The loud, incessant buzzing of a phone on the nightstand made Alex Danvers crack her eyes open weakly. She was a light sleeper – she had to be, in her line of work – but being called in the middle of the night usually never meant good news.

She swatted at the nightstand blindly, knocking over a water bottle on the way, to try and stop the buzzing as soon as possible. Finally finding her phone, she moved up to lean on her right elbow, answering the call without bothering to check caller ID. She knew who it was.

"Agent Danvers."

"Alex, I need you to come in. We have three aliens that need to be processed and put into holding." J'onn. Alex sighed, his words entering her brain. "Okay, give me… Give me 15 minutes."

"Make it 30. They're coming at 4. Make sure you're here by then, that's all." J'onn disconnected the call, and Alex looked at the time on her phone. 3:21.

"Everything okay?" Came the rough and thick with sleep voice from her girlfriend next to her, as Maggie turned over to lie down on her right side, a worried look on her face. Alex craned her neck to look at her and smiled weakly. "It's nothing. Just work."

"Do you have to go?"

Alex leaned forward, kissing Maggie on the cheek. "It won't take long. Go back to sleep."

"Mhmm…" Maggie grunted. "You sure?"

"Positive. I love you."

Alex heard Maggie mumble the replied 'love you too' as she grabbed her DEO uniform and headed for her bathroom. Within minutes, she emerged fully dressed, and grabbed her gun from her safe, and her keys off the table.

After that, she was on her way to work.


It had surprised Alex that she'd been called in for processing alien prisoners. It wasn't that she was above it, or arrogant enough to believe that she was better than simple low-life thugs. But it was near 4 am, and she honestly just wondered why J'onn would drag her out of bed for it.

Unless there was more to it than he'd let on.

As she rushed into the DEO, she noticed Kara, in civilian clothes, leaning over the DEO command centre table. That threw her off completely; Kara would never be called in unless there was something serious going on.

"Hey…" She greeted her sister with a nod. "What's going on?"

Kara shrugged. "J'onn called me in, I don't know what's going on. Something about alien prisoners."

"Yeah, he told me the same thing." Alex frowned.

The blonde focused on something behind her, and raised an eyebrow. "Guess we're about to find out."

Alex turned around to see J'onn coming down the stairs carrying a folder, and looking grim. "Alex. Kara."

"What's going on?" The agent stepped forward, not one for wasting time circling around the subject.

J'onn threw the folder onto the table. "A few hours ago, we finally managed to track down those alien smugglers we've been looking for. We raided their safehouse, and we got three of them."

"The others got away?" Kara asked, browsing through the folder. J'onn folded his arms and shrugged. "We don't know how many there were in the first place, but we were outnumbered. These three gave themselves up."

"They turned themselves in?" Alex narrowed her eyes. "That's suspicious."

"Exactly." J'onn nodded. "They're planning something. I want the both of you to help escort them, in case they try something."

"Yeah, of course." Kara nodded. "Where are they?"

"They should be coming in any second now." J'onn said. Alex, in the meantime, had something else on her mind. "J'onn, can I talk to you for a second?"

Kara walked away quickly, heading to the entrance of the building to intercept the prisoners, probably. As Alex turned to her boss with a raised eyebrow. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"Why wasn't I in on the raid? Why wasn't Supergirl?!" Alex was pissed. "How can I be the last one to know!"

J'onn looked unfazed, but confused as to why she made a point out of it. "Raids and ops happen all the time, Alex. You're not part of all of our operations, what are you talking about?"

"I've been helping track down that smuggling gang for a week now, and you know it! Why didn't you let me help you then, instead of calling me in at half past three in the morning to make sure they get locked up safely?! How is that my job?!"

"Agent Danvers, stand down." J'onn didn't like to use authority when it came to Alex, but sometimes there just wasn't another way. "I still decide who I take and who I leave behind."

"I'm your second-in-command." Alex shot back. "You owe me an explanation!"

"I don't owe you anything, Alex." J'onn shook his head. "I'm still your boss."

Alex chuckled weakly, and glared at him. "You know what? Good talk."

"You're not coming in tomorrow."

"Fine." She hissed through her teeth as she walked away, met with Kara and about five DEO agents on call, carrying three rough-looking, almost biker-like aliens. They weren't causing any trouble, but they looked less than enthusiastic to be there.

"Hey, pretty girl." The larger one of the three hissed towards Alex. "You'd have made a fortune."

"Sucks to be you." Alex didn't look impressed at all, as she followed the group, heading towards the prison cells.

"What about her?" One of the other two looked at his friend, motioning to Kara. "Not the most attractive one, but at least she doesn't have two heads."

Kara – a now offended scowl plastered on her face – pushed him with a little more force than necessary. The guy flew forward, landing face first on the ground. "Keep it moving, idiots."

Alex heard the other two aliens mutter to one another, before the DEO agents pulled them apart. "No talking! Break it up!"

She was pretty sure she saw them smirking at each other, before the three of them were dropped in separate cells on other sides of the block, and locked up.

"Well, that was an anti-climax." Kara sighed. "I can't believe he pulled me out of bed for that. He knew I had to get up early for work tomorrow."

"Tell me about it." Alex tried not to think about J'onn's betrayal. "Well, guess I'm headed back home, then."

"I'll fly you." Kara said. "It's on route to the diner, I'm going to get a scone and some coffee."

Alex smiled, and wrapped an arm around her sister, pulling her out of the building.

Neither of them saw the concerned look J'onn was shooting them.


Alex usually insisted that if Kara dropped her off, she'd do it in an alley near her building, so that nobody would see her at her apartment. It wasn't so much as a concern for herself, more one for both Kara and Maggie, the people that she cared about. She didn't want the wrong people to know too much about them. The less anyone knew, the better.

So she headed up the stairs, shoving her key into her front door lock and twisting it.

She didn't expect Maggie to sit at the table, drinking a coffee and reading through one of her case files.

"Hey?" Alex asked, frowning at her appearance. "Why are you up? It's four in the morning."

"Mhm." A non-answer. Maggie looked up. "I couldn't go back to sleep."

"Not because of me, right?" Alex closed the door behind her, and walked over to her, to greet her with a kiss. The detective smiled. "Well, I mean, not not because of you. But I wasn't worried. I just missed you."

Alex took a seat next to her, pouring herself a cup of coffee too. Maggie eyed her cautiously. "Rough night?"

"Tell me about it." She took big gulp of way too bitter coffee – how could Maggie even drink that – and sighed. "J'onn didn't tell me about a raid on that alien smuggler safehouse."

Maggie winced. Alex had mentioned the DEO looking for the smuggler gang, and she was right on top of it. "Why would he do that?"

"I don't know." Alex shrugged. "I guess he just didn't want me there. Kara wasn't in on it either."

"Well, I mean, he probably has a reason for it. And maybe, even if he doesn't… Maybe he's just looking out for you? You can't be in on every single operation the DEO has, that's madness."

"But this one was mine, Mags." Alex looked down. "You know what? It doesn't even matter. I don't even want to talk about it, he told me not to come in today."

"Ouch. Anything I can do to help…?" Maggie tried.

Alex smiled weakly at the warming gesture, and shrugged. "I don't know, I guess I'm just going to go for a run."

"Right now?" Maggie frowned. "Shouldn't you get some more sleep first?"

"Nah. I'll be fine." Alex dismissed her girlfriend's concern quickly.

"At least take your gun. I know you like running through the shady parts of town."

Alex laughed. "Why don't you just come along, then?"

Maggie opened her mouth, a million protests on her mind, but settled on a nod. "Fine. Let me go change."

Alex waited patiently for Maggie to put on her running gear, and they both headed out into the night. Alex went for a run every morning, and she usually did 5 miles, but because she knew that Maggie wasn't a runner at all, she decided to take her out to the docks, where they had a nice view of the early red sky morning as they jogged through the streets.

"How… much… further...?" She heard Maggie's strained voice next to her, and turned her head to see Maggie pull out one of her headphones and look at her.

She checked her watch. "We've already done three miles, two more."

She laughed as she heard a few expletives being thrown around – in more than one language – and noticed how adorable Maggie looked when flustered. How hot.

"Come on, Sawyer. Don't fall asleep on me. We'll get pizza for dinner."

Maggie's eyes lit up at the promise and put her earbuds back in, and Alex swore she felt her speed up slightly. Maggie Sawyer was a sucker for pizza, that much she knew.

When the detective ran past her to get a head start, Alex laughed and let her go, wondering how long it would take to slow down again in absolute exhaustion.

But before she could open her mouth to throw out a sarcastic remark, she heard the screeching of tires behind her. A black car was speeding through the street, and swerving dangerously.

Alex was alerted immediately as he neared them way too quickly, seeing as how Maggie was oblivious to the situation around her, the music still blasting through her headphones. "Maggie?!"

The detective didn't respond, and the car was close to them, swerving into the sidewalk dangerously. Alex raced forward, but Maggie turned around just in time to react on instinct, trying to jump away from the car by diving to the ground.

Alex couldn't see, as the car sped past them, and the second she lost track of Maggie, her heart stopped.

She sighed in relief when the car drove past them, and her eyes finally settled on Maggie's form, lying on the ground. She raced towards her, checking her for injuries. "Maggie?! Are you hurt? Did he get you?!"

"I'm fine!" Maggie snapped loose, too pissed to listen to whatever Alex was saying. "What the hell is that guy's problem?!"

Alex looked at the car, trying to see the license plate, but it was too far away to tell. She knew that Maggie obviously had every right to be angry at the driver, but as long as she was okay, Alex honestly didn't care about it. "You sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, Alex. I'm okay." Maggie sighed, trying to calm herself down.

She was about to pat some dirt off her pants when they heard more screeching tires.

Looking up just in time to see the black car that had nearly hit Maggie swerve away from the road, trying to avoid colliding with another car.

And plunge right into the river next to them.

"Shit…" Alex heard Maggie curse next to her, as she got to her feet quickly, racing towards the scene. Alex was right behind her. "Hey, wait! What are you doing?!"

"I have to help!"

Of course. Leave it to Maggie to try and help a guy that just nearly ran her over. "Mags, no, you can't just jump in, you don't know how deep it is!"

"Call 911. Get help." The detective ignored her, tossing Alex her phone and taking off her shoes and socks. "Every second we wait is a second he's losing air."

"Mag-…" Alex tried for the last time, but without another word Maggie dove into the water near the wreck of the car.

Her first thought was that the water was freezing cold. She couldn't think, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't do anything but wince, and try to swim towards the now submerged car.

The windows were open, and Maggie's heart jumped.

Instead of finding a teen, or maybe a shady looking drunk guy, she saw a neatly dressed man, sitting next to a woman in the passenger seat that had to be his wife.

With two unconscious, injured kids in the back.

Maggie tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. She was running out of air, the run before had already taken a toll on her physique. But she had to help.

As she snaked her hand through the cracked driver seat window, trying to reach for the door handle from the inside, she felt a hand on her biceps.

She turned around to see the man, eyes open and scared. She tried to motion to him that he needed to calm down. That she was a police officer. That he and his family would be okay.

He reached down between his legs and pulled a knife. For a second, Maggie sighed in relief, knowing that he was going to cut his seatbelt to liberate himself from the wreck.

She didn't expect him to plunge it into her arm.