"Hold it right there."
J'onn only groaned from pain and annoyance at the roared call carrying over the purring hum of Maggie's motorcycle as the bike was driven to a stop beside Alex's own inside the DEO's underground lot.
"Stand down, everyone just stand down." The injured Martian groans still cradling his injured hand against his chest barely holding back a pained grimace when even the smallest of exhaled breaths caused his shirt to brush against his smoking fingers sending lightning bolts of pain up his arm.
True it was only the Alpha team along with an annoyed Lucy Lane but J'onn knew better than to take the young woman's more dressed-down attire for a lack of skill with a weapon as others might.
"Easy, Mad Dog Jr. I just want to help him."
That did get the Major's attention to say the least as Maggie finishes tugging off her helmet and hanging it slowly onto one of the bike's handlebars before showing her hands in honest surrender to what to some would seem a rather intimidating number of weapons being pointed at her.
"I just want to help." She repeats debating dropping to her knees in a better show if trustworthiness if that would make a few of the agents standing in tensed readiness less trigger happy but thinks better of it when she noticed just how green (pun not intended) Hank Henshaw had gotten in the short ride from the Dollywood Dive Bar to the DEO headquarters.
"Sawyer?" the muzzle of Lucy Lane's weapon drops a little at the questioning name.
"Miss me, Lane?" Maggie grins giving a light flip of her hair over one shoulder as she moves to offer a supporting shoulder for the unsteady not so human man standing beside her.
It would only take one glancing look towards the man's burnt fingers to tell that in the moment his darkened skin had been burnt to its true greenish coloring when he'd used his own hand to attempt to put out the flames, slowly charring away a little more of the message Maggie had been trying for days to find the courage to read since her Aunt had gifted it to her all these years after the thing had first been written.
"Yeah, about as much as an internal parasite." Lucy jokes with a playful smile signaling the fanned-out agents of the DEO's alpha team to stand down. "But what the heck are you doing outside Gotham or Metropolis for that matter, Sawyer?" the military woman questions now crossing her arms loosely across her front.
"How about you buy me that drink you owe me, and we can catch up then?" Maggie suggests tracking Vaz's slow steps away from them in the self-given task of a perimeter sweep.
"I'm holding you to that offer, Mags." Lucy warns with a sly wink knowing full well Maggie was only half teasing given the two stayed in relatively close touch after an initial string of late-night hookups before they mutually decided they were far better as friends despite the wild nights they'd shared as an attempted couple.
"You wouldn't be you if you didn't, Lane." Maggie grins back
"Sir, I've already got Dr. Hamilton…" one of the other agent's started to say whilst Vaz stomped off in even more of a huff at the snatches of overfamiliarity between the two chatting women with Lucy trailing a few paces behind her as Maggie tried once more to singlehandedly steady the visible unstable man.
"No." J'onn groans turning instead towards Maggie. "help me to my office, Maggie please." He instructs his tone unyielding despite his obvious pain.
"I'll show you the way." Vaz offers leaving Lucy to shoo away the other lingering agents of the alpha team.
The effects of the Martian's man's burnt hand so closely mirroring even those of the smallest dosing of Kryptonite for the Super twins, as those that knew the Danvers's twin's secret had dubbed them, that every agent present was currently sharing a very real fear for their director's health.
"Lane." J'onn says as Maggie and Vaz in tandem help guide him towards the elevators. "stall them." He instructs when the military woman's eyes find his own.
Maggie and Vaz share a quick glance between them neither needing to ask who 'them' were as Vaz punches the button, they needed to get the lift moving they almost missed the added "shouldn't be too hard given how far Alex crawled into that scotch bottle this time." J'onn gives in warning.
Lucy even giving a more formal salute along with a promised: "You got it, Papa Bear." Before the doors slide closed.
"I'm sorry Maggie, I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking..." J'onn stammers almost as soon as Vaz had closed the door giving the two a little more privacy, after helping the smaller detective guide the Martian man into his office, and then pass over the medkit to tide them over until J'onn okayed Hamilton to check him out.
"I forgot your letter was in my pocket," he says in explanation "I was intending to give it back to you, I swear but that pain. Her pain…. it wasn't like anything I'd ever felt from her before."
This time Maggie guessed his staggered gasp of a breath wasn't all because of the sting of the ointment the detective had started rubbing with the utmost care into the injured man's blistered hand.
"Not even Kara or Linda remembering when their homeworld was destroyed could compare. Hell, not even Jeremiah's death could hold up to how hurt Alex was when... when she realized it was you."
'Translation, you broke her heart Again." Maggie chastises in her own head "Great job Sawyer, you're really just batting a thousand here"
"Don't be so hard on yourself Maggie. You couldn't have known." J'onn defends talking aloud to drown out the words running through the detective's mind at the moment.
Maggie's teeth auditable snapped closed at the attempted soothing note of the pained man's voice but she kept her eyes downcast now much more guarded with her thoughts as she sorted through the kit for a roll of badges. "It's fine Hank." The cop answers after a few more beats of tense relatively quiet fell between them.
"It's J'onn." The Martian corrects "My name its J'onn." He says catching Maggie's raised eyebrow in unspoken question at his sudden show of trust.
A deliberate knock-on office door has at least J'onn chuckling under his breath as he gestures for Maggie to go open it.
"The girls are back. But for once they seem to be following instructions to give you and me a few moments to talk." The Martian man explains "but Alex did seem insistent this be delivered."
The 'this' turned out to be a small teddy bear. One paw was covered somewhat clumsily in a white cloth simulating an injury, but it was the printed message on the shirt that had Maggie muffling her laughter to read as she carried the bear over towards its intended recipient.
"Even drunk, Danvers can still pick good gifts." The Latina chuckles. If she'd first pressed the thing to her nose for another deeper breath of Alex's vanilla and ocean tides body wash J'onn wasn't about to comment before she handed over the bear.
"Sorry, I'm such a dumb ass idiot. Please forgive me"
"She still has an incredible, quirky sense of humor," Maggie sighed. "One of her most endearing qualities, even as a teenager."
Its only after hearing the beeping click of a keypad code being punched in and a heavy-duty lock sliding out of place did the dazed cop realized her kind of patient had gotten up from his seated place on the office's sofa whilst she had been distracted with following her drunken semi ex of a pen pal, best friend was being guided towards what she hoped was the medical bay.
"What is that?" Maggie asks noticing that once he'd finished storing away the plushy toy Alex had gifted him, J'onn then pulled out something else from the depths of the locked desk drawer.
"It's your call, Sawyer."
Maggie's puzzled expression lasted only as long as it took for her to lean a little closer so she could catch the messy scrawl across the front of the aged envelope J'onn was now holding out towards her. "It's yours Maggie" as if the shocked cop needed the reminder after already recognizing the handwriting facing her now.
"Don't worry I haven't read it." J'onn explained with a smile Maggie only saw from true fathers as his eyes meet her own. "but Maggie, Alex hasn't read it either."
Maggie dropped hard into one of the leather-backed chairs facing the separating desk as J'onn's uninjured hand continues extending the envelope toward her. "do what as you will. But it looks to me like you have some unfinished business with our girl."
"She never got it." Maggie chuckled as she stroked the name penned on the front of the envelope now resting against her knee. "She never got it." she repeats a lot softer now "She didn't hate me." With a weak smile, Maggie looked up at J'onn hopeful tears stinging her eyes, but she doesn't try to hold them back. "You gonna be, okay?" the cop asks her voice breaking this time with nervous hope behind it.
When he nodded, she continued dabbing lightly at her wet eyes with the sleeve of her jacket, "I'd like to sit with her for a while."
J'onn frowned, "When was the time you got any rest, Maggie?" When she just stared until he gives a pained chuckle and a following "Trust me" as he takes her hand and together they head down to the medbay.