Warning: Sort of but not really major character death.

March 15, 2019

The smile Maggie wore as she made her way through the bullpen was making more than one of her coworkers a little nervous. She normally had nothing but a scowl on her face until she'd finished her coffee, and it was one of the things that helped cement her reputation as someone you didn't fuck with, but she just couldn't help it. She'd woken up that morning with Kara curled up against her side like an extra cuddly space heater, and she hadn't been able to stop smiling since.

It was crazy. It normally took her a long time to warm up to someone enough for her to enjoy them staying over. Usually it made her feel cramped and uncomfortable. Sex was a lot easier than letting someone share her space, and that was with a girlfriend. Letting a friend spend the night was damn near unheard of for her. It brought back too many memories of the years after she moved out of her aunt's, where she'd lived with too any roommates while she struggled to put herself through college so she could get into the police academy.

The rules didn't seem to apply to Kara though. She'd spent three nights now curled up with her, holding her, and even thinking about it made her smile. Kara made her feel connected, made her feel cared for, made her feel like she mattered to someone. That was something she hadn't felt in a long time. Not since she'd left those rings on the shelf in Alex's apartment.

"Oh! My! God!"

Maggie jerked up in her chair and looked over at Debbie, who was standing there looking like the cat who got the canary.

"What?" Maggie asked.

"Who is she?" Debbie asked as she dropped down into the chair next to Maggie's desk. "What's her name? Is she hot? Is she blonde? Brunette? Redhead?"

"Debbie, what are you talking about?"

"The girl who put that smile on your face. I have to know everything. Where'd you meet her? What does she do? If she butch? Femme?"

"God, are really having this conversation? There's no girl," Maggie said.

"Bullshit," Debbie said. "You have the biggest 'I'm so in love' smile I've ever seen outside of a wedding picture on your face right now, and I want to know who she is."

"Oh, for fuck sake," Maggie said, because Debbie was being ridiculous. "I'm in a good mood. That doesn't mean I'm seeing someone."

"Well, then, enlighten me. What is the cause of this alleged good mood?"

"I swear to god, you are a child."

"Oh, so defensive. She must be something special."

"I had breakfast with a friend," Maggie said.

"I knew it!"

"FRIEND, Debbie. As in, platonic. As in someone who's company I enjoy. Unlike yours."

"That hurts. Really."

"Good."

"So, does this 'friend' have a name?"

Maggie stared at Debbie for a moment, considering her answer. If she told Debbie Kara's name, Debbie would never let it go. She'd probably run a background check, and find out that Kara was Alex's sister, and draw all the wrong conclusions. But if she didn't tell Debbie Kara's name, it would actually be worse, because the woman was a cop, and any cop worth their salt was like a dog with a bone when there was something they wanted to know and didn't. She needed a way to put Debbie off, and fortunately, she had one. The truth.

"Okay, you got me," Maggie said loud enough for the dozen or so detectives that were trying to pretend they weren't eavesdropping could hear. "I'm smiling because Supergirl dropped by last night."

Debbie glared. "What about your breakfast friend?" she asked.

Maggie gave her a smug smile. "I said she dropped by last night. I didn't say when she left."

Debbie sighed and shook her head. "You know, it wouldn't kill you not to be a complete ass every once in a while."

Maggie shrugged. "You wanted to know."

"You are such a bitch."

Maggie leaned back in her chair. "She's a cuddler."

Debbie flipped her the bird as she stood up.

"She made me pancakes for breakfast."

"Fuck you, Sawyer."

"They were blueberry."

"Hey, Sawyer."

Maggie looked up from the report she was writing, to see Hodges smirking at her.

"What?"

"Looks like last night's booty call is getting her ass kicked all over national TV."

"What the fuck are you…" Maggie stopped, as it clicked, and turned to her computer. She pulled up CatCo News's website and clicked on the live feed.

"…the Girl of Steel just can't seem to get an advantage on Luthor," the reporter said. "Again, for those of you who are just joining us, we are watching live footage of a fight between Supergirl and an armoring individual who appears to be Lex Luthor. The fight, which began just twenty minutes ago in the skies about National City has raged across the entire country, with the pair spotted in Hub City, Keystone City, Fawcett City, Gotham and now Metropolis."

Maggie tuned out the commentary as she watched Kara and Lex fucking Luthor fight. The battle was one of the most vicious she'd ever seen Kara in, and she'd watched more than one grudge match. The two of them were trading blows that rattled windows as they went round and round in the skies. She gripped the arms of her chair, her nails digging in every time Lex landed a blow.

A glowing green blade slid out of the arm of Lex's suit, and Maggie felt her heart stop as he lunged towards Kara, aiming right for her heart. Kara dodged at the last second, and grabbed Lex, spinning around and throwing him into the massive globe on top of the Daily Planet. When he came out of the bottom of the globe, he bounced once before his suit opened up, spilling him into the roof of the building.

Maggie let out a sigh of relief. Without his suit, there was no way Lex could go toe to toe with Kara, and she watched as Kara slammed down onto the rooftop and slapped Lex away from his suit, sending him flying to the opposite side of the roof. Kara marched over and took a swing, clearly intending to knock Lex out cold before she brought him in, but Lex caught her fist, stopping it cold. The look of shock on Kara's face was clear as day, and Maggie silently told her to get out of there, but Kara said something, and Lex said something back, and Lex's suit lifted off the ground, and shot Kara in the back with two green beams.

Kara staggered under the blow, but she spun around and blew the suit apart with her heat vision. She turned back to Lex, but he punched her across the roof, and when she hit the ground, the camera got a good view of her face, and Maggie felt her stomach lurch at the vein like pattern of bright green lines standing out on her skin. Maggie had never seen it before, but Alex had drilled into her the signs and symptoms of Kryponite poisoning.

She watched, helplessly, as Kara struggled, trying her best to get up, but she didn't seem to have the strength to even support herself, and she just collapsed back onto the roof. Lex ripped the giant globe off its mounting and lifted it over his head. Maggie begged Kara to get up, but Kara didn't move. She just lay there, her chest heaving as the lines of green stood out on her skin, until Lex slammed the globe down on her.

Maggie wasn't sure what happened next. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the video feed, from the sight of the globe resting on top of Kara. She couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't feel. Not until two words scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

"Supergirl dead?"

Maggie's stomach heaved, and she ran for the bathroom.

"Are you okay?" Debbie asked.

Maggie lifted her head and glared up at Debbie. "Do I look like I'm fucking okay to you?"

"Right, stupid question." She lowered herself down to the floor and sat next to Maggie. "You look like a woman who's sitting on the floor of a stall in a ladies' room that stinks of vomit, because you just finished puking your guts out. So, no, you don't look okay."

Maggie closed her eyes and dropped her head back down, praying Debbie would just go the fuck away.

"Maggie-"

"Don't," Maggie said, because she didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to think about it, either, but she couldn't stop. Kara was dead. Worse, Kara had died alone. No Alex in her ear, shouting encouragement, no J'onn, or Dreamer, or Brainy, or Guardian, or Mon-El, backing her up. Kara had died, and Maggie had watched, and she'd been helpless.

"You knew her," Debbie said.

Maggie squeezed her eyes shut, trying to hold back tears, because once she started crying, she wasn't sure she was ever going to stop. Kara was dead, and nothing was ever going to be alright again.

"I knew her," Maggie said.

"Not just from her showing up at scenes."

"No," Maggie said. "When I was liaising with the FBI, we worked together a lot. She was a friend."

"A good one, I'm guessing."

"Yeah," Maggie said. "She was kind, and bright, and a little full of herself sometimes. She liked donuts, and she put six sugars in a single cup of coffee, and she liked Hawaiian Pizza, and she would use her heat vision to toast marshmallows for smores in the middle of the break room, and when she got bored during briefings she would solve multivariable deferential equations with her left hand while she drew Hello Kitty cartoons with her right."

"She solved math problems for fun?"

"Yeah," Maggie said. "She just…"

Maggie bit her lip, to keep anything else from coming out, because even with Kara dead, the secret had to be kept. She should get up, and make sure J'onn knew.

There was a knock on the door, and Maggie opened her eyes. She watched Debbie get up off the floor and leave the stall. She couldn't make out what Debbie said, or who she was talking too, but a moment later, Bell stepped into the stall and knelt down. She held out a bottle of mouthwash.

"Figured you might want to rinse," Bell said.

Maggie took the bottle and twisted it open. She took a mouth full and sloshed it around a bit, then leaned over and spit it into the toilet before repeating the process until she couldn't taste her own vomit anymore.

"Ma'am," Bell said.

"Yeah?"

"She's alive," Bell said.

"What?"

"We were watching the feeds from Metropolis. Everyone is trying to find out as much as possible, because they're not sure where the manhunt will be focused. It took about twenty minutes. The globe was blocking the roof access at the Daily Planet, so they were talking about going up in a helicopter to recover the body, when the globe started moving. Supergirl shoved it aside. When she stood up, it was obvious her arm was broken, but she just pulled it until it was straight again, then she picked up the globe, put it back on it's mount, and flew off."

"She's alive?"

"Yes ma'am."

Maggie closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. She got to her feet, and Bell and Debbie both scrambled to get out of her way.