"Are you ready for this?" Winn asks from behind her as the motorcycle slowed to a stop beside the curb. She could tell just from his voice he was already regretting letting her drive as his arms unlocked hastily from around her middle.

The building itself to Winn's mind wasn't all that interesting as he lifted the visor of his helmet for a better look at the place they'd stopped. Even without the scars of his past Winn knew not everything, everyone nor every building should be taken at face value. If Maggie drove like a madwoman on a mission to bring them here, breaking more than a few traffic and speeding laws along the way then there must have been a reason.

"In theory," Maggie admits shaking out her hair as she pulled her own helmet off and hung it over the handlebars.

"When was the last time…" Winn started to ask only to shake his head with a hasty "Sorry you don't have to answer…"

"Last I saw her, the real one anyway was when she was closing the door on me. On us." Maggie admits with a painful breath as she tries to steady herself against the bike seat the same moment Winn decided to step off the still running motorbike in a small attempt to give his friend some space. "I have kept tabs on her, on them." She goes on with a slightly guilty expression as her eyes move towards the building once more over Winn's shoulder.

"Not like in the weird stalker way." She hurries to add guessing how that much have sounded much to her companion's amusement. Of her almost family she'd ended up keeping the closest tabs on J'onn. The closest she'd had to a real father since she was 14. Eliza running an oh-so-close second considering she was almost Maggie's mother-in-law with Kara rounding out the top three but only because of the easier time Maggie had finding updates on both sides of her almost sister-in-law's activates. Heroic and journalistic.

"How is Liza?" Winn asks honest curiously in his tone now as he remembered his own small interactions with the Danvers mother the times she would call to check in on Maggie during their shared downtime at the precinct.

"She seemed to be doing alright when I finally got around to introducing her to Gracie." Maggie shrugged grateful for the lighter topic change. "I still don't know what had Gracie girl so spooked earlier she ended up hiding out in your guy's bathroom but sorry in advance if she ends of having an ac…."

Winn cracks a smile of his own already waving off Maggie's stammered attempt at an apology. "Gracie will be fine. You know she adores you she's probably just upset your so upset you know how sensitive animals are to their owners and as for her nervous puppy balder…." He lets out a long breath. "I'm sure Linda can handle her."

"Let's roll Radio Shack." Maggie says tossing the bike's keys back to their original owner as she takes one last steadying breath before getting back to the matter at hand.

She wanted answers and she wasn't leaving until she got them.

Winn rolls his eyes at the affectionately given nickname as his hand finds her wrist making the shorter woman pause and turn back towards him. "Whatever happens in there. I've got your back." He reminds considering Maggie only calling him 'Radio Shack' when she was on edge good or bad.

Maggie smiles covering his hand with her free one. "Thanks." She whispers still partly wondering why the taller man had been so insistent he be allowed to join her. Not that she wasn't grateful. This was going to be rough even if it wasn't really Alex, she'd been dealing with should Guardian and the rest turn up before she'd gotten what she'd come for.

As their unspoken rule when partnered together either on the job or off Winn goes in first and Maggie has to bite her lip to keep from giggling when she sees his eyes widen as the door swung closed.

"Man, someone's totally rocking the retro vibe." Winn comments in a voice just audible even in the quiet of the empty-looking office as he takes a quick glance around "Very Sam Spade." Maggie only rolls her eyes at his boyish grin before his face soothes into that serious soldier's mask as his eyes find hers. "Right, right not the point." He agrees shaking back his sleeve to start typing something into the brace at his wrist.

Something of his own design Maggie already knew although what it actually does, she has no clue whatsoever.

"Techo nerd." Maggie finds herself whispering earning a proud half-smile from the man at her side as he continues his scan of their surroundings mostly directing his efforts on the smooth stretch of wall that had nothing against it yet warranted steps leading toward it.

Maggie however takes a much more direct approach. "J'onn? J'onn it's Maggie can we talk?"

What neither was expecting was instead of a voice a loud happy bark sounded in answer.

"J'onn?" Maggie calls out a second time. Another pleased bark answers just like before.

"Is J'onn a dog?" Winn asks equal parts amused and puzzled by his own question.

Maggie shakes her head in denial following the sounds as best she could despite it leading to the supposedly empty brick wall.

"Maybe it's like that wizard book series Lin likes. The one where to get to the magic train they had to run at a supposedly solid wall." Winn offers

"Yeah no." Maggie scoffed when another impatient barking growl sounds again.

"I know you're excited and I know I'm no substitute for Kara, but that's still no need for you to be biting at my hand,"

Maggie can feel her heart both break and melt at the sounds of the new voice as an honest to hidden alien technology elevator opens up along the not-so-innocent brick wall. Her hand also rested automatically at Winn's wrist knowing how jumpy the former soldier was at sudden changes in his environment. The touch is not meant to be restraining more grounding. Going by the way his shoulder seemed to relax he'd realized the difference as the door slid open.

"I have a cutie just like you at home." Maggie says her eyes drawn at once toward the squirming mass of fur in the newcomer's arms as J'onn Jones steps from the elevator now melting back into the wall.

"Uh sorry, who's home?" Winn chimed in with a playful grin on his lips. Maggie noticed before Winn the shock on J'onn's face when her best friend since waking up after that strange red wave steps with her toward the happily barking puppy.

"Take it, easy soldier boy, I was only joking." Maggie answers rolling her eyes as she steps a few paces closer when the puppy in J'onn's arms started pawing at the separating space between them with a pained whimper. J'onn seemed to hesitate on actually letting the animal go until the pup made the deciding half jump half fall into Maggie's already waiting arms.

"Unh Mags, does Gracie have a twin?" Winn questions

"I adopted her from a shelter so it's a possibility." Maggie shrugged not actually listening to the question being asked as she was too busy lifting the puppy in question higher to allow the mini bath of kisses against the underside of her chin and neck.

"Hey, J'onn have you seen my extra cape anywhere I think Alex might have tak…..hey, hey Maggie."

Had she not been holding what could possibly be the best copy of her dog she'd ever seen Maggie would have slammed her palm into her forehead as Kara came charging into the office dressed in most of her more heroic outfit.

"Wow Lin, how-how'd you get here so fast?" Winn asks intrigued the same time Kara gives a shocked "Winn?" as she pulls the more soldier-like copy in for a hug.

Maggie was about to jump in with a helpful 'it's not the one you know' until she was stalled by the soldiers playfully accusing "and I thought we agreed one you didn't wear that outside the bedroom?" As he pulled back to look at the newly arrived hero more closely. "and wasn't it you that said you preferred the skirt over the pants?" he added letting his fingers graze ever so gently along Kara's hip before they dropped respectfully back to his sides.

Maggie's shudder turned into a tremor of laughter she was trying and failing to muffle by pressing her face against the puppy's scruff as Kara's eyes widened like a deer in headlights before her cheeks turned several different shades of pink then deepened to red.

"I uh-I think you h—ha-have me confused with um with some-s—s-someone else." The shocked super finally managed to say in actual words.

At this Winn's puzzled gaze dropped to her left hand before his eyes widened in shocked realization and he stumbled back as if she'd just caught fire. "God, you're, you're her. I mean the real- I'm so sorry I just- you, you look a lot like my wife and I just-" he stammered in apology as he tripped his way backward.

"Yeap, you're defiantly sleeping on the couch tonight." Maggie comments still snuggling the nearly identical Gracie puppy with an apologetically amused expression at Winn's panicked glare.

"They could be twins, how was I supposed to know it wasn't her?"

"Because the real one is still back at your new apartment trying to lure Gracie out of the dang bathroom you dummy." Maggie fires back.

The name earning a series of puzzled sounding barks from the puppy in Maggie's arms.

"Alex, come on I thought we talked about volume control." Kara huffed pressing a finger against her more sensitive ears.

The puppy in Maggie's arms giving a guilty-sounding whimper in-between much happier noises as she paws at Maggie's front as if she were a true pet that hadn't seen a loved owner in days.

'I'm just glad Kelly isn't seeing this.' Kara finds herself thinking even when her heart melts at seeing her sister finally actually happy about something since the whole puppy-changing incident.

"You did but that's not Alex, Supergirl that's an alarm for a fire across town." J'onn points out no doubt picking up some semblance of the call himself.

J'onn only realizes too late as Kara speeds out without her signature cape what he'd inadvertently reviled.

"Alex?" Maggie repeats now holding the puppy in her arms with far more care as her eyes find J'onn's. Her mind wearing with so many emotions and questions not even she could understand it all. "As in my…." She starts to ask her voice cracking too much to even say the name. Her name. The puppy in her arms stretched up to nuzzle once more under her chin in attempted comfort.

"Maggie." J'onn starts to say but Winn immediately pushes between them anger clear in his eyes as he shields the woman he's come to see as a close friend if not a sister. "You do not get to talk to her." He growls his hand finding Maggie's own behind his back hampered as they were by the wriggling puppy in her arms.

"Thanks for playing big brother, Schott but now isn't the time." Maggie sighs trying and failing to pull herself back together as she straightens up to her fill height and levels her best 'cop's glare' at the guilty face of J"onn Jones. "Start at the beginning and tell us everything." Maggie demands with Winn still between her and the Martian she'd come to see as a second if not her adoptive father. Alex even squirming enough to lick away the tears Maggie hadn't been able to hold in as her fingers slide therapeutically on her ex's soft fur.

J'onn hangs his head for a few short moments before he nodes once and takes a long breath before meeting Maggie's eyes. "but not here." He decides gesturing back towards the smooth stretch of the brick wall behind him.

"Oh man, this I have to see." Winn grins all his earlier upset draining away the same time the elevator slides back into view.

Maggie doesn't answer as she shifts her ex into a more comfortable hold now cradling Alex more against her shoulder. "Ride or Die, Danvers." She promises scratching gently behind one of the now sleepy-looking puppy's ears. "I will get you back." She adds in a whisper. "Even if that means giving you up again when this is over." She sighs as the puppy that was her ex-fiancée lets out a long sleepy yawn burrowing the side of her head against Maggie's shoulder.

Alex was snoring before the second set of elevator doors slid open.


"Come on, cutie you can't hide under there forever."

The voice again… Kara but not Kara's voice had dropped its more coxing tones about five minutes before at Alex's continued refuels to come out from her wedged place behind the toilet.

Alex only gives a whimpered growl in answer. What else could she do?

The pretty one that smelled like safety was scared, scared of what Alex didn't know, yet at the same time, she did know. Maggie was scared because of her. For her.

"I really didn't want to do this." The Kara voice sighs followed by the retreating sounds of sock-covered feet.

Immediately the weakening fragments of Alex's more human mind were on alert as she pressed her furred body as close to the wall as she could despite knowing full well Linda wouldn't intentionally hurt her in any way, while at the same time she started wriggling out from her hiding place. Her nose twitching curiously as she tested the air as she picked up the ominous sounds of cabinets opening then closing then a drawer squeaking open and the sounds of something metal scraping before the drawer was closed.

What was the human doing?

"Sorry about this cutie but you've left me no other options."

The Alex puppy scrambles back towards safety as the sun-haired human refolded herself down onto the floor beside her hiding place.

"and also sorry there isn't much left but desperate times." She sighed unscrewing the lid of the thing in her lap.

Alex's nose twitched as a new flavor hits the air.

Peanuts.

She licks her lips hungrily as the sounds of a spoon scraping the sides of an almost empty jar reach her sensitive ears.

"Want some girl?"

The spoon was held out at an awkward angle but also close enough that Alex's tongue could reach it with a little stretching on Alex's part as the tempting flavor tickled her nose once again.

Peanut butter. She liked peanut butter.

"There you go see." Linda coxes with a smile in her voice as she watches Maggie's puppy devour the offering with eager whimpers despite keeping tight against the wall as she could.

The spoon was nudged back toward the chuckling blonde with an honest sounding 'more please' kind of look from the pup. Linda was already shaking her head as she moves to get a better look at the hiding animal. "You gotta come out if you want more, Gracie girl."

Alex huffed at the name that wasn't her own more so because the copy of her sister was withholding the creamy yumminess that was off-brand peanut butter.

"I bet Maggie could really use you right now. She seemed really upset earlier." Alex whimpered at the idea of her ex in pain. "I bet if you come out, she'd feel a little better." Linda coaxes once again loading up the spoon with the last scraps of her chosen treat.

One thing was painfully clear to her as Alex happily scrambled towards the offering.

She was running out of time.

But also, and much more pressing the jar of peanut butter was now completely empty.

"Don't worry cutie." Linda promises pressing a soft kiss against the top of Alex's head at her upset whimper as her eyes fell on the thing now tossed away in the trash can when Linda had lifted her into her arms as she stood up. "We'll stop for more on the way. Just don't tell Mags, okay?"

Alex's tail thumped happily against Linda's arms. "Now come on let's get you cleaned up then text my soldier boy to find out where that owner of yours got off to, huh?"

Alex gives another agreeing bark at the suggestion still licking her lips to catch more of the creamy treat still smeared on them as she was carried out of the bathroom her tail thumping madly against the Kara copy's chest at the comment.

Maggie. She was going to see Maggie again.