She hadn't anticipated somebody being in her apartment the second she unlocked the door.

As she heard a noise coming from the window, she drew her gun immediately and pointed in the direction of the sound. She knew it was a paranoid move; her window was probably just open and the noise was probably just the curtain.

But it wasn't.

"Easy." A voice coming from inside her apartment made her switch on the light of her living room.

The figure standing near the windows, dressed in red and blue, raised an eyebrow.

"Jesus, Kara, can you not sneak up on people in the middle of the night?"

The blonde didn't respond to Maggie's statement, and watched silently as the detective raised a hand to her chest and tucked away her gun, throwing the trash bag to the side quickly before Kara asked too many questions.

"I was patrolling late and I heard you at the crime scene." Kara tilted her head with a frown, taking in her appearance. "…You're soaked."

"Yeah, sorry. I was on my bike and I drove through a puddle." Maggie sighed, trying to sound annoyed at the wetness. "It's everywhere, I'm going to go take a shower."

Kara continued to observe the detective as she put down her gun and badge and walked around her apartment. She knew that something was off; it hadn't rained in National City for at least two days. And Maggie appeared way too soaked for just a puddle on the road. It looked like she'd gone swimming with her clothes on.

"Did you want something, or did you just come here to scare me?" Maggie asked, looking over her shoulder to her girlfriend's sister, still standing in the same spot.

"I came to check on you. A murder on your first day back at work, it must be tough."

"It's four thirty in the morning. The only thing I want to do is sleep. I appreciate the sentiment, but I really just want to crash, Kara."

"Then why did you come here? Why didn't you go to Alex's?"

Maggie stopped in the middle of taking off her jacket, and turned around to face the blonde. "Is this an interrogation? I didn't want to wake her up again in the middle of the night. I wanted her to get some sleep, I'll just go back whenever I wake up. Is there something wrong with that?!"

Classic projection. Her words made Kara seem like the bad guy for blaming Maggie for thinking about Alex first. And it worked, as Kara's eyes widened and she shook her head immediately. "No! No, nothing wrong. Sorry, I just… I just wanted to know that everything's alright. And… I see that you're fine. So… Goodnight."

She turned around, jumped up Maggie's window, and shot up into the sky. Maggie sighed as she watched her fly away, and dropped down onto her couch, not caring about the water dripping onto the leather.

Now that she had whatever Ian was working on, she figured she could get some rest. She'd wake up early to review the files, but with the adrenalin from the near encounter was wearing off, she found it hard to stay awake.

After a quick shower, she dropped down into her bed, staring at her damaged phone. She'd have to get a new one tomorrow, otherwise Alex would be worried out of her mind.

And she knew that Kara didn't exactly buy her excuse about driving through a puddle. She saw it in the blonde's eyes. She just thanked whoever was listening that Kara hadn't asked about the trash bag. That would have been problematic.

She was getting caught up in a web of lies. She didn't want to lie to Kara, and most certainly not to Alex. But she had to. The closer she'd get to something tangible, the hotter it would become for her. If whoever was doing this knew about even one small encounter she'd had with Ian in the precinct, she was sure they'd know much more than just that.

If the Rick Malverne story had been any indication – it wasn't hard to get from Alex to Maggie and vice versa. And Maggie was not putting Alex in the line of fire. Never again.

Eventually, she managed to fall asleep.

The nightmares came fast. And soon enough, she was screaming for Alex again.

Yet she bit her lip as soon as she jumped awake. Alex wasn't there. She couldn't hold her.

But it was for the best.

"What was your first impression of the cabin?"

"It was… Beautiful. Large, and modern. My first thought was that when we'd be married, we needed a getaway like that too."

Fisher nodded, writing something down. "And what did you do after that?"

"I told her how happy I was that we were there. That we were together. And then I told her I loved her, and we started kissing." Alex hesitated after that, playing with her thumb absent-mindedly. "…We had sex for a couple of hours."

"Did you notice that there were any microphones or cameras installed while you were walking around the cabin for the first time?"

"No." Alex shook her head immediately. "I let my guard down."

"As expected, Alex." Fisher frowned. "You were on holiday. You couldn't have seen it coming."

"But I should have." Alex sighed, closing her eyes. "If I'd seen them, none of it would have happened."

"Okay, why don't we leave that on the table for now, and move on, okay?" Fisher went back to scribbling notes. "Why did you stop?"

Alex swallowed thickly. "We just… Laid down on the bed and talked after a while. Then we got dressed again, and I… I suggested we'd go hiking."

"How did she take it?"

"She agreed. She said she'd never done it, but it was too beautiful outside not to. It wasn't something we thought about, we just went."

"But you did bring your guns."

"Just to be safe. Laurent had warned us about the wildlife, I didn't want to risk it."

"Okay, why don't we take a break." Fisher smiled weakly. "Some water? Coffee?"

"Water is fine, thank you." Alex nodded politely as the man walked out of his office, leaving her by herself.

When she'd woken up, it was around seven in the morning, and Maggie hadn't been there. Of course, her initial response was a worried panic, but she'd relaxed when she'd found the note. Paperwork sucked, and Maggie had enough on her mind without having to bother doing it. So she probably just slept at the precinct, or maybe she'd pulled an all-nighter with the investigation.

Alex knew the hours of their jobs were never regulated, so she tried not to worry too much. And Maggie probably still hadn't texted back because she just hadn't had the time or didn't think about it. Alex knew how it was.

She just hoped Maggie was alright.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she raced to pull it out, but then saw that it was a text from Kara. Lunch?

She smiled, and typed back. 12? My place?

She didn't bother to check the reply, as she knew that her sister would be there. She didn't want to go out yet, not until she had the prosthetic. She despised the looks of pity people gave her. An old man on the street had 'thanked her for her service' earlier with a solemn look in his face. She didn't want it, she didn't need it. She wasn't a hero for getting her leg chopped off because of falling down a cliff.

She'd feel much more comfortable once she had two feet on the ground again. At least the prying looks and sad smiles would stop. She hated them.

Soon enough, Dr. Fisher returned with a big glass of water, and sat down to continue their session. And before she knew it, Alex was back inside the forest of three weeks ago, getting chased by an alien disguised as a bear.

"I got you a burger and fries." Kara said quickly, before Alex could even walk through her door. The blonde was dressed in her civilian clothes, the glasses up on her nose, and motioned towards a bag of take-out on Alex's kitchen aisle. The agent smiled. "Thanks, Kar."

"So… How was your therapy?"

"Getting there." Alex shrugged as she reached for the wrapped burger. "…It's tough to revisit all of it, especially by myself."

"Well, can't you ask Maggie to come with you? I'm sure she wouldn't mind?"

"She does mind." Alex sighed, taking a bite. "…She got angry at me for getting her an appointment."

Kara didn't seem at all surprised. "She's been acting weird all day. Especially last night."

Alex tilted her head curiously. "Last night? When did you see her?"

"I flew over the crime scene and there was another detective talking to her. It was pretty bad; it sounded like he was telling her that she was a self-destructive maniac."

Alex frowned. "She looked a bit worn down when she came back, but…"

"And then I went to check on her, she got back to her own apartment at half past four, and she was completely soaked. Like someone had hosed her down, she was dripping." Kara shook her head. "She was lying to me about where she'd been, and she was holding this black bag…"

Alex nodded slowly. So Maggie hadn't been filling out paperwork. She probably hadn't even been at the precinct.

Immediately, hundreds of thoughts started racing through her mind. Was Maggie cheating on her? Maybe she didn't want a life with someone dragging her down like Alex had been doing the past weeks. Maybe…

"I mean, I'm sure she has an explanation for it…" Kara said quickly, seeing the look on her sister's face. "Why don't you talk to her about it?"

"She's shutting me out, Kara." Alex sighed sadly. "I… I don't know what to do."

The blonde seemed to think for a moment. "Okay, I'll keep an eye out for her, alright? Check in on her, see what she's up to. Just to make sure she's not in trouble."

Alex wrapped her arms around her sister. "Thank you so much, Kara."

Kara smiled, as she hugged her back.

Maggie promised herself to from now on always listen to other cops' gut feelings.

Because Ian's, well… At least he'd been right about the fact that the killer was dangerous.

Sitting at her table, glass of whiskey in hand, she analyzed the case files of the four women. All of them were poisoned, probably in the same way Ian had been. But apart from the way they were murdered, there was nothing that bound the women together. They came from different backgrounds, varied in age, and had vastly different lifestyles.

One of them had kids, the other had married another woman. One was a manager, another a stripper. At first glance, Maggie deemed it impossible to find a proper link between them.

Ian had written several words into the files, but they were vague and cryptic, and she had no idea how to decipher what he meant.

Then, another thought popped into her head. Why would Ian, who had all the friends high up he wanted, in all of the other departments, trust her with a case this important? Why hadn't he stepped to the Lieutenant or one of his partners for help? Why her?

The only thing that separated her from them was the fact that she was an expert on aliens. But that didn't matter if the killer was human…

…Unless of course, he wasn't.

The tox reports that had been run on the victims had been inconclusive four times. Apparently the ME's had no idea what type of poison had been used.

Which only strengthened the assumption that maybe the killer was an alien after all. Ian must have thought that she, with her knowhow on alien species, would have a better shot at solving it than all of the NCPD combined.

Suck it, Holmes.

She reached for the other two files, and opened them.

The Narcotics case confused Maggie. She had no idea why it was relevant to the killings, seeing as how Ian was onto the poison coming from an alien.

The events of the case happened about a year ago – a woman claimed that someone spiked her drink during a night of partying, and she woke up in an abandoned building with no memories of the night before. They'd found traces of rohypnol in her system, but had never found who did it.

Maggie opened the sixth case, the one she hadn't been able to read on the boat.

Her eyes widened, and she felt her stomach drop.

The case of an alien hunting and injuring two women, and murdering another with its acid.

In Montana.

The Magh'rah.