By popular request, a follow-up to Chapter 16.

Heads up for references to the torture of said chapter.

anonymous asked: I NEED to know how Maggie deals with that 'M' that Luthor carved into Alex's arm. Or is it not gonna leave a scar?

Kara is the first one, other than the medics, to see it.

It's her first time alone with Alex – the first time that James was able to drag Maggie out of the room, the first time Alex was strong enough to encourage her to go eat, to go shower, to go get her own wounds tended to – and she's changing Alex's bandages when the one on her tricep makes her gasp.

She shivers and she quakes and she wishes Alex hadn't killed Lillian Luthor because she swears she would if she could, and she swallows vomit and she caresses the swollen, reddened flesh around Alex's tricep with gentle, trembling fingertips and tears choking her throat.

"Alex," she shudders, and Alex takes a long, slow sigh, laboriously because breathing still hurts.

"It's far from the worst thing she did to me, Kara," she tells her, but her heart isn't in it. Her heart is shattered and the pieces are in her throat, because how in the hell is she going to show Maggie that Lillian Luthor had carved the first letter of her name into Alex's arm?

She can't. She won't.

"Does Maggie know?" Kara half sobs, and Alex shakes her head painstakingly.

"And she's not gonna find out, either."

"Alex – "

"Kara."

Kara doesn't argue, for now, because Alex is still so pale with blood loss and her voice is still so ragged from exhaustion and her eyes are still so deadened from the ghosts of Maggie's screams, her own body feeling like it was exploding, Maggie's agony, and her complete inability to do anything about it, her complete failure to protect Maggie from watching her get tortured. Her complete failure to protect Maggie from being tortured.

Kara bends and Kara kisses her sister and Kara squeezes her hand and Kara leaves before she can completely break, because Alex doesn't need to see that.

Winn shifts in next, fulfilling the promise Maggie had forced them all to make that Alex wouldn't even be alone for a single second, unless she specifically requested it, while Maggie was gone.

"Kara okay?" Alex croaks, and Winn sits gingerly on the side of her bed, his hand taking hers gently after he asks with his raised eyebrows if he can.

"Alex, yesterday the medics took a bullet out of your thigh and set your cracked ribs and that's to say nothing about your face. And you wanna know if Kara's okay?"

"Winn, it… watching someone you love be hurt, it's… it's worse than being the one getting shot."

Winn sighs and Winn runs his hand through his hair before stroking Alex's face gently, gently, gently.

"I know. I know. And I know you're worried about Kara and I know you're worried about Maggie, but Alex, you've gotta focus on healing you right now. We've got Kara, we've got Maggie. And they've both got you. But the best way you can help them, is by resting, by letting your body heal. Okay?"

Alex sighs and Alex's closes her eyes and Alex looks away.

"And you have to tell her."

Alex's eyes snap back open. "What."

Winn takes a deep breath and he leans over so he can see the underside of her arm, where the "M" is carved just over the slight bulge of her tricep.

"That's gonna scar, Alex, she's gonna know. And if you keep it from her? She'll find out when she's not prepared, when she's started to heal, and it'll just bust all the wounds open again."

"How did you even know?"

"Kara mentioned in her… sobbery."

Alex breathes out a laugh and rolls her eyes and blinks out two tears.

"How the hell am I supposed to tell her, Winn? That someone started carving her name into my skin, to torture me, to torture her?"

Winn bites his lip and swallows and gives Alex a small, hopeless smile. "You can tell her it's an upsidedown W. For Winn. It could have nothing to do with her."

Alex laughs full on this time, and the laugh becomes a sob and the sob becomes a cough and the cough becomes a pained hiss because god everything hurts.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Winn chokes, and Alex shakes her head.

"It's fine, I'm fine."

There's a soft rapping on the door and Winn turns and what's left of Alex's heart backflips.

"Hey babe." Maggie's voice is small and her hair is damp and her clothes are DEO issue: she must have flat-out refused to leave the DEO, and her stubbornness makes Alex feel loved, and it makes Alex feel warm, and it makes Alex feel nauseous and guilty because god this woman would be fine if she'd never met her, if Alex had never been so obvious about liking her, Cadmus never would have touched her…

"Hey. You've discovered the wonders of DEO showers."

Maggie smiles softly and steps forward hesitantly, like if she comes too close too quickly, she'll hurt Alex again, she'll make Alex's body break again.

"And the wonders of DEO uniforms, I see. It suits you, Maggie. But Agent Danvers, don't jump her bones just yet, you've still got some healing to do, okay?" Winn teases as he stands, as he passes Alex's hand to Maggie, as he touches Maggie's shoulder and just barely resists kissing her on the forehead because he's not sure yet if that would get him slapped or hugged and he doesn't want to risk doing anything Maggie wouldn't want, especially not right now.

So he shuffles to the door and he turns before he leaves and he touches his own tricep and he moves "tell her" to Alex before slipping off to find Kara and the others.

They're both silent for a long moment, both staring at each other, both of their lips slightly parted, both of their hearts racing slightly too quickly.

"How's your pain?" Maggie asks, and Alex lifts an unsteady hand to rest on Maggie's thigh as she takes Winn's place on the bed.

"They have meds for mine, Maggie. They don't have meds for yours."

Maggie scoffs slightly. "Sure they do. J'onn tried hopping me up on anti-anxieties and all manner of things."

"And you didn't take them?"

"They make me foggy. I want to be all here right now."

"Maggie – "

"Alex. All I care about – the only thing – is that you're okay."

"But you had to watch – "

"I don't need you to remind me what I had to watch. I just… you're okay. As long as you're okay – "

"I am."

"Then I'm gonna be fine. We're gonna be fine. You hear me?"

Alex nods and Alex sighs and Alex squeezes Maggie's thigh.

"Babe. You need to know something. Do you… do you remember when Luthor had that scalpel to my arm?"

Maggie's eyes blaze. "I remember everything." Her voice is dead and Alex breaks but Alex is used to pressing on when she breaks, so she does, because Maggie is broken, too, and at least, at least, they're together.

"She um… she wrote something, Maggie. Or started to, she – "

But Maggie is up and Maggie is kneeling next to her bed and Maggie is gently, gently, tenderly, furiously, rolling back the bandages Kara had redone, and Maggie is clenching her fists and Maggie is swallowing vomit and Alex is reaching a shaky hand out to stroke her tear-splattered cheek and Maggie is pulling away, away, away, slamming her fist into the nearest wall, slamming her fists into her own thighs, grabbing at the unforgiving material of her DEO-issue pants with fingernails that want to do nothing but bleed.

"It's my fault she did this to you, it's my… it's my…"

"Maggie, it's not, it's not, babe, I – "

"Ally, Ally, your skin was perfect, she… she cut it through one of your freckles, she… Ally, I'm… I'm sorry, I should've been faster, I should've – "

"Maggie, stop it, Maggie. Maggie, please, Maggie. Look at me, dammit."

Maggie does, finally, wrenching her eyes up from her crumbled position on the floor, steadying her shaking hands by pressing them under her arms, by rocking back and forth on her heels, by holding her breath long enough to calm, calm, calm, because this is about Alex, Alex, Alex.

"No, I'm sorry, you shouldn't be comforting me, it – "

"Maggie, no, that's not my point. Look at me. Please." Her voice is gentler this time, less scared, this time, because Maggie is still, now, Maggie's knuckles are safe, now.

"You know how I have Kara's name tattooed on my ankle?"

Maggie shudders out a breath and a nod, leaning back up to examine the cut, the cut that will scar, the cut that will scar her first initial into the arm of the woman she loves. She presses soft, soft, soft kisses to the reddened area around the mark, Alex's muscles relaxing now, Alex's trembling hand reaching out to hold Maggie's, now.

"I can't think of another person who's name I'd want on my body, Mags. Just Kara. And you. You, because I love you like I've never loved anyone. And I… this scar will be… hard. Definitely the hardest one I have, and I have a lot. Hard for both of us. But Maggie, I can't… I can't have you thinking it's your fault every time you see my naked, every time you see me sleeveless. Maggie, we… we survived something impossible together. She brought us there because she knew we loved each other, but you said it, babe: she didn't understand how much. She didn't understand that we love each other too much to do anything but get outta there alive. Together. And we did. And it was impossible. But we did. Because you and me, Mags? We do impossible things. And… this damn scar? It's just proof of that. Just proof of how much I love you. And I would go through that again, and again, and again, if somehow it meant keeping you safe, keeping you from pain. I love you, Maggie. We're gonna get through this. Scar or no scar, okay?"

Maggie wipes her tears with the back of her hand and she nods into the slowly decreasing space between their lips, and a fresh tear drops from her face onto Alex's cheek as Alex parts her lips and breathes in every ounce of love, every ounce of belief, every ounce of hope, every ounce of impossible, that Maggie is pouring into her gentle, gentle, perfect kiss.