Hey all! adlerre over on tumblr. The song I used is "This Town" by Niall Horan. I'm not a huge fan of song fics but this one wouldn't leave me alone. Hopefully you all like it!
"Where have you been?"
Before Maggie can reply, a double of something strong is dropped roughly in front of her.
"Wha-"
"I'm so sorry." Darla's voice rushes out, tension and guilt seeping from her
"What for?"
A sigh, and she's nodding her head to the side of the stage. Standing between it and a few tall amps, is a bright-eyed blonde from her past. A bright-eyed blonde who should be states away. A bright-eyed blonde who should have given up. A bright-eyed blonde who somehow found her.
Again.
"Son of a-" Maggie whispers to herself, cutting her gaze back to Darla, "Why did you let her in?"
"I didn't." A quick glance to Mon-El talking at end of the bar. "The new guy did. I went to tell her I'd never heard of you before, but he got there first."
"It's on the house." She mutters, hand squeezing Maggie's shoulder before she makes her way to the other tables -not so smoothly avoiding those near the stage's edge.
"What's going on?" Alex asks, tightening her hold on Maggie's thigh as she glances between the group and her girlfriend
"Who is that?"
"Okay, game plan, no one react no matter what happens. Deal?"
Confused nods are her only response.
"Schott?"
"Yes, yes, okay." A nervous pause as he tries to keep his gaze from straying to the woman now tuning her guitar. "What's going to happen anyway?"
Maggie tilts back her drink, finishing it in one go as Darla quickly settles another glass before her, keeping with her promise. "That," She replies, with an eye roll and nod to the stage, "Is- let's just say- a desperate soul."
"Understatement of the year." Darla grumbles, consciously blocking Maggie from the stage's view
"Maggie?" Kara attempts to whisper, eyes less than discreetly following the woman on stage (along with Winn's), while Alex focuses on Maggie's annoyance. "Who is she?"
At Kara's question, Maggie continues on a sigh, "My ex from Blue Springs." An eye roll. A comforting hand squeezes against Alex's now tense leg.
"A real piece of work if you ask me." Darla continues, earning a smirk and raised glass in salute from Maggie
"What's she doing here?"
"We're about to find out." The reply is punctuated by the woman's smooth voice testing the sound system
"Remember, no reacting. We're going to pretend she's not there." Maggie instructs. "I'll tell you about it when we get home." She whispers leaning closer into Alex's side before ending her words with a soft kiss to her cheek.
"Hi, everyone." A melodic voice rings thorough the bar, "I'm Nikki. The bartender was kind enough to let me set up here tonight." A round of applause and glare -from Darla- rain down in Mon-el's direction.
"This song is…" A throat clear and Maggie can feel bright eyes as they bore into the back of her head. "Well, I wrote this for a woman who could always make me smile."
Alex's eyes cut from the warn table to Maggie's tensed form. Wanting to comfort, wanting to understand, but also…also, wanting to run. Wanting to take Maggie away from the presence of the woman staring oh so lovingly, oh so longingly, oh so desperately at her girlfriend. Because Alex loves her, and Maggie loves her, and this woman, this woman makes no difference.
She doesn't.
She doesn't.
But Alex's mind doesn't listen. Not the small pool of doubt that grows and grows with every "what if" and "I'm not good enough" and "She deserves better" and "I'll never be perfect" and… Maggie's arm wrapping around her side stalls her doubts.
They share a smile, a feeling of calm spreading as they shift closer together. And if they miss the beginning chords lost in the feeling, who could blame them?
But the moment – as moments are prone to do- is fleeting, and fades as reality sets back in. The comfort and security are still there (always there), but the voice, the voice from the speakers, from the broken heart, from the woman, rings through.
"Waking up to kiss you and nobody's there. The smell of your perfume still stuck in the air.
It's hard. Yesterday I thought I saw your shadow running 'round. It's funny how things never change in this old town"
If her voice cracks, which it does, no one comments and the group doesn't look. Tries not to look, tries not to feel, tries not to…
Kara watches as she always does, checking in with her sisters and preparing for the worst.
Preparing for what?
She doesn't know.
Her sister's not one to break, but her sister was never one to love. Not one to put her heart in the arms of another.
Not until Maggie.
So, Kara watches, and hopes her hearing won't pick up a heart break. Her sisters -and yes, that's what Maggie's become- they are strong, and they are sturdy, but they human. Not in the sense of aliens verses humans, but in the reality that emotions and hurt do exist.
So, Kara watches, and Kara hopes. And Kara remembers Lucy and James, the pain and the jealousy she had felt. And she remembers the love in her sisters' eyes and hopes, beyond hope, that this woman doesn't bring those eyes that pain.
"I saw that you moved on with someone new. In the pub that we met she's got her arms around you"
And Winn watches, and Winn notices, and Winn smiles. Because, he may be a nervous person, he may hide it behind jokes, he may do a lot of things, but what he doesn't do? What he never does? Is worry about them. Sure, he worries about their safety, God, does he worry about their safety. But the safety of their hearts?
No.
They've got that covered.
So, he listens to the lyrics and he watches his sisters, and he smiles. He smiles because that's what he wants, and that's what he needs, and that's love.
"And I want to tell you everything. The words I never got to say the first time around."
James. James, doesn't look. He hears, that's for sure. He hears and he remembers a time when he felt the same. When words escaped him, only to come back when they were too late. When she was too gone. When things were too broken.
So, he hears and it hurts. It hurts like an old bruise, or an old break during cold weather.
He hears, and he understands. But he also understands hope. And love. And moving forward.
He understands pain. He understands heartbreak. He understands a lot.
And the fear, the concern, the tension, the love, he sees shining in Alex's eyes. That, he understands, too.
He does. But he doesn't worry. The concerns he sees swirling and panicking within her? Those concerns will be soothed, because Maggie understands.
And Maggie protects. And Maggie loves. And Maggie, Maggie is hers.
"And I know that it's wrong that I can't move on. But there's something about you"
Darla sees herself in the glistening eyes of the woman on stage. She tries not to, she really does. But somewhere between filling a beer for Brian and ushering it to him, she makes the mistake of looking into those eyes.
She remembers when Maggie and her ended. She remembers why. She remembers the pain, the hurt, the hope.
The hope hurt the worst.
She remembers long nights hoping, just hoping, things could be different.
She remembers long days hoping, just hoping, things could be different.
But she's better now. She really is.
Sure, she gets the occasional pain when she sees them together. As their eyes never veer from the other, their smiles never falling, their teasing never seizing. But that's normal, she'll tell herself as she excuses herself to the walk-in freezer when it gets too painful.
It's normal to hurt, but it's normal to move on.
That's where they differ, Darla and this woman.
That's where they differ, and that's something major.
"And if the whole world was watching I'd still dance with you. Drive highways and byways to be there with you."
It hurts. It hurts, and she pauses. Her eyes watering as she glances across the bar, to the woman she loves, to the woman who left, to the woman she hurt. If she had known then, if she had thought then, if she had been strong then… So she pauses, and her throat burns, but she shakes it off and goes on.
If Maggie hears her. And listens. Then maybe, maybe she can fix this.
If she can see that she's not ashamed, that she never was ashamed of her. Maybe things can change.
Maybe, they can get back to stargazing in the back of pickup trucks and fighting over who pays at the drive in. Maybe, they can get that apartment they always talked about back then with the dogs, and the granite counters and windows.
The maybes keep her going, have kept her going for these past few years.
"You still make me nervous when you walk in the room. T
hem butterflies they come alive when I'm next to you. Over and over the only truth: Everything comes back to you"
Alex tries not to listen too hard to the lyrics. Tries to focus on the arm wrapped around her and love in her heart.
It works for the most part. But then she hears, and then she remembers, and then she connects. Because this woman, this woman could be her.
This woman was her.
In the beginning, when she didn't know, when she didn't have a clue. When her feelings left her eating doughnuts in her sister's hallway. When tears prickled at her eyes as she watched Maggie kiss that woman.
This woman was her, and could be her, and God, please don't let it be her.
But the butterflies are true and the happiness is true.
And God, help her, if everything doesn't come straight back to Maggie.
The tension over the table starts to fade as the song becomes nothing more than a memory. Painful to some, helpful to others.
Winn claps. He forgets the rules and he claps, and feels the annoyance from the group cloaks.
"Schott, no reacting!" Maggie's whisper combines with Alex's sharp glance to bring Winn's gaze back to the table, hands dropping awkwardly to his sides.
The group tries to move on, shake off their own feelings and focus on normalcy.
It works for a bit until Maggie is tensing and Alex is tensing and Kara is searching and Winn is searching and James is confused.
Behind the trio, the woman comes into view, eyes only for Maggie but gaze followed by both.
She stands there all hopeful eyes, shaky smile, trembling hands.
A small pity-filled curve of Maggie's lips, and shake of the head has her turning. Has her breaking. Has her walking. Has her leaving.
The night continues. Normalcy a goal only met once Winn nearly maims Brian with a wayward cue ball.
If the group laughs a bit too loud or hugs a bit too much? Well, Darla can't blame them.
And if Alex holds Maggie a bit closer, hugs her a bit longer, kisses her a bit deeper? Well, James wouldn't blame her.
And if Maggie smiles a bit wider, eyes shine a bit lighter?
Oh, God.
No one could blame her.