More than one universe?

"Oh my gosh." Mary slipped onto the chair opposite of Sophie. "That was not a date that went the way it was supposed to. What happened?" Was she this obvious? Was it written all over her face that her life was not exactly peaches and cream at the moment?

"1 guess I'm looking the way you expect me to look after I got suspended."

"Just that this is not about the Crows. What is it?"

What was worse? Batwoman telling her they couldn't see each other anymore or the way her mother had reacted? Right now Sophie was not sure what hurt more.

"I got told that we can't see anymore because as long as I am with a woman, who wears a mask, I'll wear a mask myself. That I want this relationship because it's hidden and I want to stay in the closet and not stand up for who I am. Plus, if anybody finds out there is a huge target on my back."

"Damn "

"Yes. She is right though. The target...l am...was...second in command, I had a target on my back anyway. There was a reason why Alice abducted me to threaten your stepfather. It was not to lure Kate back to Gotham." There was no way Alice could have known about her and Kate back then.

"Which it did anyway," Mary said dryly.

"Yeah. Did you call her?" Why else would Kate have returned? There was no way Commander Kane had called his daughter and told her about Sophie's abduction.

"I did. She had to know and I'm glad I called her."

"Me too. Although it made my life quite complicated."

"What do you mean?" Mary asked suspiciously.

"Saying her return didn't shake the life I had built would be a lie. Things between Tyler and me got more complicated after she returned because...we didn't break up because we fell out of love but because I decided to put work and my career over her. It hadn't been a decision made by my heart but by my head."

"Oh, okay." Why was Mary so weird about this? What had she thought had Kate made complicated? "So, does this mean it's the end or is there a chance to get back with her?"

"I have no idea. And frankly, it's not the only problem."

"Your suspension."

"That would be number three on my list of things that went wrong lately. My mom showed up —when Batwoman was there. She didn't see her, but...she wanted to know why Tyler and I separated and I told her, I fell out of love with him. Something, she didn't understand. Later, Batwoman and I got the box cutter woman, we were a damn good team." They had moved like they knew exactly what the other was about to do, like they had done this many times before. It had felt naturally and good. The last time Sophie had felt something like this was a long time ago. With Kate.

"Then she broke up with me, I came home and told my mother the truth."

"You told her, you dated Batwoman?"

"Hell no!" That would have made everything worse than it was. "I told her that I had never been in love with Tyler, that the only time I had really been happy was at Point Rock, in the relationship I had there. Mom told me to go and find him, find the happiness I had and 1...I told her that it wasn't a him, that it was a her. From there things went badly. I've never seen my mother this disappointed and she told me, that she was. That I made her life harder with this."

"You didn't choose to be gay."

"I said the same, she wouldn't listen. Which means, my mom hates me, Batwoman doesn't want to see me anymore and I'm kind of without work."

"You still have me." Mary took Sophie's hands. "I'm sorry your mother reacted the way she did. She should love you the way you are, there is nothing wrong with you, you haven't done anything wrong and the only one, who has any kind of being mad or disappointed is Tyler because you married him despite knowing you don't love him."

"He is disappointed and he knows that...l am not in love with him. Ever since I told him about Kate and me he...kind of knew that my feelings for him are not real." She shouldn't have lied, she knew this herself. But she wanted her family to be proud of her, wanted to please them and for that she had to create lies and live in them. Until they crash down on her and she told the truth.

"I have no idea what to do next, Mary."

"By telling your mother the truth you have done a brave step towards living a life without lies. The question is, will you live this new life or will you go back to the closet?"

"I'm not sure if that is an option." Not after she had told her mother, who would tell the rest of the family.

"You don't have to go back there in order to get your job back. My stepfather knows about you and Kate at Point Rock, he won't fire you for being a lesbian."

"No, but for helping Batwoman and I know, if there will ever be a situation like she's at risk and I can help her, I will help her. She...she stands for what I believe in and I can't give up these values. I can't have her arrested when I know in my head and in my heart she is exactly what Gotham needs."

"And what you need," Mary pointed out.

Did? Did she need Batwoman the same way the city needed her? Or needed she Batwoman to hide? After all, it was impossible to go out with Batwoman. "It's not like I could go out on a date with Batwoman."

"You can, as soon as she drops the mask. Would you go out with a woman?"

Would she? Was she ready for this step? "I'm not sure I am ready for that." No, she needed some time to get her feelings sorted. She needed to talk to her mother, try again to make her understand that she had never wanted to disappoint her — but there was nothing she could do about her sexuality.

"Then you better wait until you are ready before you start something you can't end. Or you are not comfortable with."

How long would that be? "I'm sorry I unloaded all of this on you."

"That's what friends are for. I'm glad you told your mom, it will make you feel better. Not right away but in the future." "

Your father left several voice mails on my phone. I didn't listen to them."

"From what I have heard, there is a lot of trouble going on at the Crows and I wouldn't be surprised if he called to ask you back. He trusts you, Sophie, matter what he might have said. These days we all need people, who are loyal and we can trust."

Maybe she should call him tomorrow. If he asked her to come back to work she had something to do and could stop thinking about the last days all the time. "Do you know what is going on?"

"Not, but it has to be something bigger because the mood he is in, is not good. He spends a lot of time in the office and doesn't share anything that happened."

"You would think now that Alice is dead life goes back to normal."

"Yeah...about that..."

"What?" Sophie had seen how Alice was hit by a bullet, she had seen the body. There was nothing else to say about this, Alice was dead. Why looked Mary like there was a complete new story to this? A story, Sophie wouldn't like.

"Nothing."

"Mary. I saw her die, I saw her body. Your stepfather saw the body."

"This will sound crazy when I explain it to you."

"Try me." She had heard and done many crazy things and as she lived in Gotham, she believed there were many things, that could shock her. If Alice was still alive she wanted to know because Commander Kane had to know.