Before she goes to sleep, Alex sets six alarms on her phone, just in case. As she plugs in her charger, she hears a quiet chuckle from Kara's room.
"Kara Danvers, I told you about using your X-Ray vision to spy on me."
Kara ignores her, of course, and eventually, Alex falls asleep.
Eliza watches her eldest daughter over breakfast. Even Kara is quieter than usual; today, her inescapable outbursts of excitement are about Alex, about Alex's friends, about Maggie, rather than an equal combination of Lena Luthor and pizza, like they usually are. And by the time Alex has to leave, by the time Kara's outbursts of "Eliza! Did Alex tell you about her new friend?" and "She's so pretty, isn't she, Alex? And so nice!" are over, Eliza is smiling in a way Alex hasn't seen her smile for months.
And Alex? Alex is a nervous wreck.
In fact, she's pretty sure that if she had Kara's strength, the door handle would have been crushed into dust by now.
She chokes out a goodbye to Eliza and Kara, and heads downtown.
"Danvers. Hey."
They sit in one of the booths in the corner of the restaurant. The lighting is dim at best, casting twisted shadows around the room, and illuminating their faces with a soft, yellow glow. Alex finds herself drawn to Maggie as they talk. She can't tear he eyes away from Maggie's dimples as she smiles, from the endearing way she tilts her head to the side when she's happy, from the soft fullness of her lips.
The conversation starts with school, and Alex learns about Maggie's deep love for science, their shared adoration for languages, her deep loathing of sports – not exercise, Alex notes, that's important: just games involving balls – and just as importantly, Alex learns about Maggie's schedule.
And it's a damn good thing her memory is exceptional.
It turns out they have Bio, Chem, Physics and English Lit together most days, and Alex's stomach flips when Maggie compliments her subject choices, when Maggie's eyes soften when they talk about Kara, about family.
Alex picks up pretty quickly in their half hour discussion, and during the walk to school that Maggie doesn't like to talk about herself, but she asks about Alex, asks about her life, because apparently, she wants to know her.
So Alex does the same.
And she finds out that Maggie lives with her Aunt, in a tiny apartment just around the corner from school. But she doesn't push, she doesn't ask why – or why she moved here, either – because when the conversation starts heading that way, the haunted look in Maggie's eyes returns.
And in that moment, the yearning, the compulsion Alex has to protect Maggie, to do anything for the girl in front of her intensifies to the point where she has to grip the handle of her rucksack to suppress the urge to hug her.
Alex and Maggie spend most mornings together before school for the following weeks, sharing stories of growing up in different places, stories of friends, stories of family. Both enjoying the spark of a fast friendship, of the bond they're forming, of the passions they share. And the more Alex gets to know her, the more time she wants to spend together, listening to Maggie speak, seeing her smile, watching the way she runs a hand through her hair as she works.
In Maggie's third week at Midvale High, Alex learns about a girl – Maggie's ex. Or almost ex, from what Alex can tell. Maggie doesn't tell her how it ended, or even her name, but Alex gathers that it was recent, and that Maggie definitely doesn't want to talk about it. Her skin prickles slightly at the thought of her, whoever she is, but Alex pushes it down, pushes it away.
Most of their conversations are harmless. Innocent, even. They find a bar that won't sell them alcohol, but has a damn good pool table that they've visited three times when Maggie's second week at Midvale High ends. As it turns out, Maggie is terrible at pool. Like, really terrible. It gets to the point one evening where Alex refuses to take her money any longer.
Maggie quickly becomes part of their group, part of their family. The Danvers sisters have always made a habit of taking in strays, and Maggie is no exception. They spend Friday nights at the beach, and Maggie joins them for the first time the week after she arrives.
Or, she was meant to.
"Alex."
They're sitting on a wall by the beach after school, watching the tide come in. Kara and Lena are sharing an order of potstickers (no one's entirely sure where they came from), Winn and James are working on the latest project for computer science. Lucy and Vasquez are sitting at the table next to them, copying each other's physics homework.
Or so Alex thought they were.
"Alex."
"Alex!"
There's still no response, so Lucy claps her hands in front of her friend's face, laughing when Alex almost falls off the wall.
"And… she's back!" Winn observes with a grin, his body shrinking away from Alex.
"Remember the last time you crossed me, Winn? When you tried to kiss my little sister? Remember what I did to you with that camera you're holding?"
Winn nods slowly, sharing a terrified look with James. Alex ignores Vasquez chuckling from where they're sitting with Lucy on the sand, because Alex could easily beat every kid in their year, but Vasquez? Vasquez has been boxing since they were five. Not a chance.
"You done staring longingly at your phone yet? We both know she'll turn up," Lucy teases with a smirk.
"Shut up. I was not… Lucy. Camera. Ribs," Alex threatens, before blushing and lowering her eyes as Maggie approaches them.
"Who's ribs are we are we damaging?" Maggie quirks with a grin. "Hey, guys."
"Lucy's. Winn's. Whoever annoys me. Hey, Maggie," Alex smiles as Maggie sits down next to her.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side, Danvers."
"Impossible," Lucy mutters.
"What was that?" Alex demands, raising her eyebrows.
"Nothing, Alex."
Maggie seems to settle in quickly, falling into place within their group as if she'd been there for years.
But one day, something changes, something shifts.
Or maybe nothing changes. Not really. Maybe it's that Alex decided to stop pretending, to stop pushing down her feelings.
And maybe Maggie wants to let her.
Either way, something's different when Alex doesn't turn up for school one day.
And Alex always turns up.
"Where is she?" Maggie needs to know, her tone urgent, her eyes hard. Because she may not know Alex more than a few short weeks, but she's quickly becoming the most important part of her life.
"If you're talking about Alex," Lucy says gently, "she's not here today."
"Yeah, I'd gathered," Maggie looks around and notices Kara approaching them. Her hair is loose, hiding some of her face, and when she sees Maggie, she knows, because the permanent glint of joy in Kara's eyes is gone. It's just gone.
"She's probably on the roof," Kara mutters in Maggie's direction. "One of the old warehouses."
"Thanks, Little Danvers. I owe you one."
Kara glances nervously at Maggie's face. Normally Kara would giggle, because she's nearly three years younger but has two inches on Maggie with no shoes on.
"You okay?" Maggie asks her.
Kara ignores her question, mumbling something about a history class she has to get to. Maggie doesn't have the heart to tell her that it's only the start of break.
"Hey, Sawyer. She might not wanna talk. Told me to leave her alone last time I tried," Lucy says with a sigh, looking Maggie up and down, searching for an ulterior motive, a way she's trying to use Alex like so many other people have.
"You look after her."
"I promise."
Apparently, she doesn't find what she's looking for, and relief flickers over Lucy's features when the only emotion she can see, written plainly on Maggie's face, is concern. Lucy nods once, and leaves Maggie to think.
So when the bell rings, pulling her from her thoughts, Maggie's eyes clear in understanding, because from Kara's shared pain, from Lucy's insight, from Alex's avoidance of the subject of her father, anyone else would've missed it.
But Maggie? Maggie wants to be a detective. So she detects.
Sure enough, Maggie finds her, sitting on the edge of the tiles, legs swinging in empty air, watching the world go by from a distance. Maggie climbs halfway up, standing on a windowsill so she can see the back of Alex's head.
"Alex?"
It's the first time Maggie's addressed her by her first name, and Alex almost turns around – almost – but she doesn't want Maggie to see her like this, to see her broken, to see her afraid. But Maggie made a promise, dammit, and she's not one to break her word. She never was.
"Alex, are you physically hurt?" Maggie asks, and Alex almost breaks, because her voice is so soft, so gentle, so unassuming. And Alex almost breaks, because her question isn't stupid, isn't 'Are you okay?', it's simple, it's understanding, it's perfect.
"No."
"Do you want me to leave?"
No. I'm alone. I need you.
Yes. You don't need to see this. I should be strong. I should be brave. I should be better.
No. He's gone, gone gone.
Yes. You deserve more. More than this.
Alex shakes her head slightly, and it's barely noticeable as the wind tugs at her hair.
"Can you come down here so we can go somewhere warm?" Maggie says softly.
Alex slides down from the ledge with ease, agility that usually Maggie would comment no, but today? Today is anything but ordinary.
"Alex, can I hug you?"
She looks so broken, her eyes tortured, full of agony, full of pain, and Maggie fights back her own tears, because Alex's lip is trembling, swollen from being bitten. The pale skin of her cheeks is tinged with red, marred by tears and smudged mascara.
"Maggie," is all Alex can choke, collapsing into the other girl, her chest heaving with pain, her body trembling with sobs.
"Oh, sweetie," Maggie whispers into her hair, wrapping her arms around Alex.
"S-sorry," Alex mumbles, trying to rub away the tears with her fist.
"Hey, you have nothing to apologise for. He was your Dad."
Maggie's fingers trail down Alex's arms as she pulls away, and Alex tries not to shudder at the touch.
"You're freezing. Here," Maggie slips out of her jacket – which, fortunately, is far too big for her – and slips it over Alex's shoulders.
"Let's get out of here, Danvers."
Their fingers brush again, and Maggie swallows her doubt, slipping her hand into Alex's, letting their fingers intertwine.
Before Alex has the chance to panic, because she's holding Maggie Sawyer's hand, dammit, she's sitting in Maggie's apartment, holding a cup of hot chocolate with one hand, and Maggie's hand with the other.
"Feeling better?" Maggie asks, her thumb tracing patterns on Alex's skin.
"Yeah. How did you find me?"
"Lucy. Kara, too."
Alex nods, letting out a deep breath.
"You didn't have to do that. Skip school."
"Yeah, I did. Look, I don't meet many people that I care about. But I care about you, a lot. And I... I don't want to imagine my life without you in it."
"Yeah?" Alex whispers, the ghost of a smile playing on her lips.
"Yeah."