Special thanks to Sierra79 for this chapter.
The front door to her apartment creaked as Alex pushed it open, helping a slightly stumbling Maggie Sawyer inside.
"Lay down on the couch, I'll go get you something to eat."
"Alex, I'm fine." Maggie protested. "I've been lying down for hours now, I want to do something."
"The only thing you're doing today is resting." Alex glared at her in full doctor-mode. "Besides, I need to monitor you every 10 minutes."
"I can do that myself, Danvers." Maggie sighed. "I don't get why you're being like this."
"Why I'm being like this? Look at yourself, you can barely stand upright, why are you too stubborn to realize that you need help today?!"
Maggie looked away from her girlfriend's gaze, but Alex wasn't stopping any time soon. "And we still need to have that talk about why the hell you would keep something like that from me, because I'm not exactly thrilled about that! We promised no more secrets and look where it lead!"
"Alex…" Maggie came carefully close, almost touching noses with Alex. But instead of being a loving gesture, like Alex was used to, she saw the fire in Maggie's eyes. "Back off. Now."
"Maggie, what the hell!" Alex stepped back involuntarily, slightly terrified of how the situation was escalating. "I'm just trying to help you!"
"Well, you're not helping." Maggie spit. "You're breathing down my neck, I told you I'd tell you when I'm ready!"
Alex chuckled humorlessly. "And when is that? When you're lying in a ditch somewhere at CADMUS because nobody knows you're sick?!"
Instead of the response Alex anticipated – Maggie punching her in the face and leaving – she witnessed Maggie opening her mouth to answer, only to promptly burst into tears and drop down onto the couch dejectedly.
Alex's stomach jumped at the sight, and she took a careful seat next to her girlfriend, wrapping her arms around her. "I'm sorry, Mags. I didn't mean to-… I'm sorry."
The only thing Maggie did was sob, and hold onto Alex as if she were the only thing keeping her above water.
Alex rubbed her back, and kissed her temple, and whispered soft reassurances, until Maggie's sobs faded away and made room for sleep.
The agent carefully lowered her girlfriend onto the couch, making sure she wouldn't wake her up, and caressed her hand.
Now that she knew the truth, the puncturing scars on Maggie's fingers were painfully obvious. She rubbed the tips of her fingers, and kissed them. "I'm going to take care of you. Forever, Maggie."
When her back started protesting the weird angle she was bent in to accommodate her girlfriend's slumber, she untangled herself and got up. She made her way to the kitchen and started cooking something that she made sure had enough sugar in it.
A few minutes later, the alarm on her watch beeped. She paused her cooking and went to the plastic bag she'd brought from the DEO med lab. She took the lancet from its case and set it to a proper puncturing depth.
She grabbed Maggie's right index finger, and kept an eye on her face as she pressed the tip of the lancet to her finger until she drew blood. Maggie winced, and Alex sighed as she saw that she'd woken her up. "I'm sorry."
"'S okay… What time is it?"
Alex took the sampler from the plastic bag and put Maggie's blood into it. "Almost nine. You only slept for ten minutes, but I had to test."
"Yeah." Maggie watched her silently as she wrote down the number onto a clipboard on the counter. "So, doc, am I going to live?"
Alex stared at her, and Maggie sighed, realizing that she shouldn't have made the joke. "I'm sorry, Alex."
The agent's hands trembled slightly as she put the pen down. "I don't want to lose you."
"You won't." Maggie reassured. "Just like I don't want to lose you to bullet wounds. This isn't any different."
"But it is." Alex insisted, but stayed careful in case her words started another argument. Maggie looked down, and took a shaky breath. "My parents. They, uh… They couldn't afford the things that came with this."
Alex looked up at her, frowning. Maggie knew she had to elaborate. "When I was diagnosed, I was 15. My parents didn't have the money to buy the monitoring equipment. It wasn't in their health plan, and we were too poor to upgrade."
Alex didn't like where her explanation was going, but settled on listening quietly and giving Maggie the space to tell her story. "One day I was at school and I collapsed. My parents felt bad, but I felt worse. I… I don't know, I guess 15-year old me didn't want to hurt my parents even more than I already did by punching the money from their pockets."
Alex finally opened her mouth to interject, but Maggie raised her hand. "I got a part-time job after school, and I finally bought my stuff. My parents aren't bad people. They just didn't have the money to take care of it. So I don't make it other people's problem, Alex. I can take care of myself."
"Just because you can, doesn't mean you have to." Alex whispered. "You have me. I love you, and I'm not going anywhere. You knew I wouldn't judge you, why would you possibly think that I wouldn't accept this?!"
Maggie wiped at the tears pouring out of her eyes. "You have Kara to worry about. I don't want you to worry about me. I shouldn't be another person on the list of people you have to take care of."
Alex grabbed Maggie's cheeks, and forced the detective to look at her. "Maggie Sawyer, you made that list the second you decided to be with me. This doesn't change that."
Leaning forward, Alex captured Maggie's lips in a kiss that she hoped would convey every emotion she felt at that moment. Love, fear, anger, hurt, happiness…
Maggie still clung to her as she reciprocated the kiss and held her close.
The moment was interrupted by Alex' phone ringing. The two women sighed, and pulled away. Alex reached for her phone and pressed it to her ear. "Danvers."
"Hey, Alex." It was Hamilton's voice.
"Hey." Alex greeted her back. "What's up?"
"Engineering analyzed the device." Hamilton sighed. "Alex, you need to come over here."
Alex's stomach dropped again, and she turned away from Maggie so that her girlfriend wouldn't see the fear on her face. "Why?"
"It's not good."
Alex nodded, before realizing that Amelia couldn't see her. "Okay, I'm on my way."
She disconnected the call and turned to Maggie, who was looking at her with a frown.
"Work. Something about an alien." Alex decided to keep her story as vague as possible. "I'll only be gone about an hour."
Maggie smiled weakly, and kissed her again. "I'll be fine. I'll write down the numbers like you did."
"As soon as something's wrong, call me, okay?!" Alex looked at her. "I'm serious."
"You got it, doctor Danvers."
Alex grabbed her keys and gun from the counter, and felt the dread creeping in as she made her way to the DEO.