"Sawyer," Maggie barked into her phone.
Alex eyed her anxiously. She knew how tense Maggie had been over the past few weeks. Maggie was heading a task force to crack a child trafficking ring that was being run by Tenkmab, one of the worst escapees from Fort Rozz. They had already arrested many of those involved, but Tenkmab was still missing – and more importantly, so were several children. They weren't even sure how many he held, but they knew it was at least ten.
So Maggie was on edge at every moment, and nothing Alex had been able to do had eased her anxiety. Alex both loved and hated that side of Maggie. She loved that her heart was so big, but she hated that she was suffering. But she knew that it was Maggie's loving heart that had made her fall in love with her, so quickly and so completely.
Alex saw Maggie nod. "I'll be right there," Maggie said shortly, and hung up the phone. She looked over at Alex. "They've found them," Maggie was proud that her voice sounded strong.
"Need me to go with you?" Alex asked.
Maggie shook her head. "No. You're needed here," she gestured over to the test tubes in the lab. "The team's all geared up."
Alex always hated it when Maggie went out on mission without her – she knew Maggie felt the same when she went out without Maggie. But it was the nature of the job, they both had to do what was best for the DEO. She touched Maggie's hand gently, and nodded understandingly. "Love you," she said softly.
"Back atcha, Danvers," Maggie tried to keep her tone light.
The scene that greeted Maggie was so much worse than she had expected. The room was full of terrified children – all girls. They looked to her to range in age from about 11 to 16. And then she saw her, right at the back. A tiny girl, dressed in torn jeans and t-shirt. She couldn't have been more than four. She was thin, too thin for a child that age. And she was pale, and dirty. But it was the look on her face that drew Maggie instantly to her. She was clearly petrified, but she had a defiant air to her.
The expression on her face reminded her so much of Alex when she was being stubborn, Maggie almost laughed. But there was nothing amusing about what she saw.
Slowly, the members of Maggie's team approached the children, trying to keep them calm, telling them that they were all safe now. Blankets were passed out, bottles of water shared around. "We're going to take you all away from here," Maggie had to raise her voice to be heard above the cries of anguish, the weeping, the sobs of relief she heard. "It's over. You're safe now."
She had to keep her emotions in check as she watched approvingly as her staff kindly shepherded the children into waiting vans. And she saw one of her favourite people, Steve, approach the small child, and she was glad. Steve was unfailingly kind and gentle. So she was surprised when the child backed away, looking more frightened than before.
"It's okay, little one," he said softly.
The girl started to scream, and pressed herself against the back wall of the grimy room.
Steve looked at Maggie. He didn't know what to do.
"You'd better leave," Maggie said softly. "I've got this."
The girl's body language relaxed infinitesimally when he left the room. "It's just us now, sweetie," Maggie said. She approached, but didn't get too close. "Okay if I sit here?"
The girl didn't object, so Maggie slid down the wall, and sat next to her, a couple of feet between them. She looked more closely. The tiny girl hugged her knees, and shook slightly. Maggie had thought it was only fear, but now that she was close, she could see a sheen of sweat on her face. "You don't feel so good, huh?"
There was no reply, but the girl did look up and meet Maggie's eyes. "I'm not scared of you," she said, after a few minutes.
Maggie gave her a warm smile. "I'm real pleased to hear that," she said. "You don't need to be scared of me. I'm here to help."
The girl shivered.
Carefully, to avoid startling her, Maggie removed her leather jacket. "You're cold," she said. "Can I put this round you? Warm you up some?"
The girl didn't answer, so Maggie took a chance, smiling as she snuggled into the warm leather.
"I know you don't feel good. I want to take you back with me, we can get you all cleaned up, maybe get you some medicine, fix you right up. Will you let me do that?"
Those brown eyes met hers again, big and trusting. A fat tear slid down the girl's face. She nodded. "You're nice," she said.
Maggie smiled. She stood up, and lifted the child carefully into her arms. Her heart contracted when she felt small arms around her neck. "I've got a real nice girlfriend too. She's super smart, and she's a doctor. We'll get her to have a look at you, and she can make you feel all better, would that be okay?"
She felt a small head nod into her neck.
It was bedlam when they got back to the DEO with all the children. Maggie's team took the rest of them to the medical wing, but Maggie wanted – needed – for this little one to have special care. So she carried her to Alex's lab, and was relieved to find her girlfriend in there, working at her screen.
Alex looked up, every emotion flickering across her face. She loved that Alex was so easy to read – her expressive face could never hide anything from Maggie. And in just a split second, Maggie could read relief, compassion, love and tenderness.
"You have a new patient," Maggie said softly, as she rubbed the girl's back reassuringly. "This is Dr Danvers, sweetie, but you can call her Alex. Alex, this is my new friend. We haven't gotten around to names yet." Maggie had tried several times to get the girl's name, but had not yet succeeded. "But she's not feeling too good, and I told her I had a real smart girlfriend who could help get her to feel better."
Maggie sat on a swivel chair, the girl still in her arms. The girl looked over at Alex.
Alex smiled, and drew up a chair so that she sat very close to them. "Hey," she said. Very gently, she touched the child's face, feeling the fever heating her skin. She stroked her arm. "Maggie's right. We're going to help you feel better. You have a little fever. And I'm guessing your tummy's kinda off too, right?"
The girl nodded, the tears falling anew.
"I think it's the Heilyan Fever," she said to Maggie quietly.
Maggie nodded. Three of the children they had rescued last week had had the fever, and it was brutal. Four days of fever and vomiting, and one of the children had gone into febrile convulsions. But they were all recovering well now. Maggie just hated that this little girl would have to go through it all.
"I just want to be sure what we've got here," Alex was saying to the girl. "So I'm going to take a little blood from you. You'll feel a little scratch, but it won't be too bad, and then it'll all be over. Can you sit still for me?" she was already disinfecting her arm. In her experience, it was best just to take the blood quickly before the child had time to get anxious.
"I'm not scared," the child stuck her chin out defiantly.
Alex smiled. "I can see that. You're a very brave girl. There," she slid the needle out and, before anyone noticed what was happening, gave the girl a quick injection, pressing a gauze pad against her skin. "All done. My brave little June Bug," she smiled.
The child turned and buried her face in Maggie's front.
"What now?" Maggie asked quietly, as she folded her arms around the small, warm body.
"We should really take her to the medical wing," Alex said. She saw Maggie's face. "But I'm guessing you don't want to do that."
"She got real scared of Steve. I think maybe she got hurt by a man. She let me pick her up," Maggie knew she wasn't making much sense.
"I'll talk to J'onn. Tell her we're going to take care of her in my quarters," Alex made a decision. She saw the look of relief on Maggie's face. She kissed Maggie very softly. "Are you okay, sweetheart?"
Maggie nodded, finding herself unable to speak. She had always found the cases with kids the hardest.
Maggie loved Alex's quarters at the DEO. They were plain – a double bed, a small couch and a small en-suite shower room. But the nights that they had spent there, wrapped in each other's arms, usually too exhausted to drive home, had always felt like home. She always felt at home in Alex's arms.
The only personalization that Alex had added to the room was a framed photo of Maggie. It was one that Kara had snapped at the bar. Maggie hadn't known the photo was being taken, and it captured a look of such happiness that it always filled Alex with joy to look at it.
Maggie sat on the bed, still holding the child. Alex unpacked the medical supplies that she had brought along with her, and she slipped the thermometer into the girl's ear. She frowned when she read it.
"Let's get you cleaned up and into bed," she said. The girl let out a deep moan. Just in time, Alex pushed a basin up against her chin, catching a torrent of vomit. Maggie held her tenderly as she threw up again and again, her distress increasing.
Once the retching had calmed, with Alex's help Maggie got undressed to just her boxers and a singlet, and they peeled the filthy clothes off the girl. Maggie stood under the warm shower until the girl was finally clean. She passed her to Alex, who took her back to the bedroom, and dressed her quickly in one of her own t-shirts while Maggie changed into dry clothes. Her heart broke when she saw deep scarring on the child's back, which was not fully healed. "It's okay, little June Bug," Alex whispered, holding her close. "We're going to take care of you."
Through trial and error, Alex and Maggie found that the nausea was worse if the girl lay flat, so they took turns to cradle her, finding that she was most comfortable with her head nestled in the crook of Maggie or Alex's neck.
Her fever raged for nearly three days, and Alex had to set up a drip to stop her getting dehydrated. But she was affectionate to both of them, snuggling in tight, and letting them comfort her. She – and they – never slept for more than an hour at a time, and she threw up nearly every time she woke.
Both women were exhausted – mentally and physically – by the time the child finally fell into a fitful sleep, her fever broken.
On the fourth day, Alex left Maggie and the child, snuggled together in the bed, while she went in search of J'onn. She wanted to know who had done this to an innocent child. Heilyan Fever was not something that you could catch, but was a pathogen that had been developed to deliberately disable an enemy. Somebody had purposely infected this girl – who was little more than a baby.
Alex's head was swimming by the time she absorbed everything that J'onn had to tell her. She learned that these trafficked children were being sold off to service men of the worst type in the galaxy. She also learned that the child had been infected, along with her 19-year-old mother, who had steadfastly refused to co-operate with the evil plans that the men had for her, and had continually tried to escape.
The worst thing, though, and something that made Alex light-headed to even think about it, was that the child's mother had been viciously beaten to death, in front of her. According to one of the other children, she had flung herself over her mother, to try to protect her, and she was whipped, causing the scarring on her back.
Alex didn't know how she was going to break all this to Maggie. Maggie liked to think of herself as a tough cop – and she was tough, and strong, and brave. But she was a marshmallow inside, and this would tear her up. She wiped the tears from her eyes, washed her face, and went back to her quarters. She kicked off her shoes and her pants, and slid into bed, the child between her and Maggie. She smiled as she looked over at the girl's face, now finally free of that terrible fever. She was so tiny, so innocent. So trusting, Alex realized, as her hand reached out even in her sleep to grab Alex's t-shirt. "We'll take care of you, little Bug," she whispered quietly. "You'll never suffer like that again."