"Since when have you been a TSwift or Ed Sheeran fan, Sawyer?" a low growl of a voice asked as a few more verses of the repeatedly listened to song continued playing at a lowered volume from the opened laptop by the seated woman's slide.
"Some might consider this breaking and entering." Maggie considers rather than giving an answer to the question. Her eyes never wavering from the outlined envelope she'd left propped up against the now empty beer holder on top of the final box of her positions she'd been using as a coffee table considering the real thing had already been sent off to wait for her in National City.
"You weren't answering your phone. I was worried." A cool tone argues as the woman herself stepped out of the shadowed cover of the window to the apartment fire escape her voice low as if she was talking down a startled animal, she thought might run the first chance she was given.
Maggie laughed once the sound quick and humorless as she brings her nearly empty beer up to her lips for another nerve steadying sip with a questioning "You going soft on me, Kane?" as the unintended guest that was the Gotham hero Batwoman sweeps over towards Maggie's hunched place sitting on the floor where her sofa had once been before her move to National City had been approved.
Rather than answer Kate only tugs back her cowled hood letting it fall back over her shoulders as she folds herself down onto the floor beside the cross-legged detective of her ex-girlfriend Maggie wordlessly passing over the last unopened beer from the six-pack beside her knee. The other four all uneven levels of empty
"I shouldn't." Kate muses
"For old time's sake." Maggie bargains offering the bottle once more "Besides tomorrow I'll have a new cape-wearing headache to deal with."
Kate chuckles low at that taking the offered beer with a cool. "Trust me you're more than capable of handling Supergirl, Sawyer. That girl is like a humanized puppy with otherworldly abilities." Kate laughs remembering the few times she'd had to partner with the too cheerful hero of National City. "It's the DEO you're going to have the most trouble with." Kate tells her as she sipped her drink. "what's that?" the unmasked hero questions noticing the thing that held Maggie's attention so completely in the low lights of the all but vacant apartment the cop had once called home.
"Answers." Maggie shrugs resting her arm against her knee to swirl what was left of her own beer around in its bottle. Her beer free hand carding slowly thought the soft fur of the plush dog resting against her bent knee. "a new knife to my heart courtesy of my dear old Papa and a fresh rub of sault…."
"Okay, you're cut off." Kate decided snatching away the bottle from Maggie's fingers much to the now pouting detective's annoyance.
"Watch out for Gertie," Maggie warned already snatching up the plushy dog before Kate's kicking foot could reach it as the cape-clade hero attempted to stand.
"Finally got that dog you've always wanted then?" Kate asks going over to first rinse out one of the emptier beer bottles before refilling the thing with water from the sink. "but why wait till now? You're moving in the morning." She asks carrying the water-filled bottle back across the nearly empty space now more aware of her darkened surroundings.
"It's complicated." Maggie says returning the toy dog to her lap to resume her soft pets to the thing's head.
"Does this complication have anything to do with…" Kate pause tugging Maggie's open laptop closer as she squints at the name. "SuperSurfer516?"
"Yes and no." Maggie concedes
"Gotta give me a little more than that, Mags." Kate probes stretching out along the floor once again after her ex takes a few small sips from the water beer Kate had offered.
"It's whoever made the account's son. I'm guessing by the little he's told me it's his mother's account but he saw a posting of mine from before I got into the academy."
"I told you I'd back you, Mags." Kate sighed at the reminder.
"Anyway." Maggie hurries on
"Are you having second thoughts?" Kate asks
She can tell even in the simi darkness Maggie was struggling to keep from saying "Yes" immediately as she drops her chin to look into her lap without giving a true answer.
"Is that letter from this kid?" Kate asks by way of changing the topic.
Maggie's flat "Nope" and the way her ex lets the last letter pop as she snatches up one of the non-water-filled beer bottles to drain the last drops of liquor has Kate immediately regretting bringing the thing up.
"Are you going to open it up?" the unmasked hero questioned her eyes long ago adjusted to the apartment's low lighting to better see her ex's outline beside her.
Maggie's next sharp gasp of a breath has Kate's arms immediately encircling the quietly crying cop beside her as Maggie's head dipped to nuzzle her face against the crook of Kate's shoulder hiding her tears against the skin warmed leather of Kate's heroic outfit.
"Maggie." Kate whispered her glove-incased fingers gingerly sliding in the sobbing cop's long dark hair softly petting the tangled locks back into place.
Maggie only shakes her head against Kate's shoulder with a mumbled sob Kate wasn't able to catch. "Try again, Mags. Unlike Supergirl I don't have super hearing."
"I can't take her rejecting me." Maggie sniffed fresh tears spilling from her eyes as she cradles Gertrude like a shield against her front. "Not again. I'm not strong enough."
Kate Kane didn't need to ask just who this her was as her grip around Maggie's shaking outline tightened reassuringly as a new round of soft sobs broke the otherwise quiet of the darkened apartment.
The one-woman she knew all too well would forever be first in Maggie's heart. Even before that snitch Elisa Wilkey.
"Let's leave it for now but how about in the morning we open it together? Before you leave?" Kate suggests telling just from her sagging frame against her supportive arms that Maggie's tears were quickly giving way to tiered fatigue.
"But I wanna know." Maggie yawns.
"You've waited this long. It's just one more night." Kate whispers now carrying her dozing ex-girlfriend over to the makeshift bedroll Maggie had set up where her actual bed had once been.
"M'kay." Maggie mumbles already half asleep with Gertrude tucked against her stomach as Kate moved with practiced grace across the pitch-dark room.
It was only when Kate was sure Maggie was at least dozing deeply enough to prevent the tiny detective from stopping her did she quietly pick up the tantalizing envelope that had such a power over her ex-lover. She pauses weighing the thing in her gloved hand for a beat or two as she goes over her options before flipping the thing over and quietly breaking the long-held seal on the card's front.
"It's for your own good Maggie." Kate whispered gingerly tugging free the first of what seemed to be several folded pages of paper within the resilient casing of the card-sized envelope. The thing turned out to be an actual card as the sounds of Maggie's soft snores carry from her passed-out form curled tightly around that funny toy dog, she'd refused to leave behind even in the short distance from the 'sofa' to the 'bedroom'. "No going back now." Kate mumbled to herself as she slipped a small flashlight from her utility belt and clicked it on the same moment she flipped the red and white card over to read the words written across its front...