kids’ giggling increases as Maggie swings her leg off her bike, scans the growing group of students milling around the bus, waves to a cluster of kids that includes Adrian, and walks – struts? – right over to Alex.

“Sorry I couldn’t grab you a coffee today, Danvers. Bike and all,” she grins, shoving one hand deep in her pocket as the other palms her helmet against her hip.

“That’s… it…”

But Alex keeps glancing over Maggie’s shoulder at the giggling students, and Maggie is nothing if not perceptive. She notices and follows Alex gaze, immediately tilting her head and arching an eyebrow.

“Something amusing, Mr. Rodriguez?”

“No, ma’am,” he says with a bright smile and a big wink.

“Cheeky,” Maggie rolls her eyes affectionately and turns back to Alex, who’s still trying to figure out how to breathe.

“Hey,” they hear one of the students whisper-shout with glee, “d’you think the teachers room together on trips like this? Because look at Ms. Sawyer and Ms. Danvers! I mean come on, it’d be perfect!”

Alex blushes and Maggie clears her throat as they both pretend they didn’t hear the kid. Until, that is, it becomes glaringly obvious that they both did.

“Seems we have shippers, Danvers.”

“Shippers.”

Maggie chuckles as she bites her lip. “You have a little sister, and you’re friends with Winn Schott. You know what shipping is.” She tilts her head and glances at Alex’s lips, something that makes her knees nearly give out. “I wonder if we have a ship name.”

“Sanvers,” Adrian coughs into his hand as he strolls past them to load his own duffel into the bottom of the bus.

Alex leans forward with laughter at just the same time as Maggie.

Their eyes meet and Alex smells the coffee and – is it peppermint? – on Maggie’s breath.

“Maybe if we’re lucky, we’ve got budget cuts and have to share a room and can uh… see if our kids are onto something, huh Danvers?” Maggie’s eyes sparkle as Alex’s insides melt.

Well damn.

It’s really going to be a fantastic weekend.