A/N: We are onto 'Mr. & Mrs. M' now! Woo! We're almost to the episode that made me start this whole crazy journey. I will most definitely go through the whole season. Maybe give ya a little closure with my own twist since we don't get Jerimiah any more this season and I doubt you guys want me to wait until the next starts to finish this up. My brain has decided I don't need sleep and as a result, I have been having all these crazy ideas! Hopefully they all work out. That said, just like with 'Luthors', our timeline won't follow Supergirl to a tee. I think you'll all like where I take this.

Sam laid in bed wide awake. Her alarm was due to go off any minute but she had woken up hours ago. A good nervous streaking through her veins. She felt ready for today.

A mood that was quickly souring with the incessant buzzing of her phone. Not her alarm. A text notification. One call and voicemail left.

It was Valentine's Day. A holiday that Sam didn't despise, though she would say it was stupid if asked. But, she kind of liked it. Sam liked the idea of having a special day to do extra nice things for people. She had never looked at it as a day that was needed to show love for loved ones.

It had always been a day she spent more than a couple minutes on the phone with her mom. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine's Day were always a special phone call day for them. And, her mom usually sent a card. Not this Valentine's Day. Sam knew there would be no card. She hadn't exactly left a forwarding address with Alex when she left. There wasn't going to be a phone call either. No matter how many times her phone went off, Eliza Danvers was not someone Sam wanted to talk to.

So, Sam did what she has gotten very good at throughout the latter half of her life. She ignored and dodged and pretended she was a stonewall. Today was easier. There were DEO physical evaluations to prepare for. Sam got out of bed. Sam got dressed. Sam stretched.

The NC rail was mostly empty. It was early but not early enough for the railcar to be so deserted. Her evals had been scheduled early on purpose. Sam hadn't wanted to wait around all day, getting nervous and psyching herself out.

Early or not, the DEO was buzzing. Unlike the NC rail. No Alex but Kara and Mon-El were flat out arguing in the middle of the DEO main floor. Kara was raising her voice about not being a damsel in distress and Mon-El retorting that she couldn't turn it around on him. Sam had meant to ignore them both but those damned feelings from the other night with James and Winn were still lingering. She hadn't been able to rouse enough anger to drown it all out.

"Back off, Mon-El. Kara doesn't need you." Sam snapped as she walked by. Not slowing or even looking in his direction. It brought Kara's retort to a stuttering stop.

"Wha– Uh…yea. Yea!"

Sam didn't bother listening to whatever she said next. She made a beeline to J'onn. He was, as always, wide-base standing in the middle of the computer bay looking over his agents.

"Morning, J'onn."

"Ah." He looked at Sam, confused. "Sam. I didn't realize you were coming in today. Have you spoken with Alex?"

"No, sir. I'm supposed to be in for my physical evals, right?"

"No. I asked Alex to call you before she went home this morning." He crossed his arms over his chest then brought one hand up to his chin. "She must have forgot."

"No eval, then?"

"I'm afraid not. We had a situation arise last night that needs our immediate attention. I apologize for making you come all the way down here for no reason."

"Nah. It's okay. Nature of the job."

"Right you are." J'onn smiled at Sam. "I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave, Sam. We're in a code five. No civilians on the operations floor. I'll have Alex call you when she comes back in so we can reschedule your evaluations."

"Yes, sir. Good luck with your code five."

Sam made her way promptly from the computer bay. Up the stairs and part way across the raised platform before a large hand wrapped around her bicep and pulled her to a stop. Sam's eyes first dropped to the hand holding her in place then slowly up to its owner. Mon-El quickly let go but didn't lose his troubled expression or even apologize.

"What did you mean when you said 'she doesn't need me'?"

"She's fucking Supergirl. If you're in her life, it's because she wants you there." Sam let out a harsh laugh. "You're delusional to think otherwise and I'm not even trying to offend you. She doesn't need anyone to do anything for her."

That didn't seem to soothe Mon-El. His ego was too caught up in the not needed part. Sam had a feeling that this was all part of something bigger, deeper. Some facet of their not really but kind of budding relationship.

"I gotta go, Mon-El. Don't worry that pretty little head of yours too much."

An entire day was left. No plans, no responsibilities. Sam thought briefly on going to visit Emma at work; maybe take her some coffee. That idea was quickly discarded. Just playing that scenario out in her head made Sam feel uncomfortable. Whatever chemistry they had at CatCo, whether it was platonic or more, it was gone now. The realization came with a twinge of disappointment.

The responsible thing to do, when unemployed and trying to ace her evals to get a job, was to get a workout in. Sam was only too happy to oblige, running away was her greatest skill. Be it from others or her own feelings. And, it gave her a chance to throw some weights around and see how her hand felt.

Sam stretched again, going with a more yoga-esque routine. Slow and deep and relaxing. Sam ran. Sam lifted and was surprised that she was only mildly uncomfortable when losing her right hand. It was better than she had hoped. The worry she was harboring for her DEO physical evals dissipated. Sam ended her workout with another run. She pushed herself faster and farther than she had been the last few weeks. Her lungs were burning and her legs were Jell-O but Sam felt great.

The light coming into her apartment from her fire escape window and the awkward rectangle-bar window in the kitchen seemed brighter. The air in the apartment seemed lighter. Sam was very plainly in a good mood. Something that hadn't seemed possible for more than just a few months. She wasn't sure what was causing it, if anything the scheduling mishap should have had the opposite effect, but Sam wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Shower and lunch were quickly finished. Sam was saved from searching for something else to fill her time by her phone. Alex's contact lighting up her screen. Knowing it was DEO-related, Sam picked up quickly.

"Hello?"

"Hey Sam. It's Alex."

"Hey."

"I am so sorry I didn't call you this morning. I was at the DEO all night and it completely slipped my mind. I swear I'm not usually this unorganized."

"I know, it's cool. Are you calling to reschedule?"

"Yes. J'onn said you quit CatCo so is it okay to assume that any time works for you?"

"Sure. I'd prefer earlier in the day so I can get it over with."

"I totally get that. I'm the same way. Waiting around all day just makes me overthink and freak myself out."

"Same."

The line was quiet for a moment as, Sam assumed, Alex looked for a time slot for Sam's evals. Then a soft rustling noise had Sam thinking Alex was writing.

"Okay. I have Saturday at ten. That sound good?"

"Yep."

"You're in the system so we're all set. I'll see ya on Saturday, Sam."

"Uh, Alex?" Sam paused. Not sure if she wanted to ask her next question. Those pesky feelings though. They wouldn't leave and they were making words spill out of Sam's mouth too easily.

"Yea?"

"J'onn said something about a code five? I don't really need you to tell me what that means but is everything okay? Like…uh, are you good?"

Alex hesitated and Sam didn't really like that. There was no real way to know how to interpret it. "Yea, Sam. I'm good. Thanks for asking."

"Yea, no problem. So, uh, see you Saturday."

"See you Saturday."

Sam set her phone down on her kitchen island. She looked around her apartment from the stool. No idea what to do with herself. CatCo had kept her so busy and what little free time she had was spent with her sisters or James or Maggie. Or working out and Sam already did that. She could sleep? That seemed like a waste though.

No TV. No books in her apartment. No wifi so she couldn't even surf the internet on her laptop. The whole spartan style had a few more drawbacks when she actually spent more time in her apartment doing things other than sleeping.

Eventually, Sam did fall asleep. Not on purpose. She had moved from her stool to her bed only because it was something to do and then staring at her walls got the best of her. When she woke back up, it was dark out. Sam looked blearily around the room then slid her hands around her sheets until she found her phone. After six and half as many texts waiting to be read. All from Maggie.

-I don't do this but I'm freaking out

-Sam? Please. I need you to talk me off this ledge before I do something incredibly stupid

-You know what? Nvm. And not cuz you aren't responding. That's totally fine. I'll handle this. It's cool. Sry to bug you

The first two were separated by two minutes then the last didn't come in for another fifteen. All were from about an hour ago. Sam was quick to respond now that she was aware.

-Sorry. I was sleeping. What's up? (S)

It took a few minutes for Maggie to text back. Sam could just picture her dragging it out. Not wanting to respond too quickly. Keeping her badass cop façade.

-Nothing. I'm cool. Don't worry about it (M)

-You just reassured me three times in one text that you're good. That means you aren't. You always make me talk to you. Your turn (S)

The next text was quicker. Maggie giving in. Sam briefly wondered when she became the type of friend that listened and comforted people. It wasn't exactly something she never did but it wasn't normal either.

-It's Alex (M)

-And? (S)

-She surprised me with valentine's day stuff (M)

Sam couldn't follow it through text. Maggie was freaking out about a surprise? A Valentine's Day surprise? Usually that was a good thing in relationships. At least as far as Sam knew. It didn't make sense. She jabbed the call button and waited for the pick-up.

"Since when do you make calls?"

"Since I have no idea what the fuck you're freaking out about."

Maggie sighed. "It's stupid. I told her this morning I hate Valentine's Day but she still went out and got me tiramisu and scotch and other stuff I like. I made myself perfectly clear that I don't do this stupid holiday. She didn't listen."

"Is there a reason you want to burn Valentine's Day to the ground or are you just a grinch in general?"

"Remember when I told you I was outed?" Sam hummed her affirmative. Maggie had told her back at the bar when she first walked away from Alex's. "Well, it was Valentine's Day related."

"Did you tell Alex that? She's pretty much always a bitch to me but she's cool about that shit for other people. She'd understand. And, probably feel bad that she pushed it on you."

"Yea, I did. Like an ass and then stormed out; and like, I'm not mad anymore. It was actually really sweet what she tried to do but I couldn't let go of my Nebraska baggage that doesn't even matter anymore and I made her feel bad about it. How fucked is that?"

"You're human, Maggie. You get to be a bitch sometimes too. You just have to apologize for it. You guys'll be fine. She thinks you like fart butterflies or some shit."

Maggie didn't even acknowledge Sam's bad joke. "You think that'll be enough?"

"Yea. Alex has never really needed the grand gestures. She might like it if you did something big but you don't need to. An apology would be fine."

"Hm. Okay, I'll keep that in mind. I'll stop by the DEO tomorrow and apologize."

"You good?"

"Yea, I now I am. You're good at this, Sam. Maybe don't count yourself out when it comes to feelings and other people."

Sam scoffed. "Yea, right. You were already calm by the time we got on the phone. I didn't really do anything. Just told you that Alex isn't always horrible."

"You know for a fact that she's barely ever horrible."

Sam didn't answer. Her first instinct was to get mad. To yell and tell Maggie she had no idea what she was talking about. Her gut, though, told her that Maggie was speaking the truth. Could Alex be god awful? Hell yes. Was she awful for no reason? No. Sam had always given her at least one. They'd been instigating their encounters for so long that it was easy to forget that when they were trying, they were good. Sam sighed.

"Whatever you say, Maggie."

"Yea, yea. You can admit I'm right some other time. I'll cut you some slack since you just helped me out." Sam rolled her eyes at Maggie's smug voice. She could imagine the self-satisfied smile her friend was sporting right now. "Any V-day plans yourself? Wait, do you even like Valentine's Day? Alex liking it was outta left field for me. I feel like I can never assume anything ever again after that."

"You know what they say about assuming." Sam shrugged even though Maggie couldn't see her, moving onto Maggie's question. "Our mom always made a big deal about it. We grew up viewing it as a day to show extra love, not one day to do nice things. I don't really know if that explains it but it's a family thing. Stupid but not the worst holiday out there."

"Nah. That makes sense. It's just still surprising that the badass Danvers girls are Valentine's Day nerds. But you didn't answer my original question, any plans?"

"No, Maggie. No plans. I'll probably go for a walk, get some dinner, then crash."

"I'll let you get to it then. I need to eat and crash too. Thanks again, Sam. I owe ya."

"No worries. Night."

Sam did just as she said. A long walk down to the boardwalk, along the docks. Then back toward her favorite Chinese takeout place. Sam stopped by her apartment and grabbed her laptop before getting food though, taking advantage of the wait for her food and the restaurant's free wifi. She downloaded Dope, Jurassic Park, Jaws, IP Man, Reservoir Dogs, and was halfway through Underworld when her food was finally done. Sam wouldn't be lying if she said that specific Chinese place wasn't her favorite because of their ridiculously fast and free internet.

The walk home was quick. Sam opted to change into PJs before crawling into bed with her takeout and laptop. She ate and watched Dope. Her first taste of more than a piece of pop culture since she was living with Alex.

The thought of falling asleep after her nap seemed unlikely. Regardless, Sam was out only minutes after setting her containers on the ground next to her bed. The stress of being angry at her sisters and alone, the nerves surrounding the DEO all melted under her first real day of relaxation. It was what she needed, right when she needed it. That claustrophobic feeling was gone. Sam hadn't even noticed its departure from her conscience.