Waiting Hands on Eyes
Alex's breath caught as Earth came into focus on the viewport. Earth. That perfect little crystal ball of blue and green. Her home. She'd been away for far too long.
23 months, 12 days and 2 hours. Give or take.
Her crew went through the motions of pulling the ship into atmo, of radioing into the DEO on their approach, of directing course for the desert that once held an intergalactic prison. Alex answered questions on auto-pilot, her thoughts focused internally.
On the bond.
The bond that she could feel beginning to thrum just beneath the surface of her skin the moment they broke into Earth's atmosphere. Her thoughts took on an almost singular focus even as she felt warmth bloom inside at hearing J'onn greet them on the comms. Even as she was told Kara would be meeting them with the team to process Alex's crew.
J'onn didn't stay on the comm for longer than was required, something Alex was extremely grateful for. Several minutes later they touched down. The moment the ship stopped moving Alex gave the commands to her crew. Lyra stepping up in her role of First Mate as Alex headed for the hatch.
She couldn't help but hold her breath as it opened.
For a moment the light was blinding. Stepping down anyways Alex was nearly overwhelmed by the oppressive heat of the desert after being inside a climate controlled ship for months on end. But then her eyes finished adjusting to the light and she saw her.
Supergirl.
Kara.
Her sister.
"K-" Alex barely managed the first syllable before she found a sobbing Kryptonian hugging her.
"You're okay. You're okay. I've been so worried. But you did it. You made it back. You-"
Kara cut herself off. While she'd been talking Alex had hugged her sister back, tightening her embrace as much as she could. Kara must have noticed the difference in strength between her forearms.
"Kara." Alex's voice was soft, controlled.
"Alex you-" Kara broke the embrace, stepping back to fully taking in Alex. To take in the undercut of her hair, the foreign armor across her torso, the metal where her right forearm used to be. "Your-"
"Shhh Kara. It's okay. I'm okay." Alex reached out to cup Kara's face with the metal hand. The movement was projected, deliberated, done to prove her point. Tears welled up from Kara's eyes and ran over metal fingers.
A blink and Kara was hugging her again.
Alex leaned into the embrace, savoring it. She only allowed herself a few moments this time before she pulled back. Looking into Kara's eyes she asked the question that had been consuming nearly all of her attention since the moment she felt it.
"What happened?"
What happened to cause the ache under her skin? To cause the hollowed feeling of emptiness, of being incomplete when that very ache told her they were both alive.
It was Kara's turn to dismiss the topic.
"Alex-"
"No Kara. I can feel it. Something changed." Pain fills Kara's gaze and it does nothing to abate the growing fear in Alex's gut.
"I'll explain, I promise. Just- Let's get your crew squared away first okay?" Kara looks over he shoulder and gestures at the DEO agents clustered several paces away from the sisters. Now two of the group approaches. Glancing them over Alex notes the patches for the Delta and Echo Teams.
They'd been rookie teams when Alex had left, all green, barely out of Intro. Alex couldn't remember anything else about them beyond Vas complaining about one of them getting distracted by a crush. And now they were senior teams deemed experienced enough to greet Alex and a ship full of aliens.
Something inside Alex clenched tight. For a moment it felt like she couldn't breath, before she shook herself and focused on the task at hand.
The sooner she got her crew sorted the sooner she could see them.
"Agents." She nodded. They nodded back, uttering soft "Agent Danvers" in greeting.
Shifting sightly, the title feeling almost wishful after so long, Alex began giving a break down of what her crew would need to transition off the ship. How some were willing to man the ship and return it to orbit as the DEO worked to get everything else settled. How they would need help getting the civilians who first came from earth resettled, but how the new crew members were still uncertain about staying.
How if any threat came to her crew Alex had no issue telling them to abandon the DEO and leave, go somewhere else and tell others to stay away from Earth.
Out of the corner of her eye Alex saw Kara wince, but she didn't protest Alex's assumption that something might happen. The reaction alone clued Alex in on just how bad it might have gotten recently. Just how much had she missed?
23 months, 12 days and 6 hours.
Turning her head back towards the hatch Alex nodded. A moment later three of her crew stepped down. Her Crew Chiefs.
Each had earned their place at the top of Alex's crew for good reason, and Alex had no issue trusting the rest of her people to their care. After all, she did it every single time she'd been off ship for some harebrained mission or another over the last year plus since she'd met them.
Turning forward again Alex introduced them.
"These are Jax, T'kav, and Imgxiong. They serve as my Crew Chiefs and ensure all my people are cared for. They will ensure you know the needs and wishes of each member of my crew. My First Mate - Lyra - is manning the ship while I'm gone. If you have any questions these three can't answer - which I don't expect you to - she can answer them in my stead."
Turning from the two agents who were a mix between impressed and nervous Alex fixed her stare on Kara.
"Now Kara. Please."
The itch under her skin had only been growing since she stepped foot outside the ship. Alex could only imagine what her mates must be feeling. She wondered what it is they could be doing that was keeping them from seeing her first.
Maggie paced and paced and paced. Back and forth. Up and down the corridor that lead from the main access point they had set up for Kara after the first few times she'd smashed through the ceiling instead of bothering with the long tunnels the rest of them had to walk down.
She knew the ship had landed. She knew Alex was here, on Earth. Finally.
She knew by the growing itch under her skin that Alex was rapidly moving closer.
Kara must be flying her.
Dread built in Maggie's stomach as she fought to keep her nerves under control. As she tried not to think about why she so strained in the first place. A cough from behind her had Maggie whirling, hand automatically going for a weapon she wasn't currently carrying.
She couldn't carry a weapon with her where she'd be taking Alex.
Vas stared at her, a mix of amusement and worry showing through in their expression and body language.
"We're ready when you are ma'am. Any word on when they'll get here?" Maggie released a long exhale, wiping sweaty palms on her jeans.
"Soon. She's close. Likely any minute."
Vasquez nodded before casually leaning against the wall and beginning to mess with the tablet they'd brought with. Maggie felt some of her worry drain knowing Vas was nearby, ready to assist if Maggie needed help with the explanation.
Her heart leapt into her throat at the sound of the door opening.
Kara landed in her normal flurry of red and wind, the reinforced pad giving just slightly as it was designed in order to absorb the impact.
And in her arms was- was-
Was Alex.
Hair buzzed except for one section on top which was slicked back. Armor some mix of metal plates and skin tight clothing Maggie just knew would be made from a material she'd never heard of and stronger than any she had.
Then Alex was standing and thanking Kara and turning to Maggie and this time Maggie really did think her heart might have stopped, might have skipped a beat.
Some of the itching in her veins settled the moment they made eye contact.
Maggie could feel the bond between them relaxing slightly. Still burning, still aching for that contact to re-establish itself after nearly two years, but it was settling now that they were only a few paces apart.
Even when they touched however, Maggie knew it still wouldn't be enough for the itch to fade completely.
Not yet.
Not without-.
"Maggie."
Alex breathed her name like a prayer and oh, Maggie's knees may have gone a little weak when combined with that gaze which seemed to be devouring her and savoring her all at once.
"Where is she?"
All the euphoria in her veins immediately froze.
Maggie broke eye contact. The burning intensity of Alex's gaze suddenly too much. She couldn't handle the weight of it knowing what had happened. Knowing that Alex had only just gotten back and this was supposed to be a celebration, supposed to be an amazing moment - a reunion.
And it would have been.
If the attack three days ago had been any different.
It had been a celebration when they learned Alex's ship was finally in the galaxy, and then finally at the edge of their little solar system. They'd been counting down the days until she'd get here.
But their enemies had been counting down as well, for a completely different reason.
"There was an attack. An attempted jail break. They needed the new moon for their weapons. It was bad. Half the command center collapsed. We got some of them but their weapons - the ones that needed the new moon. We've never seen anything like it before and she- she-"
Cold metal brushed against the underside of her chin and Maggie flinched even though the touch was gentle. Her eyes widened as they followed the metal fingers down to the metal elbow up to the human torso it was attached to.
Alex's torso.
Alex had a metal arm.
How had Maggie not-
Her thoughts were cut off as Alex gently raised her chin until their gazed met once more and - oh. That was how. Because Maggie had been too busy staring in Alex's eyes to notice anything else about the woman.
"Maggie." Alex's voice was soft, gentle, "I know. Kara told me on the way over. Where is she? Please?"
Maggie blinked. Swallowed. Nodded just slightly into Alex's hand.
For the first time she noticed the tear tracks staining Alex's face.
"This way."
There was a burning in her veins that Lucy couldn't explain. An itching, aching, longing that she didn't know the origin of. It had started several hours ago and only grown stronger and stronger since then.
Logically she knew what it must be. She had read the stories about mates being reunited after long periods of time or great trauma. How the bond just knows when the reunion is close and seems to urge those on either side to hurry it up.
But despite knowing this Lucy simply couldn't accept it.
She'd never met her mate. Surely she'd remember if she had.
And that, was the crux of the problem.
Lucy simply couldn't remember.
She'd woken up three days ago half pinned under a support beam and several other chunks of debris to a female sounding voice yelling into a radio that "Director Lane" was down from a direct hit. The voice had proceeded to ask several questions directed at Lucy upon noticing Lucy was awake, but had stopped the moment Lucy asks the first thing on her mind.
"Who are you?"
Looking back Lucy realized she probably should have tried to remember her training, taken in more of her surroundings before giving away she had no idea where she was or what she was doing there. But there was nothing that could be done about it now.
Looking around her rather sparse room Lucy couldn't help the sigh that escaped her.
The Agent Vasquez had been noticeably upset as they worked to free Lucy from were she was trapped, as they tried to explain that Lucy was in a place called the DEO, that she was one of their Directors. That there had been a prison break and the aliens who'd attacked had some sort of weapon they hadn't figured out yet but that apparently erased the targets memory up to a certain point in time.
After three days they still hadn't figured out what determined the stop point for the erasing either.
But they had an idea. Only one other thing they knew of could affect a person's memory that dramatically. Contact with your soulmate.
The next time Lucy had woken up she'd been in what was clearly a medical ward. She was in a bed in a clean set of clothes with bandages in several places and the smell of antiseptic in her nose. The only noise in the room was the beeping of machines attached to the few other patients there with her.
Glancing around she hadn't been able to figure out what had awoken her until noise caught her attention at the same time shadows moved along the wall by the door.
Muffled voices arguing.
"You can't st-"
"Mags listen she doesn't-"
"-y soulmate! We already know the mem-"
"-yes but yours won't work! Not without-"
"I don't care!"
Moments later the door had opened and Lucy's breath had caught. A woman, gorgeous with her curly hair, sharp eyes and rich skin tone. A woman heading straight towards her with a determined look in her eyes.
Mentally Lucy had begun to panic only for her panic to grind to a halt the moment the woman's hand grabbed hers.
Lucy hadn't even noticed the itch that had been under her skin until it faded with the stranger's touch.
And that was all that had happened.
In that hospital bed Lucy had braced for the flood of images the stories always said came upon first contact with a mate after a long time apart. For the overwhelming wave of everything that her mate had experienced to be crammed into her brain in the space of a few seconds.
But it never came.
The itching never entirely left either, just faded into the background, like a slight discomfort you only knew was there when someone pointed it out to you.
It was that reason that Lucy found it hard to believe this Sergeant Sawyer and the DEO agents.
The same Sergeant Sawyer who was currently opening the door to the small room Lucy had been given after being released from the hospital but not from the base.
"Sergeant Sawyer."
"Major Lane. There's someone here who would very much like to see you."
Lucy raised an eyebrow, but nodded nonetheless. A moment later Sergeant Sawyer stepped fully into the room followed by another woman. A woman with the most butch haircut Lucy had seen in years and a cybernetic forearm that was more advanced than anything Lucy had even realized was possible.
The itching under her skin became a roar as it fought for her attention.
Lucy's breath caught as she glanced between the two woman in front of her. The sound of the door closing softly broke the silence for a moment before-
"Lucy? It's me Alex. They said- they said you don't remember, that you don't remember me."
The way Lucy's heart ached to see the open pain on this woman's face terrified her far more than the realization that she couldn't remember several years of her life. The woman takes a hesitant step forward, human arm reaching out as if to touch Lucy before stopping.
Lucy shakes her head ever so slightly, never breaking eye contact.
The sound of a sob echos through the room.
The new woman - Alex - begins to shake ever so slightly as tears begin to stream uncontrolled down her face. Sergeant Sawyer immediately moved to wrap the stranger in a strong embrace. From the bed two paces away Lucy can hear the soothing words.
She watches as the taller of the two turns and buries her face into the crook of the other's neck and something inside her aches to do something.
To move. To comfort. To erase the pain being felt.
Before she realizes it she's standing next to them with arms reaching out.
Her hand tentatively touches where metal meets arm, where another arm wraps securely just above, and her world burns.
Images are flashing before her eyes faster than she can process. Words stream through ear drums without making any vibrations. Her brain is overwhelmed in an instant and her knees buckle.
Two sets of arms catch her before she even begins to fall.
She sees betrayal and torture and hiding and kidnapping and guilt and longing and friendship and love and loss and heartache and grieving and hope and-
It's several minutes before she's able to focus on the world around her once more. When she does the first thing she is aware of is two sets of strong arms wrapped around her as three people sit in a heap on the floor. How familiar and comfortable it feels. The second is the quiet sobbing, her own tears mixing with theirs.
The third is that the itch that has been under her skin since she woke up with no idea who she was is gone.
"Al- Alex? Your- you're back?"
The noise from her left sounds like a mix between a laugh and a sob. It doesn't matter to Lucy though. Not when she hears from her left a voice she hadn't hear in 23 months.
A voice she'd forgotten until but a few moments ago.
"Yeah Lucy. I'm back."
~fin~
( Comments, critics, questions welcome. I have more back-story for this if anyone wants to chat about it on tumblr standinshadowedsilence)