Alex hurried through the D.E.O. towards Violet's room, anxious to see her. She and Maggie had "accidentally" slept in, and by the time they woke up Alex was worried they'd miss Violet's recheck appointment. Maggie calmly followed Alex as they came upon Kara waiting outside her room, engrossed in something on her phone.
"Hey Kara, sorry we're so late, someone didn't set the alarm right," Alex rushed to explain.
Maggie played dumb, feigned innocence and shrugged, "I swear I set it babe, maybe the power went out during the night?"
Kara, without looking up, blew Maggie's cover. "I told her to turn it off Alex, you haven't had a real night's sleep in like a month. And we were fine."
Alex shot them both a look and Maggie dropped the act. "Thanks a lot Kara, I thought we agreed to keep that between us," she huffed.
Alex crossed her arms in front of her and continued staring them both down, "you two are not allowed to gang up on me like that. It's a betrayal. Unfair and uncalled for."
"It was entirely called for. You wanted to get up at 4:30 so we could be here by 6am. Violet wouldn't have even been up at 6am," Maggie argued, good-natured but very much standing by their plan.
"It's almost 1! What if we had missed her discharge!" Alex rebutted. She was thrilled that Kara and Maggie were on such good terms, but this was not what she'd had in mind when she wished for them to be closer.
"Al. We are the ones taking her home. She literally cannot be discharged without us." Maggie was doing her best to be gentle with Alex's irrational worry, she knew this whole thing had taken its toll on her.
Alex opened her mouth to respond but quickly shut it. Maggie was right of course, and thankfully she was there to talk Alex down before she devolved into lunacy. The hold that Violet had on her was still new and overwhelming, and she was still getting used to it. Sometimes it took over a little too much. She turned her attention to the top of Kara's head, her face still buried in whatever she was looking at, "How was her follow up with the doctor?"
Kara distractedly updated them both, "Recheck and x-rays were good, they're taking off the cast now and going over her physical therapy stuff."
Alex nudged Kara gently. "Hey. You literally haven't looked up since we got here, what's up?"
With that Kara instantly shoved her phone in a pocket and shook her head. "Nothing. It's nothing."
Alex raised an eyebrow, and Maggie quickly followed suit. "It's not nothing, crinkle is back." Kara looked down and Alex lowered her voice to offer a more empathetic approach. "Hey. Kar. What's up?"
Kara took a second, looked between the two of them and sighed as she started to spill. "It's Ms. Grant. She wants to know why I've 'neglected to publish as promised'," Kara whined, quoting the message she'd been so engrossed in, "after 'all the opportunity she has afforded me'."
"What? You haven't talked to her?"
"I explained what I could to Snapper when I told him I had to extend my last deadline. But now I haven't published anything in months and I haven't exactly talked to her about it… she's not wrong though. She let me pick whatever job I wanted and now I'm not even doing it."
"If you're worried about it then you should talk to her too, not just Snapper. You have kind of been dealing with an understandably significant family emergency."
"Yeah I just… I think she might start to get suspicious of all my previously unmentioned cousins."
Alex shrugged, "So tell her the truth. You know she can keep a secret, she'll keep it to herself."
Kara laughed off her suggestion, obviously she wasn't thinking straight. "Alex, she doesn't even know I'm Supergirl. How am I supposed to explain you and the D.E.O. and time travel and a niece from the future and a near suicide mission that put her up against a murderous cyborg form a terrorist group that wants to evict all aliens from the face of the planet." Hell of a story when you put it like that…
"Kara."
"What."
"Ok, first off. Of course she knows you're Supergirl."
"What?" Kara's retort came out a little higher pitched than normal and she found herself responding with uncomfortable laughter. "That's ridiculous. She suspected it a long time ago, but J'onn and I convinced her she was wrong and I've been totally careful not to give anything away since."
"Uh huh. Because you wear your super stealthy glasses and you never abruptly leave work immediately before Supergirl shows up somewhere. Kara. The only reason she pretends not to know is because you tried so hard to convince her she was wrong. She's respecting your privacy. And your secret."
Kara stared at Alex, speechless, and began to think back. She did figure out Barry was the Flash without even knowing him. And that James was Guardian. Maybe she does know that I'm –
Kara's eyes grew wide as realization dawned on her; Does she know that Clark is Superman? Does she know we're family? The things she's said about him... to me. Her stunned look of realization immediately turned to visible disgust. Ugh, gross. Has she just been messing with me this whole time?
Alex stifled a smile as she watched Kara's wheels turn. She had no idea what she was thinking, but the look of sheer horror on her face was thoroughly enjoyable. "Trust me, she knows who you are. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, if she was going to do something or say something it would have happened a long time ago. Besides. Cat knows people. A lot of people. She may know someone who has a lead on Cadmus. And for you she would probably reach out, ask around." Normally Alex wouldn't ask Kara to use those in her life – her life as Kara Danvers – for information. There was this unspoken rule that Kara's life apart from Supergirl was sort of off limits. At least to the D.E.O.. But in this case, when it came to Violet… Alex couldn't help herself.
"She just basically yelled at me and told me I'm letting her down. I probably shouldn't be asking for favors right now…" Kara sighed and her thoughts returned to the text message on her phone.
"Are you kidding me. God you're dense sometimes. Kara, that text was her way of checking up on you."
"You think so?" Kara asked wide eyed, almost as if she was begging to believe it.
Alex didn't hesitate. It had clearly been way too long since Cat Grant had been in town, and Kara was obviously forgetting how to translate CatSpeak. "Kara I'm pretty sure the only people she likes more than you are her own actual flesh and blood children. Maggie. Back me up here."
"No question," Maggie nodded. "She has a super weird way of showing it, but I don't expect there's much she wouldn't do for you if you needed something."
Kara's crinkle was nowhere to be seen, a grin flew across her face instead. "I should call her. Tell her what's going on. I've missed her. And her advice."
Alex bumped her shoulder into Kara's. "Go on. We'll wait for Violet here."
As they watched Kara scamper off to call Cat, Maggie shook her head. "You know, from what I've heard of Cat Grant, she wasn't exactly what people would consider a 'mentor'. Always pictured her as more of a 'Devil Wears Prada' type."
Alex smiled to herself and glanced over to Maggie, "I used to think she treated Kara like crap, but Kara can hold her own. Cat Grant was good for her, gave her a challenge to face as a human instead of as an alien for once. I know Kara misses having her around to talk to."
Alex and Maggie stopped talking as the door to Violet's room opened and Dr. Hamilton stepped out. "Oh good, I was wondering where you both were. Violet's discharge papers are ready to be signed, we were just waiting on you."
"That… is my bad. Alarm troubles," Maggie admitted.
"Not a problem, I'll go grab the paperwork and we'll get you all out of here. Not that we haven't enjoyed having a bunch of live-in Danvers' this month…" Hamilton said jokingly. Sort of. Having Mama Bear Alex Danvers and the cavalry that came with her was more than a little intimidating for her staff. She expected they'd appreciate the breathing room.
Alex grinned as she and Maggie stood and headed inside. Violet was perched on the edge of her bed, dressed to go and shoving the last of her things into the duffle that Alex had brought her clothes in when she'd first started complaining about 'breezes' and unflattering hospital gowns.
"Look ma, two hands," Violet joked, palms up with no cast in sight.
Alex knew Violet only said it while kidding around, but her heart still fluttered involuntarily at the word 'ma'. She forced herself not to dwell on it too long, fully aware that she'd get choked up and risk ruining the mood. "Looking good kid," she settled for a gentle hug and the widest smile she could fit on her face.
Maggie waited about two seconds before getting in on the action. Alex shifted the moment Maggie got close and threw an arm around her too.
Her little family. Her weird, inexplicable, time-traveled and battle-torn little family.
A knock on the door pulled them apart, and they all turned to see Dr. Hamilton waiting at the door with a folder and a… wheelchair.
"The hell is that for," Violet asked, dry and unamused.
"Protocol. You only leave this place in this chair," the doctor shot her a look that very clearly said 'do not test me'.
"Fine," Violet huffed, willing to sacrifice the triumphant exit she had planned in her head to get out of there as fast as possible, "but the second those wheels hit pavement I'm out."