Alex and Maggie were eating breakfast, fully clothed, when Zack and Kara come in.
"Mommy, Mama look what super auntie and I made." Zack ran up to them handing them some pictures he had painted. There were 3 different paintings, one was finger painted with many different colors. Another looked like splatter paint and the last one was Alex's favorite, which Kara was holding because it was on a large canvas. Kara turned the canvas towards the couple with a large smile on her face. The canvas was covered with Zack's handprints except for the word LOVE.
"I put painters tape down for the word, then once the paint dried I peeled it off. I don't know about you but I think it looks fantastic." Alex pulled Zack onto her lap.
"What do you think Mags," Alex asked.
"You did so good buddy, I love them."
"How would you feel about framing them and hanging them up around the house?" Zack looked at Alex with excited puppy eyes, "really?"
Alex nodded, "yea really. Can we put the one Auntie Kara is holding in our bedroom. I want to see it everyday because it is so good." Zack nodded. Kara finally noticed the rings on the couple's fingers and almost dropped the painting.
"Oh my Rao are those what I think they are?" Kara asked excitedly.
"Yea Kara. Alex and I are officially engaged." Kara puts the painting down lifts Maggie off the floor.
"Little D too tight."
Kara puts her down, "sorry I'm just so excited and I can't help it that you're so tiny."
"I'm not tiny!" Maggie pouted. Zack went to grab some of Alex's food, "Kara did you feed my son?"
"Yea but he's an alien like me. He's always hungry."
"Food!" Zack smiled as he chewed.
"Don't talk while chewing sweetie," Alex said kissing the top of Zack's head. Alex cut up her food into small pieces for Zack to easily grab and put in his mouth.
"So how did you get engage, who popped the question? I need details. Who else knows?"
"Kara calm down. Maggie asked. It was at dinner and you are the first to know."
Kara clapped her hands, "I'm so excited. Ooohh have you thought about your wedding yet. Where are you going on your honeymoon? Are you bringing Zack, wait of course your bringing Zack."
"Super Auntie talk too much," Zack said between bites causing the adults to laugh.
"Kara don't you have a job to get to." Kara looked at her watch, "oh Rao I'm late. Snapper is going to have my head." Kara went to rush out the door put stopped and turned around, "this conversation isn't over Alex." Kara said and left.
"So how are we going to announce our engagement?" Maggie asked finishing her breakfast.
"I was thinking of inviting everyone over and have a little engagement party. What do you think?"
"I think that's a great idea but who is going to cook?"
Alex blushed, "I was thinking if you don't want to cook we could just order in."
"Alex that's a lot of people to order food for." Maggie counted the number of people on her hand, "that's like 10 people including Vasquez and Lucy not to mention that half of them are aliens."
Alex looked at Maggie like she didn't understand, "so?"
Maggie sighed, "that's a lot of money Alex and I know that's not a big deal to you but it is to me. I've never had a lot of money to throw around. I can't even fathom how much our dinner last night cost with everything."
Alex put Zack down, "Zack why don't you go up to your room and play with your toys." He left leaving Alex and Maggie alone.
"Maggie I'm sorry if I'm just trying to figure out an easy solution."
"But that's it Alex, it's like you don't know the value of money anymore. I mean first it's this house, which I'm thankful for, but then the extra SUV, dinner last night and then catering dinner tonight too. It's like your spending without thinking."
"That's because I can. This may sound conceited but yea I do have a lot of money to spend but it's not like I'm buying materialistic things just for the sake of doing it. It's stuff I think we would make our lives easier. I'm sorry if my intentions weren't clear."
"You keep saying you have a lot of money but I've never seen it. We haven't even talked about having a joint bank account. I've never even seen you go to the bank."
"That's because I have my accountant deal with everything."
"See, that's exactly what I'm saying." Maggie throws her hands in the air to prove her point. "I'm a detective Alex, I don't make a lot of money. I've always lived paycheck to paycheck. I've never paid people to do things for me."
"Maggie I have an accountant because I have a company. How else would I have been able to manufacture my device and know about costs and revenue and what not. It's a small company but it's efficient. If you want to see bank statements you just had to ask. I'd be more than happy to show you but it's a lot. I'm mean besides my accounts, I have separate stocks and investments I keep on the side too."
"Geeze Danvers is there anything else I don't know."
"I'm not trying to hide anything if that's what you're saying. God why are we even arguing about this. You know what I'll be right back." Alex says as she gets up and walks into another room.
"Alex don't walk away from me we aren't done talking," Maggie shouts so Alex can hear her.
"I'm not just give me a sec." A minute later Alex comes in with a stack of file.
"What is all this?" Maggie says as Alex places the pile of binders on the table with a large thump.
"This is everything you want to know. Every document regarding the company, bank records, spending records, statements everything. Talking to the accountant would be easier because he can explain this stuff better than I can plus it would be faster but you want to know so here." Alex gestured to the stack. Each binder had a name. The top binder said Bank Statements and the second said Stalwart AD.
"Alex what's StalwartAD?" Maggie asked.
"It's the name of the company."
"Why?"
Alex sat on in the chair staring at the table, "when all this was starting, I didn't see myself as really worth much. I was just recovering from my accident and was still using crutches. Kara was considered the perfect child so how could I compete. Everything I did was never good enough. So when I was thinking of a name I wanted it to be something I could be proud of. Stalwart means strong, firm, brave and that's what I wanted it to symbolize. The AD is for my initials. So it literally means strong Alex Danvers. When I would look at the logo or the device and see the name, it was a reminder that I wasn't some weak incompetent human."
Maggie was sitting by the time Alex finished, "here we are fighting about something so stupid and you blow me away again. I'm sorry I was arguing with you. I forgot what you've gone through to get to where you are. I'm sorry I'm just not use to this," Maggie says gesturing to the house, "I never thought I would have anything like this, I'm just not use to it."
Alex grabbed Maggie's hand, "I want you to know everything I swear but we're still adjusting to everything and it's going to take time."
Maggie got to the last binder, "charities." Maggie looks up to Alex, "I told you I give a lot away to charities and people who need it. I'm probably going to cut back some of what I give but that's everything. I don't just do it for the tax break either, I can't tell you how many times I forgot to put it on my taxes but I do it to make a difference."
"I know I you would never do that." Maggie opened that binder first to see a table of contents with 10 different charities names on it. A couple had to do with aliens, couple for medical research and the last half for adoption and the LGBTQIA community."
"For someone who only recently knew they were gay you support a lot of their charities."
"My freshman roommate in college was gay and she told me about her experiences coming out. It was really bad and I wanted to do something to help some of the kids who ended up in the same situation with nowhere to go." Alex went silent for a second, "and I think some part of me always new I was different but I just kept shoving it back ya know. I actually donated most of the proceeds that were required to build National City's community center. Maybe we can go and volunteer there some time. I haven't been there since it was built."
"I think that's a fantastic idea." Maggie went back to the binder with the bank statements and hesitantly opened it. When she saw the number on the bottom of the sheet her jaw dropped. Maggie pointed to the number, "this is how much you have?" Maggie knew it would be a lot but seeing it on paper with that many zeros attached is something else.
Alex took a glance, "uumm no that was just last years profits. Some of it goes to the few employees I do have by the way. Let me show you the document you're looking for." After Alex turned the page to the spreadsheet containing all the numbers in each of her bank accounts along with her investments, she gave the book back to Maggie.
"What the fuck Danvers this is ridiculous. There is no way." Maggie said eyes wide.
"I told you I didn't spend any of it. I paid for rent, bills and food. Look at my wardrobe, it's not that big. Then I invested and bought/sold stock. It all kind of piled up."
"And you still give some of it way?"
"Yea, I give about a half of it away each year but I also invest more and put more into retirement."
"You don't need a retirement fund by the look of these numbers."
"I'm just trying to look out for our future Mags. Oh and speaking of future, Zack's birthday is a the end of this month so what are we going to do?"
"He has made a couple friends at school maybe we should invite them. The superfriends. Zack's never met clark yet so maybe he can come as superman and surprise everyone."
"True but you know Zack loves batman so we should probably do a batman theme."
Alex laughs, "Clark will feel hurt, I love it."
"Alright we figured out Zack's birthday but we haven't figured out what started this mess. Tonight's food options."
"Mags that's up to you."
Maggie sighs, "okay fine we will order in. But we are not making this a thing. I don't want our son to grow up spoiled."
Alex asked hesitantly, "hey Maggie can I ask you something?"
While reading through some of the charities Maggie answered, "of course babe?"
"Do you think you don't deserve it? The house, the fancy dinner, the money?"
Maggie froze, she couldn't get herself to look Alex in the eyes." Alex moved to kneel in front of Maggie.
"Maggie look at me," Alex said lifter her chin until their eyes made contact.
"Do you feel you don't deserve this?" Alex asked once more. Then tears started falling down Maggie's face.
"I know that people haven't treated you well in the past but I will do everything in my power to show you how you deserve to be treated. And if that means spending a little extra on special occasions than so be it but Maggie, you deserve this. You deserve the world and that's what I'm going to give you. I promise you that I will talk to you the next time before spending. Our boy will not be brought up as a spoil brat I promise you that. If you we can sock J'onn on him for a few days and I promise you he will fix Zack right up."
Maggie laughed and cupped Alex's cheeks, "I promise I will learn to relax when it comes to money issues. I don't mean to be so uptight. I love you Alex."
"I love you Maggie."
Next Chapter Preview: Zack's 4th birthday with special guests appearances from who?