"Right, sweetie, it's time for bed." Alex said, looking to Emmi. She'd already been allowed to stay up almost an hour later than her usual bedtime, and Alex knew she'd end up being cranky the next day if she didn't go up to bed soon.
"Aw no," Emmi pouted. "Just 5 minutes more, please." Emmi clasped her hand together, like she was praying, but her eyes kept falling, the girl clearly very sleepy.
"No," Alex told her. "You've already stayed up way past your bedtime," Alex reminded her. "Go clean your teeth and I'll be up soon to read you a story."
Emmi jumped down from the couch. "Can Grandma read me a story?" Emmi wondered.
"Sure," Alex answered. Emmi grinned as she gave her mother a kiss goodnight before she ran out of the room and made her way up the stairs. Eliza waited till she was sure that Emmi was out of earshot before talking, before bringing up what she'd wanted to since Alex had arrived. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Alex questioned.
"I just….I can't imagine how you must have felt when she was taken from you," Eliza said. Alex pursed her lips. She didn't want to think about that time ever again. "And the threat that it could happen again."
"Well Emmi is here, and she is safe here," Alex exhaled, her head shaking ever so slightly. "I'm not thinking about it ever being an option again."
"No," Eliza agreed. "J'onn and Maggie will make sure of that, I am certain."
"Yeah." Alex pursed her lips.
"What?" Eliza pursed her lips. "You don't trust her?"
"Of course I trust her," Alex replied. "I trust her the most in this whole world," Alex informed her mother. "Just…I'm worried about how far she'll go to make sure that Eileen and Tina can never bring harm to Emmi ever again," Alex exhaled lightly, rolling her wedding rings around her finger. "I know she doesn't let many people get close to her, but the love she has for that little girl, Mum, I…" Alex trailed off, her head shaking lightly.
"Hey, sweetie," Eliza walked over to the couch from the arm chair, bending down in front of her daughter, her hands going onto Alex's thighs. "She would never purposely do anything to jeopardise what she has with you and Emmi and little Jellybean," Eliza moved one had up to touch Alex's bump. "And now Ava is in her life," Eliza added. "She will be a mother and she will fight to keep her daughter safe, but she'll do so wanting to stay with you and the girls," Eliza assured her. "And Kara will be there. Well, Supergirl. She won't let her do anything stupid."
"Yeah," Alex took a deep breath before looking upwards, hearing Emmi shouting down for Eliza. "Uhm, you should go read her a story." Alex spoke quietly, and Eliza gave a little nod as she stood up and walked out of the room. Alex exhaled lightly as she leaned forward and picked up her phone from the table, putting in her passcode and calling her wife.
Maggie was waiting outside the school to pick up 'Emmi'. Instead of seeing her coming out with Summer like usual, Emmi strode out of the school by herself, her arms folded across her chest. "Emmi," Maggie looked down to her 'daughter'. "What's wrong? Where's Summer?"
"She was taking to long." J'onn answered, standing with his legs slightly apart, his arms still folded across his chest.
"Can you stop standing like that," Maggie spoke quietly as she nudged his arm. "Be a kid," J'onn frowned at Maggie, not really seeing what he was doing wrong. "Emmi always comes out of school with Summer. J'onn you have to keep things like normal. The last thing we want is for Tina to suspect something."
J'onn sighed lightly. "I'm trying my best," J'onn told her. "And by the way, peanut butter and jam on my sandwiches two days in a row?" J'onn huffed as he started walking towards the road. "Tomorrow I want tuna mayonnaise," J'onn requested, looking both ways before stepping out onto the road, Maggie grabbing onto his hand without ever realising it. "What are you doing?" J'onn questioned. Maggie looked down seeing she was holding his hand as they crossed the road.
"Sorry," Maggie apologised. "Habit when I'm crossing the road with Emmi."
J'onn huffed as he pulled his hand away as they stepped back up onto the sidewalk. "So tomorrow, Maggie. Tuna mayonnaise."
"Emmi doesn't like tuna." Maggie told him as she unlocked her car and opened the back door.
"Well I do." J'onn retorted.
"Well you are currently Emmi, so no tuna mayo," Maggie told him. "But I'll change it up," Maggie promised, watching as J'onn moved across the back seats of the car to sit at the other side. "Uh, no no," Maggie shook her head. "On the booster seat." Maggie instructed.
"Maggie, I'm a grown man." J'onn sighed.
"Right now, you are in the body of a 6 year old," Maggie pointed out to him. "So….on the seat." Maggie pointed to it and J'onn scowled at her as he moved back across the back seats of the car and sat on Emmi's booster seat.
"Hurry up and get me to the DEO so I can be me again." J'onn told her.
Maggie chuckled in amusement at J'onn clearly not liking playing the 6 year old. "Sure thing." Maggie told him before she closed the door and got into the front seat, turning the keys in the ignition to go back to the DEO.
Ava, Izzy, Lily and Ryan headed to the diner after school. Ava had a strawberry milkshake, Ryan and Izzy had ordered chocolate and Lily a vanilla. They'd also ordered a large portion of chili cheese fries to share between the 4 of them. "You've been awful quiet today, Ava," Lily looked across to her from the other side of the booth. "Everything okay?"
Ava sucked on the straw of her milkshake, if only to give herself more time to answer. She wasn't okay. Not 100 per cent. She was worried about Maggie. Worried about just what she'd do to stop Eileen and Tina, and she was worried about Emmi. Even though real Emmi was away in Midvale, safe with Alex and Eliza, she was still worried. "Fine." Ava mumbled.
"Really?" Ryan looked unsure, also looking across to her from the other side of the booth. "You don't look it."
"It's just….." Ava pursed her lips. "Family stuff. I don't really want to get into it." Ava exhaled. Even if she wanted to talk to someone else about it, she really couldn't. Emmi being alien and people coming from anther planet to steal her away wasn't really open as a discussion point, and she couldn't mention the secret DEO either.
"Well if you change your mind we are here for you," Izzy told her, reaching for a few fries and putting them into her mouth. "I mean, I totally get family issues," Izzy told her. "My brothers and sisters drive me crazy."
"Yeah because you've got like a hundred of them." Lily joked.
"Slight exaggeration," Izzy retorted. "But I do have a lot," Izzy looked around to Ava. "I have three little brothers and 2 little sisters," Izzy told her. "Big families are great but at the same time, sometimes I wish I was an only child," Izzy said. "Or you know, that I just had one or two siblings and not 5."
"I mean, it must be nice to always have someone to talk to." Ava said.
"They are aged between 12 and 3 so it's not like I can go to them with my problems," Izzy exhaled. "More like I need to break up fights and help the little one because he stuck an M&M up his nose or something silly like that."
Ava, Lily and Ryan all chuckled. "Do you even have any problems?" Ryan questioned.
"Not that I can think of," Izzy shrugged. "But just because I don't have any it doesn't mean I can't help a friend," Izzy told him. "I mean, what kind of logic are you running on?"
"Fair enough," Ryan held his hands out in front of him before reaching for some fries. "So Ava, I was hoping for another Spanish lesson before this test I've got coming up."
"You'll need like 100 lessons." Lily said, nudging into Ryan, teasingly.
"Well however long it takes," Ryan smiled. He wouldn't mind spending a lot of time with Ava alone. "In the interest of my Spanish of course."
"Uh, Ava rubbed the back of her head. "Sure, we can arrange something soon."
"Sweet," Ryan smiled before taking a drink of his milkshake. "You guys wanna head to the mall after this? Play some pool or air hockey at the arcade or something?"
"No," Izzy shook her head. "See, this is where he goes wrong, Ava," Izzy told her. "He wants to goof off all the time," Izzy said. "After this we are going home to do our homework and you should too."
Ryan pulled a face, clearly not liking the thought of homework. "Homework sucks. We get enough work at school. Our home time should be our time," Ryan sulked. "Don't you agree?"
"We gotta do what we gotta do." Lily shrugged.
"Ava?" Ryan questioned.
"I mean is there things I'd rather be doing? Sure," Ava nodded her head. "But, like Lily said. It has to be done. Don't you want to get good grades and get a good job?"
Ryan shrugged. "I want to be a musician," Ryan told her. "Just me and my guitar," Ryan said. "And if that fails I've got my dad's business to fall back on," Ryan said. "He has a construction business, so me and Jason – my brother – have that to inherit, I guess."
"Ahh you sing?" Ava questioned, and Ryan nodded.
"You help me pass my Spanish test and I might just sing you a little song." Ryan grinned at her.
"Deal," Ava said. "But you gotta sing in Spanish." Ava told him, and Ryan's grin dropped from his face as Izzy and Lily started to laugh, Ava joining in with them, the worries that she had for Maggie disappearing for now.
Emmi and Eliza had spent a lot of the day at the beach. It was a sunny spring day and Emmi wanted to look for shells to take back for Maggie. "Mummy," Emmi shouted as she ran back into the house. Alex had stayed in, mostly to allow Eliza some alone time with her granddaughter. "Mummy." Emmi shouted again.
Alex appeared out of the downstairs toilet. "I'm here, sweetie," Alex told her, Emmi smiling at her. "Did you have fun at the beach with Grandma?"
"Uh-huh," Emmi nodded, running over to Alex, the blue bucket in her hand. "We built lots of sandcastles and dipped our feet in and we found Mama some pretty shells. Emmi lifted the bucket up higher for Alex to see.
"Oh wow," Alex looked in, seeing a lot of shells. "You have been busy, huh?" Alex questioned.
"We couldn't stop until we found the perfect one." Alex looked up to her mother who rolled her eyes. Alex gave her a smile before looking down to her daughter.
"Well you go put them upstairs and keep them safe, okay?" Alex said, and Emmi nodded before she ran off up the stairs, Eliza and Alex walking into the living room.
"You heard from Maggie today?" Eliza questioned as they took a seat on the couch.
Alex nodded in response. "Not much to report so far," Alex told her. "Miss Clark is paying creepy amounts of attention to Emmi in class, so there's clearly a plan being made, but…" Alex shook her head. "They obviously don't know when or how."
"You don't think she knows that Emmi isn't really Emmi, do you?" Eliza spoke tentatively but this was on her mind.
Alex shrugged. "I'm not really there to judge the situation."
"Well," Eliza exhaled. "This Miss Clark woman, Tina, whatever her name is," Eliza said. "You said she can read minds, right? So maybe she is reading Emmi's mind and discovering she is actually J'onn."
"She can control people's minds," Alex corrected her mother. "We don't think she can read people's minds." Alex suddenly had a new reason to panic. What if she could read minds. What if Tina knew Emmi wasn't really Emmi.
"I see," Eliza pursed her lips. "Well I hope this is sorted soon. For everyone's sake. I know you are stressing and it's not good for Jellybean."
Alex licked her bottom lip. "I'm really trying to stay calm," Alex told her mother. "I know I need to for the baby and I know that J'onn, Maggie and Supergirl will be able to stop Eileen and Tina, but I…." Alex trailed off, letting a puff of air escape from between her lips.
"You are a mother," Eliza put her hand onto her daughter's leg. "I understand exactly what you will be feeling." Eliza assured her. Alex gave her mother a smile, then opened her mouth to reply but Emmi came back into the room, the pack of Uno cards in her hand.
"Can we play Uno?" Emmi questioned, holding the pack of cards out to her mother.
"Sure we can." Alex answered.
"Yey." Emmi jumped on the spot, clearly excited to be getting to play.
"How about I get some drinks and snacks sorted for when we play?" Eliza questioned as she stood up from the couch.
"Yeah," Emmi liked the sound of that. "Oh, Grandma, do you have sour gummy worms?" Emmi wondered.
"You'll have to wait and see." Eliza said as she walked out towards the kitchen to get snacks and drinks ready, as Alex took the cards from the pack and gave them a shuffle before she dealt out the cards, getting the game ready to play.
Ava was sitting in Alex's lab at the DEO. She was doing her homework as she waited on Maggie to finish talking with J'onn. They were going to go grab some dinner then go to the movies, once Maggie was done for the day. "What are you doing in here?" Ava looked up to see Kara walking into the lab.
"Uh, I'm waiting on Maggie." Ava answered.
"You shouldn't be in here," Kara scolded her. "There's stuff you shouldn't be seeing. Private stuff. You shouldn't even be in the building."
Ava scrunched her face up. "J'onn said I could be here, so…." Ava trailed off. "And I don't know what the majority of this stuff is or what it does and to the outside world the DEO doesn't even exist, so it's not like I am going to go talking about it."
Kara pursed her lips as she pushed her glasses back up her nose. "Well even so, what are you doing here?"
"I'm waiting on my sister to finish so we can go out," Ava told her. "And right now, I am doing some homework. I'm not looking at anything private," Ava sighed. "So, you know. Don't worry."
Kara pursed her lips. "You are just a kid."
"And what does that have to do with anything?" Ava questioned. "I'm just siting here minding my own business, doing my homework," Ava said. "What is your problem with me?" Ava wondered. Alex, Maggie and Emmi had all told Ava how nice Kara was but the couple of times she'd been around her, Kara was very stand off-ish with her and barely spoke two words to her.
"I don't have a problem." Kara replied, leaning herself back against the desk.
"Well, it's kind of obvious you do," Ava retorted. "Emmi told me you were always around at the house and now I'm there, you….you've came like what, once? And it was only to watch Emmi, so Alex and Maggie could go to their scan," Ava said. "Clearly that shows you don't like me being around."
Kara sucked in her bottom lip as she played with her hands. "Just don't touch anything in here."
"I'm not going too," Ava raised her voice, feeling frustrated. "I'm not a curious little 5 year old," Ava told her. "I'm 16 and I know not to muck around with anything in here. I don't care about any of this stuff. Right now, I'm more focused on my Algebra homework."
Kara opened her mouth to reply but before she could, Maggie walked into the room. "Hey, what you two chatting about?" Maggie questioned.
"Nothing," Ava shut her workbook. "You ready to go?" Ava asked, and Maggie nodded. Ava put the workbook and her pencil into her school bag, zipping it shut.
"Uh, Ava and I are going out for dinner then to the movies if you want to join us." Maggie said, looking over to Kara.
"Um," Kara bit her lip, glancing at Ava for a moment before looking back to Maggie. "No, it's fine." Kara murmured as she rubbed the back of her head.
"Well, do come over soon," Maggie said. "It's been a while."
"Yeah." Kara exhaled lightly as she stared at Ava once again, before she left the lab.
"She okay?" Maggie questioned watching Kara as she left but speaking to Ava.
"I don't know what's up with her," Ava shrugged as she put her school bag over her shoulders. "Can we just go?" Ava asked, and Maggie nodded as she left the DEO with her sister, the pair of them going to enjoy a sisters' night.
Thoughts? :)