Maggie didn't even realize she was in a trance while watching the wooden spoon stir the boiling noodles until she felt two arms wrap around her waist and a warm nose press against her cheek.
"You're awfully quiet today, Sawyer. What gives?"
Maggie could feel Alex's smile accompanying her soft, raspy tone. "Oh, nothing," she replied, biting her lip with the expectation that Alex would enquire further.
"Whatever." Alex wrapped her arms tighter. "I know how to get answers, Sawyer."
"Mhm, and I know how to give non-answers, Danvers." Maggie turned her face and peaked mischievously at Alex's cheesy smile. "And the pasta's done," she announced, breaking free from Alex's grip.
"Damn the pasta," Alex declared, raising the wooden spoon as if it were a sword.
Her lips posed to one side while she thoughtfully watched Maggie strain the spaghetti noodles. Sometimes Maggie would respond to attentive silence.
Maggie glanced at Alex and crinkled her eyebrows. "And now," she said in an Italian accent, gesturing grandly towards the stove, "you pour the pasta back into the bowl after rinsing."
"Oh, do you?" Alex smirked.
"Sì, il mio fiore maculato."
"Nope, not fair. Me not know Italiano."
"Well, Danvers, you're going to have to learn especially if you want to understand what my aunt will say about you when you meet her next week."
"Well shit, now I'm kind of scared."
Maggie responded with an understanding smile as she mixed the pesto in. "You should be, Danvers."
"Oh, threatening me now, huh?" Alex slinked over to give Maggie a seductive peck on her dimple and pulled back to admire her girl while she lined up a row of cherry tomatoes.
"All yours," Maggie declared, placing the cutting board in front of Alex.
"What, you want me to chop these up?"
"Or just slice them."
"Okay... Bossy Pants."
Maggie cocked an eyebrow as if to own the title.
Alex nervously bit her lip before tepidly slicing the first tomato in half. "So, Maggie..."
"Mhm?" Maggie knew by now that this was Alex's segway into saying something serious or heartfelt. She pretended to focus intently on grading the parmesan cheese.
"I just... I kind of wanna know more."
Maggie focused more intently on the cheese.
"About that whole time... you know. The thing."
"The thing," Maggie repeated as if it was a scientific theory.
"Yeah, I wanna know how... you felt and what you went through. You know? I mean, if you don't wanna talk about it, I totally get it."
Maggie glanced at Alex before stealing her chopped tomatoes to mix into the pasta. She felt a sigh escape. "It just feels kind of weird to talk about, you know?"
"Yeah, I get that."
"I mean, I didn't like, actually talk about it, ever, until... until then. The other night. It's just... weird." Maggie forced a passing smile and stared into her creation.
Alex decided to try a different approach. "So what was your aunt like—living with her? Was she like a crazy cat lady?"
"Pfft, no."
"Was she nice?" Alex asked, following Maggie to the table.
Maggie decided to indulge her. Deep breath. "She was... tolerant."
"Tolerant. Okay, that's...that's..."
"Catholic."
"That's... not what I was gonna say, but..."
"She's Catholic. A good one... unlike my parents." Maggie settled into her chair.
"Oh."
"She thought I could change but also knew that how my parents treated me wasn't right."
"That's, yeah—tolerant. So... how was it at school after your friend..."
Maggie blinked at her plate and poked at her dinner. "After... yeah. It sucked. But that's how I met my first one." There was a bit of a gleam in Maggie's eyes.
"What, your first lesbian?"
"My first alien." Now she had a full-fledged smile.
"In Blue Springs, Nebraska?"
"Yeah! Why not?"
"I dunno, I just felt like questioning the validity of your claim that anyone besides white folks would actually exist in Blue Springs, Nebraska."
"Well be surprised, Danvers, because there were actually a few others like me in that town."
"A few?"
"Yeah! That's actually where meeting the alien comes in. So in middle school, for some reason, most of the girls would sit at five tables at lunchtime and the dudes would sit at five tables. And there were like, twenty African American kids out of a hundred and twenty in the class, a few Latino and Native American kids—they all sat at separate tables from the white kids. It wasn't really personal—on the surface—it's just who we chose to eat lunch with. Things in common and such. So I was pretty quiet and pretty non-white. I didn't really feel like I fit in anywhere. But Eliza Wilke was someone I had things in common with... like Smashing Pumpkins, Led Zeppelin, black eyeliner... and then she outed me."
"I wonder what would make anyone do such an awful thing."
"Well, she had it kind of hard. Not that I want to feel sorry for her. She ended up dating an emo guy after she outed me and then, that summer, she moved out of state. Her parents were in massive debt. They kept moving to dodge the creditors."
"I can't imagine." Alex let out a sigh. "This pesto noodly stuff is amazing, by the way."
"Ah, thank you, Danvers."
"So! Alien."
"Yes! Alien. So, I had to eat lunch by myself after I was outed. Sad, right? But then one day the group of African American girls invited me to eat with them. And then they invited me to sing with them in the music room during recess. They called me after school and would talk for an hour. I didn't say much, 'cause I was so quiet. But they kind of took me under their wing, you know?"
Alex nodded, attentively resting her chin on her hand and feeling secretly smug for finally getting Maggie to talk about herself at length.
"So fast forward to our freshman year of high school—a new kid is in our class which, for Blue Springs, was a pretty big deal. Thing is, she was even more withdrawn than I was. My new found group of friends invited her to hang out, but she just... didn't seem to feel comfortable around people."
"Hm. Intriguing."
"Stories were going around that she was an axe murderer by night or—you know the dumb things kids say. Then one day, I was sprinting up the stairs to get to class on time when I slipped in some fresh puke."
"Ew, gross."
"It was disgusting. So—I had a heavy backpack on, right?"
"Sure."
"So, of course, I go flying backwards full steam ahead. And then , suddenly, I stop in midair and was put down slowly on the landing. Thing is, there was no one around me. It was the weirdest thing. But I looked down and saw Sagrient—that was her name—I saw her running down the last of the stairs and down the hallway."
"Wow, that's crazy. What kind of superpower did she use?"
"I don't know. It seemed to be some sort of magnetic force that she was able to create with her hands and would use to move things or stop them. I haven't completely made sense of it."
"And what happened with the puke? I gotta know."
"Well, my aunt worked during the day and couldn't bring me fresh clothes, so I had to wear my puke-covered pants for the rest of the day—which made me even more popular."
Alex smirked. "That's awful." She was too invested in the story now and loving every minute of it. "So what happened after that?"
"Okay, so Sagrient lived a block away from me. After school, I saw her rounding the corner down her street, and I decided to quietly follow her. Half way down the street, a ring on her finger slipped off and fell on the ground. I saw her lift her hand a little and the ring just flew into it—like her hand was a magnet."
"Whoa."
"Yeah. Up until that point I had only heard of aliens, you know? They were these creatures that hid in dark places, and I was supposed to be afraid of them. But I wasn't afraid of her." Maggie rested her chin on her hand and studied the table as memories started flooding back.
"So, ya talked to her, right?"
"Patience, Danvers. And yes, the next day at school I took the leap and went up to her while she was getting books out of her locker... kind of a spur of the moment decision. All I said was 'hey', and then she took the ring off of her finger and gave it to me.
Alex gasped. "She knew you were following her the day before?"
"Apparently, yeah. The ring she gave me was some sort of metal and had an S engraved on it, which I knew by then was Superman's trademark. She looked at me and didn't have to explain."
"So where did she get the ring?"
"I still don't know. But I understood her, you know? I later figured out that she didn't know English very well. Some of the teachers, who I now suspect might have also been aliens—some of them would work with her after school to catch up. But I think she was really new to Earth and had a hard time adjusting." Maggie paused, allowing the memories to filter back. "One day, I was walking home with my group of friends when two guys from school, JayJay and Riker, came out from behind a car, blocked the sidewalk, and told us that we had to cross the street and use the other sidewalk. When we asked why, they said they didn't want people like us on their side of the street."
"Really?"
"Yup. Of course that was bullshit, so I walked up to JayJay and Riker, looked them dead in the eyes, and told them I would kick their asses if they didn't move."
Alex felt a smile spread across her face. She knew Maggie was born a badass. "You kicked their asses, didn't you?"
"Kind of. They wouldn't move, so I punched Riker in the face. Thought if I took out the big one first then they'd both back off. But then Riker's dad, a former cop who'd been fired six months earlier—he showed up, and all of a sudden I had a gun pointing at me."
"Uh... not cool."
"So my friends stood in front of me and told Mr. Ranger that he'd have to take them out first. To our surprise, he actually shot the gun. I closed my eyes, and I just remember silence. When I opened them again, I saw a bullet in mid-air just suspended in front of me."
"Oh my god, Sagrient."
"Mhm. She was standing in the street, her right hand extended. She moved her hand forward in a quick motion and recepted the bullet. Everyone was shocked, of course. No one could move. She dropped the bullet on the ground, looked at Mr. Ranger and then, with the same motion, pulled the gun from his hand—which made him run for his life."
Alex bounced in her chair and clapped the table. "I have so many questions. This is amazing."
"Hang on, let me finish the story. Then I'll take questions," Maggie chided playfully.
"Did she get caught? She better not get caught, Maggie Sawyer. That would not be an acceptable ending."
"Well that evening, some guys who I now know were DEO, showed up at Sagrient's house. They took her parents but apparently couldn't find her. That night, I heard some noise outside my bedroom window and it was Sagrient. I opened my window and tried to talk to her. The only thing she would say is 'I go.' Her eyes were so sad." The sadness reflected in Maggie's eyes as she remembered. "The DEO was searching the whole city, so she had to leave. I haven't seen her since."
"If the DEO has ever captured her then she should be in our records."
"Or she could still be in hiding... or anywhere."
"I'll get Winn on the case tomorrow and tell him to keep it top secret."
Maggie smiled nervously and bit her lip. "You know, she's kind of the reason I do what I do... seeing her parents get taken away. Seeing people who work for the government take them while Mr. Ranger ended up getting away with everything. It made me realize that we need people in these jobs—people like you in the DEO who actually care and don't just blindly follow orders."
"Well, you're one of the best, Maggie. Supergirl made me care. I guess, in a way, that's who Sagrient was for you."
Maggie nodded in agreement. She thought about the ring with the S engraved on it that was stowed away in the bottom drawer of her jewelry box and marveled at the direction life had taken her.